The Cozzens family now has a tome of evidence proving its long-held claim to be direct descendents of Pocahontas. Thanks to Uncle Todd, my husband's brother, who hired an official Ancestry.com research firm, ProGenealogists, we can say with confidence that the proof is in the pedigree.
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| From The Things I Wish I'd Said, published 2004. |
I first learned about the relation to Pocahontas shortly after I was married and working as a newspaper columnist. In fact, I wrote a column titled "The Descendents of Pocahontas," published on September 10, 1991, claiming that if I should someday have children, they would be related to the Indian princess who married John Rolfe on April 5, 1613. The column reappeared in my book, The Things I Wish I'd Said, published by McKenna Publishing Group in 2004.
Mentioning this relation has often raised eyebrows and invited skeptics to question the claim. Anyone who has dabbled with ancestry research who hears this tends to scoff in disbelieve and even pity what they deem to be our naivete. I'm not sure why this is the case because it's not like I'm claiming my kids are reincarnated versions of Pocahontas--just the great 10x grandchildren of her. Both our girls had Pocahontas at the roots of their family trees for their fourth grade and eighth grade family heritage projects, and most people just thought it was "cool."
Apparently the skepticism comes because of many, many people who have made this claim--most of whom may have a "Rolfe" somewhere on their family tree. According to the pedigree, however, the name Rolfe disappears after one Jane Rolfe, who was born October 10, 1650 and died on January 26, 1676. She was the only grandchild of Pocahontas (Rolfe and Pocahontas had one son, Thomas), and she married Col. Robert Bolling in 1674. Robert and Jane also only had one child, Col. John Fairfax Bolling, born in 1676 and died in 1729.
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| Cozzens Family Crest |
The prominent names on the Pocahontas tree as it relates to the Cozzens, and as depicted by our family crest (another gift from Uncle Todd made for us a dozen years ago), are Bolling, Fleming, Bernard and, of course Cozzens. BTW: My husband's middle name is "Bernard." Meantime, studying the pedigree chart, it is far more likely that people with the name "Bolling" on their family trees are related to Pocahontas than those who claim a "Rolfe," as Col. John Fairfax Bolling and his wife, Mary Kennon, had six children.
I could list a lot more information, but I won't out of respect for the family and for Todd's (I'm sure) very expensive efforts to have this research completed and published. A big, illustrated book came to us in the mail the other day, and the amount of work that went into it is in a word, impressive. And it's not for sale.
The Things I Wish I'd Said, however, is still available for sale on Amazon.com. You can probably get it for a penny.
