Descendants of Pocahontas - you're needed in Aisle 5

Question

Recent (hopefully accidental) creation of a duplicate descendancy from Pocahontas had me start looking at this branch.  The Native Americans project generally has kept away from this branch because of the existence of the sub project focused on her descendants. 

However, in starting to initiate the merges from Pocahontas' husband on down (more is needed), I noticed that the profiles associated with this lineage are pretty poorly sourced.

In particular, it would be great to source each of the Rolfe descendants, their marriages and their children.  One of the merges currently proposed includes a Bolling Randolph child (Winney) who is attached to the duplicate but not to the original.

The NA project is seeking researchers well versed in Pocahontas' documented descendants (through Rolfe and Bolling) to improve these profiles.

Thanks so much.

Comments

This is Virginia.  As in medieval England, property was the only thing worth recording.

If Anderson were doing this stuff, he'd just say "no evidence" and go away.

But he won't, because it's sacred.

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Anderson? He didn't work on Virginia. Please clarify.

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Not that it explains the Anderson reference, but my false Pocahontas relationships come from Rolfes of New England and assumptions of closer than factual relationships.  My late wife's false relationships seem to stem from inadequate NC/VA records.Even census records are spotty before 1910, with grandfathers falsifying age for WW I draft.

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I don't know if the following will help, it is sources I have gathered.

Web sites:.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, (Search for Powhatan.)

"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas Rolfe."

Books:

Webster's Encycopedic Unabridged Dictionary, 1996 Ver.: p. 1517.

pages 1491 and 1667: John Rolfe, 1585-1622, "English Colonist in Virginia (Husband of Pocahontas)."

"Our Kin" by Ackerly and Parker G929.3755 675A, Bassett Library, Henry County, Virginia. (I did not record the page numbers.)

"Pocahantas: The Princess Pocahantas was the daughter of the Indian Chief Powhatan, the mighty Werowance (chief mystery man) and ruler of all of the Indian tribes of the Potomac region. The great Powhatan lives in the history of colonial times as the ablest and most noted of all the celebrated rulers of confederated Indian tribes. His personal demeanor, his customs and his court were, in fact, a little short of regal. All these attributes Pocahantas inherited and adorned with her beauty and her fine personality.

Pocahantas, as her name is in history, and as she was known to the colonists, Matoaka reported to have been her family name, or Rebecca, as she was christened, was born about 1595: married in April, 1614, John Rolfe, first secretary of the Colony of Virginia. She died at Gravesend, in England, in 1616-17, leaving one child, a son named Thomas."

In the same book: "Rolfe, The Rolfe family was an ancient one in Heachem, Norfolk County, England."

There are many listings in the several volumes of "The Compendium of American Genealogy" of "Lineage Records" and "Immigrant Ancestors".

Jim

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Ah, I think I found the Anderson that RJ was referring to. Is it this one?:

Anderson, Larry Dean. ''Hiatt - Hiett - Hyatt: genealogy and family history 1600-2000, being, in particular, a record of John Hiett, Quaker, his son, John Hiatt, Jr. England to Pennsylvania c 1699''. (Pocatello, Idaho: L.D. Anderson, 2000).

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Is he related to Richard Dean Anderson?

Answer 1

Dorman’s “Adventurers of Purse and Person” has the Rolfe descendants through five generations (through the children of John Bolling, the first Pocahontas descendant to have more than one child) with all the sources listed, so those profiles should be fairly easy to clean up and source.

Comments

I don't think Dorman (now I know who Dorman is... I asked you elsewhere about Dorman) goes to the generation I'm concerned about:

Jane Kennon (Bolling) Randolph (23 Jul 1698 - 04 Mar 1766) m. Richard Randolph (02 May 1686 - 17 Dec 1748) on 17 Dec 1715. [Children:]

1. Winney Randolph (abt 1724 - abt 1764) <-- this one in particular
2. Richard Randolph Jr.17 Jan 1725 - abt 06 Jun 1786)
3. Mary (Randolph) Cary (21 Nov 1727 - 25 Nov 1781)
4. Elizabeth (Randolph) Halbert (1728 - 1780)
5. Jane (Randolph) Walke (1728 - 1756)
6. Brett Randolph  (04 Sep 1732 - Sep 1759)
7. Elizabeth Jane (Randolph) Meade (1739 - 20 Jan 1774) [no children]
8. Ryland Randolph  (abt 1739 - 1784)
9. John Abraham Randolph Sr.  (29 Jun 1742 - 28 Oct 1775)

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Jane and Richard's children are documented by Dorman and named in Richard's will.  There is NO Winnie.  According to the Randolph Prayer Book cited by Dorman, son Richard was in the 65th year of his life when he died in 1786, so must have been born about 1721.  Both Jane and Richard left wills.

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There's a family rumor that we are connected to Pochahontas through the Eldridge-Rolfe connection. I dont think this is true.  It's interesting that the pilgrims "Americanized" her when they needed a translator. I wonder how she was treated when not needed ?

Answer 2

The Bolling Family Association DNA project lists the lines DNA proven only group 1. Bolling DNA So many lines disproven compared to paper documents.   My Ancestor Benjamin Bolling in every history book as a descendant, not true by DNA.  He was however a Lumbee.  There is a chart by David Morenus too online.  See if I can find it.... found here's the linkChart of valid descendants by David Morenus

Comments

This tells you a lot about the books.  It's not like, some genuine red or white Bolling had a wife who cheated on him, and he raised a documented son who wasn't biologically his own.

It's just, some writer took it on himself to boost the egos of himself and his known relatives by waving his hands and inventing a connection that never existed in any form, biological or otherwise.  The alleged parents never saw their alleged child.

So the lines aren't disproven compared to paper documents - the paper documents never existed.

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Yes, RJ that is really a more accurate description.   I am of the opinion that Benjamin himself maybe even promoted the myth.  We must remember that in his era being Native American and or African American was frowned upon to say the very least.  So he may have picked a famous NA to descend from to soften his life.  It was even engraved on his tombstone by desendants.  When I found my birth family and started researching most everyone had it in the tree like a half a million trees on Ancestry, last I looked now down to about 150K trees.

Answer 3

Jane Rolfe Bolling (Rolfe-54 ) is the only proven granddaughter.   So only her proven children should be listed. The  DNA and chart above can be useful to weed out the proven children from the unproven.  The problem starts when you get to Bolling-10 John Bolling and Mary Kennon and prove their children.  And then magnifying from there. I think the DNA project should be listed as a source.

Comments

Sorry, Loretta. I can't seem to find any message anywhere.

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Just resent you a private message Nancy.  Lucky I have it send me a copy, so I could copy and paste.  Would not have wanted to re-type that one!  Let me know.  If you don't get this time can you possibly share an email to send to ?  I have not had problems with the Wiki private message system.  Reserve those problems for Ancestry.

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Thanks Loretta,

I received your email. I have replied.

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I am  decendents an dispite having a book that proves that Benjamin Bolling and my Elizabeth Bolling where siblings an decendents of Matoaka the source based on DNA no one will even connect my profile so good luck. Oh an it's not like we all didn't use gedmatch an work some of the out for ourselves.

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Joseph, which Elizabeth and Benjamin are you referring to?

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The ones referred to in this book.

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Sorry, I should have been clearer; which profiles on WikiTree?

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Never mind; I found it:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bolling-79

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Joseph, I see two conflicting theories: one says that DNA has proven that the descendants of Benjamin do NOT match descendants of Pocahontas, yet the 2017 book supposedly claims they DO match.

Clearly, there needs to be some public place where closer examination of the DNA details has been conducted.

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I see that this site does some summarizing of the DNA study conducted by the Bolling Family Association:

https://pocahontas.morenus.org/poca_desc.html

It indicates that DNA of the descendants of Benjamin do not match the DNA of descendants of Pocahontas.

Joseph, where can we find more details about the claims that the DNA does indeed match? I reviewed the pages of the book you linked and the section about DNA does not go into detail.

Answer 4

Hi I am not well versed but do have some Ancestry hints

Will see if I can put them on a free space page.

Answer 5

She is my 12th Great Grandmother. Rolfe-Boiling-Fleming-Bernard-Bennett-Binkley(4x)-Parker-(me)

Answer 6

So far I have found 6 separate DNA Matches to my husband that have led to Jane Rolfe via online trees.

I never went deliberately looking, just trying to find a mystery DNA match and when I saw this link to the famous, well I still find it difficult to comprehend.

I do not know where the LINK is and am still searching (if there is one).

There are thousands of descendants, and linking them all and sorting out the falsehoods seems an extremely daunting task.

Most people want a claim to the famous, in our case, seems so far-fetched, a fifth generation Australian a direct decedent of Pocahontas!  Captivating and maybe it is so....

I suppose if any group can sort out fact from fiction, it is WikiTree members.

Comments

I encourage you to work your husband's line back, generation by generation, citing reliable sources for each step.

Unless it's yDNA all the way (a straight line back along the male line), I don't think DNA results go back that far.

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Yes Automal DNA is only supposed to go back 5 Generations, one DNA expert states go to the matches and loook for the ancestors that match within the matches that match each other. So that is what I did and found so many Bolling and Kuykendall connections via various family lines.  Yet nothing on the surnames that I know are in the tree.

I have been working on it since 1988. DNA much more recently.  Y, mito and Autosomal all taken by the eldest male D'Arcy.   Y only ONE MATCH.

I have gone back as far as I can,  all to UK or Ireland or Germany.  

None in the USA except for the BRICK WALL. Alan George D'Arcy who may have lived in USA or Canada or South America???  before going to Australia in 1882.

Ever hopeful that a record shows up sometime soon.

One Day I will find that missing link!