The rock artist known as Prince has died

Question

The artist known as Prince died today and I found no profile for him. I started one and it will be will be adoptable very shortly if any one wants to work on it

Comments

I was lucky enough to get to see three Prince concerts, in '82, '83 and '84.  He was one of the best performers I've ever seen, a great musician, songwriter and a gifted dancer.

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Hi Dale. Could you please add the tag diversity to this entry. Thanks!

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Done.

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Thanks, Dale!

Answer 1

Megan Smolenyak just shared a link to a 2013 article she wrote about Prince's ancestry, Hey, Prince, Your Roots Are Showing. It provides information that may be helpful in your researches.

Comments

I've been working with that information already, but thanks for the link!

Some of her information has been difficult to verify - I'm guessing she stored the source for the tree on Ancestry, where I don't have a paid subscription, so I'm rebuilding some documentation through familysearch. I should have enough now to build out about another 20 profiles in his tree, but I like to verify my sources as much as possible before putting out tons of profiles that might be slightly off.

I'll try to start adding profiles today and maybe by some time tomorrow I will have a few more branches out there.

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Scott, I understand completely. I used to have a paid Ancestry account, but at the moment don't, so I also spend a lot of time on FamilySearch. Good luck with this.

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Thanks for posting this.   It is a great article.

Answer 2

This is so sad. What a horrible year it's been for celebrity deaths. Joanie Laurer died yesterday too.

Comments

The recording artists hit me a little harder than most because I am a friend of a man who has won 7 Grammy's and is one of the pioneers of surround sound. He lives just a short distance from me and has his own recording studio, 5/4 productions, so I have met some of the older groups and even sat in on some recording sessions and sat in the promotional seats at some big name artist's concerts.

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Very sad news. From what someone told me, he had been battling a bout of pneumonia and cancelled a few of his concerts, so it's suspected that he passed of this in some related fashion. Terrible to hear that it may have been something that could have been helped. We'll wait (as it always is with stars) for the official report.

I'll try to help out with his profile if I can.

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They lowered the flag at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Half Staff today when the news of his passing came out.

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This is why doves cry.  :(

Answer 3

Always liked Prince, I watch Purple Rain all the time, can't get enough of it. They need to lower the flags for him. They did for some other artist that died. RIP Prince

Comments

John They did lower the flags in Cleveland at the Rock Hall.

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I saw your comment earlier. I just thought Maybe all over. We did it not to long ago for one artist who died from drugs. By the way Prince in on MTV for the rest of the day.

Answer 4

Wow - I'm going to need a bit more time to digest this, but read this interesting story about Prince's activist ancestor, Mittie Maud Lena Gordon, who was the President and Founder of the Peace Movement of Ethiopia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Movement_of_Ethiopia

Mittie Maud Lena Gordon - aka Mittie Nelson, one of Prince's great-great-aunts.

This, coupled with this longer story:

http://www.umass.edu/afroam/downloads/allen.tak.pdf

Makes it very interesting. Someone could easily spend a lot of time developing her profile. I'm working on the highlights, so that I can hit the rest of them.

Also see her Geni profile

https://www.geni.com/people/Mittie-Gordon/6000000008901198563

Very interesting.

Comments

Great information, Scott! Thanks very much for sharing these links.

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Her profile is here if anyone wants to tackle updating her bio with the additional information.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Nelson-10346

Answer 5

OK - I've added as many on the Nelson side as I can. No connections to the tree, but lots of profiles in there now. If someone wants to take a look and see if there's any help they can provide, please do so. I'm going to work a bit on his maternal side now and see what I can come up with.

Answer 6

Well - no luck so far in the past. Now adding spouses to his profile. Looks like there is a link through his second wife, to singer Eric Benet, to Halle Berry.

Working on her profile now to see if a connection can be made.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Berry-7910

Answer 7

OK - so I believe I now have Prince connected through a very long-distance and meandering path - but he's connected.

From Prince, to his 2nd wife, to Eric Benet (singer-songwriter), to Halle Berry (all this in the same generation)

From Halle to her maternal line Judith Hawkins - her father Earl Hawkins - her father Eugene Allen Hawkins - his half-brother Sheldon Hawkins - his wife Lizzie Love - her father Andrew Love - his father Andrew Love who is currently 17 degrees from Bacon.

We'll see how far away he is once the links update tonight.

Comments

He's now 26 Degrees from Bacon.