Re: Tuckers in Alleghany County Virginia and Native American ties
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In reply to:
Re: Tuckers in Alleghany County Virginia and Native American ties
Bobby Tucker 5/08/11
Many of the families in the Rich Patch and Potts Creek areas of Alleghany County Virginia tie into either Sarah Persinger or Ruth Persinger Humphries. All the children of Sarah Persinger which tie into the Tucker, Bowen, Fridley, Wolfe and other lines have a documented link to the Western Band of Cherokee because her first husband was an enrolled member. We even have his blood listing as the census lists him as full blood. Their daughter Mary went with her father and so was also an enrolled member. Her blood listing is 1/2. The others remained with their mother. The journals say that some of the boys did this because they could not leave their mother and she refused to leave the mountains that she loved. She loved her husband but she loved the mountains more. We know that at least two of her sons visited Cherokees in North Carolina at least once in their youth.
The background of Ruth Persinger Humphries is more difficult to say with any certainty. We know that she was mixed race and we know who her father was but her mother is still up to debate. I as do many others suspect that she had Native American blood but as of yet there is no hard data to support that view. It is even possible that her mother was multiracial but again all of that is speculation. It always seems like when we have one question answered three new ones come up as a result of the answer.