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I knew a woman who was a descendant of Pocahontas. She never mentioned it and I didn't find out about until after she had passed away. It was interesting as I'm a enrolled tribal member and usually people can't wait to tell me about their great grandmother who was an Indian Princess or whatever...although that's not happening as much lately with all the DNA testing.
I moved to rural Georgia 30 years ago, and had met SO many people who claimed native american heritage, and always a Cherokee princess (never the town slut...). I kept pointing out that the Cherokee didn't have princess titles, but then DNA kits became available and guess what???? Don't have to hear that bull any more.
I had been told this about my mom's family my whole life, that my great-grandmother was Cherokee. I was also told my great-great-great grandmother on my dad's side was freed slave.
98.3% European.
1.1% Western Asian/North African.
Told my family, several members refused to believe me and continued saying they were part Cherokee.
Your family members really the ones out here making it difficult for those of us who actually are mixed, white and native lol. I grew up thinking my dad was full of it - everyone says they’re part native… only for him to move back to the reservation he grew up on as an adult. He remarried a childhood friend there. All of the Facebook pictures of everyone there looked similar to me. I still just say I’m white most of the time to escape the weird questions and laughing
My mom is from Dublin Georgia, can confirm this. Here's a quote from another rural southerner:
"We always had very strong lore in the family that there was an Indian "grandmother", who was naturally a princess. It was a big deal when we were little, but we never knew who she was. Well, as you know in the south, an Indian princess is standard issue to all Southern children. "
Can also confirm. My family comes from Kentucky and I was supposed to be 1/8th Cherokee. We never claimed to descend from a Cherokee princess; our story was my great great grandmother was left on the doorstep. She was either full blooded Cherokee or half, depending on who you asked. Believed that my whole life and was super proud of my heritage (no matter how little I had or how far removed I was from it).
Couple years ago someone mentioned it to a great great aunt and she said that it's not true. My dad's side of the family was one of the first people to move to Kentucky (allegedly), so its not impossible that we have a little native somewhere on the family tree. But not nearly as much as I grew up thinking.
Its such a first world, privileged white person issue, but it was genuinely hard for me to come to terms with that. I was so proud of where I had come from, and then one day it was just... pulled away. Felt like part of who I am had been taken away. Not a major part, but an important part none the less.
Can confirm. Luckily DNA testing squashed that out for us lol
I heard the claims of Native ancestry was to hide black ancestry.
It's also worth noting escaped slaves would occasionally join native nations or found maroon tribes (mixed african-amerindian bands), so having 0% native American ancestry and being descendant of a tribe can both be true.
European settlers would occasionally join Native tribes as well. Settler governments tried to encourage intermarriage as a way to bring positive relations. The children of these marriages were often abandoned by settlers, and so were the mothers, European or otherwise. Facing heavy discrimination and a life where prostitution was the only real avenue for employment lots of mothers and their children joined up with tribes.
My family thought we had Native and my DNA came back all European except 1% Congo
Yeah my grandmother always said we had some kind of Native American ancestor. Then we did a DNA test and we are 99.8% white
Everybody in my family, on both sides, swears we got Indian in us. DNA shows we don't got a drop of anything but European. Mostly English, Irish, and Scottish.
It may have been that she just considered irrelevant to her daily life.
I have an ancestor who was possibly indigenous. Even though it wouldn't be unusual for the time and place, and my hacked AncestryDNA test shows a very tiny percentage indigenous North America, I'm still skeptical. It's just too small and too long ago to claim.
I'll talk about it in genealogical contexts like this, but it's an academic interest that I'm not particularly invested in. The one time I did say something about it to my possibly enrolled friend (never asked, never volunteered), we were already having a conversation about how various tribes reacted to colonization and how that informs current stereotypes.
What’s crazy here is that she and her husband both died before their son was 7!
What's crazier is that he lived to be an adult himself after that happened. I know nothing about him. I hope his life was okay.
Sadly he ended up dying as well. :(
Damn how about his kids?
Believe it or not they perished too.
Dead too. I suspect a serial killer in colonial Virginia was responsible.
Pretty sure they died at some point too 😔
Everybody's dead Dave
Apparently they fucked a lot
Most people from that era are dead. So tragic.
Somebody needs to look into this.
[CONCERN.jpg]
Proof required.
Time to get our shovels
One of the worst time periods ever. Everone from that generation ended up dying somehow
He lived to be somewhere around 65 and had a lot of land. Sounds like he lived pretty comfortably. Also apparently he's the 11th great-grandpa of Edward Norton?
His daughter died in her 20s shortly after giving birth, unfortunately.
Besides not having parents his life was good. John rolfe had family money and both of his kids got decent inheritances.
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Pretty sure that’s Sacagawea’s sonhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Charbonneau
That does not lineup time-wise.
I'm confused. Don't most parents die before their children reach 5040?
I wish I could reach 5 thousand years… but in complete health and full autonomy and intellectual capabilities 😬
r/unexpectedfactorial
And she died in Kent, UK iirc
Isn't that typically true of most 400yo family trees?
Yeah, up here in Canada if your family showed up on the first boat you're related to half the celebrities.
I can tie my lineage back to a common descendent for half the prime ministers, Celine dion, bieber etc.
Shit gets pretty mixed
My mom’s friend paid a bunch of money to a genealogist who showed her that she’s related to Charlemagne. She was super excited to learn this part of her heritage, but I had to quietly laugh since pretty much anyone of European ancestry is as related to Charlemagne as some other random person who lived in 800.
Dude had a lot of daughters who got him a lot of grand kids in the highest circles of European bloodlines. Point is, you're more likely to be related to him than random schmuck #4367904
It's easier to prove being related to him because the royal families descendants were documented. I believe the math or it is that just about anyone from that era or previous who had children is likely to be an ancestor of almost every European.
This reminds me of the, at the time, factoid that every US President except 1 is related to King John of Robin Hood fame.
I assume it's possibly still true for 45 and 46. Though I've found nothing to state directly.
Edit: I should point out that the 1 not related is Martin Van Buren because of his Dutch ancestry.
This fact is fun because people immediately assume Obama because of obvious reasons, when it's actually van Buren
Genghis Khan is the other superancestor. A substantial part of humanity is descended from him.
I always chuckle when that comes up. The technology that discovered how huge Genghis Khan's descendent also unintentionally proved a legendary Irish King, Niall of the Nine Hostages, to have existed. With about 3 million Irish descending from him. I think prior to the DNA, there was belief Niall was possibly a combination of historic figures.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/the-genetic-imprint-of-niall-of-the-nine-hostages-1.1771373
Historically that's kind of what ancestry has been about - showing you had money or came from money. The only people who really really needed to know their ancestry (and had the resources to record it over long periods of time) were kings and those with hereditary titles. When the stakes are "the divine right of kings" you better be able to prove who you're related to when your childless second cousin twice removed His Majesty The King dies.
Before the internet, modern record keeping, and birth certificates existed the most likely way to prove common people's ancestry was the family bible since people often recorded births and deaths in the back. But that only works as long as the physical object is kept a hold of.
So basically your mom's friend partook of the long held tradition of showing off your money by showing off your ancestry.
Ancestor. You meant ancestor.
It's weird how many people mix those two words up.
mix them down*
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It’s believed that all Homo sapiens are descended from a single ancestor some 300,000 years ago.
This means that all humans are technically related.
It’s believed that all extant life on Earth is descended from a single ancestor that lived some 3.6 billion years ago. It’s known as the Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA. This would mean that all life on Earth is related.
So what's your excuse for not showing up to my birthday party?
It's a fact. We all share one male and one female common ancestor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Adam
It’s believed that all living things are descended from a single blob of primordial ooze some 30 bajillion years ago
This means that all living things are technically related
Not all people with blue eyes are related, only a vast majority of them.
Studies that have been conducted found around 95% of blue eyed people share the exact same mutation which indicates a common ancestor. But there are still people out there that have blue eyes and don't have that identical mutation.
Also blue eyes has shown up independently in other populations as well, I think the line of thinking is the environment plays a role in allowing mutations to concentrate independently.
Just like that pacific island folk that independently became blonde! iirc.
Can confirm. Both my kids have blue eyes and they're related.
There is a disconnect whether you’re related to French/Irish vs English immigrants though. I have almost only the first group in my ancestry (and DNA).
Cest pas possible laddie, by gorrah you're the fruit of my fookin loins!
Are you in a more regionally isolated place?
No, but my ancestors mostly lived in a fairly small area until the mid-20th century. I think that was common for most French-canadians before the Révolution Tranquille. Eastern Townships obviously had a number of English immigrants, and larger cities like Montreal and Quebec obviously were a bit more mixed, but even there for a long time the French-canadians did not mix much with the English-canadians. It was a matter of language, religion and economics.
I mean not all family trees make it. The fact she had one son, who had one daughter, especially during that time when people were often dropping like flies, makes it fairly impressive. Especially with her celebrity.
Neither Mozart nor Shakespeare have living decendants.
Mozart had six children, two survived to adulthood and they died childless. Shakespeare had three children, two survived to adulthood and had children but three grandchildren died young and the only one who survived to adulthood died childless
nor do basically any of the enlightenment thinkers
Don’t tell r/antinatalism about this
Makes you wonder how many people are related to royal families. There’s no doubt a few had secret kids with maids and servants.
Edit: I know most people by default are thinking about British Royals, but I mean any royalty. I can understand, who knows how many girls Andrew may have impregnated.
However there are royal families in many countries. Like what if the clerk at a German store is actual a decent of a Austrian king. Maybe the random Japanese office worker is related to the Emperor. A Mexican restaurant owner could be a direct descendant of a Aztec noble.
No doubt as more people have ancestry test more things will be revealed. I mean image bring in Egypt and finding out you’re a descendant of a Pharaoh.
Richard III didn't have any descendants but when they found his remains they managed to confirm it was him through DNA testing a descendant of his sister. I'm sorry, slightly unrelated I just think this is so fascinating.