Brendan's Bloodlines

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***Brendan will be performing  October 9 · 10:00am - 12:00 pm at the Kingston Farmers Market, Kingston, WA***

 

 

Cherokee Asbell Line   Isaac Oliver Line   Joseph H. Robidoux Line  

Smith/Swathwood Line  Robert Stiles of Boxford Line  Ancestry of John R. Cash  Getting started

 

Shirt Tail Cousins mp3  Where to Download

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   Billy Jean Watts, my Cherokee descendent mother

This page is intended as a primer for those interested in doing genealogy research through the internet and is dedicated to my mother Billy Jean Watts. It is also dedicated to all mixed blood people searching for their path. My approach to understanding my Native American Ancestors and living cousins is done with great respect. If I make any mistakes I hope they will correct me with that understanding. 

If you are of Mixed Blood Native Heritage see our Cherokee Ancestry Page.

Genealogy Introduction

 

Brief FAQ:

 

Why Genealogy on a music site?

 

Genealogy has played a large part in my life the last ten years. It has inspired me in numerous ways.  The Native influenced music and the song "Shirt Tail Cousins" were directly inspired by knowing about my ancestors. 

 

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For Cash Researchers:   Ancestry of John R. Cash   From Wikipedia: RE: Johnny Cash Heritage*   Cash was completely of British heritage, but he learned this only upon researching his ancestry. After a chance meeting with former Falkland laird, Major Michael Crichton-Stuart, he traced the Cash family tree to eleventh century Fife, Scotland.[2][3] He had believed in his younger days that he was mainly Irish and partially Native American (he had been told he was one-quarter Cherokee). Even after learning he had no Native American ancestry, Cash's empathy and compassion for Native Americans was unabated. These feelings were expressed in several of his songs, including Apache Tears and The Ballad of Ira Hayes, and on his album, Bitter Tears. My own comment on this is that perhaps the tale of Rosanna Cash marrying William Bicknell and their grandson Thomas Bicknell marrying into the Asbell Cherokees may have found its way into Cash family history.  *Johnny Cash and I share heritage. Thanks to Family Tree Maker 2010, we are 6th cousins, twice removed.

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For Deskin Researchers and Ma and Pa Quackenbush Fans 

 

Descendents of Robert Stiles

 

For Asbell, Asbill, Azbill and Watts Researchers:

 

Elizabeth Nar-Nee Asbell

 

See the results of the Asbell DNA Project here.

 

Not all Asbells/Asbills descend from Martin Asbell as supposed by George Bennett. Much of Bennett's research has been debunked. There was no Dorothy Ross who was supposed to be a daughter of George Aeneas Ross who married a Joseph Asbell. William Asbell Sr. did not marry an Indian woman named Malinda Ross. William may have been mixed Cherokee.

 

There is testimony which goes both ways.   

 

William Asbell did marry a full blooded Cherokee  woman named Nar-Nee, who went by the English name of Elizabeth Ross. Their son Billy married another half blood woman named Allah Van Winkle. Billy and Allah's son Joseph married his cousin Emmaline Bicknell, daughter of Billy's sister Mary Nancy (also the Cash family connection) so the Ross/Asbell Cherokees are compounded.

 

For my brothers, sister, nieces and nephews of Smith heritage, here is the Smith Line (so far)

 

Descendents of George Smith and Martin Smith

 

Charlie Smith married my mother when I was almost two years old. He raised me as his own and I did not find out he was my step-dad until I was eleven years old. We had our ups and downs over the years but the relationship stayed that of father and son. He fed me, clothed me, put the shoes on my feet and most importantly taught me to fight including some boxing lessons  from an old boxer named Jimmy Wooten.

 

I'm no boxer, but what he essentially taught me was not to back down, never be bullied and to always defend myself. In kindergarten some mean older kids chased me home. When I burst into the door he sent me back out, telling my mom, "If he runs now, he'll be running the rest of his life."    

 

I have learned to run when it's sensible, such as facing overwhelming opposing forces (as in someone being much bigger than me) but I have also learned that the charms of music can help make friends of folks who might otherwise be adverse.

 

Thanks for those early lessons Dad.     

 

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For Oliver, Walls, Collins and Robidoux  Researchers:

 

Isaac Oliver

 

There was one problem that clouded my progress during all this research, however. I did not know the name of the man who was my real father. My surname was inherited from my mother since I was illegitimate, and she in turn had inherited it from her father although he was not at the time married to my Grandmother. An old country doctor had put the fathers name on the birth certificate, even though there was no marriage.

 

Despite this I grew up with the name Smith, from my step father, just coincidentally a Native American mixed blood also. The military made me change my name to Watts, a name I had never used, at 20 years old because it was my legal name.

 

I am pleased to say that I discovered on a trip back to Iowa in 2000, made specifically for that reason, that my real fathers' name is Oliver. This may have been a Border Riever's name though they are intermarried with the Collins clan directly from Ireland.

 

 This opened a line of research that has kept me busy for a number of years.

 

I have since researched this line thoroughly Back to Isaac Oliver b. Abt. 1765 in , Halifax, Virginia. Better than that I have established a relationship with my aunt which I have treasured since that time. We have met in person once

and speak often by phone.    

 

 

 

3rd Great Grandfather Joseph Robidoux

 

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I am eternally indebted to people such as my Aunt Mary Oliver, Bryan Lane, Richard Pollitt, Chuck Smith Pollitt, Elora Stiles Ringleberg, Ed Watts (rest in peace) and Delmar Asbill, along with others too numerous to mention, who gave me tremendous assistance in finding my blood lines. We should all be open to sharing our information with other cousins if we believe it is accurate and based on source documentation.

 

I have discovered much about my mother's family since I began my research and thanks to the Watts family I also discovered the Asbells. The Watts line goes back to Edward Watts b. 1675 Somerset, VA, who settled in Virginia and died in Spotsylvania County, VA  in 1728.

Where to Start.

Update 2010: I have done most of my research the old fashioned way through visits to courthouses, libraries, cemeteries and in one case (the best way of all I think) to just ask questions of some local townsfolk of the right age. In 2000 I found my biological dad's family in just that way in Modale, Iowa. One Centenarian that I talked with had been my grandfather's friend and was a pall bearer for him.

The town should be really small for this to work, but some big city neighborhoods work just like small towns. Older folks who have lived there a long time tend to remember families and especially people who would have been near their age.

The internet as I point out below can be very helpful, especially http://genforum.com,  http://familysearch.org and in particular the county genwebs that http://rootsweb.com offers for free.

However, I will offer an endorsement of a paid service, that I have found to be absolutely fabulous. http://ancestry.com is well worth the $21.63 per month that you pay. Between the census data, the newspaper periodicals, statistics, etc. I have found almost as much information in about four months than I had in the previous eleven years of research.

You have to verify the family tree data of individuals because of cut and paste mania and connections that make no sense other than common surnames and wishful thinking. Always verify at the source or verify with someone you believe is a meticulous researcher. But aside from that the service is a good one and they have tremendous archives of information and are adding more all the time. You can make great connections there as well.     

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Original Where to Start.

When I first started my research in 1998 or so, there were not a lot of resources available as yet on the web, although

http://www.cyndislist.com/ was available fairly early on. Cyndi's is still a central clearing house of Genealogy sites and information.

One of the problems that I had was in not knowing the spelling of the Pollitt family name. I had a huge breakthrough when I found a marriage list in 1999, on the Mills County Iowa Genwebsite at  

http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamills/index.htm  The rootsweb sites for States and Counties are an invaluable resource for internet researchers. Start at  http://www.rootsweb.com and go from there to your state or county and look especially on the queries pages for your surnames.

There I found my Great Grandfather and Grandmothers' marriage listed in 1898. Ross D. Stiles and Dora A. Pollitt were married and the witness was William Pollitt. Armed with this I began searching using what was then Family tree Makers site to do an all out search. I eventually stumbled across Bryan Lanes' index of the Descendents of Thomas Pollitt at  

http://home.earthlink.net/~bwlane/

When I saw the hundreds of Pollitt names I had no idea which I was related to. It turned out to be all of  them.

After I found William Pollitt and Lettie Dean on Bryan's index I was sure that I had found my first set of bloodlines. I knew that I had a great, great grandmother named Dean and my grandmother's name was also Lettie.  I began communicating with Bryan and several other cousins who helped fill in any blanks. I was able to give them the history from William and Lettie on down, since we were a bit of a lost tribe in Iowa.

From that point on I found that Familytreemaker.com as well as  http://genforum.genealogy.com/   and  http://www.familysearch.org/   were among the most helpful sites on the net. I also found that

Google.com 

can be extremely helpful when typing in certain surnames along with "genealogy" or "Descendents of".

A word of caution: Do not believe everything you read on the internet about genealogy. Before assuming you are the rightful King of Scotland based on bulletin board postings making these claims for your family, try to get verifiable documentation. The best places for these in the USA are County Courthouses and state or local departments of vital statistics. Community Libraries are also great sources of information. Be prepared to do cemetery walking as well, since tombstones have family history literally "written in stone". 

I am happy to have found so many of my disparate parts and knowing them empowers me to celebrate that blend of Celts, English, German, French and Cherokees. Much of this will be a part of my next Album.

I hope this page will be of help to those who are looking for there own bloodlines using the internet as their guide. Good Luck and Good Hunting!

 

 

Further Contact Information

Phone 

     360-222-3164

Cell 

     206-300-0293

Fax  

     360-222-3164

Address 

     PO Box 58 SR 525 GREENBANK, WA 98253

Email

     brendanmccloud@whidbey.net

 

Back to the roots of Alt-country, Country Rock Music and Folk /Celtic Rock

 Brendan McCloud - genealogy, mixed blood, American Indian, Native American, Bloodlines