Monday, December 16, 2013

Forts in Southwest Virginia

Native Americans had a network of trails throughout the mountains, gaps, and waterways. The early settlers realized the importance of these networks so a clash occurred when both wanted to be in control. As the settlers moved into western Virginia, and what is now Tennessee, they traveled, settled and crossed many of these main Indian trails.

The French were located to the north and west, with Shawnee and others siding with them. They had settlements at French Lick (now Nashville) and east of Knoxville, at the French Broad River. The Spanish were to the south; Cherokee were also south of these settlements. Mingos were in now West Virginia. The Spanish and French befriended the Indians and tried to stop the settlers. East Tennessee was still part of North Carolina with the Virginia boundary coming as far down as possibly Rogersville, Tennessee. North Carolina could not take care of her far-flung western territory, so the Virginia militia did.

Lord Dunmore’s War, in 1774, caused a lot of confusion with the Shawnee and Mingo attacking and killing so many. The settlers decided at that time to build the first forts in Clinch Valley. In late 1775 militia forts were built in Lee County, Virginia. Attacks on settlers were coming from the north and south, so beginning with the Cherokee War in 1776, the settlements were largely abandoned in Lee County and western Scott County and in the main Valley of the Houston from Kingsport to Abingdon. Eventually thirty-six forts were built in southwestern Virginia; all were a day apart or closer if a warning militia was hurrying to alert another fort. These thirty-six forts were strung from Wynne’s Fort in TazewellVirginia, to Martin’s Lower Station near Cumberland Gap.

The fort that interests Melungeon researchers a little more than others is Fort Blackmore. Lewis Jarvis said the Melungeons were “friendly Indians” who came with the white settlers. “They came from the Cumberland County and New River, Virginia, stopping at various points west of the Blue Ridge. Some of them stopped on Stony Creek, Scott County, and Virginia, where Stony Creek runs into Clinch River. The white emigrants with the friendly Indians erected a fort on the bank of the river and called it Fort Blackmore and here yet many of these friendly ‘Indians’ live in the mountains of Stony creek, but they have married among the whites….” Jarvis then adds, “They all came here simultaneously with the whites from the State of Virginia, between the years 1795 and 1812 and about this there is no mistake, except in the dates these Indians came here from Stony Creek.”

There is a lot we don’t know about all these old forts, yet we do know several things about them. A recent book I found has many historical documents in it, “The Forts of the Holston Militia,” authors Lawrence J. Fleenor, Jr. and Dale Carter. An online site has Emory Hamilton’s work: FRONTIER FORTS By Emory L. Hamilton

Penny Ferguson

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Which First Thanksgiving?

No. 1. In 1586, the first thanksgiving held by Englishmen on the North American continent took place on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. This celebration was by the company of 100 men from Cornwall, England that Sir Walter Raleigh had brought to America to found a colony. After a year when the relief ship arrived, they held a thanksgiving dinner, and fed-up with the hardships and perils, they all went home.

No. 2. In 1609, at Jamestown, Virginia, the starving remnants of the first settlers held a thanksgiving dinner while awaiting the arrival of their relief ship.

No. 3. In 1612, also at Jamestown, Virginia, a dinner was held after the arrival of Governor Dale with a ship-load of girls intended to become the wives of the settlers.

No. 4. In 1619, a dinner of thanks was held at Berkley Plantation on the James River in Virginia.

No. 5. In 1621, at Plymouth Plantation, a great dinner of thanks was held. Pilgrim Edward Winslow in a letter of December 11, 1621, to a friend in England, described their First Thanksgiving (as printed in Mourt's Relation) as follows.

"Our harvest being gotten in our Governor sent four men on fowling, so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They, four, in one day killed as much fowl as with a little beside, served the company almost a week. At which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest King Massasoit with some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted. And they went out and killed five deer which they brought to the Plantation, and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others."

This latter Thanksgiving dinner is the one that has survived and became the National Holiday.

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Monday, November 11, 2013

9th Annual International Conference on Genetic Genealogy – Day 2

November 11, 2013 at 3:37 AM (General)

An excellent detailed report from Jennifer Zinck on Day 2 of the Family Tree DNA conference.

*Note: It’s very late but I had a flight tonight and I wanted to get the information out. With little sleep, I am sure there are countless errors. I’ll fix it up tomorrow. I figured everyone would rather have the information quickly rather than perfectly!

The first thing on the agenda for the morning was the International Society of Genetic Genealogy 2013 Meeting. ISOGG was born at the 2004 FTDNA conference. Katherine Borges spoke about the development and launch of ISOGG in 2004 and 2005 and the fact that it is free. It is a self-supporting and volunteer organization. There is always a need for help. If you have a niche where you can help, that would be great.

The ISOGG Y-Browse is now up.

One ISOGG wiki page that is getting a lot of hits is the new page for Free DNA Tests. Many administrators sponsor tests and some projects raise money to sponsor tests.

The Journal of Genetic of Genetic Genealogy was founded the same year as ISOGG at the FTDNA conference. Katherine said that she has been lobbied to take JOGG under ISOGG’s umbrella but she has resisted because it wasn’t broken. At this point JOGG is not working well but we are not at that point yet. Katherine is determined not to let it die. The current editor of JOGG is Dr. Turi King of the University of Leicester who worked on the King Richard III project. Turi has been very busy with this and now there is a rumor that Dr. King will have to work on the King Arthur project.

Katherine reminded us to be very careful when we talk to reporters, as they can take out sound bites that might be good or bad. After a two hour conversation, they could pick out one line that may or may not be relevant. What you say applies to all of us, including the people in your projects.

The ISOGG Wiki is a great resource. Be sure to use it but be sure to source it. You are welcome to set up free project pages on the wiki.

ISOGG has had a presence at several conferences. “Who Do You Think You Are? Live” Conference in London takes place in February. This is the biggest conference in the world. It averages 11,000 – 15,000 people in three days. FTDNA has had a stall there and is very busy for the entire time. Brian Swann has arranged for an ISOGG Stand each year. The Free DNA Testing list gets posted in this stand. This year there will be a specification for how many tests the project would like to sponsor. The SCGS Jamboree & ISOGG’s DNA Day takes place in June in California. ISOGG has had a booth since 2005. Maurice Gleeson will talk about the Dublin event later in the day.

Alice Fairhurst shared that 358 people attended DNA Day at SCGS Jamboree. The SCGS Jamboree usually has attendance of around 1,500-1,700. This is a new movement for public DNA conferences instead of relying on project administrators. Alice reminded us that there will be a DNA Conference on August 16-17, 2014 in Washington, D.C. CeCe Moore said that a site will be forthcoming. Alice stressed that she is happy to see something happening on the east coast as well as the west coast.

In 2006 the YSNP tree was started in 2006. At that time, we were primarily getting SNPs from academic papers. Alice gave us some numbers that really show the growth!

Year # of SNPs
2006 436
2008 790
2010 935
2012 2067
Sept 2013 3610
Announced by David Mittelman yesterday 25,000

The Y Team had a meeting last night. In the past they’ve been able to associate each SNP to an academic paper but they will likely not be able to keep that up. Individual SNPs would be a work level that no one can keep up with. Everyone is a volunteer.

On July 20-25, 2014, CeCe Moore, Debbie Parker Wayne, and Blaine Bettinger will teach a course entitled Practical Genetic Genealogy at the Genealogical Research Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Full Article Here:

http://www.ancestorcentral.com/archives/821

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Highlights From the 9th Family Tree DNA Conference in Houston Day One

Since I’ve already seen Tim Janzen’s Autosomal Mapping presentation and mostly because Roberta Estes is so awesome, I chose to attend her presentation How toFind Your Indian Prince(ss) Without Having to Kiss Too Many Frogs. Roberta says that where there is smoke, there may be fire. It may not be what you think or where you think because stories lose “facts” with each generational retelling.

Historically, “Indians” and “Blacks” were viewed as one because they were people of color. Once held in slavery, freedom had to be approved by the state governing body. Manumitted slaves, Indian, black, or mixed people were second class citizens. They could not own land, vote, testify against whites and were taxed at a higher rate. Tribal Indians were often invisible because they were not taxed. Treaties led to Indian reservations and group land ownership. Until 1835, some Indians and mixed race people could vote, go to school and testify in court.

European expansion led to Indians being pushed off of land. Treaties were broken. Indians were assimilated and removed. The saying “the only good Indian is a dead Indian” was a real thing. In 1830 Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act forcing removal west of the Mississippi. Indians enslaved were admixed and the same status as other slaves. Disease and assimilation had decimated the eastern tribes. Mixed race people were often, but not always, considered to be “of color”. Tribes lived on reservations and did not pay taxes.

During removal, only Indians on reservations had to go. Mixed race people not on reservations did not have to leave. Indians living on private land did not have to leave. Rolls were taken, but not everyone participated. Cherokees believed the Treaty of Echota was illegal because it was not ratified by the tribe. Being “Indian” was not a good thing in the 1830s and fear was rampant. In 1838 after the Trail of Tears, some of the survivors NEVER spoke again.

Assimilation began as early as Jamestown in 1614 with Pocahontas. Her name was Matoaka and she was baptized and renamed Rebecca Rolfe. Bride ships didn’t arrive until 1620. Assimilation started with slavery. Traders had “Country Wives” in every village that made trading easier. It was a status symbol for females because they got English goods. The Native custom was that when a traveler came, they provided them with a bed mate for the night. This was usually one of the young women who are referred to as “Trader girls”. There was also assimilation with the trader’s slaves. People were kidnapped all the time. This kidnapping went on between tribes, slaves, and whites. Captives were often adopted. There were also traditional marriages and generally the female was Native and the male was European. Roberta does not know of any that were the other way around.

In 1819, one third of white Cherokee tribal members reported to be white females captured as children. In 1835 removal rolls, 211 whites were recorded as “married in” and another 100 were living with the Cherokee. In the 1835 removal rolls, 23% of the tribe was listed as “admixed”.

Indian Princess Grandmas might be admixed through slavery. They might be admixed through assimilation prior to the 1830s or through tribal assimilation. They might have been tribal members in the 1830s. There are rolls from 1830s forward.

Full article here:

http://www.ancestorcentral.com/archives/801

© History Chasers Click here to view all recent Historical Melungeons Blog posts

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Friday, November 8, 2013

“The Melungeons: Sons and Daughters of the Legend”

“The Melungeons: Sons and Daughters of the Legend” will be the topic of a free public lecture by Wayne Winkler at East Tennessee State University’s Reece Museum on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at noon.

His talk will conclude the Reece Museum’s Grand Reopening celebration (Nov. 8-13), which will also include “Treasures of the Reece 2013: Artifacts from the New World,” a behind-the-scenes exhibit preview and fundraiser, on Friday, Nov. 8, from 6-9 p.m.; a Community Day with art demonstrations, storytelling and music on Saturday, Nov. 9, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; and a reception and unveiling of the museum’s annual Poinsettia Tree in the Burgin Dossett Hall administration building on Nov. 12.

Winkler’s presentation will include a brief history of the Melungeons and answer some questions about the Melungeons, a population of undetermined origin first documented in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia in the early 19th century.

The backdrop of Winkler’s talk will be the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition, “IndiVisible: African Native-American Lives in the Americas,” which opens during the “Treasures of the Reece” event on Nov. 8 and continues through Jan. 4, 2014.

Winkler, director of WETS-FM/HD, ETSU’s public radio station, is the author of “Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia.” He frequently lectures about the Melungeons to academic and civic groups around the country. He has also appeared in film and both national and international television projects about the Melungeons, including the History Channel.

Winkler produced a radio documentary about the Melungeons in 1999 that was heard across the nation and won a Silver Reel Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters in 2000.

For more information, contact Theresa Hammons, Reece Museum director, at (423) 439-4392 or emailing hammonste@etsu.edu. For disability accommodations, call the ETSU Office of Disability Services at (423) 439-8346 by Thursday, Nov. 7; accommodation requests after this date cannot be guaranteed.

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Ancestor of Native Americans in Asia was 30% “Western Eurasian”

The complete genome has recently been sequenced from 4 year old Russian boy who died 24,000 years ago near Lake Baikal in a location called Mal’ta, the area in Asia believed to be the origin of the Native Americans based on Y DNA and mitochondrial chromosome similarities. The map below, from Science News, shows the location.

This represents the oldest complete genome ever sequenced, except for the Neanderthal (38,000 years old) and Denisovan (41,000 years old).

This child’s genome shows that he is related closely to Native Americans, and, surprisingly, to western Asians/eastern Europeans, but not to eastern Asians, to whom Native Americans are closely related. This implies that this child was a member of part of a “tribe” that had not yet merged or intermarried with the Eastern Asians (Japan, China, etc.) that then became the original Native Americans who migrated across the Beringian land bridge between about 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.

One of the most surprising results is that about 30% of this child’s genome is Eurasian, meaning from Europe and western Asia, including his Y haplogroup which was R and his mitochondrial haplogroup which was U, both today considered European.

This does not imply that R and U are Native American haplogroups or that they are found among Native American tribes before European admixture in the past several hundred years. There is still absolutely no evidence in the Americas, in burials, for any haplogroups other than subgroups of Q and C for males and A, B, C, D, X and M (1 instance) for females. However, that doesn’t mean that additional evidence won’t be found in the future.

While this is certainly new information, it’s not unprecedented. Last year, in the journal Genetics, an article titled “Ancient Admixture in Human History” reported something similar, albeit gene flow in a different direction. This paper indicated gene flow from the Lake Baikal area to Europe. It certainly could have been bidirectional, and this new paper certainly suggests that it was.

Cont. Here:
http://dna-explained.com/2013/10/25/ancestor-of-native-americans-in-asia-was-30-western-eurasian/

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Friday, October 25, 2013

Technology, Word of Mouth Help Genealogy Hit the Mainstream

Jack Goins poses with a photo dated to have been taken in 1898 of his great-great grandparents found through genealogical research, May 23, 2012.

Mike Richman

September 26, 2013

WASHINGTON — Two providers of family history resources recently made a groundbreaking deal that will streamline global access to genealogical records.

Ancestry.com, a commercial entity, and FamilySearch.org, a non-profit group, plan to put about 1 billion historical records online. The records will include birth, marriage, death and immigration certificates once not obtainable on the Internet.

The deal between these two organizations, both heavyweights in the genealogy business, exemplifies the growing efforts to meet the hunger of people longing to research their family trees.

Genealogy, in fact, has become a global phenomenon.

A market research firm, Global Industry Analysts, says there are more than 80 million professional and amateur genealogists around the world. It projects the market for genealogy products and services will reach $4.3 billion by 2018, nearly double from last year.

Sounds like there's a fascination behind tracing one's ancestry.

Information on the Internet

Cont here:

http://www.voanews.com/content/technology-and-word-of-mouth-help-genealogy-hit-mainstream/1757389.html

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Genealogy Sites on Pinterest

If you haven't checked out Pinterest lately for Genealogy sites, you really should do so now.

http://www.pinterest.com/geneabloggers/genealogy-tip-jar/

© History Chasers Click here to view all recent Historical Melungeons Blog posts

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Family Tree DNA Rolls Out a New Look and Interface

With a hat tip to Rebekah Canada:

FTDNA Family Finder Matches Get a New Look (Part 1)

FTDNA Family Finder Matches look a bit different today. It is a good thing. Here is how a typical Matches page looks when you open it. The first thing I noticed was that the Suggested Relationshipcolumn was gone. This makes me oh so happy. It has been the source of much confusion for a long time.

You will need to head to Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) and Login.

Family Finder Matches Get a New Look (Part 1)

Part 2

Part 3

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Junk DNA: Not So Junky Anymore

Is Junk DNA Really Junky?

By Sam Kean

The delicious, religious debate over what most of our genome is good for.

The silk dancers' interpretation of DNA loops. — Dancers' interpretation of DNA loops

In the 12 years since the human genome was sequenced, so many critters have had their DNA deciphered—oysters, bees, eels, camels, clawed frogs, elephant sharks—that it’s hard to suppress a yawn sometimes. But every so often, a genome cuts through the indifference and makes geneticists’ eyes goggle out. Take the humped bladderwort, a humble aquatic plant whoseDNA was sequenced this past May.

The humped bladderwort has yellow, snapdragon-like flowers, and it’s actually carnivorous, capable of trapping and eating not just insects but even tadpoles and tiny fish. But this combination of beauty and death isn’t what makes the bladderwort special. Most organisms have loads of junk DNA—less pejoratively, noncoding DNA—cluttering their cells. The bladderwort doesn’t: 97 percent of its DNA is classic, hardworking, protein-building DNA. And that lean, mean bladderwort DNA challenges some trendy notions about how all DNA works, including (if not especially) in human beings.

First, a primer on junk DNA, one of the most reviled terms in science. Anyone who took Bio 101 remembers (if only vaguely) that DNA gets turned into RNA, which in turn gets turned into proteins. The protein-producing stretches of DNA are called genes, and genes reside on much longer molecules called chromosomes.

A century ago, as biologists came to grips with the vast number of different proteins needed to build and maintain the body, they decided that genes must be packed very tightly together on chromosomes, since tight packing would be more efficient. They couldn’t have been more wrong. In humans, a typical species in this regard, less than 2 percent of our 3 billion letters of DNA actually builds proteins. Chromosomes were more like vast Saharan wastelands, broken up only sporadically by oases of genes.

So what does that extra 98 percent do? Here’s where things get contentious. Some of the excess—the pseudogenes, the transposons, the tedious stretches where Mother Nature held her fingers down on the keyboard (ACACACACACA ... )—does look like garbage. Heck, 8 percent of our genome is nothing but old, broken-down virus DNA, the genetic equivalent of a Pontiac Firebird on cinderblocks. The name junk DNAemerged in the early 1970s as a catchall term for this cruft.

Even at the time, though, some scientists objected to the term as too dismissive. Molecular biologists had already discovered bits of junk that, far from being irrelevant, actually managed genes: They turned genes on or off and regulated when and where genes were active. As more and more examples of this type of control emerged in the 1980s, the term junk DNA seemed less and less appropriate.

Cont. here:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_genome/2013/10/junk_dna_debate_critics_of_the_encode_project_cite_humped_bladderwort.html

© History Chasers Click here to view all recent Historical Melungeons Blog posts

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Get a $10. coupon at Family Tree DNA.

The coupon can be used toward any test costing $40. or more.

A Family Tree DNA Coupon Promotes GEDCOM Upload

A new Family Tree DNA coupon offer is promoting pedigree file (GEDCOM) uploads. This is a good way to improve your match comparisons.

Here is what you do:

- See more at:

http://www.haplogroup.org/family-tree-dna-coupon-gedcom/#sthash.QB8fT3Sv.dpbs

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Monday, September 16, 2013

N. Brent Kennedy passed away at age 84 on Sunday, September 15, 2013.

N. Brent Kennedy was a resident of Wise, Virginia at the time of his passing.

He was preceded in death by his wife Nancy.

Funeral services for N. Brent Kennedy will be conducted at 8:00 P.M Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at the Sturgill Funeral Home Chapel in Wise, VA with Dr. Ray Jones Jr. officiating. The family will receive friends from 6:00 P.M. till time of services at 8:00 P.M. Wednesday at the Sturgill Funeral Home in Wise. Graveside committal services and Internment will be held at 11:00 A.M. Thursday, September19, 2013 in the Nash Cemetery on Coeburn Mountain Road in Wise. Family and friends will meet at 10:30 A.M. Thursday at the funeral home to go to the cemetery in procession.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the Brent Kennedy Scholarship For Wellmont Osteopathic Family Medicine Program 1905 American Way Kingsport, TN 37660.

www.tributes.com/show/Brent-Kennedy-96396989

© History Chasers Click here to view all recent Historical Melungeons Blog posts

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Congratulations, Cyndi!!!

15 Years of Cyndi's List

September 13, 2013

by Alan Smith
Spokane Genealogy Examiner

Has it really been that long? I can recall in 1999 my attention being drawn to a website known as Cyndi’s List from a newspaper article. By that time Cyndi’s List had been on line for four years. Over the years, several other articles in the paper toted this wondrous site. It was the absolute best place to start your research because it was such a jump off site for countless other places on the web concerning genealogy.

What I did not know then, and just discovered was Cyndi’s List was home grown. On September 12, 1995, a single paged website with 1,025 links was presented to the Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society meeting. That fall it was expanded to six pages and Cyndi’s list was born.

Cont. Here:

http://www.examiner.com/article/15-years-of-cyndi-s-list?cid=rss

http://www.cyndislist.com/us/

© History Chasers Click here to view all recent Historical Melungeons Blog posts

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox

Monday, September 2, 2013

Don't Believe Everything You Read!!!

Recently this 'letter' was brought to my attention, with all due respect to Mr. Thomas , who appears to be a well respected academic, with a little research I found the following:

"Also the following from a very prominent field ethnographer Robert K. Thomas:"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Saponi

1. "All the Collins of Northeastern Tennessee, Southeastern Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky are descendants of one household of Collins who resided in Orange County, N.C. in 1760"

I think DNA Testing and genealogical research has proven this statement to be incorrect.

2. "By 1840, the situation became intolerable for some Indians in Southwest Virginia, and they began to head for Kentucky, a less repressive social and legal atmosphere. In the 1840’s, three Collins families moved into Kentuckey, into Letcher County.

Facts: The first of the mixed blood Collins' to move into SE Kentucky was Meredith Collins, who appears on the 1810 Floyd Co Kentucky US Census.

In 1820 the following Collins' show on the US census of Floyd Co. :

William COLLINS, Edward COLLINS, Reuben COLINS, Bradley COLLINS, George COLLINS, James COLLINS, Jeremiah COLLINS, Meridith COLLINS and Valentine COLLINS.

Letcher County was formed in 1842 from portions of Harlan and Perry Counties.

3." In the 1850’s, two Collins families moved to Johnson County, just south of Paintsville (Grandpap William Collins and brother). {Frankie’s note here: This is where my 2nd great grandparents Griffin and Rachael Collins went also, and were listed as Mulatto on Johnson County census records}

Fact: On the 1850 Johnson Co. Kentucky US census (The first for this county) there are 48 Collins' listed. This "Grandpap William Collins" is NOT one of them.

Here are the 3 William COLLINS listed:

383 William COLLINS age 20, son of Joshua COLLINS and Elizabeth COLLINS nee DALE

330 William H. COLLINS new born, son of Issac COLLINS and Nancy COLLINS nee BLACK

502 William W. COLLINS age 17 son of Christopher COLLINS and Cynthia COLLINS nee SPEARS

On the 1860 Johnson Co. Kentucky US census, the same 3 William COLLINS' are still on the Census, with the addition of a 4th:

435 William H COLLINS age 5 son of Elijah COLLINS and Nancy J COLLINS nee RATLIFF

1870 Johnson Co. Kentucky US census:

45 William P COLLINS age 7 son of Wiley M COLLINS and Eilza Jane COLLINS nee MUSIC

110 William COLLINS age 42 ( son of Joshua COLLINS and Elizabeth COLLINS nee DALE )

35 William H COLLINS age 15 ( son of Elijah COLLINS and Nancy J COLLINS nee RATLIFF)

Griiffin COLLINS doesn't appear on the Census of Johnson Co KY until 1880 and is this Griffin COLLINS:

"Griffin COLLINS was born 1835 in Grainger Co Tennessee. He married (1) Rachel Ann COLLINS March 17, 1858. He married (2) Margaret MILAM 1878."

But he is not with Rachel Ann COLLINS, but with his second wife Margaret MILAM

376 Griffin COLLINS age 44, Margaret (MILUM) age 28 ( m 11 Feb 1880)

They are not marked as Mulatto, but as white. The only Collins' marked as Mulatto are decsendents of Valentine COLLINS in 1880 Johnson Co. KY US census.

Back to 'Grandpa William Collins', could he be this William Collins, Son of Griffin and Rachel COLLINS ? :

William Sherman COLLINS was born January 30, 1868 in Wise Co Va, and died April 11, 1951 in Floyd County, Kentucky. He married Louisa Bowlin December 15, 1888 in Floyd County, Kentucky, daughter of Daniel BOWLIN and Fanny HALBERT.

If so, he never is shown to have lived in Johnson County , Kentucky, for sure not in 1850 as he wasn't born until 1868.

Moral of the story ? As my Father used to tell me "Don't believe everything you read" And just because a person is labeled 'prominent' whether a field ethnographer or Anthropologist, or what ever, doesn't mean they don't have faulty research. I guess it's up to the individual researcher to check out all 'facts' for themselves.

Enter your email address to start receiving this blog in your inbox