1790 Halifax County, North Carolina census

Bertie is just east of Halifax. Also other free people are the ones considered non-white they could be black, mulatto or indian.

Vance,

You are right about this research being difficult on my mother’s side my grandmother surnames are mostly related or had dealings with indians it is hard to figure out just who were indian and who was white marrying indian or who was mixed marrying mixed or indian. The stories I heard growing up was that we came out of Virginia and that some went to South Carolina came back and ended up staying in North Carolina. Some stayed in South Carolina and later ended up in Alabama and Texas. Members of my Etheridge lines claim Cherokee descent. My aunt told me, once I did the research and talked to her about it, that we are Nottoway and she believes Saponi as well. We descend from the Branch family out of Southampton County Virginia this family is definitely Nottoway there is no doubt about this. We have so many lines that go right back to that area and most of the families married into the Nottoway at one time or another. I have indian surnames running dominant through this part of my family. It was in the 1890’s before any marriages took place within this branch of my family they we can say were white with any certainty. This was when my great grandmother Nancy Moore married Andrew Pridgen. We have no reason to believe Andrew Pridgen was anything but white. My grandmother Katie Pridgen married Tom Rogers. Now my grandfathers lineage has some families in it that we wonder about but are unable to prove. For example he has Ridley’s, Newsum, Simmons and Valentine. Also this grandfather without a doubt decsended directly from William the Conquerer and Thor the Viking ( I could be a princess:D ) The biggest puzzle in my family is on my father’s side. Dad was a Davenport but his grandmother was a Little. In 1795 Samuel Little was born in Georgia. On Sep25, !819 he had a son who he named William Churchwell Little. William was also born in Georgia but by 1830 or shortly after Samuel had moved his family to Greene County, North Carolina. Later they moved to Pitt County. They were from North Georgia. We just don’t understand this at all. This knowledge has made me think of my grandmother and her personality and her appearance. She was standoffish like if you got to close you might learn her secrets she was the complete opposite of my maternal grandmother who was so loving. She was very short maybe 4’11 with long black hair which she wore in a bun ALL the time(tight). And she had dark eyes. The fact that her ancestors came from North Georgia in the timeframe when gold was found there has made me wonder just what the secrets were that she guarded so closely all I can do is speculate because anyone who could answer my questions has long since passed from us. This research can be frustrating….

Linda

Yep I’m a Davenport. We have done DNA on this line we are R1b Haplogroup. European, which is exactly as expected since the Davenport’s are from Cheshire, England. One of our family lines traced us back to Ormus de Davenport born 1034 Normandy France and our DNA shows a close family connection with the branch which has traced back that far. So with out any doubt i can say I descend from Ormus de Davenport whose grandfather was the Duke of Normandy making Ormus de Davenport and William the Conquerer 1st cousins. My 1st cousins DNA has proven this…in addition to my Nottoway and Saponi bloodlines I also have much royal lineage. Also my mother’s father in his Ruffin-Gray lines makes me a descendents of the Scottish nobility and Scottish Kings plus a direct descendent of William the conquerer…I am related to all Plantegnet kings, Stuart kings, Tudor kings (direct lineage) and cousins to the Hanover and Windsor dynasties. Genetically I am a distant cousin of the present Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry and of course all the rest of the royal family from both my mother and my father. When I started this quest I just wanted to know my indian roots well the rest just kind of dropped on top of us and once you find that first connection to royal lineage the rest just falls in place because it is SO well documented….ever heard of Duncan I or Malcolm III? They were Scottish kings and my many greats grandfathers. I stopped writing it down at William the Conquerer because it was just too much but it goes to The Emperor Charlemagne and even past him. Frankly Vance it has blown my mind. I bought a book on this lineage to confirm much of what I had been told and it’s right of the mark. Then the DNA proof….**** what do you do with DNA like that? I can answer that question you look in the mirror at yourself and you realize with lineage and DNA like that you have a responibility to the people of the world all around you. It’s no longer just something you want to do in kindness it’s your duty. Then you look around you at all God has blessed you with and go through your closets and call your friends and family and tell them to go through their closets cause there are thousands of people on the gulf coast who truly need whatever you don’t need any longer and you go to Walmart and buy a shopping cart of needed items and take it to the truck heading to Mississippi and you still feel like you haven’t done enough….my sister and I have started calling that helpless feeling “the tragedy of being a Plantegenet by birth”

Linda

The Butts being the source of your ndn is probably very close to a hit because they married many ndn’s over the years.

Linda