Jimbo
08-12-2003, 08:47 AM
Well, having read "The Other Blackfoot" a second time armed with a better idea of my own family's circuitous movement, I come around finally to the question of whether I am descended from "Saponis." My Vines lineage originates in Amherst County, VA @ 1750 (while it was still Albemarle, actually) although I am not sure as to where, exactly. My great, great, great, great grandmother was an Anna Smith of presumably the same area--one of apparently two wives that grandpa Vines was having children by. I can only infer her genes based on the date of my great, great, great grandfather's birth.
Interestingly, it seems that said sire, Thomas, was baptized when he was five--the Vineses have traditionally been Methodist, whether he was baptized by a Methodist is questionable--which indicates evangelization, i.e., when he was born, neither Thomas nor his parents were in the Church. There seems to have been some intercourse with Augusta County (and, to put it crudely, in Augusta County, where my great, great, great granddad was born; Thomas apparently a bigamist, not merely a philanderer)
Anyhoo, although the Vineses remained in Amherst/Rockbridge until the early 1830s, they ultimately packed up and moved to Monroe/Mercer Counties in soon to be West Virginia. Montani semper liberi. They--being my grandfathers--married Dunsmores (children of Wanstaffs) and Whites (my great grandmother). Silas Smith Vines (again, another indicator that Anna Smith was a momma) was listed at his death in 1886 as both "white" and "free colored."
A picture of his son, Otie Wilder "Spain" Vines reveals a man of dark, reddish complexion, high cheekbones, monstrously Indian-like nose (which I have) not to mention an agile wit (which I also would like to think I have). His--Spain's--nephew, my uncle (by marriage, cousin by birth), had those bones and black, black hair. My grandmother, Estella, had the same cheekbones, but I have never seen a color picture of her and she died before I was born. My mother looked like a little "papoose" when she was a baby: There is a picture of her with some of her contemporary nieces and nephews (she, like I, was the baby, way younger than the oldest) and they are extremely pale and Irish looking. My mother is, oh, nearly the color of a football, it seems, albeit with a copperish glow and has straight, black hair. She would later always have her hair permed, but it was black way up until she was in her late fifties. She always tanned darkly. All of us have brown eyes and big noses. My late brother had the black hair. I have "trace" to "moderately" shoveled maxillary incisors. They lean toward being "semishoveled" by my own measurement and those of a dental hygenist. Suggestive, well, actually about 90% indicative of Indian ancestry. That or Chinese. I say nothing about my inabiity to handle the ole "firewater, " either.
My mother would have, did, disavow any "colored" blood. She would often admit to some sort of "Jewish" ancestry. Ironically, there may be--Saphardic, through a Portuguese mulatto named Maderas--but much more remote than Silas Vines. Besides, Silas had no lineage from Mr. Maderas, so why was he "colored"? My family's reticence, perhaps ignorance, and my mother's reluctance to associate or identify with the WV kin--her father mysteriously moved down to Augusta, VA @ 1909, presumably to get away from King Coal-raise flags, or is it wishful thinking?
What started as a simple inquiry into Siouan migration patterns to West Virginia and some of the associated names became a soliloquy on alienation. Hmm... race and alienation, who'd a thunk it?
Interestingly, it seems that said sire, Thomas, was baptized when he was five--the Vineses have traditionally been Methodist, whether he was baptized by a Methodist is questionable--which indicates evangelization, i.e., when he was born, neither Thomas nor his parents were in the Church. There seems to have been some intercourse with Augusta County (and, to put it crudely, in Augusta County, where my great, great, great granddad was born; Thomas apparently a bigamist, not merely a philanderer)
Anyhoo, although the Vineses remained in Amherst/Rockbridge until the early 1830s, they ultimately packed up and moved to Monroe/Mercer Counties in soon to be West Virginia. Montani semper liberi. They--being my grandfathers--married Dunsmores (children of Wanstaffs) and Whites (my great grandmother). Silas Smith Vines (again, another indicator that Anna Smith was a momma) was listed at his death in 1886 as both "white" and "free colored."
A picture of his son, Otie Wilder "Spain" Vines reveals a man of dark, reddish complexion, high cheekbones, monstrously Indian-like nose (which I have) not to mention an agile wit (which I also would like to think I have). His--Spain's--nephew, my uncle (by marriage, cousin by birth), had those bones and black, black hair. My grandmother, Estella, had the same cheekbones, but I have never seen a color picture of her and she died before I was born. My mother looked like a little "papoose" when she was a baby: There is a picture of her with some of her contemporary nieces and nephews (she, like I, was the baby, way younger than the oldest) and they are extremely pale and Irish looking. My mother is, oh, nearly the color of a football, it seems, albeit with a copperish glow and has straight, black hair. She would later always have her hair permed, but it was black way up until she was in her late fifties. She always tanned darkly. All of us have brown eyes and big noses. My late brother had the black hair. I have "trace" to "moderately" shoveled maxillary incisors. They lean toward being "semishoveled" by my own measurement and those of a dental hygenist. Suggestive, well, actually about 90% indicative of Indian ancestry. That or Chinese. I say nothing about my inabiity to handle the ole "firewater, " either.
My mother would have, did, disavow any "colored" blood. She would often admit to some sort of "Jewish" ancestry. Ironically, there may be--Saphardic, through a Portuguese mulatto named Maderas--but much more remote than Silas Vines. Besides, Silas had no lineage from Mr. Maderas, so why was he "colored"? My family's reticence, perhaps ignorance, and my mother's reluctance to associate or identify with the WV kin--her father mysteriously moved down to Augusta, VA @ 1909, presumably to get away from King Coal-raise flags, or is it wishful thinking?
What started as a simple inquiry into Siouan migration patterns to West Virginia and some of the associated names became a soliloquy on alienation. Hmm... race and alienation, who'd a thunk it?