Karyn Parsons
Birth Name: Karen L. Parsons
Place of Birth: Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States
Date of Birth: October 8, 1966
Ethnicity:
*Welsh, other (father)
*African-American (mother)
Karyn Parsons is an American actress, comedian, and model. She is known for playing Hilary Banks on the show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and for her roles in the film Major Payne and the series The Job. Karyn is the daughter of Louise (Hankerson) and Kenneth Parsons.
Karyn is married to director Alexandre Rockwell, with whom she has two children, including actress Lana Rockwell.
Karyn’s maternal grandmother was named Lucile Turno (the daughter of Cyrus Turno and Lizzie). Lucile was born in South Carolina.
Source: Marriage record of Karyn’s parents – https://www.familysearch.org
Ethnic, is there a picture, please?
no sorry
Mother:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K48F-37B
Her maternal grandmother was Lucile Turno (the daughter of Cyrus Turno and Lizzie).
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VLMR-X1W
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VVJ5-YXH
Possibly her father
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKNT-HQKS
Assuming it’s true what Wikipedia and other articles say about her father (that he’s from Butte, Montana), that’s very likely him.
That man didn’t have any recent Welsh ancestry though. He was of English, German, Scottish, and 1/16th Greek (I think, the ancestor was born in Turkey and was surnamed Benjamin or Benjamions) descent.
https://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=kymkemp&id=I4976
Isn’t Owens a Welsh name? And that’s odd for a Greek man to immigrate so long ago to US.
Owens is defenitely Welsh, but I haven’t traced it outside of the U.S. If he has any Welsh ancestry through that name, then it’s not much.
One census says that Kenneth’s maternal grandfather’s father was Welsh, but no other record of him or his own father shows any Welsh-born ancestors to my knowledge.
Yes, the Greek thing is odd. Perhaps the birth place is an error and that he was just American. Or maybe he was born in Turkey, but of British descent (I’ve seen a few ancestors in American family trees who were born in North Africa before the 1800’s of European descent, Mary Chapin Carpenter is an example). Or maybe he actually was Greek, or another regional ethnicity (Jewish most likely then, I can’t imagine he was Turkish), who knows. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that has been found in an American family tree.
Here he is on the 1850 census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD9V-74G
Here he is with his name spelled “Antony Benjamions” (the spouse isn’t Kenneth’s ancestor):
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F8KG-L5B
Turkey may mean Ottoman Empire i.e. Lebanon, Syria etc
Karyn is the daughter of Louise H. and Kenneth B. Parsons.
Its like she just disappeared