Just being nosey today I found this site that show some of Prince's alleged ancestry and it seems he is from the southern states and has some distant white ancestry going back to a Nathaniel Bunnell on his mothers side who lived in 1733.

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Not sure if its all real yet, but this is what I have so far. I have skipped most of the current stuff like Prince's generation and his half siblings and their families.

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First of all, Prince's parents are John Lewis (Or Louis) Nelson born June 29 1916 Cotton Valley Louisiana USA, died August 2001. He was the son of Clarence L Nelson born January 1882 in Louisiana and he looks really white, like Pure white.

Link here http://www.geni.com/peopl...7748496650

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He married Carrie Ikner nee Jenkins, and had at least 5 children including John

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His father was called Edward E Nelson b 1862 (The photo looks too old as it is Civil war, but there is no doubt he was entirely 100% White. His wife is described as Emma no name given, possibly she was black, but may have been white as Clarence is very very pale.

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Carrie Ikner bornMarch 1883 in Louisiana died 1933 in Hennepin Minnesota was the daughter of Handy Jenkins and Dina Ann Jenkins b c. 1847. Handy was born November 1843 in Georgia and no further details are given. I suspect both may have been born as slaves.

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Moving to Mattie Shaw, her middle name was Della and she was born in Minneapolis, her parents were Frank and Lucille Shaw. She had a sister called Edna Mae and her name comes up in Prince books. Frank was born in 1893 in Lousiana and his wife Lucille Bonell was born in July 1899 in Louisiana the daughter of Sam W Bonnell and Katy. I could not find more on Frank, but Lucille's family history is interesting.

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It says that Mattie is the mother of Prince and <private> Nelson, it also says all the info was added by Private on Dec 14 2014. This leads me to suggest if its not fake, Tyka has uploaded this stuff.

Both Sam W and Katy, look very pale in the surviving photographs of them, but maybe quarter or half black. There is no more info for Katy. Sam born 1877 is the son of James W.T.Bunnell and Mary S. Mary S was born 1841 in Alabama and there is no more info, my guess is she may also have been born a slave.

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James born 1828 in Mississippi was the son of Russell Bunnel and Lucinda Nash. Both are most likely to be white as there are surnames and full details of their parents. His occupation was listed as Mechanic. Lucinda's parents were Larkin Nash born 1787 and Elizabeth Haney c1790 in Pickens Alabama, which may be unlikely as Alabama was only a state in 1818, it is possible they lived in Alabama after they married, when it was the state of Alabama. No one is named as parents for either of them.

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Russel Rubert Bunnell born 1788 was the son of Nathaniel Bunnel born 1758 in Farmington Conneticut, so he must have been the one to come south when the south was opened up for plantations and shit. He was the son of another Nathaniel Bunnell born in 1734. He married an A Hart of which more details are not listed.

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Nathaniel I married Thankfull (Name unknown and died a year after his son was born). He was the son of Hezekiah Bunnell and his wife Esther Bristol. We are now in the 17th century, so Prince has a true blue New England pedigree!!!

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Hezekiah Jr was born 1702 in New Haven and married Esther Bristol born in 1697. Esther was the daughter Daniel Bristol born 1671 died 1728 and Esther Sperry born 1673. His father was John Bristol born in Great Yarmouth the UK in 1625. I mean this level of geneaology is incredible.

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So it is real or a bunch of badly linked bull shit, I am sure old John Bristol born 1625 would never guess he would be the distant ancestor of a Black Musical satyr with a Gold like talent.

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Hezekiah Jr has an even more distant past born in 1702 to Hezekiah senior born 1681 and died 1729 in New Haven.Son of Benjamin Bunnell born 1635 in New Haven and grandson of William Bunnell born in 1615 in the UK, and his father was Benjamin Bonnell born in the UK in 1568 and son of Thomas born in 1536.

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That type of pedigree is impressive if true, so what do you guys think. This is what you get when you have some white blood I guess. But it is not unique. I watched a programme, where a series of DNA tests on African Americans proved the average AA has about 18% White ancestry, to find someone with pure Black ancestry in America would be rare unless they were a recent African migrant or had an all African family tree (Say like Akon or Ditembe Motumbo).

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And yes geneaology is a hobby for me.

Adorecream said:

According to this site Prince is my 26th cousin twice removed

2elijah said:

Adorecream said:

I am surprised, if that info you posted is true, that you were able to get access to that.

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Why would it be? Such data is traditionally available, as long as it doesn't pertain to living people, AFAIK. It's just that nowadays it's easier to access, thanks to the Mormons for instance, and thanks to genealogical websites.

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TV shows like "Who Do Youy Think You Are" rely on such open archives: public records of birth, death, marriage, combined with census data.

Very, very interesting. Never knew there was so much white in Prince's past.

It also portrays the racism of the times. The fact so many of his ancestors were white looking and no doubt were at least half white or more, meant nothing to the Racists of Jim Crow America. It was expected that Frank Shaw and Clarence Nelson were no doubt classifeid as Negro and forced to live under "Coloured" and "Jim Crow" laws. They would have been lumped in with every other Black person for things they did not do, all because of the indiscretions of a mostly white slaveowner class raping their beautiful black or mulatto slaves (There are even cases of quarter black people being enslaved and Sarah Hemmings the wife of Jefferson was 75% white and her children with Jefferson who were 87.5% white were still considered balck and slave).

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I am will to bet money that Edward Nelson wanted nothing to do with his mulatto or even lighter skinned son Clarence, and at the most may have given him some money and told him to beat it. His mother although Black may have also been more likely mixed race and no doubt would have been closer to him. I think its real as Clarence has John's large forehead, but looks a lot whiter, he dosent' have the negroid features of John, suggesting John's mther was a lot blacker.

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If anything these light skinned mixed race people no doubt would have been labelled black. But at the same time may have conciously chosen to marry people who looked more like them rather than Jay Z and Wesley Snipes looking people. So that is why Prince is so light skinned. To me he probably still is between 50 and 75% Black though.

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Names like Nelson, Shaw, Bunnell, Hart etc are clearly also indication he is very unlikely to be of any Hsipanic, Jewish, Italian or Germanic descent. The names are typical Anglo Irish southern names from settler who arrived before 1800 and this would squash the rumours, Prince was Italian or Spanish or any other exotic race. Most mixed race Black people are likely to have Anglo Saxon (English) or Celtic (Irish) white ancestry rather than Germanic, Jewish and Italian and most Hispanic Blacks are recent emigrants from latin countries or are descended from post 1900 migrants..

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Mattie may have thought she was Creole becuase of the surname Bonnel or Bonnelle, which is really just corruptions of the English Bunnell, an Anglo Norman name.

[Edited 1/25/15 14:51pm]

BartVanHemelen said:

Adorecream said:

Both Sam W and Katy, look very pale in the surviving photographs of them, but maybe quarter or half black. There is no more info for Katy. Sam born 1877 is the son of James W.T.Bunnell and Mary S. Mary S was born 1841 in Alabama and there is no more info, my guess is she may also have been born a slave.

.

James born 1828 in Mississippi was the son of Russell Bunnel and Lucinda Nash. Both are most likely to be white as there are surnames and full details of their parents. His occupation was listed as Mechanic. Lucinda's parents were Larkin Nash born 1787 and Elizabeth Haney c1790 in Pickens Alabama, which may be unlikely as Alabama was only a state in 1818, it is possible they lived in Alabama after they married, when it was the state of Alabama. No one is named as parents for either of them.

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Russel Rubert Bunnell born 1788 was the son of Nathaniel Bunnel born 1758 in Farmington Conneticut, so he must have been the one to come south when the south was opened up for plantations and shit. He was the son of another Nathaniel Bunnell born in 1734. He married an A Hart of which more details are not listed.

.

Nathaniel I married Thankfull (Name unknown and died a year after his son was born). He was the son of Hezekiah Bunnell and his wife Esther Bristol. We are now in the 17th century, so Prince has a true blue New England pedigree!!!

.

Hezekiah Jr was born 1702 in New Haven and married Esther Bristol born in 1697. Esther was the daughter Daniel Bristol born 1671 died 1728 and Esther Sperry born 1673. His father was John Bristol born in Great Yarmouth the UK in 1625. I mean this level of geneaology is incredible.

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So it is real or a bunch of badly linked bull shit, I am sure old John Bristol born 1625 would never guess he would be the distant ancestor of a Black Musical satyr with a Gold like talent.

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Hezekiah Jr has an even more distant past born in 1702 to Hezekiah senior born 1681 and died 1729 in New Haven.Son of Benjamin Bunnell born 1635 in New Haven and grandson of William Bunnell born in 1615 in the UK, and his father was Benjamin Bonnell born in the UK in 1568 and son of Thomas born in 1536.

.

That type of pedigree is impressive if true, so what do you guys think. This is what you get when you have some white blood I guess. But it is not unique. I watched a programme, where a series of DNA tests on African Americans proved the average AA has about 18% White ancestry, to find someone with pure Black ancestry in America would be rare unless they were a recent African migrant or had an all African family tree (Say like Akon or Ditembe Motumbo).

.

And yes geneaology is a hobby for me.

So I guess no French ancestry. Yet that would explain so much.

Adorecream said:

I can't decide if this is interesting or the most shameless voyeuristic I'm-searching-in-your-trash org topic I've ever read.

Coming next week

Are there hints of purple in Prince's feces?

Join our reporters in the sewers as they swim upstream to His Royal Badness throne.

bonatoc said:

I can't decide if this is interesting or the most shameless voyeuristic I'm-searching-in-your-trash org topic I've ever read.

Coming next week

Are there hints of purple in Prince's feces?

Join our reporters in the sewers as they swim upstream to His Royal Badness throne.

I know it sounds a bit gossipy, but I am regularly researching my own/my partner's or friends family trees using sites like Ancestry.com, but out of interest every year or so I type in Prince's details and just for curiousity sake, what comes out.

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Most of the time there is nothing, but I found that site geni and it said the info was all uploaded in dec or Feb of 2014 by <Private> and it was there. Lets be honest, most of us are curious to know why Prince is not exactly Wesley Snipes looking and more Diahann Carroll/ Lena Horne looking. Plus I know the debates about his race have raged for years.

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We all know Prince is Black, African American or whatever, but even the most blind of us know that he is fairly light skinned by Black standards, yet he has the big lips, brown bambi eyes and big nose and can grow an afro pretty easily. But still there are all those Lovesexy and Gold Experience era shots where he could very easily been confused as white. Plus I always thought if his parents surnames were Nelson and Shaw, there was no way he could be a French/Italian or a Creole.

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And here it is, no one needs to believe it or not, I am not even sure myself and the link is in the first post, just click on it and any name and the site opens up for you. I too was surprised you did not have to join or found it locked the fxxk up as well.

I have nothing against genealogy. But to me it's like personal stuff.
This is has to do with your family, hence it's a private domain.

Although it's not dangerous per se, I'm not sure I would like my aunt's name or whatever

displayed on a public site only because I'm a public person.

It feels like we're investigating in Prince's drawers (no pun intended).

And then there's the question of his origins, which has nothing to do with his art.
What's next, measuring his skull to understand where the talent comes from?
What's important here? The colour of his skin? I think he's sung enough about it,

and I prefer talking about the subject of slavery leaving Prince and his family out of it.

Adorecream said:

It also portrays the racism of the times. The fact so many of his ancestors were white looking and no doubt were at least half white or more, meant nothing to the Racists of Jim Crow America. It was expected that Frank Shaw and Clarence Nelson were no doubt classifeid as Negro and forced to live under "Coloured" and "Jim Crow" laws. They would have been lumped in with every other Black person for things they did not do, all because of the indiscretions of a mostly white slaveowner class raping their beautiful black or mulatto slaves (There are even cases of quarter black people being enslaved and Sarah Hemmings the wife of Jefferson was 75% white and her children with Jefferson who were 87.5% white were still considered balck and slave).

.

I am will to bet money that Edward Nelson wanted nothing to do with his mulatto or even lighter skinned son Clarence, and at the most may have given him some money and told him to beat it. His mother although Black may have also been more likely mixed race and no doubt would have been closer to him. I think its real as Clarence has John's large forehead, but looks a lot whiter, he dosent' have the negroid features of John, suggesting John's mther was a lot blacker.

.

If anything these light skinned mixed race people no doubt would have been labelled black. But at the same time may have conciously chosen to marry people who looked more like them rather than Jay Z and Wesley Snipes looking people. So that is why Prince is so light skinned. To me he probably still is between 50 and 75% Black though.

.

Names like Nelson, Shaw, Bunnell, Hart etc are clearly also indication he is very unlikely to be of any Hsipanic, Jewish, Italian or Germanic descent. The names are typical Anglo Irish southern names from settler who arrived before 1800 and this would squash the rumours, Prince was Italian or Spanish or any other exotic race. Most mixed race Black people are likely to have Anglo Saxon (English) or Celtic (Irish) white ancestry rather than Germanic, Jewish and Italian and most Hispanic Blacks are recent emigrants from latin countries or are descended from post 1900 migrants..

.

Mattie may have thought she was Creole becuase of the surname Bonnel or Bonnelle, which is really just corruptions of the English Bunnell, an Anglo Norman name.

[Edited 1/25/15 14:51pm]

staying within the historical terms used. They wouldn't be concidered 'black' that is a late 60's-- onward term.

Negro/Negra Mulatto/Mulatta Colored would be used interchangibly with mixed people

John L Nelson looked black, so how come his father looks white? Also it has been stated by genealogists that six of Prince's eight great-grandparents were born into slavery. I suppose they were all black?

Adorecream said:

It also portrays the racism of the times. The fact so many of his ancestors were white looking and no doubt were at least half white or more, meant nothing to the Racists of Jim Crow America. It was expected that Frank Shaw and Clarence Nelson were no doubt classifeid as Negro and forced to live under "Coloured" and "Jim Crow" laws. They would have been lumped in with every other Black person for things they did not do, all because of the indiscretions of a mostly white slaveowner class raping their beautiful black or mulatto slaves (There are even cases of quarter black people being enslaved and Sarah Hemmings the wife of Jefferson was 75% white and her children with Jefferson who were 87.5% white were still considered balck and slave).

.

I am will to bet money that Edward Nelson wanted nothing to do with his mulatto or even lighter skinned son Clarence, and at the most may have given him some money and told him to beat it. His mother although Black may have also been more likely mixed race and no doubt would have been closer to him. I think its real as Clarence has John's large forehead, but looks a lot whiter, he dosent' have the negroid features of John, suggesting John's mther was a lot blacker.

.

If anything these light skinned mixed race people no doubt would have been labelled black. But at the same time may have conciously chosen to marry people who looked more like them rather than Jay Z and Wesley Snipes looking people. So that is why Prince is so light skinned. To me he probably still is between 50 and 75% Black though.

.

Names like Nelson, Shaw, Bunnell, Hart etc are clearly also indication he is very unlikely to be of any Hsipanic, Jewish, Italian or Germanic descent. The names are typical Anglo Irish southern names from settler who arrived before 1800 and this would squash the rumours, Prince was Italian or Spanish or any other exotic race. Most mixed race Black people are likely to have Anglo Saxon (English) or Celtic (Irish) white ancestry rather than Germanic, Jewish and Italian and most Hispanic Blacks are recent emigrants from latin countries or are descended from post 1900 migrants..

.

Mattie may have thought she was Creole becuase of the surname Bonnel or Bonnelle, which is really just corruptions of the English Bunnell, an Anglo Norman name.

[Edited 1/25/15 14:51pm]

Ed Nelson and Emma Hardy were actually married.

BartVanHemelen said:

2elijah said:

Adorecream said: I am surprised, if that info you posted is true, that you were able to get access to that.

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Why would it be? Such data is traditionally available, as long as it doesn't pertain to living people, AFAIK. It's just that nowadays it's easier to access, thanks to the Mormons for instance, and thanks to genealogical websites.

.

TV shows like "Who Do Youy Think You Are" rely on such open archives: public records of birth, death, marriage, combined with census data.

Exactly. If this stuff weren't readily available, nobody would be able to trace their lineage. It's all based on public records (birth, death, and military records, census information, etc), so it's out there.

I've traced my English ancestors all the way back to the Norman conquest in 1066 (and beyond, in some cases). I have a lot of people in Wikipedia.

paulludvig said:

John L Nelson looked black, so how come his father looks white? Also it has been stated by genealogists that six of Prince's eight great-grandparents were born into slavery. I suppose they were all black?

when dealing with 'mixed' people since 'black' is social/political construction, it is 'I can see John L Nelsons African mixture'

off topic but an example:People say Obama 'looks' black. Obama actually looks more like his Irish grandfather, and almost nothing like his Kenyan father

paulludvig said:

What I think Prince would say regarding this thread "Leave My Tree Alone !!!"

BigChick said:

What I think Prince would say regarding this thread "Leave My Tree Alone !!!"

He talked alot about his family tree during the 1997-98 period
It seemed important to him, and he definately wasn't closed down about it

very open in talking about it

2elijah said:

Aerogram said:

Adorecream said:

Both Sam W and Katy, look very pale in the surviving photographs of them, but maybe quarter or half black. There is no more info for Katy. Sam born 1877 is the son of James W.T.Bunnell and Mary S. Mary S was born 1841 in Alabama and there is no more info, my guess is she may also have been born a slave.

.

James born 1828 in Mississippi was the son of Russell Bunnel and Lucinda Nash. Both are most likely to be white as there are surnames and full details of their parents. His occupation was listed as Mechanic. Lucinda's parents were Larkin Nash born 1787 and Elizabeth Haney c1790 in Pickens Alabama, which may be unlikely as Alabama was only a state in 1818, it is possible they lived in Alabama after they married, when it was the state of Alabama. No one is named as parents for either of them.

.

Russel Rubert Bunnell born 1788 was the son of Nathaniel Bunnel born 1758 in Farmington Conneticut, so he must have been the one to come south when the south was opened up for plantations and shit. He was the son of another Nathaniel Bunnell born in 1734. He married an A Hart of which more details are not listed.

.

Nathaniel I married Thankfull (Name unknown and died a year after his son was born). He was the son of Hezekiah Bunnell and his wife Esther Bristol. We are now in the 17th century, so Prince has a true blue New England pedigree!!!

.

Hezekiah Jr was born 1702 in New Haven and married Esther Bristol born in 1697. Esther was the daughter Daniel Bristol born 1671 died 1728 and Esther Sperry born 1673. His father was John Bristol born in Great Yarmouth the UK in 1625. I mean this level of geneaology is incredible.

.

So it is real or a bunch of badly linked bull shit, I am sure old John Bristol born 1625 would never guess he would be the distant ancestor of a Black Musical satyr with a Gold like talent.

.

Hezekiah Jr has an even more distant past born in 1702 to Hezekiah senior born 1681 and died 1729 in New Haven.Son of Benjamin Bunnell born 1635 in New Haven and grandson of William Bunnell born in 1615 in the UK, and his father was Benjamin Bonnell born in the UK in 1568 and son of Thomas born in 1536.

.

That type of pedigree is impressive if true, so what do you guys think. This is what you get when you have some white blood I guess. But it is not unique. I watched a programme, where a series of DNA tests on African Americans proved the average AA has about 18% White ancestry, to find someone with pure Black ancestry in America would be rare unless they were a recent African migrant or had an all African family tree (Say like Akon or Ditembe Motumbo).

.

And yes geneaology is a hobby for me.

So I guess no French ancestry. Yet that would explain so much.

You can't know that - the genealogy hasn't been traced back far enough. My paternal grandmother's family was French before it was English (via the Plantagenet dynasty and the Norman conquest), but I had to go back to about the 12th century to get that part of it.

Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, the published records of a family peter out before you get that far back. I've met with a lot of dead ends in my own tree. The illustrious and/or prolific ancestors are a lot easier to find, for obvious reasons.

SuperSoulFighter said:

I find all of this really hard to believe when Prince said that they didnt know who his mothers father was so he is unsure what he his mixed with. He said on the Lopez show. This this is all assumption and speculation.