John Oates
Oates with wife Aimee Oates in 2011, s_bukley / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: John William Oates
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, U.S.
Date of Birth: April 7, 1948
Ethnicity:
*father – Gibraltarian, including English, Spanish [Andalusian, Extremaduran, Valencian], Italian, Portuguese, possibly Moorish
*mother – Italian
John Oates is an American rock, R&B, and soul guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is the guitarist and songwriter of pop rock duo Hall & Oates, with principal lead vocalist Daryl Hall.
John’s father, Alfred William “Al” Oates, was from a Gibraltarian family, of English, Spanish [Andalusian, Extremaduran, Valencian], Italian, Portuguese, and possibly Moorish, background. John’s mother was of Italian descent. He is married to Aimee Oates, with whom he has a son.
On page 10 of his autobiography, Change of Seasons: A Memoir, 2017, John writes:
My father’s father was a military policeman… who married a local girl of Spanish and Moorish descent… Around the same time, [John’s maternal grandparents were] a young couple from the Salerno area of Southern Italy.
It is not clear if this Moorish ancestry has been verified/documented. Some people of Spanish background are said, rightly or wrongly, to have “Moorish” ancestry.
John’s paternal grandfather was William Alfred Oates (the son of Alfred Charles Oates and Josefa Martinez). William was born on Gibraltar. Alfred was the son of an English prison warden, William John Oates, of Kent, and of Antonia González, who was of Portuguese descent.
John’s paternal grandmother was Ana Perera (the daughter of José Perera and Isabel Bernarda Bayochi). Anna was born on Gibraltar. José’s father, Manuel Perera, was the son of a Portuguese emigrant, José Pereira (later Perera), of Tavira, Faro, and of Ana Delgado Ruiz, who was Spanish, from Ronda, Málaga. John’s great-grandfather José’s mother, Cipriana María Soiza, was the daughter of Portuguese emigrants, João de Sousa (later Juan Soiza), of Vila Real, Vila Real, and Catarina (later Catalina) Contreras, of Olhão, Faro. John’s great-grandmother Isabel was the daughter of Luis Cayetano Bayochi, who was of half Italian and half Spanish [Andalusian] descent, and of Ana María Dolores Álvarez, who was of Spanish [5/8 Andalusian, 1/4th Valencian, and 1/8th Extremaduran] descent.
John’s maternal grandmother was named Clementina DePalma.
Sources: Genealogy of John Oates (focusing on his father’s side) – https://www.geni.com
John’s father on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
His father’s full name is Alfred William “Al” Oates according to his public record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KRTY-VCV
His paternal grandparents are William Oates and Anna (I don’t know her maiden surname) according to 1930 US Census: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X42C-L8X and 1940 US Census: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQTH-G3Y
I would like to add William Oates’ middle name Alfred: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11900-9970-10?cc=1861144
Spanish-Moorish is just another way of saying black without saying it. You add the “SPanish-Moorish” with the Italian and you have a man who is basically mulatto, hence his appearance and his jet-black CURLY hair! You know he is not white white, just look at him next to Darryl Hall!
I agree. I knew he probably had either Spanish or African decent blood in him, but wasn’t sure which one. I thought either Daryl is just THAT pale or John is that tan. Then I thought there’s no such thing as a permanant tan, his skin is always darker. And then I noticed the hair. I’m black so I know black hair and his seemed close to it. Not that close, but mulatto close. So that’s where I got to where I am today. “Moor” threw me in a spin but I knew it means so mething African related. There’s no shame in just saying his dad was of British and North African decent, there’s probably tons of people like that. Again, I agree with you 100%!
I would have loved to hear you try to figure out my eldest daughter. According to you, she’d have been of some degree of African descent, and who knows, maybe somewhere way, way back, she is. She’d certainly give John Oates a run for his money with lovely, long, black curly hair, and a slightly cafe au lait skin tone. I’m of 100% Irish descent and my wife is 1/2 Hispanic (one great grandparent, probably Basque, actually born in Spain)-Native American and 1/2 Greek (mother actually from Athens). Despite my wife’s lineage, she’s a fair skinned brunette with straight hair, and one might guess her to be from France or Northern Italy. I’m afraid the one person you’d never guess is responsible for my daughter’s “ethnic” look. Her paternal grandfather. He was one of the so called “black Irish” one reads about. He looked Sicilian if you ask me, and because he was like me, a naval officer and outside a lot, he was permanently tanned. His skin toned lightened in his old age, but one could tell there was more genetics than the Sun involved in his appearance. His hair was black and curly, his eyes dark brown. His twin sister meanwhile had straight hair and blue eyes. They were twins with nine older siblings, with several versions of green, brown (almost “black”), and blue eyes spread among them. Blond to black hair, and there is no doubt that they are all brothers and sisters as otherwise, they all looked like each other. This is a trait that has extended into my own family. My eldest is as described, my middle daughter has green eyes like mine, fair skin and blond hair (mine was light brown before it all went gray); and my son looks like JFK, Jr.; great hair that people would kill to have, brown eyes with a nice tan. Otherwise, he’s as Irish-looking as Paddy’s Pig. Genetics is an interesting science, and one that often results in morphotypes that are quite unexpected, but not altogether surprising if one understands how it all works.
Don’t waste your time with the jealous blacks or racist whites on here!
Ooooh Jadon just take your jealousy else where. You can’t rewrite a narrative on hair texture my jig
Moorish is actually MORE a Black term than the Caucasian and legally white in the USA, North African! You One Droppers can never be happy
Permanent tan eh
That’s like saying if you add an Native American with a White person you get a Eurasian.
Oooohhh we got a jealous ONE DROPPER
Sorry he’s Italian and you’re not lol
There’s no such thing as “Spanish Moorish”. In medieval Spain, a “moor” was a Muslim. After the reconquista the vast majority of moors were expelled to North Africa and the few remaining ones converted and thus ceased to be “moors” and intermixed with the Christian population.
That was all before 1500. 500 years later it’s not only impossible to know who’s ancestors were converted moors but also, there’s no separate ethnic “moor” identity in Spain. Everybody is just Spanish (or maybe Catalan, Basque, Gallician, etc), there’s no such thing as a “moor” community.
Moroccan not “Moorish” then, the northern sections of Morocco were under Spanish administration from 1912 to 1956 when all of Morocco including the French administrated half became independent, it should be better clarified that John Oates is of Moroccan ancestry to indicate he’s a 20th century era Moroccan, not 1500s Moors who were eradicated and expelled, any Moor in the Reconquista converted to Catholic Christianity would be recorded to be a descendant of the Moorish remnants around in the southern tips of Spain (Granada) in the 1490s, but hardly any public records from the era remains present.
i cud of sword he was mexican, but thats a awesome mix he got…explains his looks too, especially the moorish look on him.
I doubt that highly
ethnic
admin