THE ARCHER FAMILY: AND THE ROMANI GYPSY CONNECTION TO THE BLACK DUTCH AND MELUNGEONS

I have had the fortune (some racist would say misfortune) of being of several families of mixed ethnic heritage. When I say “mixed” I am talking of being of non Northern European ancestry and the “mix” also including Mediterranean and Eastern European ancestry and not just “non white” ancestry.

Some of these families are the Archer (Cherokee/Melungeon), Giddens (Cherokee), Mowery (Cherokee), Cole (Ohio Melungeon/Tuscarora), Webb (Tuscarora), Bounds (Welsh/Tuscarora/Melungeon), Wolf (Black Dutch), Wolfe (Black Dutch), Rousom (Mediterranean), Reasoner/Reasonaier (French Huguenot), Froman/Vrooman (French Walloon), Speers (French Walloon), Minnick (Black Dutch), Vinson, Miller (Native American/Black Dutch) and many many more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walloons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_(Romani_subgroup)

The Roma Gypsy first came to the United States early and integrated with others of obscure ancestry other than Northern European. The origin of the Roma, also in error known as "Gypsy", is India, and they migrated to Europe in waves beginning some 2000 years ago. They are found from Russia to England to Spain and into North Africa and the Middle East.

The term “Black Dutch” is also used for the German Gypsy (Sinti and Roma) and they have been referred to as “Black Dutch” for quite some time. The term “Black Dutch" in America has been used for several mixed groups of peoples and families.

The Melungeons have also been called Black Dutch and the surnames I have associated to them are Archer, Adams and Cole.

I was born with the surname ARCHER, and the Archer family has a long history in the United States as well as one associated with “Melungeon type” ancestry and mixed blood ancestry.

I trace my Archer family back to Lawrence County Tennessee where they were on records as being of the trade of “Blacksmiths” and in this County they intermarried exclusive with the Byrd, Lyons and Cannon families. Before that they were in North Carolina near Hertford County. The Blacksmith trade is a possible clue to Romani Gypsy origin.

According to this website.

http://www.paulpolansky.nstemp.com/original%20research.html

 

How many times had I heard about itinerant Gypsy blacksmiths in Europe? In India I found the Lohar, still making their wares at curbside, a small hole scooped out for water, another for their coals kept red hot by the blacksmith's wife turning a bicycle rim to run the blower while their children sought out the buyers for their homade chisels and pliers.

According to author and Melungeon researcher Tim Hawshaw who prescribes a African Angolan origin to the Archer family.

The Archer family begins in 1647 America with related families; Archie, Bass, Bunch, Heathcock, Manly, Murray, Milton, Newsom, Roberts, and Weaver.

 

http://www.eclectica.org/v5n3/hashaw.html

 

However, Melungeon researcher James Nickens has stated to me that “The Archer family is mixed South Asian, Native American and Romani Gypsy ancestry”

It is known that the Weaver family was of a South Asian ancestry from Pakistan and Northern India and they and the Manly family, who have been thought to be from Romani ancestry, were related to the Archers.

My own DNA tests have shown some North India and South India matches as well as matches to Northern Dobruja Romania and Bucharest Romania possibly with some Romani Gypsy overflow and genetic drift. If any of the original Mestee Romani Archer blood remains in the DNA it is found in these results, because the original Archers intermarried with my Cherokee families during the 1800s.  I also found it interesting that a Great Uncle bred World Class Arabian pure bred horses during the 1800's but he was of the Miller family.  Horse Breeding and taming is another Romani Gypsy legacy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Romanians

Brent Kennedy, the forefather of Melungeon identity and research, has a MtDNA haplotype from the Siddi tribe in India that I believe is from a Romani Gypsy origin.  In fact the Romani descend from several diverse ethnic groups.

Many Romany share the Siddi mitochondria and the Romany-related surnames that follow this particular mitochondrial line in my family (Mullins, Bennett, Rose, etc.) would seem supportive of a Romany origin. 

http://www.melungeons.com/articles/statementfromkennedy.htm

From this website on Romani orgins by a Romani Gypsy:

http://home.cogeco.ca/~rcctoronto/diaspora.html

We originated in India but were not one specific group of Indians, not all of one caste and not even one people. In the 11th century ad there was a group of petty kingdoms in Gurjara in the Northwest area of India in what was then the Rajput Confederacy. These were feudal-type societies composed of a caste of warrior-landowners ( Kshatriya ) and a supporting population of non-warriors composed of workers and artisans who did all the work for the ruling warrior caste. Some were farmers working with animals or bred and trained horses for the warrior caste who fought on horseback as cavalry. others were metal smiths, some entertainers, others craftspeople, silver smiths, gold smiths or laundry men and women, in other words, all the people needed to maintain a working society of people.

The Romani Gypsy are a mix in and of themselves of several groups in India, (the Siddi being one of them) but they are also of several Near Eastern, Persian, Turk, Greek and various Eastern and Western European groups.

Indeed, most Romani have 60% European ancestry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddi

From the Patrin Journal, a leading Romani historian of Romani Gypsy descent (look at the Siddi contribution):

http://www.geocities.com/~Patrin/identity.htm

But are Roma, in fact, Indians? From the very beginning, the population has been a composite one, and acknowledging that fact constitutes a third approach. Evidence points to Dravidian, Scythian, and even East African (Siddhi) input into the early mix of militia and camp followers. Once in Europe, the migration-by this time a conglomerate ethnic population whose diverse speech had crystallized into one language-encountered other mobile populations and in some cases joined and intermarried with them. Sometimes the Romani cultural and linguistic presence was sufficient for the newly encountered populations to be absorbed and become Roma in subsequent generations; sometimes the Romani contribution was not sufficient to maintain itself, and other, non-Romani populations such as the Jenisch emerged. During the centuries of slavery in Moldavia and Wallachia and under conditions of oppression elsewhere in Europe, Romani women bore unwanted babies by non-Roma fathers. Cohn has estimated the mean percentage of European "blood" in the European Romani genetic makeup to be 60 percent

The Kennedy MtDNA shows conclusive proof, in my opinion, of Romani Gypsy ancestry being in the Melungeons and most likely throughout many of the descendents of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Black Dutch of the Southern United States. 

Brent Kennedy was very close in his speculation of Turkish origin for the Melungeons, but it just so happens that it appears to be Romani Gypsy ancestry, Sub Saharan African, with some minor Native American and South Asian.

Having both Black Dutch ancestry from several families, like the Wolfe and Miller families, as well as my mixed Cherokee/Melungeon Archer family and mixed Tuscarora/Ohio Melungeon Cole family, along with my DNA results for North and South India and European Romania DNA.  I have no doubt that at least a small portion of Romani Gypsy ancestry exist in our family today.

  A. Walts (Archer)

Native American ancestry research is one of the toughest that a genealogist will ever encounter. This is due to the fact that many Native Americans (and African Americans, South Asians, Mediterranean) simply blended in to the Anglo White community and “white washed” their former ancestries with terms like Black Dutch and Black Irish.

 Irene

The brother of my Great Great Grandmother Mary Elizabeth Mowery Archer filed for a Cherokee Nation citizenship in 1896. He was rejected, although many family members and members of his community all said he and his whole family was of Cherokee blood. I imagine John would have been disappointed that his cousins rejected him, as the white man had rejected them, and moved them West on the Trail of Tears.

Total Records: 1

The Miller family also has Native American. I have photos showing them with Asian eyes and high cheekbones. The Miller family is related to the Cole and Webb families which were of older East Coastal Native American mixed ancestry and other mixed families like the Bounds and Rousom families and the literal “Black Dutch” Wolfe family of Swiss German ancestry. The Webb family is probably of Tuscarora ancestry.

DNA testing has proved helpful in unlocking our ancestry secrets. The DNATribes test has given me high “Mestizo” results. DNATribes describes their Mestizo ancestry region as

Mestizo (“mixed”) (not shown): Native Americans who
have blended with Europeans and (to a lesser degree)
Africans in recent history. This blending is most typical of
Latin American Mestizo populations, but can also be
found in English and French speaking populations of
North America (Metis).

 

MY MESTIZO SCORE DNA TRIBES ABOVE

When doing Autosomal DNA testing for ancestry the first thing you must do is to compare your results with the overall ethnic populations. In this case, since I do have significant European ancestry, I must look at the European ancestry and my scores in relation to Mestizo ancestry DNA results and also to populations that have Native American ancestry like Hispanics.

As you can see from the graph above, my Mestizo DNA score was very high for a Anglo American. I am above the 95^th percentile in relation to other “Anglo” Americans. My Mestizo score is also considered high for a Hispanic person.

This would conclude that Native American ancestry is in the family tree, which I know through genealogy records of families like the Archer, Miller and Mowery that it is a fact.

DNATribes does not have Cherokee and other Southeastern Native American tribes in their database. Never the less, there were also clues as to Native American origins on a tribal basis.

Above are two tribes that are considered very high scores (although low 0.01) for an Anglo American.

Above are my scores for Athabaskan and Central American. Although this would seem to be very low, it is above the 95^th Percentile and very high scores for an Anglo American.

I also recently received my Native American high resolution panel from DNATribes yesterday. In this panel, I had only one match, to the Chol Mayan tribe of Chiapas Mexico.

(My Match to the Chol Mayan tribe on DNATribes high Native American Resolution panel.  Although low, above 95th percentile for a Anglo American)

So how could Mayan DNA ancestry travel to North America. I have two theories. One is the Camino de Real, literal in Spanish “The Royal Road or King’s Highway” which traveled from San Antonio to Natchitoches Louisiana when Texas and Louisiana were part of New Spain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_San_Antonio_Road

Many Native Americans from Northern Mexico traveled on this road to trade with the Spanish and since the Miller family was from Louisiana this could be a source. (Note: See Choctaw Apache tribe blog post below)

The other theory is an ancient one and that being of Native American migration from the Caribbean to Florida and Louisiana. The Creek and Choctaw descend from the South, not the North, their ancestors migrated North from areas of the Yucatan to North America.

My DNA Mestizo matches to populations in South America

Theory number two, is very possible, the Chol Mayan DNA result above could in fact be Choctaw DNA from the Miller family. Since the Miller family is closer in terms of ancestry than the Mowery Cherokee this could be the case. The Bounds family came from Kemper Mississippi, and that is Mississippi Choctaw country, and it is known that the Bounds family were there living among the Choctaw as traders and religion.

The search continues for our ancestry, we know we are part Cherokee, but that is not enough. The Cherokee ancestry being several generations back could have easily been genetic swamped out by now. This ancestry appears to be more recent or it may be ancient but it none the less is there.

Next on the blog, the African ancestry, as I will take the High resolution African ancestry panel.

Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb

by Hiram F. "Pete" Gregory
A state-recognized group, part Lipan and part Choctaw, this community has lived in Sabine Parish since the 1700s. It maintains a tribal office in Zwolle, Louisiana and a pow-wow ground at Ebarb, Louisiana. Primarily English-speaking, elders are equally at ease in Spanish, and sprinkle in words from Nahuatl, Choctaw, and Coahuitecan. The tribe retains traditional crafts such as white oak basketry and foodways, such as tamales, chardizos, and salsas, as well as pan-tribal arts and crafts. Ebarb Choctaw-Apache folk artists include: Thomas Ebarb, Rhonda Gauthier
The above is from: http://alpha.nsula.edu/departments/folklife/cultures/ebarb.html

by Tommy Bolton, Tribal Chief
The Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb is located in western Sabine Parish and includes in its ancestral territory the municipalities of Converse, Noble, and Zwolle, and communities of Ebarb, Blue Lake, and Grady Hill. Officially recognized by the state of Louisiana in 1977, the Tribe is the second largest of eight officially recognized American Indian groups within the state. The Tribe is currently seeking recognition by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs. A petition for federal recognition was done in December of 1998, and we are awaiting word on the outcome of the petition. We learned in December, 1999, that the petition was in the Technical Assistance stage, in other words the BIA was reviewing it to assertain whether there are grounds to continue on with the process or not.

Currently there are 3276 persons eligible for membership with the Tribe. 1,400 live within the ancestral boundaries, the remainder live elsewhere in the state and from coast to coast and border to border of the United States. The two primary schools in which our children are enrolled (Ebarb and Zwolle) have combined tribal student population of over 600, and both schools receive some funding under Department of Education, Office of Indian Education, programs.

Historically, we are descendants of Apache slaves who were sold at slave markets in French and Spanish colonial era Natchitoches and Los Adaes. Oral history tells us that our Choctaw ancestors arrived in the region during the late 1700's and early 1800's, many in search of better hunting territories. Additionally, the first Indian agent of the Louisiana Purchase territory, Dr. John Sibley, gave refuge to Choctaw in an effort to protect them from persecution by their Creek neighbors, and subsequently moved two families into the area during the middle 1820's. Recent research into the tribe's history has brought to light that many of our Indian ancestors were natives of the Spanish mission and presidio of Los Adaes, adding a strong Adais identity to the Tribe. This fact dates the tribe's ancestry to the early 1720's and gives us the distinction of being one of the few native Indian groups of the state.

The first weekend in May of each year the Tribe hosts a traditional powwow at the Ebarb High School ball park. This event is attended by many of our Indian friends from across the country, representing 20 or more different tribes, and is an alcohol and drug free event suited for families. The general public is invited to attend and to enjoy the music, dance, food, and arts and crafts. CLICK HERE for pictures from one of the Pow-Wows.. For more information, contact the Tribal Office.

My kids, Erin and Kristen are Cherokee through me and their mother.

Their mom is part Cherokee, part Roma, part Anglo and part Hispanic.

However, we are not Cherokee, not in the sense of being a “Citizen” of the Cherokee Nation. The youngest is into science and the oldest is heavy into tribal cultures and religion. When someone ask them their heritage or ethnic background they simply say “We are mixed”.

My kids have a lot of Native American blood running through their veins. In fact, they have more than a lot of tribal enrolled members of the Cherokee Nation today.

Their Great Gradmother Sarah is half Cherokee and their Grandpa David is one quarter and looks it. Their Grandmother Judy is of Hispanic, Roma Gypsy, French and Lipan Apache/Payaya Native American.  Their mom, looks and is, Cherokee.

Like all mixed families, some of their family is dark and some are light. Some embrace the Cherokee and Native American culture, some do not. That is how mixed families go, identity becomes personal and complex and it is the same way for my kids.

The Anglo community has lost a lot of their culture and identity. They are trying to replace that with being Native American. That is because deep down they know they have been “hoodwinked” into this “me” culture and this consumerism materialistic culture to make the American machine “go“ for the sake of money, wealth and power.

Because of it, we have lost a lot of our traditions.

The Black Dutch term, used by many of our ancestors, is a sliver of that tradition.  Being Black Dutch is more than being of mixed ancestry.

Total Records: 1

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/commissionresults.php?s_surname=Mowery&s_given=John&s_middle=

East Texas Redbones: In search of the ancient ones, is my first attempt at a documentary. In the film we explore the origins of the Nash and Goins families primarily and the East Texas Redbone people. The origin of the terms Redbone and others like Melungeon and the origin of the racial ethnic origins of the Redbone people through genealogy and DNA testing. I also explore the culture of the early Redbone people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbone_(ethnicity)

Caddoan Mounds High Temple Mound, Alto, Texas

It is also was a attempt to find the actual Native American origin of the East Texas Redbone people.

My first visit was to go to the one place that I knew about that was of East Texas Native American origin. The Caddoan Mounds, a ancient Native American village in East Texas. The Museum folks let me film there and I talked with them about the origins of the people.

http://www.thc.state.tx.us/hsites/hs_caddo.aspx?Site=Caddohttp://www.thc.state.tx.us/hsites/hs_caddo.aspx?Site=Caddo

 

It is known that the historian Webster Talma Crawford believed that the Redbone people had blood in their veins from the Lipan Apache, Choctaw, Coushatta and the Caddo. He also believed they had Mediterranean and Moor ancestry. DNA has shown that the Redbones have all these ethnic ancestries and more. I explain some of the theories in the film as well as visit some of the known Redbone locations.  I went deep into the East Texas Woods, explored cemeteries and other locations of interest, searching directly, for the Redbone ancestors.

My second visit was meeting up with Cyndie Goins and her father, both of them Redbone descendents of William “Bill” Goyens Jr. who was a Native American interpreter and friend of Sam Houston. Goyens was a businessman in Nacogdoches, TX and became wealthy in the early days of the Texas Republic. Cydie tells the story of William Goyens in the film and in the film we visit the burial grounds of William Goyens on Goyens Hill, which is also a Native American and Spanish burial ground . We then go to the marker of William Goyens Jr which is located in Nacogdoches, TX.

  Historical Marker of William "Bill" Goyens Jr.

The third visit was in Paris, TX where myself, Cyndie Goins and Stacy Webb all were giving presentations on Mestee Maroon communities and families at the East Texas Historical Association Spring Program.

http://www.easttexashistorical.org/v3/events/Spring%202009%20Program.pdf

There I interviewed Stacy Webb, a Redbone Nash-Goins-Sweat-Perkins-Stringer descendent. In fact, I think Stacy has more Mestee Maroon ancestors than anyone I have ever met. Her Stringer and my Archer family were on early records in Eastern North Carolina as being Free People of Color. We discuss the Native American origins of the Nash family in detail and several topics on the Redbone people. We also discuss the Thomas and Benjamin Nash family Redbone origins

http://www.familyphotosandinfo.parrottfarms.com/nash.html

Benjamin Nash, East Texas Redbone

Benjamin Nash gave permission for Anglo Americans to settle on Coushatta lands.

I enjoyed making this film, it was great fun. The film will be showing at the next Redbone Conference. I believe anyone interested in Mestee or Black Dutch, Redbone, Melungeon ancestry will enjoy it .

Love's Lookout in Jacksonville, TX

When one thinks of derogatory and discrimination of ethnic groups in the United States they think of the so called "Minority groups" such as African American, Hispanic, Native American and Jew.

However, as I have stated before in the below blogs, discrimination had as much or more so to do with social status as it had to do with ethnic ancestry.

This is especially true in the United States, where populations were admixing with other races early on and yet, still having a caste system in place based solely on social standing and not so much on skin color (though that also was a part of it of course)

Such is a group known as the Barbados Red legs who were a class of poor Northern European Celtic ancestry whites mixed with German and some Portuguese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlegs

Redlegs was a term used to refer to the class of poor whites that lived on colonial Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada and a few other Caribbean islands. In Belize, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago they are known as "Bakras" ("Back-Row"). Many of these people were English, Irish, or Scottish, and had originally arrived on Barbados in the early to mid 17th century as slaves, indentured servants, or as transported prisoners, notably from Oliver Cromwell's wars in Ireland and Scotland and from southwest England following the Monmouth Rebellion. Small groups of Germans and Portuguese were also imported as plantation labourers. Many were described as "white slaves". According to folk etymology, the name is derived from the effects of the tropical sun on their fair-skinned legs. However, the term "Redlegs" and its variants were in use for Irish soldiers of the same sort as those later transported to Barbados, and the variant "Red-shankes" is recorded by Edmund Spenser in his dialogue on "the Present State of Ireland" as early as the 16th century.

This group was mostly Northern European and of Celtic ancestry and were basically chattel slaves to the wealthy English.

As you can see, because of their social standing, they were also given a derogratory racial epitaph no different than the Mestee Communities in the United States.

This would be equivilant to the modern day racial derogratory terms of "Redneck" and "White Trash" AND THOSE NAMES ARE DEGROGRATORY RACIAL TERMS. Although adopted by rural Anglo Americans as moniker of their culture today.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CARIBBEAN/2001-04/0986680712

I have searched the web for information about this group but could not find a link between them and the Redlegs of Barbados. They were in a area close to the South Carolina Redbones, so they may be of the same ancestry. If anyone has any information on this group would be appreciated. They appear to be of the same racial admixture as the Brass Ankle people of Orangeburgh SC.

The Bounds family in Richmond North Carolina married into both my Cole and Webb families.

My initial thoughts were that the Bounds family was of pure Welsh extraction since the name is of Welsh origin. However, if they were of Welsh ancestry on the ship over to the New World they did not stay that way for very long.

My six times Great Grandmother is Rebecca Rausom/Rousom who married James Bounds, whose son Jesse Bounds married Mary Webb.  Rebecca Rousom's physical features were described as such in  the following in records.

said to have had long black hair, a beautiful singing voice and looked "Italian"

Long black hair, singing voice, looked Italian

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2322479&id=I508389285