The Bolling line (the "Red Bollings") is through John Rolfe and Pocahontas: Son Thomas' daughter Jane who Robert Bolling (1675-1729). Interestingly the "White Bollings" looked askance at the Red Bollings, even though it descends from the same Robert Bolling's second wife, Anne Stith. I suspect that Centre Hill in Petersburg can cite chapter and verse. > 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 > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions > at > http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html