Many tribes left their mark on Indiana

Terre Haute News, Terre Haute, Indiana- TribStar.com

By Tamie Dehler
Special to the Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Last week’s column discussed Indiana’s most influential Indian tribes, the Miami, Wea, and Piankashaw, as described in The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton. Yet, there were other tribes that also left their mark in and on the state.

The Chippewa or Ojibwa was a tribe of the east coast and the Great Lakes area. Like the Miamis, they were part of the Algonquin linguistic group. In treaties made in 1795, 1817, and 1821, they relinquished their lands in Indiana to the whites. Their tribal name means “to roast until puckered,” and referred to the puckered seam in their moccasins.

The Delaware Indians were also of Algonquin stock. . . . [Read rest of article through link]

Another Way Kinship is Beneficial

What Finnish Grandmothers Reveal about Human Evolution: Scientific American

Biologist Virpi Lummaa's work reveals that humans may be the best subject to study for evolutionary effects across generations
By David Biello

But it seems that grandfathers aren't as biologically helpful to the kinship group.

A study with fascinating conclusions.

A Surprise in Jim's Genes | The Genealogue

James Watson—who helped discover the structure of DNA, and suggested recently that black people are genetically inferior to whites—has had his own genome sequenced.

An analysis of his genome shows that 16% of his genes are likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people of European descent would have no more than 1%.

[Read the rest by clicking on link. I love the comment posted that says this reminds the commenter of a recent DNA "surprise" in her own family; she says we're going to have to start a new genealogy website: DenyMyDNA.com!]

I subscribe to this blog and often find great items in it. If you're interested in genealogy, I suggest you subscribe to receive a daily email from this blog at www.genealogue.com . . . it's free, of course.

Association of Professional Genealogists Press Release

NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
27 NOVEMBER 2007

Contact: Kathleen W. Hinckley, CG, Executive Director, Association of Professional Genealogists; P.O. Box 350998, Westminster, CO 80035-0998; Phone 303-422-9371, fax 303-456-8825, e-mail admin@apgen.org. Prepared by: Marian Pierre-Louis, Information Officer, marianpl@FieldstoneHistoricResearch.com


Jake Gehring Elected APG President

Jake Gehring of Salt Lake City, Utah, has been elected president of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), the world's leading professional organization of family history and related professionals. He has been an APG board member since 2004 and vice-president since 2006. He will succeed Sharon Tate Moody, CG, of Sun City, Florida.

Gehring is a popular technology writer and lecturer and is employed with the Family & Church History Department of the LDS Church. Jake graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in genealogy/family history and is former editor of Genealogical Computing.

Gehring, reflecting on his upcoming tenure, said "APG has grown over the last twenty-five years into an active and dynamic organization. I believe 2008 will be an outstanding year for us in terms of solidifying value for our membership. We are seeing significant growth in the number and activity of local chapters, improvement in our journal and mailing list as education vehicles, and continued development of the APG website, all of which translate into more assistance for each of us in our daily genealogical work."

APG members also elected three members of the board's executive committee and nine of its 19 regional directors to two-year terms as well as two members to one-year terms on the nominating committee.

Laura G. Prescott of Brookline, New Hampshire, a professional researcher, writer, and speaker, was elected vice president of the nearly 2,000-member organization. Gordon Gray of Colorado Springs, Colorado, owner of GrayLine Group, a genealogical/ family history research business, was elected treasurer. Current APG Secretary John Vincent Wylie of Grand Prairie, Texas, was re-elected. His articles have been published in numerous genealogical publications including NGSQ and Genealogical Computing.

Nine regional director positions will be filled by: Suzanne Russo Adams, AG, of Utah and Karen Wallace Steely, of Washington, Region 1 (Western U.S.); Timothy Pinnick, of Illinois, and Barbara Brixey Wylie, of Texas, Region 2 (Midwest); Carolyn Earle Billingsley, Ph.D, of Arkansas, and Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D, FASG, CG, CGL, of Virginia, from Region 3 (Southeast); Pamela Eagleson, CG, of Maine and Maureen A. Taylor, of Massachusetts, Region 4 (Northeast); and Cornelia Schrader Muggenthaler of Italy was returned to office in International Region B.

Janet Irwin, MLS, of Oregon, and Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, of Minnesota, were elected to one-year terms on the nominations committee.

The Association of Professional Genealogists (http://www.apgen.org/), established in 1979, represents professional genealogists and people in related professions who do professional-quality work for hire or for themselves.

Artifacts from Vardy, Hancock County, Tennessee

By Katherine Vande Brake, Professor of English and Technical Communication, King College, Bristol, Tennessee. From the Digital Library of Appalachia web site; accessed 12 November 2007.

This site contains information about the home county of Melungeons: history, stories, and photographs.

Author Bliss Broyard explores the color line

"Her father's hidden past: A color line obscured Bliss Broyard's heritage"
The Boston Globe , by By David Mehegan, Globe Staff, November 6, 2007

Excerpt (click on link for full article):
Now Bliss Broyard, 41, after years of research and personal exploration, has told the story from the family perspective in "One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life - A Story of Race and Family Secrets." While the book is "about" Anatole Broyard, his family's history, and the cultural and racial history of south Louisiana, its main subject is the emotional landscape around the color line, which Bliss Broyard never expected to explore.

Racial mixtures of the Upper South

"Our Legacy:Racial mixtures of the Upper South," Columnists - HometownAnnapolis.com, By Janice Hayes-Williams, For The Capital. Published October 25, 2007. Follow link for full article.

Excerpt:
The ethnicity of many blacks in the United States and in particular Maryland can be tied to the Indian population that was removed from this area hundreds of years ago. Relations between blacks and Indians can be traced back to the 1600's with the emergence of slavery.

Excerpt:
The relationship between the colonists and the Native Americans began somewhat agreeable but diminished in less than 200 years. Because of the intermarriages of Native Americans with whites and blacks, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century racial categories evolved.

Excerpt:
In Maryland counties such as St. Mary's, Charles, Prince George's, and Calvert there were large numbers of individuals that were not of two races but three. The Catholics kept very good records and called these people Indians, partly because of were they lived. Anthropologists called them "Wesort's;" census enumerators called them mulattoes and today sociologists call them "Tri-Racial Isolates." During the 18th and 19th centuries these individuals in Maryland were also called "Free People of Color," "Free Negro" or mulatto.

Throughout the South there are numerous tri-racial isolate groups formerly enumerated as mulattoes; they are: "Brass Ankles" of South Carolina, "Guineas" of West Virginia, "Haliwas" and "Lumbees" of North Carolina, "Melungeons" of Tennessee and Kentucky, "Red Bones" of South Carolina and Louisiana and "Turks" also of South Carolina.

A few summers ago on a trip to Point Lookout here in Maryland, I had the opportunity to see one of the original muster rolls of soldiers who came from Blackistone Island in St Mary's County, now called Clements's Island. Most interesting was the fact that the men who came from Blackistone Island to fight during the Civil War listed their race not as White, Negro or mulatto, but "Griffe." Because many of these men had the last name Blackistone, I called Mr. Blackstone here in Annapolis and asked him "What in the world is a Griffe?"

He explained without hesitation that these were the people that inhabited Blackistone Island for 200 years and were of three races - European, African and Indian, a tri-racial isolate. Mr. Blackstone is a descendant of these people.

Indian tribes expel members

See link for full article, focusing on Narragansett Indians in Rhode Island, but also discussing other Indian tribes who have recently been purging members from tribal lists.

Quotes from article:

Champlain and his extended family are among thousands of people removed from American Indian tribes in recent years, often amid tribal squabbles or when a casino comes to town. In Rhode Island, the Narragansetts' removal of about 140 of roughly 2,400 members has become an issue in Saturday's election for the tribe's chief sachem, or leader. . . .

There are 562 federally recognized tribes, and tribal governments are not required to report citizenship decisions. But the number is in the thousands.

Can DNA Determine Indian Ancestry?

Manataka American Indian Council
by By Kim TallBear, Phd., Associate, Red Nation Consulting

Kim TallBear is an associate with Red Nation Consulting and a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota. She specializes in tribal program development and strategic planning and has worked with many U.S. tribes, tribal organizations, and federal agencies. She is a Ph.D. student in the History of Consciousness Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on racial formation among American Indians, specifically how DNA and blood influence identity and community belonging. She is a 2003 recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

~~~~~~~~

Excerpts (first and last paragraphs):

There is talk in Indian country about how DNA can decide tribal enrollment and prove American Indian ancestry. Some of this is coming from DNA testing companies anxious to sell costly services to tribes. . . .

Self-determined tribes struggling to control identities and resources must make decisions about the risks and benefits of DNA testing. Some tribal decision-makers display healthy skepticism as they talk about the complicated nature of identity, family, and community. Biological connection is not the sole important factor in determining who belongs. Cultural knowledge and connection to a land base are also valued. Many Indian people are also concerned about loss of privacy and control if outsiders hold biological samples. Other tribal decision-makers have expressed interest in DNA testing and still others need more information.

Unfortunately, there is no single source for information on DNA technologies and tribes. Nonprofit organizations and academic resources used in conjunction are a good start. The Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG) located in Cambridge, Mass. can provide general information about genetics (www.gene-watch.org). The Genetics and Identity Project at the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics has on-line information on genetics and American Indian Identity available at Gentics and Identity. IPCB’s paper on DNA and Native American identity and other documents on genetics are available at Identity. IPCB is well-networked on genetics issues affecting indigenous peoples and can help tribes find technical assistance.

History rewritten on Cherokee demise - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

History rewritten on Cherokee demise - LiveScience - MSNBC.com: External pressures, not lack of natural resources, led to tribe's collapse

By Heather Whipps

A slow, lethal combination of external pressures including warfare, rather than a lack of natural resources, led to the demise of the Cherokee Indians, two new studies suggest.

The date of the Cherokee society's collapse is often cited as 1785, when several tribes signed the Treaty of Hopewell and came under the jurisdiction of the new United States of America. Resource scarcity was the major factor in the dissolution, many historians have thought, based on an eyewitness narrative of sparse settlement patterns.

But the Cherokee of the Southeastern United States actually had plenty of land, crops and animals to go around, the new land-usage research indicates. The collapse was more likely instigated by a series of events that occurred over a period of a few decades, said University of Georgia anthropologist Ted Gragson.

[Follow link for remainder of story]

My Melungeon heritage : a story of life on Newman's Ridge [WorldCat.org]

My Melungeon heritage : a story of life on Newman's Ridge [WorldCat.org]

"Sumter County, S.C. Turks"

U.S. JOURNAL: "SUMTER COUNTY, S.C. TURKS," The New Yorker

By Calvin Trillin
Published March 8, 1969, p. 104
Abstract from The New Yorker Online Archives:

U.S. JOURNAL about a group of people living in Sumter County, S.C. called Turks. They are not really Turks. Throughout the Southeast there have always been communities of people who constitute a third race, usually discriminated against by whites and almost always segregating themselves from Negroes. They are dark-skinned people of mysterious origin. Most of the groups apparently descend from remnants of Indian tribes that long ago intermarried with whites and with freed or escaped slaves. "The men are mostly of the small-farmer or tenant class and most of them are poor," an article in the Columbia "State" said in 1928. Every Truk is certain that he is white and certain that his neighbors are ready to believe that he is part Negro. The founders of this community were 2 men who fought with Gen. Thomas Sumter during the American Revolution and were given land by the Genl. around his plantation. They were a Frenchman called Scott and Joseph Benenhaley, who is usually identified as a Moor or an Arab. The Turks were discriminated against and segregated until a few years after World War II. At first they succeeded in getting their children admitted into Hillcrest, the local white high school; later into grade school. Eventuall most local white students went to a private high school, but some white students, not local, from Shaw Air Force Base, do go to it.

Lisa Alther Home Page

Lisa Alther Home Page

Author of:
Kinfolks--Falling Off the Family Tree: The Search for My Melungeon Ancestors

WGBH Forum Network: Book Note

Kinfolks Amazon Link

Editorial Reviews from Amazon (at link above):
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Trading on the title of her first novel, the best-selling Kinflicks(1976), Alther presents Kinfolks, her first work of nonfiction, a wise, funny inquiry into the complexities of inheritance. A Tennessean with a New Yorker mother and a Virginian father, Alther grew up feeling like the Civil War incarnate and was mystified by her Cadillac-driving grandmother, who, for all her pride in her blueblood Virginia heritage, refused to contact her back-home relatives. But what induces Alther to turn genealogical sleuth is a cousin's declaration that he is a Melungeon. Melungeons are reputedly multiracial Appalachians sometimes burdened with six-fingered hands and a reputation for the evil eye. Controversial theories suggest African, Portuguese, Turkish, and/or Native American descent. High-spirited Alther's curiosity sends her to dusty courthouse archives, Native American casinos, and locales across Europe and Turkey, and her findings enable her to bring historical Appalachia into focus as a landing place for refugees from all over Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Drolly hilarious and incisive, Alther attempts to decode family secrets, gets to know self-declared Melungeons, and considers her unexpected ties to Pocahontas, ultimately presenting a provocative take on the South's obsession with skin color. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Library Journal, April 1, 2007
"Lively, engaging . . . The journey is a delight, full of arch observations . . . Of more than just regional interest."

Book Description
In this dazzling, hilarious memoir, best-selling author of Kinflicks Lisa Alther chronicles her search for the missing--often mysterious--branches of her family tree.
Most of us grow up thinking we know who we are and where we come from. Lisa Alther's mother hailed from New York, her father from Virginia, and every day they reenacted the Civil War at home in East Tennessee. Then one night a grizzled babysitter with brown teeth told Lisa about the Melungeons: six-fingered child-snatchers who hid in cliff caves outside town. Forgetting about these creepy kidnappers until she had a daughter of her own, Lisa learned that the Melungeons were actually a group of dark-skinned people--some with extra thumbs--living in isolated pockets in the South. But who were they? Where did they come from? Were they the descendants of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony, or of shipwrecked Portuguese or Turkish sailors? Or were they the children of European frontiersmen, African slaves, and Native Americans? Theories abounded, but no one seemed to know for sure.

Learning that a cousin had had his extra thumbs removed, Lisa set out to discover who these mysterious Melungeons really were and why her grandmother wouldn't let her visit their Virginia relatives. Were there Melungeons in the family tree? Lisa assembled a hoard of clues over the years, but DNA testing finally offered answers.

Part sidesplitting travelogue, part how--and how not--to climb your family tree, Kinfolks shimmers with wicked humor, illustrating just how wacky and wonderful our human family really is.

Driving Yourself Nuts Over Six Fingered Kinfolks

Driving Yourself Nuts Over Six Fingered Kinfolks

What should you do when your baby sitter threatens you with the six- fingered boogeyman? Look for him, of course. That's what Lisa Alther does to overcome her "chronic identity crisis" in a delightfully wicked journey of discovery of self, in Kinfolks - Falling Off the Family Tree: The Search for My Melungeon Ancestors.

This memoir is interesting from three perspectives. One, it underscores our obsession with race. We need to know who we are in terms of what we are. The other is our need to belong, to claim identity in terms of a particular mix of ethnicity and concrete "mother" group(s), even when the author's self-described history dates back several generations in this country. Lastly, this book is a quick but intriguing read of the lost history of several groups of people who lived, were brought or came to the southeastern United States.

Who are the Melungeons? As Alther herself says toward the end of the book, "After a series of tests, I learned that I'd been walking around for six decades in a body constructed by DNA originating in Central Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. This in addition to the contributions from England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland, Germany, and Native America, which I already knew about through conventional genealogical methods.

For weeks after receiving these results, I wandered around in a daze, humming "We Are the World." A lifelong suspicion that I fit nowhere turned out not to be just idle paranoia. But once the reality of my panglobal identity sank in, I realized that I'd finally found my long-sought group. It consists of mongrels like myself who know that we belong nowhere -- and everywhere. This book chronicles my six-decade evolution from bemused Appalachian misfit to equally bemused citizen of the world."

Alther's story is woven with droll wit and affection. Stay on the ride with her, as she embarks on her decade long wild goose chase to ferret out deeply buried dark secrets, and you won't be disappointed.

Kinfolks - Falling Off the Family Tree: The Search for My Melungeon Ancestors.
Author: Lisa Alther
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Date first published: 2007
ISBN-10: 1559708328
ISBN-13: 978-1559708326

Latest Genealogy Tools Create a Need to Know - New York Times

Latest Genealogy Tools Create a Need to Know - New York Times:

"Katherine Holden’s family had long kept what she called “a deep dark secret.” When the family discussed its roots, there were hints, but no outright discussion, of a great-grandmother who had lived in South Dakota and was the equivalent of native royalty: the putative daughter of an American Indian chief. But her family never spoke in detail of their heritage, and it was only when Dr. Holden, a Connecticut physician, became interested in her family tree that she verified her lineage. “I was fairly surprised to find her name in the 1900 U.S. Census in an American Indian orphanage under her childhood name,” she said." [click on link for rest of story]

Billingsley to speak at AGS Fall Seminar

Arkansas Genealogical SocietyFall Seminar 2007
Friday, October 19th & Saturday, October 20th
Pleasant Valley Church of Christ
10900 N. Rodney Parham Rd., Little Rock, AR


Friday, October 19th Speaker: Carolyn Earle Billingsley, Ph.D
Friday Night Course Information . . .

*Melungeons and Other Mixed Race Groups: Bi- or tri-racial heritage is often overlooked by genealogists. But many of us unknowingly have a mixed heritage. This lecture sheds light on groups of people like Melungeons, who illustrate the complexity of researching based on an assumption of race.

*The Reality of Researching Your Indian Ancestors: Rather than teaching how to trace Five Civilized Tribe ancestors through the normal avenues, this lecture gets real. Most Native Americans did not sign up on the Indian Rolls, and, thus, genealogists must use other methods to “prove” Indian ancestry.


Saturday, October 20th Speaker: Sharon Tate Moody, CG
Saturday Night Course Information . . .

*If Living Were a Crime: Evidence our Ancestors Left at the Scene: Most of our ancestors lived ordinary lives and are difficult to document. Case studies will demonstrate a new strategy of reconstructing the lives of ordinary ancestors by approaching their lives as “crime scenes.”

*The Law: Portal to Understanding Ancestor Documents: Throughout their lives and even after their deaths, our ancestors were controlled and guided by the law. Actual documents will be explored to gain a working knowledge of legalese and better understanding of what records say. Techniques for conducting basic legal research on their documents will be discussed.

*Airing the Family Laundry: This lecture will show you how to go beyond the Internet and dig through court records to uncover family skeletons or secrets that abound in the old case files. Case studies will walk you through the steps to find these seldom-used records.

*No Ring? No License? Are They Married? Are common law marriages any more than shacking up or living in sin? Are they “real” marriages? This lecture will present an actual situation in courtroom argument style. The audience will sit as a jury to hear the evidence and vote a decision.

Additional Information: Contact Jan Davenport, 1 Cinnamon Dr., North Little Rock, AR 72120 or call 501-912-3587. If using email please reference AGS FALL SEMINAR: jhdavenport@comcast.net

Accommodations: Governors Suites, 1501 Merrill Drive, Little Rock, AR 72211. Call 501-224-8051 for reservations.

Lunch will be included with Saturday Registration: Soup, sandwich, chips, cookie & drink.

History Lost, History Found: The Search for Hardscramble

Carolyn Earle Billingsley, Ph.D., will speak at the Darraugh Center at the Central Arkansas Library, on 3 October 2007, from 12:00-1:00pm. The forum is the monthly Legacies and Lunch, sponsored by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.

Is anybody there?

Is anybody there? - 27 January 2007 - New Scientist:

From New Scientist Print Edition.

I have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on. If I drew a family tree going back 10 generations, I would have to make space for a top line of 1024 ancestors. At 30 generations I would expect to see a line of over a billion ancestors. If I tried to research my family back 40 generations (only about 1000 years) I would be searching for the names of vastly more people than have ever lived. This is impossible, of course, but everyone has two parents, so what exactly is wrong with my reasoning?

The simple answer is that people marry their cousins or half-cousins. If you can have shared ancestors at the close proximity of cousin level, then imagine the number of shared ancestors there would be going back 40 generations." . . .

Click on link under title for full article.
From issue 2588 of New Scientist magazine,
27 January 2007, page 97

The Genealogy Craze in America:

Strangled by Roots:
by Steven Pinker, in The New Republic Online
Post date 07.30.07 Issue date 08.06.07

New technologies often have unforeseeable consequences. Michael Faraday could not have anticipated the rise of the electric guitar and its effects on our culture, nor did the inventors of the laser realize they had laid the ground for a thriving industry of tattoo removal. And it is safe to say that Watson and Crick could not have foreseen a day when an analysis of Oprah Winfrey's DNA would tell her that she was descended from the Kpelle people of the Liberian rainforest. 'I feel empowered by this,' she said upon hearing the news, overcoming her disappointment that her ancestors were not Zulu warriors.... "

[To read entire article, click on link. Site egistration required, but is easy and free.]

Should Incest Be Legal? | TIME

Should Incest Be Legal? | TIME