[Hana]

Ok, I know you can’t always tell by looking — and another Wimberley researcher said ‘but he had blue eyes!’ as if that should put any questions I had about the possible ancestry of one of our forebears (with the mysterious lack of antecedents) to rest.

But still… one of the things that started me on this genealogy question was a ‘lightbulb moment’ I had when for the first time ever I saw a woman who look just like one of my sisters — and she turned out to be Peruvian. Something shifted in me, like I was seeing her — and myself — in a different light. And I wondered… if those stories my Grandpa told my mother about our ‘blackfoot indian’ ancestor, could be true.

Then there was the excitement of getting pics of some early ancestors. Talk about some impressive cheekbones, and face shapes that just look different (longer, stronger) than later relatives and those more distant, not on my direct line, who married in to more Anglo families, Irish or German, say.

My Grandpa claimed that things like our double-jointedness, our shovel teeth, our feet, come from our Indian heritage. I’d never even heard of melungeon, until recently, who claim the same sort of thing.

As to traits, they were water-witchers, which I guess wasn’t Native-American but more of a thing hill country people did? And they were stone masons. Are there any tribes that are big on stone? My mother thinks they actually hauled some stone with them that came from VA or NC or someplace, all the way down to Texas, to build their homestead wall. Where would something like that come from?

And when I look back we always seem to find the highest hill around, preferably in woodland areas — NC, SC and finally hill country Texas. (And I feel drawn to these places — even in CA I try to live near hills.)

Does this sort of thing interest anyone?

Any ideas or good links to find out where my family got these interests? Have I put too much in one thread — and possibly where it doesn’t belong? (Let me know and I’ll move it.)

[Hana]

My daughter took one look at a pic of one of our main descendents — Thomas Jefferson Hughes, reportedly born 1825 in Cross Keys, SC (son of Richard Emery) and said, ‘he looks like an Indian Grandpa!’ He’s light-skinned and has a beard, yet this is what she saw and blurted out with no suggestions from me, I was just showing her family pics.

This is the sort of thing that makes me keep looking for answers.

[Linda]

Are there any tribes that are big on stone?

Stop and think a minute about what you’re asking. Okay, up until contact and for a very long time afterward, what were most Native tools made from? It wasn’t until the 1870’s and the repeaters rifles that a firearm could send more volleys of fire faster than a man with a bow and arrow. Their craftsmanship with stone was marvelous. It wasn’t until modern surgical instruments that a cutting edge was produced that was sharper than the ones they used.

My Indian grandmother’s side seemed to always live in hilly country too. They chose a hilly spot in Wisconsin. Even in my lifetime, my mom chose the one hilly spot in the Chicago area. My grandmother asked to be buried near there, in Willow Springs, many years before. It’s adjacent to the forest preserves, and one of the rare hilly spots. The sense there is that that is where we go home.

[Hana]

Yeah, I guess that sounded kinda funny! I was thinking more of houses built of stone, which they did in Texas — it’s some sort of historic home now. And, even more of whether there is any sort of tradition about bringing stone from home with you to a new place. That seemed curious to me, that they’d either brought it with or went all the way back several states away. My sense of it was more that they’ed brought a few stones with them from home, and included them as part of a stone fence. It reminds me of that idea of placing a stone on a grave when you visit.

They were also renowned woodworkers. My great-grandpa made his own fiddle that was supposed to be a real beauty and quite valuable. (Unfortunately none of us can find it and I just heard a rumor that the same cousin who sold the family home, sold the fiddle w/o telling anyone.:( )

I guess back in those days people knew how to do those things but apparently we were known for beautiful woodwork, lots of the men were stone masons, and my great-grandma was known for her quilts.

(Just heard we made our own alcohol, too. Interesting to me that when the Wimberleys had trouble with alcohol, they may have called Themselves ‘Black Irish’ but none of the townfolk called them ‘drunken Irish’ they called them ‘drunken Indians.’ Seems telling.)

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