Vanessa L. Williams
Williams in 2011, kathclick/bigstock.com
Birth Name: Vanessa Lynn Williams
Place of Birth: Tarrytown, New York, U.S.
Date of Birth: March 18, 1963
Ethnicity: African-American, along with some English and Welsh
Vanessa L. Williams is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, model, and television personality. She was the first African-American to win the Miss America Pageant, in 1983. Her roles include the films Eraser, Soul Food, Hoodlum, Dance with Me, Light It Up, Shaft (2000), Batman: Hush, and Bad Hair, and the series Ugly Betty.
Vanessa is the daughter of Helen L. (Tinch) and Milton Augustine Williams, Jr. Her parents were both black. Her brother is actor and comedian Chris Williams. Vanessa grew up in the mainly white middle-class suburb of Millwood, New York. Vanessa is married to businessperson Jim Skrip. She has three children, including dancer and singer Jillian Hervey, with her former husband, public relations specialist Ramon Hervey II; and a daughter with her former husband, Canadian basketball player and actor Rick Fox.
An AncestryDNA test taken by Vanessa stated that her genetic ancestry is:
*56% African
——–*23% Ghana
——–*15% Cameroon/Congo
——–*7% Togo
——–*6% Benin
——–*5% Senegal
*44% European
——–*17% British Isles
——–*12% Finnish/Ural/Volga
——–*11% Southern European
——–*4% Spain/Portugal
In an interview, a journalist stated that Vanessa’s mixed heritage includes African-American, Welsh, and Native American. No Native American markers appear on her DNA test. Vanessa appeared on the program Who Do You Think You Are? (2011), where she discovered that her great-great-grandfather, David Carll, was a “mulatto” (mixed race) man who avoided slavery and married a white woman (her great-great-grandmother).
Vanessa’s ancestry is at least 1/32nd English. One of her maternal great-great-great-grandfathers, George Appleford, was born in Surrey, England, in 1802.
Vanessa’s paternal grandfather was Milton Augustine/Abner Williams (the son of John Hill Williams and Mary L. Fields). Milton was born in Tennessee. John was the son of George Williams and Mollie/Molly Turner. Mary L. was the daughter of William A. Fields and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Fields.
Vanessa’s paternal grandmother was Iris Agnes Carl/Carll (the daughter of Frank S. Carl/Carll and Imogene Jackson). Iris was born in New York. Frank was the son of David Carll and Mary Louisa Appleford, who was white, and whose own father was English. Imogene was the daughter of Henry Titus Jackson and Emiline/Emmaline G. Russell.
Vanessa’s maternal grandfather was Edward James Tinch (the son of John Wilbur Tinch and Helen Elizabeth Fitzgerald). Edward was born in New Jersey. John was the son of John Tinch. Helen was the daughter of William Fitzgerald and Margaret.
Vanessa’s maternal grandmother was Doris Catherine Griffen/Griffin (the daughter of Moses George Wilson and Elvira Viola Johnson). Doris was born in New York. Moses George was the son of George Wilson and Frances Duson. Elvira was the daughter of Waldo/Walter Johnson and Fannie/Fanny Cavel/Calvin.
Regarding her DNA test, Vanessa has said:
Now, I can’t wait to go to Ghana and Cameroon and Togo and Senegal — it’s a great opportunity to see why the customs resonate with you. I love to travel and I love to explore, and I have to admit that I was always jealous of people who knew their cultural background. Both my family and myself came out with light eyes, so obviously there is a recessive gene here. Not knowing what that was just made me very curious.
Sources: Genealogy of Vanessa L. Williams – http://www.geni.com
Genealogy of Vanessa’s father (focusing on his mother’s side) – https://www.findagrave.com
Vanessa’s paternal grandmother, Iris Agnes Carl/Carll, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Hmmm…my dad is pretty dark and he has blue eyes (his siblings range from really light to really dark)…I know that his side of the family is mixed somewhere (with Native American and white) but it’s too far back to claim…but his Grandma was half Cherokee with really long straight hair and pale skin…anyway, just saying that you don’t have to be light skinned to have light eyes of even be recently mixed…and if anybody ever tried to tell my Granddaddy (my mama’s daddy) that he he was anything other than black because he is really pale and has gray/green eyes he would get mad :P Not that being anything else is demeaning or whatever, it’s just that that is what his parents said they were (even if they didn’t look it haha), so that’s what he is…also, hair texture has nothing to do with how light your skin is…my cousin is half white and has nappier hair than me, with my long, curly, soft hair….so yeah, genetics is a weird thing, as you can see with my family :D
I READ THAT U V WILLIAMS DIDN’T ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT “BLACK” GENES R DOMINATE WELL THEY R THAT IS JUST A FACT U DON’T HAVE TO LIKE, BUT U ALSO CAN’T CHANGE!
hey!….Vanessa Williams eyes appear to be a pretty dark hazel color in this video….
Who cares– the Lady is very talented and flat damn georgeus.
I stumbled upon this site quite be accident. I cannot believe some of the comments, however I must admit that some are intriguing, informative and occasionally fascinating. But there are some nitwits in the midst here who are propogating utter nonense. As most of you know the beauty of the blogosphere is hard to appreciate when you have to navigate through so much poppycock. Alas, I shall return in the near future with some thoughts of my own on matters that count. And uh, oh, by the way, i’m a “half black half white” baby boomer, former black panther and more recently an amatuer historian. Thanx for listening. Peace and wisdom.
Hope you can join in on the discussion.
What is it with this “all african americans are mixed and therefore same as half black/half white people”?honestly speaking,i see these supposedly mixed african americans on the t.v everyday and they look just like any black person i see here in nigeria.however,1/2black,1/2white people look different.believe me d first time i saw people like halle berry,vanessa williams,barack obama etc, i knew they were half black,half white.now, you see many black people compare their look to lightskinned b lack people,which their features do not match at all.that ur ancestors were mixed hundreds of yrs ago,or a long time ago doesn’t make u mixed.that is definitely the reason u all look black,i mean black like any african.now, tell me Will Smith does not look 100percent african…ah..ah..ah.u make me laugh.What i’ve actually noticed is that these people are not proud of who they are and therefore go about claiming european ancestry.Stop claiming halfblack,halfwhite people as solely black.BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL…..
If your ancestors were mixed 1,000 yrs ago (exaggerting) or yesterday you should be able to describe yourself however you want. Because my great great grandfather is white and my great-grandfather is Indo-asian, I can’t mention them because they are not my immediate kin? Personally to me Halle Berry looks like a “regular” black person to me. I know people who claim only African heritage who are lighter. Frankly I know people who aren’t even African and they look black to me. The point I am making is you cannot judge someone based on their physical appearance. People of mixed heritage all look different some can pass for white, mixed or black. Maybe some people aren’t proud of their African heritage, and that is why they claim European or other ancestry, for me I am use proud of all the mixes that made me.
African American are mixed and a lot of us are recently mixed! But we are also very proud to be black, like Vanessa Williams is a black women, no other mixed culture in the World claims to be black if they are that light, but African Americans do because we love being black! The point that African Americans try to make by saying that we are all mixed, means just because your mixed dont say your not black, because we are all mixed- but we still black and proud!
amber,im not trying to be mean,but if blacks are proud to be black,then why do most do everything to marry white?
To rafael
well if your talking about ballplayers,those white girls are there,and they will fight to get those boys(and play dirty).Now from what I understand in the islands,they’re trained to marry white or lighter,(don’t) know why self-hate maybe.However as far as AA,you should ask why do the white women go to them.Because that’s been happening long before the slaves left African.Also why white men want leave black women along,that’s one of the main reasons why we have so many mixed bloodlines around.Now about being proud,as you can see most AA’s no matter what they look like will say they are black(like I said,everyone around where I live,says they’re black)
Because we are in America, we can marry who we want to!! Some blacks (especially black men) are brain washed into thinking lighter is better! Or they only put light blacks on tv, but that is any entire race or culture in this world. They try to assimilate to the white side- which I hate by the way! However eventhough some of blacks hate their blackness, lightskin and mixed blacks are still black in the United States! Where in other countries they are not like- Brazil- comes up with all kinds of colors to call them self but black!- The Dominican Republic does the same- Mexicans try to be less Native and be more spanaird- People from India hate being Dark! It’s everywhere but African Americans proclaim their blackness!
According to the government about 12% of married blacks are married to white people–the rest (that would be 88% of married blacks) are not married to whites. It only seems like a lot because a lot of black men are going with white women –and if whites are proud to be white, then why are so many white females doing almost anything to go with a black man? LOL–maybe because they want to be black and they think the more black in them–the more black in them? LMAO
both venessa williams parents are black as are both Jada Pinkett’s–we claim them as “all black only” because the US has laws on the books since 1797 that anyone with more than 12% black blood must label themselves black by law. These laws are still on the books and have not been repealed. this meant that blacks had to accept people whose parents or grand parents or great grandparents were white and whites did NOT acknowledge them or admit to fathering them at all. Until the 1950s about 98% of biracial babies were by white males with black females that majority only reversed after the 1970s. So we claim people as black who do not have a white parent. Even if their grandfather was white they are seen as black–for todqay’s std we only say biracial if their present parent is white this is because many of the blacks who you say look like Nigerians have white ancestry. Michelle Obama ‘s DNA was traced to severall european blood lines as was Bill Cosby–neither look “mixed” and are not thought of by blacks as mixed–but if we go by all the claim whites (and you) belatedly want to put on any white blood tie, then their genetics show they are “mixed” my paternal great grandfather was half Cherokee and half black as was my paternal great grandmother. My mother was Madagascan but her paternal grandfather was white. Her own dad had greyish blue eyes, her great great grandfather was French but her great, great grandmother was Madagascan. What does that make me? I am as brown as a Hershey bar, with waist length hair that is frizzy if I choose not to relax it–my eyes are black, cheekbones are high–as far as I am concerned–I am black and LOVE that title–but my genetics would place me with a lot of French, scottish and ‘english as well as Native American and Polynesian (madagascan).
I think I look like a typical black girl–and no doubt based on my skin color you would say I was no different than a Nigerian–but my two daughters are both very pale even though the father was my color and her hair is to her butt and is bone straight–you never know.
We expect this ignorance of skin color and how it works from whites–because they never cared, acknowledged or paid attention to mixes before white women and their biracial babies–but as an ‘African–you should know better. A mixed person can be mixed with anything and depending on that mix can be darker than a pure African or pass for white–it is all in the genetics.
I AGREE BLACK IS BEUTIFUL , BESIDES WHERE DO U THINK “WHITES” CAME FROM! “THE MOST HIGH GOD TO EXSTENCE OF MANKIND TO THE FLOOD. IT WAS NOT UNTIL LATER THAT THE WHITE OR INTO ASIATIC WORLD AND GOD TO CARRY OUT DURING MODERN SCIENTIFIC ‘PREHISTORIC MAN’ OR THE PROVEN A HOAX. THE CAUCASIAN NAME IS ESAU MEANING DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM GEN 25:23 AND THE LORD NATIONS ARE IN THEY WOMB…” IN ADDITTION, IF U DIDN’T KNOW ABRAHAM WAS “BLACK!” http://www.truenation.org