Rainey, Ma (nee Pridgett, Gertrude) (fem) sep.1882-22.dec.1939 USA Alabama, ?Russell - Georgia, Rome
blues singer, by May 1900 her widowed mother with 4 children had moved (probably before 1894 with her husband from Alabama Russell) to neighbouring Columbus Georgia, 1900-1917 residing at 804 Ninth Street and all employed as washerwoman/laundress, 1920 her mother boarded with Frank and Melissa Nix in Columbus ; eldest child of Thomas Pridgett (Alabama 1860-1900 Georgia, Macon ; probably the Thomas Pridgett 1894 laborer at Columbus Iron Works and residing at 1022 7th Avenue in Columbus) and laundress/railroad car cleaner Ella Allen (Alabama, ?Russell apr.1862-8.jun.1935 Columbus) ; sister Melissa 'Lizzie' Pridgett Nix (Alabama jun.1886-) ; brother Esse 'Essie' Pray Pridgett (Alabama 4.jan.1890-) who was band musician in Columbus 1910 and tailor in Rome 1917 ; brother driver Thomas 'Tommie' Pridgett (Alabama 26.may.1893-7.jul.1975 Columbus) ; 1901 or 1902 she married odd jobs laborer in song and dance William 'Pa' Rainey (Georgia 1884-)

[rem: the usually given place and date of birth Columbus 26.apr.1886 are wrong because 1: she was born in September not April (her mother knew exactly what month her children were born because the months she gave in the 1900 census are confirmed by several reliable sources) and because 2: her much younger sister was born June 1886 and because 3: it would imply that she married aged 15 or 16 and because 4: all her siblings claimed to have been born in Columbus while they were actually born in Alabama]