Cherokee marriages and tribal citizenship

[L Verge]

As a sidebar to this, I'm going to throw in some Virginia and Maryland history. As you probably know, there were no women in the first settling of Jamestown (1607). The first European women and African slaves did not come until twelve years later. Some of the Jamestown men got tired of waiting and established families with the Native American ladies - and drifted farther away from Jamestown. Some made it into the Northern Neck of Virginia to what is now King George and Caroline Counties (both with ties to the Booth story), which were homes to the Doag Indians.

Eventually, this mixed race of Europeans and Native Americans made it across the Potomac into Maryland. When that colony was settled in the 1630s, a Catholic priest, Fr. Andrew White, came with them. He found a number of these families (6-8?) in his territory, and also found that there had also been an intertwining with the Piscataway tribes - an Algonquin branch that settled in what was to become Southern Maryland.

In proper fashion, the good priest "convinced" his European brethren to legally marry their common-law wives (and thus gather more Christian souls to the church). The mixed race situation increased in the area as escaped slaves found refuge with some of these families and intermarriage became more prevalent. In the great scope of society, however, it led to increased outcasts and, therefore, continuing intermarriage that ultimately led to genetic problems within these families. This became a wide field of study by the Public Health Service in the 1950s and 60s.

When I was teaching in the 1960s and 70s, I taught a number of the descendants from this intermarriage. Some were born without teeth or fingernails, some carried the thick heads of very dark hair of their Indian ancestors, others had Negroid features - but blue eyes and freckles. In the days where school records (and many other papers) required designation as to race, the term "Other" was used widely in Southern Maryland, for good reason. I have never checked Federal Census papers to see if there was also a designation there, but I suspect there was.

I have known only one person of this line who has done the DNA testing, and the results showed a slight edge to Western European lineage. Looking at that person, however, the physical characteristics are definitely Native American, with only a slight hint of African descent. I find it a very interesting topic, but the thought of tracing lineage and ancestry would deter me from even starting.

I should also add that these Southern Maryland families gave themselves their own moniker - Wesorts - describing themselves as "we sorts of people." As a child, I also heard some say they were "Weedems," meaning "We dem sorts of people." I do not intend any disparaging meanings here. It was part of my culture as a child and still part of the culture in our area. I believe that I am correct that Thomas Jones's (Confederate underground in Southern Maryland and part of the Booth escape story) second wife was a Wesort. Rick, please straighten me out if I am wrong. You are my Jones expert.