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hi,i just joined.i knew my maternal great grandmother (maiden name gurganus,which we were told was changed from “gunselow”)was (at least part) native american and recently i found out that she said to her children and grandchildren that she was “blackfoot”. she was a good woman and i have no reason to doubt her.she lived in north carolina.(somewhere in the martin,pitt,beaufort co. area) i also recently found out that her husband,my maternal great grandfather (leggett) was also part native american,what tribe i don’t know as of yet.i also recently found out that my father’s mother’s side of the family contained “black dutch” which can be a euphamism for alot of things as we know! i do know that her maiden name “branham” is both a monacan and a melungeon name.they lived in the extreme western part of virginia and just over the kentucky line.i am also curious about the dna testing that alot of people are doing now,not that i can afford it or know what the results would mean,but knowing my roots is becoming increasingly important to me and i would like to pass the knowledge on to my children.another curious thing,i have type b- blood which i inherited from my mother.i know that most or all “pure” native americans are not supposed to have type b,so i’m assuming it’s from somewhere else.i look foward to hearing everyone’s (anyone’s?) response to any of this.
Welcome, nother,
Why not post your names to the genealogy section? Bill will help you find some of your folks. Most of us have similar stories. I do.
As for DNA, the mtDNA will measure straight female lines. If you have a male, the line is broken, although that male can be measured for his mother’s mtDNA test. The male test works for the straight male line also. If a female breaks it, it does not follow that line. One other test measures an estimation of the NA you have. I tested a male relative who was a straight descendent from one of my suspected ancestors. I also tested myself for mtDNA. And I tested myself with the percentage test. There are other conversations on this forum. Use the search tool and you can read those.
Again, welcome.
Techteach
The ABO blood group is disease-vector dictated and not necessarily indicative of ethnic relatedness. The ABO of an individual can change within a generation without being reflected within a sampling of the population of which that individual is a ‘member’ .
(think regressive allele)
While the frequency of specific ABO Types vary in aboriginal populations by area, every combination of the ABO system is found in ALL populations – just at different frequencies, including B negative in No.Amer. populations, although it is less than 2%, it’s still there.
Earlier assertions to the contrary, there has only been one worldwide sampling of human genetics and that one has only skimmed the surface even statistically, so we all have to take it at face value and know that there is always more to know! about everything.
(see “The History and Geography of Human Genes”, Cavalli-Sforza, et.al., at your library or college book store).
The idea that a specific individual’s blood type could determine where that person’s ancestors came from, was refuted many decades ago. The frequencies of specific blood types WITHIN a population, can help determine that populations’s relatedness to another population, so long as not too much time has separated those two populations, but the comparison fails when comparing one individual in one population to another individual in a second population.
notherblackfoot,
The Gurganus family I am aware of lives in Martin County. The first guy I dated many many years ago was a Gurganus from Martin County LOL we dated about 3 months so I don’t know a thing about his family history. Just thought it was something to smile about since you say they are NA. It’s possible his sister was dark but he was not. We had a car accident on our first date LOL
Linda
Are you saying you made him miss a curve on th first date?!
(no disrespect intended – G*D, I apologize…. ‘un tu all thos.. )
Seriously! That’s a funny story! I’m teared-up-cher!
Shame on you, Bill. Am I going to have to ban you 😀 ? And in my area. Going to have to think of some way to get you back for giving my area a pg rating :p .
Techteach
I was just surfing around on the TV and paused awhile on a not-very-recent TV documentary, to wit: “Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper.” South Carolina Educational Television Network, a New York Center for Visual History production; director, St. Clair Bourne; producer, Robert Chapman. Santa Barbara, Calif.; Intellimation, 1988.
(That’s from the Web, not my TV guide. It was on the Annenberg cable channel, they don’t rate a column in the guide anyhow.)
During the show there are a couple of clips from what was either a filmed play, or a movie — I guess, scripted by Hughes (they didn’t really say, while I was watching). There are two characters at a Harlem bar, and one of them (maybe the bartender) says, “I’m not a Negro; I’m a Blackfoot Indian.”
That sort of stood out, after reading this forum a lot for the past several months.
PappyDick,
Having read thru all of ‘this’, I’d be interested in your ‘take-away’ on that program, as you discern this overall research direction.
Bill
That reminds me, Pappydick. There is an old movie that Steven Seagal played in called “The Patriot”. It’s about a group of “patriot” vigilante Americans who want to pay the gov’t. back, so they were gonna kill themselves and a whole town by spreading an airborne disease. (using some biological weapon they had got ahold of.) Anyway, the disease mutated and the antibiotic no longer worked.
The town ended up being saved by flying helicopters and sprinkling the whole town with a wild flower that Seagal’s grandfather who called himself “an old Blackfoot Indian” grew in his garden. I think they were out in the Midwest, not in the East.
Just sharing……
Thought I would add this…
techteach posted a link to a PBS program called “African American Lives” (or something similar). One of the stories shared on that website reported that someone is listed in an 1850 Alabama census as a Blackfoot Indian. I will look into it and post anything I find.
I just wanted hmm it’s not neccasarily to add but it maybe a valuable piece of info to stick in the memory banks. I was talkin to a Lahkota bro and we had a deep convo about Saponi he was telling me that we along with 4 or 5 other groups split from the Lakota, Assinebone was another group shoot i dont think i spelled that right. and ill have to get back what the others were cus i forgot. I know not good. but i’ll work on it.
I don’t know all of the details and I haven’t done any real investigation on this subject. But my great grandmother always said we were Blackfoot indian. I originally thought she meant the tribe in Montana, but none of our family originated there. They all originated in the NC-VA area where most of america did.
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