The Appalachian Colonists Collections – Page 2 of 2

Jeanne Pappas DNA Results

Jeanne Pappas (Creek-Sephardic-Northern European) The family of Jeanne Pappas had always assumed that their ancestry was a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Scottish and Creek Indian. However, what the DNA labs told her was that she had a very diverse heritage that included many DNA test indicators typical of the Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean Basin. She appears to have substantial Sephardic Jewish heritage. There is no one in her family tree, whose last name is obviously Spanish or Sephardic Jewish. That has led her to conclude that the Jewish ancestry came through her Creek Indian ancestry.

Fossilized Anthropology

Author Richard Thornton overhead a simple statement in a 2005 speech before the Society of Georgia Archaeology “We now know everything there is to know about the Southeastern Indians. It is time to move on to other things.” This statement was intended by a select group of academics to freeze the study of Southeastern United States to what they believed was the truth, and to stifle further research, even if new facts began to emerge.

Eyewitnesses who were never called to the witness stand

Between about 1585 and 1600 AD, something catastrophic happened in the Southern Highlands. The effects are most notable in northwest Georgia, southeast Tennessee and the northwestern North Carolina Mountains. A native population remained in the heartland of the Apalache “kingdom” in the north-central and northeast mountains of Georgia. In fact the large town of Ustanoli on an island in the Tugaloo River was not sacked and burned until after 1700. It was eventually replaced by a Cherokee hamlet. All mound building stopped. Some of the largest indigenous towns north of Mexico were suddenly abandoned. Archeologists working in northwestern Georgia found a … Read more

Cindy Henderson’s DNA Results

Split View of Cindy Henderson's Ancestry

My mother is of Irish/German and Italian ancestry. Her father is a 1st generation Italian, the family is from Abruzzo Italy. The colonial line, her mother who is partially Irish/German was from Roane, TN. Her (grandmother) father’s family is from Old Fort McDowell NC. They moved to the Tennessee area. My father’s maternal line, his mother was Black American and born NJ. Her father (my great grandfather), I don’t know his origins other than he was Black. Her mother (my great grandmother) was born in Washington DC and moved to NJ. My grandmother’s birth was the result of an extramarital … Read more

Chronology of European Occupancy in the Southern Highlands

The following is a chronological outline of archival and physical evidence that Europeans were living in the Southern Appalachians long before the region was officially settled by Anglo-Americans: 1564 – Captain René de Laundonnière named the mountains in Georgia and western North Carolina, Les Apalachiens in honor of the Apalache Indians after an exploration team returned with glowing reports of the Apalache’s friendliness and advanced culture. For the next 130 years French maps claimed the Appalachian Mountains and stated that gold could be found there in abundance. 1565 – Several Frenchmen, who were away when Fort Caroline was massacred, were … Read more

Chronology of Early Virginia History 1607-1715

1607 – Jamestown colony founded. 1609 – Based on the voyage of Henry Hudson, the Netherlands claimed the region in what are now the Middle Atlantic States. Their claim extended from the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Massachusetts Bay. First Powhatan War (1610 to 1614) coincides with secret Dutch explorations. (See further: The Indian Wars of the Colonists of Virginia) 1611-1614 – The Admiralty of Amsterdam sent four covert voyages to North America. The ships were captained by Jan Cornelisz Mey and Symon Willemsz Cat. The area between present-day Maryland and Massachusetts was explored, surveyed, and charted. 1613 – “Regular … Read more

Cherokee DNA

First, the readers should understand that if any commercial DNA lab returns tests results that state a percentage of DNA for a particular Southeastern Native American tribe, the report should be considered fraudulent. The American Society of Human Genetics has not certified any DNA test markers to be associated with a particular Southeastern American Indian tribe. The technique for creating indigenous DNA markers is to sample a statistically reliable number of “ethnically pure” members of a tribe than average their DNA profiles. Since the people who met the first European explorers on the shores of the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific … Read more

Charlie Whitener’s DNA Results

Charlie Whitener (Eastern Band of Cherokees) I appreciate all your writings on southern Native Americans. My family reflects all your writings. We believed we were all northern European with a strong Cherokee heritage. My dad once lived on the reservation land in Murphy, NC But between my dad and mom and myself we reflect southern European and SE European and North Africa and Sudan and Arabia and SA and Tuscan and Italian etc. My dad has since past. He did the National Geographic DNA test. My mom and my identical twin used the Family Tree DNA lab. However, the results … Read more

Castaways, Deserters, Refugees and Pirates

There is no accurate measure of the number of shipwrecks along the South Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, but the number must be in the hundreds or even over a thousand. Also not known is how many shipwrecked sailors and passengers survived in North America during the 1500’s and 1600’s, or how many Sephardic Jews, Muslim Moors and European Protestants, escaping the Spanish Inquisition, landed on the shores of the present day Southeastern United States. Surviving archives, however, do furnish credible evidence of these peoples settling in the interior of the Southeast, while officially England was only colonizing the coastal regions.

Archaeological Research in the Southern Highlands

Appalachian Colonists from the Mediterranean Basin

Throughout the Southeastern United States can be found “old families” in rural areas whose appearance is not quite the same as the European or African peoples who colonized the region, but also not what a person with substantial indigenous ancestry looks like either. In earlier times they might have called themselves Cajun, Black Irish, Redbone, Black Dutch, Portughee, Old Spanish, Melungeon or Part Injun. In more recent years they are likely to say that their great-grandmother was a full blooded Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Catawba, Shawnee or Blackfoot. She may have been, but that is not always the case. Many … Read more

Andrew Ayers Martin’s DNA Results

GedMatch Ethnicity Martha Payne Albertson

Andrew Ayers Martin (Cherokee) I would be happy to share these profiles with Dennis. I am attaching the initial analysis on my DNA done at Ancestry as well as the breakdowns done on the FTDNA results by analysis at GedMatch. The proportions of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean DNA are relatively stable. Some others not related to me whose families have traditions of being part Cherokee show similar percentages. The stable proportions are consistent with the Hardy Weinburg principle of biology. Only my uncle [kit 185473] shows detectable Amerindian DNA at 1.83%. My uncle and daughter show Red Sea [Jewish] DNA. … Read more

Ancient Southeastern Maps

A gallery of historical Southeastern maps along with an analysis of their importance in identification of early Native American Tribes.

A Mysterious Young Lady Named Liube

On one of the six main boulders of the Track Rock petroglyphs near Brasstown Bald Mountain, GA and across Track Rock Gap Road from the Track Rock Terrace Complex, a Jewish girl carved her first name, Liube, and the date, 1715. The drawing of the petroglyphs was prepared by South African archaeologist, Johannes Loubser, as part of a contract with the U.S. Forest Service. The six drawings are published on a public USFS web site. Liube is a Jewish female name that is mostly used in Slavic countries. It means “beloved” and in the past was a name that rabbis liked to … Read more