Genealogy Chat

I live in a city in Ontario which abuts Akwesasne, a Mohawk reservation. I went to school with Mohawk children as did my children. Actually my children's school was trilingual, English/French/Mohawk and the sign at the door read "Welcome/Bienvenue/Shekon"

There are a lot of mixed marriages here, English/Mohawk, French/Mohawk etc but I have never, ever heard the word Mulatto used to describe children of these marriages.

A herbalist's business would probably be helped if customers thought his remedies were foreign, exotic, mysterious, alternative.

And maybe they were. Sadly, it looks as if we'll never know, as we can't find anything about Mary's ancestry.
It would have been fascinating to find out.

Sarah .............


Margee and I both live in Canada, and are both, I think, well versed in First Nations beliefs and on how they want to be called. It has been a major part of the history in both US and Canada over the last 20 years. I could bore you silly with all I know and have learnt over the years.

It is a reclaiming of their heritage, not the one imposed on them by the white conquerors of the previous 300 or 400 years.

Neither of us went into the fact that the different tribes actually prefer to be called by their ancestral names rather than even just First Nations.


As far as your family artifacts, such as the herbal remedies book .............. we're not suggesting they are made-up. BUT it is very possible that stories have been attached to them that are, shall we say, embellished.

Many families in England had herbal remedy books from the very early centuries ...... herbal remedies were all that people had up until the 19th century. Herbal remedies were brought back from "foreign parts" by explorers, so British slave owners could have brought them back, Marco Polo, I believe, took some back to Europe from China in the 15th century.

It's easy for stories to become embellished.

As you can imagine I have completed a large amount of research in this area. Mulatto was a term more widely used to describe those of mixed race. There were numerous tribes created known as mulatto tribes often consisting of Native American/black slaves as I previously stated, see the quote below taken from a Native American site,

"Mulattos may also be an a mixture of Native American, South American native and African Americans according to Henings Statutes of Virginia 1705, which reads as follows: “And for clearing all manner of doubts which hereafter may happen to arise upon the construction of this act, or any other act, who shall be accounted a mulatto, Be it enacted and declared, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That the child of an Indian and the child, grand child, or great grand child, of a negro shall be deemed, accounted, held and taken to be a mulatto."
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com

As far as I am aware the term 'Indian' is not viewed a derogatory by most Native Americans, it is used in the website above, however thanks for raising the point.

To clarify didn't state that anyone was 'dark' skinned, but merely said had a 'slightly' darker complexion. I find it odd to think that the artefacts owned by the family such as the herbal remedies book are 'made up'!

Thanks to all those who have offered help and advice!

Sarah

I agree with Margee and ArgyllGran

Mulatto was a term given to children of a white and a black parent ............ most commonly of course that would be a situation where a white man had children with one of his slaves as whites and blacks were not allowed to marry.

You should perhaps be looking for a slave owner in either America or possibly the Caribbean islands.

and I agree with Margee that the acceptable description in North America is First Nations ............. Indian or Eskimo are considered derogatory terms. Eskimo is correctly called Inuit.

Actually Native North Americans do not have jet black hair, brown yes, but not jet black and their complexion is not much darker than yours or mine.

Also the title Indian has become derogatory. I used the term Native North American but the proper term is First Nations People. (I just didn't know if you'd know what I meant)

This will be that George Bristol - just for interest:


George Bristol
England Births and Christenings
Name: George Bristol
Gender: Male
Christening Date: 03 Oct 1733
Christening Place: AWRE WITH BLAKENEY,GLOUCESTER,ENGLAND
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C02330-2 , System Origin: England-ODM , GS Film number: 91511

I agree with Margee.
There may well have been a black ancestor, but not American Indian - sounds like a family myth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto

http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=26307&p=0
(Mentions George Bristol, "a black" baptised in Awre in 1733.)

http://tinyurl.com/ppjzsht

I believe the term mulatto refers to a child born to a white parent and a black one but not American Indian.

Hi All,

Thanks so much for the replies, I really appreciate it.

I will try to answer all of the questions if I can.

There are numerous people I have contact with on this site who all have Mary Rook listed on their trees - which I have access to and in most cases have had contact with. Everyone can find Mary's children Marriage etc, but everyone reaches a dead end when trying to access any information about her earlier life or birth/baptism. Thankyou to those of you who have listed some baptism records - I will have a look at those.

The American Indian connection - sorry but this is a long story.... basically I am a direct ancester of her son Simon Hyatt/Hyett (even Heyett at times!) Simon was born in Gloucester (1835) but moved to Stoke-on-Trent for work (coal mining). However while in Stoke he opened a Herbalist shop, claiming to have the knowledge of a medicine man, he was well known in the area and reported to have cured a number of aliments. He was of darker complexion and claimed that his family was from a 'mulatta' American Indian tribe (mulatta - usually means mixed race american indian/white or even black slaves) My great-grandmother (Simon's grand-daughter) passed on numerous stories about her grandfather, and she herself had incredibly thick jet black hair and slightly darker complexion.

While I have proved that Simon himself was born in the UK and so was his father, paternal grandparents etc, I concluded that the connection may have had something to do with his Mother, Mary Rook - and as no one I could find could find a record of her birth or parents - I wondered if she could be the missing link.

I have spoken to numerous other branches of the Hyatt family - and there are lots of them as Simon had 15 children - a large number have heard similar American Indian stories.

My Grandfather - was always fascinated by the stories of his great-grandfather and was always desperate to find the truth - I started this to find the truth for my Grandad - and although he is now no longer with us I am still determined to get to the bottom of it - but seem to have got stuck in a rut! :-(

Thanks again everyone for your support!

Sarah x

1796 HYETT Thomas Robert Sarah (nee Summers) Baptism Awre
Baptised privately in the Blakeney chapel.

In 1851 Thomas states himself to be married.

cold this be mary's death

Deaths Jun 1850 (>99%)
HYETT Mary Westbury on S. 11 370

Looking at the Gloucestershire parish records for the baptism of Mary ROOK, there are just these two.


1777 ROOK Mary Henry Alice Baptism Littledean

1808 ROOK Mary Thomas Phillis Baptism Littledean


However, there is this......and there could easily be a mistranscription of the surname along the way.


1796 ROCK Mary daughter of Richard and Sarah Baptism Blaisdon.

Blaisdon is about 7 miles from Awre.

Welcome to the Community boards Sarah.




(I will let Sarah know how to find her replies) :-)

if mary was married previously this might be her

Mary James
England Births and Christenings
Name: Mary James
Gender: Female
Christening Date: 17 Jan 1796
Christening Place: AWRE WITH BLAKENEY,GLOUCESTER,ENGLAND
Birth Date: 28 Nov 1795
Father's Name: Philip James
Mother's Name: Mary Wanklyn

1841

Name: Thomas Hyett
Age: 45
Estimated birth year: abt 1796
Gender: Male
Where born: Gloucestershire, England
Civil Parish: Dean Forest
Hundred: St Briavells
County/Island: Gloucestershire
Country: England
Registration district: Westbury on Severn
Sub-registration district: Newnham
Piece: 364
Book: 5
Folio: 27
Page Number: 26

Thomas Hyett 45
Rueben Hyett 12
Rachel Hyett 6
Simon Hyett 5

Mary isn't there but in 1851 Thomas still says he is married.

Is it possible that Mary was previously married and Rook was not her maiden name? Getting on for 30 was fairly late for a first marriage in those days.

Who is supposed to be related to American Indians?

could be their children


Reuben Hyett
England Births and Christenings
Name: Reuben Hyett
Gender: Male
Christening Date: 17 Aug 1829
Christening Place: AWRE WITH BLAKENEY,GLOUCESTER,ENGLAND
Father's Name: Thomas Hyett
Mother's Name: Mary

Rachel Hyett
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening: 15 September 1833 BLAKENEY, GLOUCESTER, ENGLAND
father: Thomas Hyett
mother: Mary

Simon Peter Hyett
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
christening: 30 August 1835 BLAKENEY, GLOUCESTER, ENGLAND
father: Thomas Hyett
mother: Mary

cant find a birth for mary but found the marriage beverleyw put on above