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Thats awesome Bill. Thanks! I can’t believe that you can find this stuff with all of the misspellings, etc. Was this common then? I know literacy wasn’t like it is now.
I think you are right Linda. My family has been a group of mixed bloods all along. I’m sure that I have several family members that had close native heritage/ ties. SO IT SHOULD BE EASY TO ID THIS RIGHT? I think that this town is made of largely of people of mixed decent. I wonder if there is a study or any documentation of this.
I really don’t know how to go about finding the native connections. I’d like to do this now that the picture is starting to come together. I hope that we can find more. Is there a particular way to find what tribes my ancestors came form? I know it has to be somewhere.
Linda, I’d still like to hear what you knew about my great grandfather. Sounds like our families have the same traits.
I am constantly checking the forum to see if there is more. This is better than Christmas! Thanks Bill.
The spelling variations and incorrect information are pretty common in some areas and not others. Sometimes it can’t be figured out – I haven’t found any of these people on the 1900 or 1910 census and Alonzo Collier may be 2 or 3 yrs older than is recorded in Social Security records.
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From NC Marriage Record Database:
Alonzo H. Collier m’d Bettie Corbett
31 January 1900 Wayne Co., NC
Soc. Sec. Death Index:
Alonzo Collier
b. 22 June 1881
d. Aug 1974 Wilson Co., NC
(He may have been born abt. 1878 or ’79)
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NC Birth Index listings of WEBB children of Vernon Webb and Eva Bell/Belle Collier, b. in Wilson Co:
male, b. 1924 (this corresponds to Melvin)
Ruby McLean, b.1927
Joseph Lawrence, b.1930
Cecil Edward, b.1933
Donnie Hue (Donahue?), b.1937
Louise Maxine, b.1937
This Index also lists a male Collier b. 1920 Wilson Co. whose parents were Alonzo H. Collier and Bettie Corbett.
Eva’s sister Myrtle who m’d Oren Earl Winstead was Myrtle Louise Collier per this index.
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Bill
David,
It looks like your folks moved alot like mine did in the early 1900’s. For example my grandfather was born in Greene County and we found grandpa Alex in Wake County at one time. Thinking about it though this was during the depression era probably moving alot trying to find work. My great grandfather Alex as the story goes did not let grass grow under his feet. But by the 40’s and 50’s he was back home in Wilson County. My grandmother’s family pretty much stayed put in Nash County they managed to keep the farm afloat during the depression. At that time my grandfather was there helping great grandpa Andrew work the place. We lost that farm after great grandpa Andrew died but that’s another tragic family story and it’s all wrapped up in the death of my great grandma Nancy. Today a country club sits on the old Pridgen homestead. The house is still there. I went out there a few years back and I could feel my great grandmother Nancy all around me. That is when my sister started the family history and then I started on it. I never knew my great grandmother but that day I got a feel of what she was like. I believe to this day it is her that drives me to uncover the truth. My grandmother told me her mother was a wonderful person and she missed her till the day she died. I also believe some of us are called by those who have gone before us to keep the family memories alive. That day out at the old homestead it felt like someone was there withus. It felt like a gentle breeze blew over me. I asked my mother did you feel that she said yes I did. She said I feel grandma……..then she said I’m outta here it creeped her out. When we got in the car Mom said they didn’t move her grave Linda. They were suppose to when they started building on the land. I asked Mom how do you know she screamed I JUST KNOW IT! Mom believes they moved the headstones and left our loved ones there. Supposedly they reburied them in Maplewood Cemetary in Wilson but my Mom does not and will not believe that. Because of that day she believes they are still there. Grandpa Andrew, Grandma Nancy, Aunt Blanche and my mother’s stillborn sister were buried there. I asked Mom how did you know it was grandma that we felt( she never met her grandmother either she died before she was born). She said that was my grandma. I asked her why she ran and she said cause I don’t believe in spirits. I asked her did it feel evil she looked at me and NO I felt love. I asked her can we go back and she says no I want to go home. As I drove away my Mom said they didn’t move them Linda and I said yes I know. My mother was getting hysterical so I just quickly left. My mother is very religious and for her to feel something like that just blew her away. Living away I have not had the chance to go back and my Mom refuses to step foot near that homestead again.
Linda
Quest writes:
I also believe some of us are called by those who have gone before us to keep the family memories alive. That day out at the old homestead it felt like someone was there withus. It felt like a gentle breeze blew over me. I asked my mother did you feel that she said yes I did. She said I feel grandma……..then she said I’m outta here it creeped her out. When we got in the car Mom said they didn’t move her grave Linda. They were suppose to when they started building on the land. I asked Mom how do you know she screamed I JUST KNOW IT!
We have had that experience quite a bit since we started doing the cemetery surveys in our county. They are trying to let us know where they are so that they are never forgotten.
Could be that what your mom felt was a powerful woman. You can find out who supposedly moved them and request the information since it is your direct line. They are supposed to notify the next of kin and give them the opportunity to have a second funeral. The only other thing you can do is to mark the spot with a GPS unit and write down all the information that you have on these people…and remember them, don’t let them be forgotten. That’s all they want….there are many people buried at sea…. in the woods where they fell…with no stones…pass along their history…
We have already contacted the people who supposely moved them and we have heard there claims. They did contact my grandmother when they were talking moving them but there was no second funeral my grandmother just took them at their word. My mother refuses to believe they moved them the only way to prove it to her is to dig them up and that she does not want to do. From what I have been told of great grandma Nancy she was indeed a strong woman and she was ndn. I feel her driving me. She was Nancy Moore Pridgen her father John W. Moore takes us back to the Nottoway People. Her mother Mary Susan Etheridge was also ndn of an unknown origin. I believe she is still there at the old homestead….just something I felt that day.
Linda
Thats cool Linda. Not everyone has experiences like that. You should feel honored that your ancestors care enough to reach out to you. I have spent much of my life in those– more native traditions. I’m lucky to have been “adopted” by my native elders. (It helps that my own family is native).
I’ve had similar experiences, but I wont share them on here, maybe in private….
Bill, Thanks for finding what you have so far. I’m still hoping for more. I loke for there to be an energy exchange of some sort. So let me know if there is anything you need. Its wonderful that you help people in this invaluable way.
I know that there has to be a way I can connect my family to a tribal entity. My family is too “Indian” not to. Please let me know how you suggest I do this.
Do you think it would be easy to trace the Taylor, forbes, and Collier lines? Also in my family’s oral tradition Addie was a full blood. Could there be anything there? She was probably Saponi, or another group that might have this Blackfoot ID.
Thanks Again!!!!!
Thanks David,
We don’t discuss spirituality here.
I haven’t found Alonzo Collier and Bettie Corbett’s lines.
Bill
Well, that’s really cool that you have Moores in your family. Ken and I both have Moores as well. We started tracking them in Person County, NC and then back to Virginia. Could be that we are related, eh??
I would document all the information you have on your family. That’s all you can do for now. If you get a chance to go back, then you can take a GPS unit (some cell phones are capable) and write down the exact location as best as your mom remembers it.
David, the logic to connect the eastern Blackfoot with the Saponi is by relentlessly coinciding circumstantial evidence. As Richard Haithcock in Ohio would say, you find a family you know is Saponi and what you’re finding is a family that calls itself Blackfoot. They consider it synonmous. Same thing for the Misssouri Saponi. All of them have the ID in their families. Many Occaneechi Band of the Saponi have it. Then when we’re looking at familiar that migrated in the various directions, where you find the surnames that fit the pattern and the known locations, you find the Blackfoot ID. We’re not talking about a few here and there. This is hundreds of families we know about to date
Also, I know other Saponi Evans. They’re my children’s cousins.
I don’t know if I am descended from the Evans line. I think John Webb Jr. Remarried Elizabeth Evans.
Thanks to Bill I am “growing” a very nice family tree. I saw a program on PBS this weekend about genealogy, particularly in African Americans. I know this stuff can be done! I’m hoping to make some connections here.
The surnames I have so far are:
Webb
Beaty
Forbes
Duke
Felton
Collier
Taylor
Do any of these ring a bell with anybody? I have been told that there is a good possibility that we are Saponi as well as Tuscarora, or another local tribe. Although I’m fairly sure about the Saponi connection (from our Blackfoot ID) I don’t want to limit myself. My goal is to make at least one of these connections.
I was hoping to further explore all of these lines and ultimately make some connections. Its puzzling how a family can have such a strong Indian ID; physically and mentally, and the connections are so hard to find.
Does anyone have suggestions for me?
Thanks!
Originally posted by dwebb
Its puzzling how a family can have such a strong Indian ID; physically and mentally, and the connections are so hard to find.
I think it is very common, unfortunately.
All I can say is pick a branch, follow it back without skipping around and see where it goes. You can’t just go by surnames alone.
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