Mr. Bennett,

I think the best way to solve this problem of descent form Pocahontas
would be for people who say they descend from her to have their DNA
checked.  They need to do the test that says what percentage of
European, Asian, and African DNA you have.  

If you watched "Who Do You Think You Are" on NBC and Dr. Henry Louis
Gates series on PBS you heard them mention of this test.  Emmitt Smith
had it done as did the participants of Dr. Gates series. Emmitt Smith
results showed that he has European, African and Asian Ancestors.  

If the people you who claim to descend from Pocahontas have Asian DNA
this may give their claim validity.

Louise Jones

-----Original Message-----
From: Research and writing about Virginia genealogy and family history.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of James Burnett
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 1:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-ROOTS] Pocahontas Descendants

Good Morning To All Virginians those who love Virginia History



I need some help with resolving a question on the descendants of a
Native
Virginian.



The NGS Conf for 2007 was held in Richmond and the NGS Banquet speaker
was
Dick Cheatham. He purported to be a 14th generation descendant of
Pocahontas
and spoke in costume and character of John Rolfe of Jamestown, second
husband of Pocahontas. John Rolfe and Pocahontas had one child, a son,
named
Thomas Rolfe.



First Assumption: Mr. Cheatham's lineage is via Thomas Rolfe. I find no
writings indicating that Pocahontas had any children by her first
marriage
to an Indian from her tribe.





I am now reading *Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough;Three Indian
Lives
Changed by Jamestown* by Helen C. Rountree, University of Virginia
Press,
2005.



I got to this text by the numerous referrals to it in *The River Where
America Began; A Journey Along the James* by Bob Deans, Rowman &
Littlefield
Publishers , Inc., 2007. In this text he was quite complimentary of the
effort by Helen C. Rountree on the Pocahontas book.



Now for a lengthy quote from the Rountree book.



"Thomas Rolfe grew up in England as an Englishman, though he retained a
sympathy for his mother's folk. His passage to Virginia was paid in
1635,
when he was nineteen or twenty, by his stepmother's father, and he took
his
place in Anglo-Virginian society as a landowner, his father's heir....
His
later career is shadowy, and he was dead by 1681.

Nobody in Virginia, elsewhere in America, or in England seems to have
taken
more interest in either Pocahontas or her descendants until well after
1800,
when the aristocratic Randolph family's oral tradition of descent from
her
(through the Bolling family) began to be publicized. Before that, none
of
her descendants' ancestry was any more the subject of record making that
that of most other Virginians. ...

Consequently, the tens of thousands of people proudly claiming descent
from
Pocahontas today----or asking genealogists to prove such descent for
them---cannot actually trace a line of authentic, contemporary documents
stretching back to Thomas Rolfe. No one can.[Here Ms. Rountree
references
Moore and Slatten, 1985, Magazine of Virginia Genealogy 23 (3):3-16]
Elements of Pocahontas are out there in the gene pool, allright, but
they
probably dwell in a great many people with whom the *blue bloods* would
rather not associate".



So first did we/do we believe that Mr. Cheatham is truly a descendant of
Pocahontas when he was booked for the NGS Conference? One would think
since
he was speaking of his lineage to a genealogical society he would have
been
vetted to some degree.  I personally don't remember him using any
qualifiers
on his lineage.


Secondly does anyone have scholarly references that have been vetted
they
could share with us.



No! I do not think I was a descendant. No! I do not have a client that
thinks they are a descendant. The interest in this book was raised by
the
many references to it in the *The River...* and I am from Virginia and
love
Virginia history. Now I have what I perceive as a contradiction in
facts.



I look forward to your comments.




-- 
Douglas Burnett
Satellite Beach
FL

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