Thanks Katherine. Very interesting study. But I wonder why scholars feel the need to quote someone from the Bass family? Professor Rountree started this nonsense. John Bass married a Nansemond Indian woman in 1638. There is no evidence that their descendants had anything to do with the Nansemond tribe or that there was ever another Indian in their ancestry. There is proof that John's grandson William Bass married Sarah Lovina, the "Molatto" daughter of a "Negro" woman slave of Captain John Nicholls in 1729 and that they were the ancestors of those members of the family who remained in Norfolk County. The present-day chiefs of the Bass family would be considered white anywhere outside Norfolk County and surely have more African than Indian ancestry. Most of their descendants spread to various counties in North Carolina and married free African Americans. http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/bailey-berry.htm Paul