Birth Name: Paul Lorin Kantner
Date of Birth: March 17, 1941
Place of Birth: San Francisco, California, United States
Date of Death: January 28, 2016
Place of Death: San Francisco, California, United States
Ethnicity: German, English, Irish, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), small amounts of Swiss-German, Scottish, and French
Paul Kantner was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and a singer of the rock band Jefferson Airplane. Paul was the son of Cora Leigh (Pendergast) and Paul Schell Kantner.
In Jeff Tamarkin’s book Got a Revolution!: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane, he wrote that Paul’s father was of German descent and that his mother “came from mixed German and French stock”. This is not entirely true. Paul’s father did have a significant amount of German ancestry, but he also had English, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), and distant Scottish, Swiss-German, and French, ancestry. Paul’s mother did not appear to have any recent German and/or French ancestry. She had English, Irish, and possibly Scottish, ancestry.
Paul’s paternal grandparents were Charles Rufus Kantner (the son of Charles Kantner and Mary Susan Schell) and Martha Isabell “Belle” Harned (the daughter of William Harned and Mary Ann Wheeler). Paul’s great-grandfather Charles was born in West Virginia, and had German, distant Swiss-German, and possibly some English, ancestry (his own paternal grandmother, Sarah Double, might have been of English descent). Paul’s great-grandfather William had English, German, and distant French, ancestry. Mary Wheeler was of English, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), and distant Scottish and Swiss-German, descent.
Paul’s maternal grandparents were Walter Thomas Pendergast (the son of Michael Pendergast) and Grace B./P. Stoddard/Stoddart. Walter’s father was Irish and his mother was English. Grace’s father was born in Michigan and her mother was born in England. The surname “Stoddard/Stoddart” is often Scottish.
Sources: Genealogies of Paul Kantner – https://www.geni.com
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com
Genealogy of Paul’s father, Paul Kantner – https://familysearch.org
Paul’s maternal grandfather, Walter Thomas Pendergast, on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Paul’s maternal grandmother, Grace B./P. Stoddard/Stoddart, on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org