Doug,
I question your assumptions in the book you are reading.  According to the 
Encyclopedia Britannica, Pocahontas was born about 1595 and died from 
smallpox in England in March 1617.  Her only listed husband is John Rolfe. 
According to the encyclopedia, John Rolfe was born in 1585 and died in 1622. 
Their only child Thomas Rolfe was educated in England and later migrated to 
VA where he became a leading citizen.

I have been told that Thomas was an only child and his child was an only 
child.  Thomas through his only child has produced at least 30,000 
descendants for John Rolfe and Pocahontas.  If this number seems excessive, 
remember, the births of these descendants of Pocahontas covers a period of 
390+ years.  Perhaps her grandchild had a whole houseful of children who 
continued to populate the British colonies.

Elaine McConnell


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Burnett" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 1:51 PM
Subject: 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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