Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Direct Descendents of Pocahontas? The Answer is YES.

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.

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.

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.


4 comments:

Unknown said...

I am also a direct descendant of Pocahontas. My name is Nick wineberg. My father is Mark wineberg, grand father is max wineberg, great grandfather is max Robert wineberg. My great grandfather is Rudolph Abraham miller. Great great grandfather is James Walter stovel. My great great great grandfather is John Quincy Alexander stovel who fought in t he 4th Virginia infantry during the civil war. If you see this I would really love to hear from you.

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Unknown said...

I have been told I am a direct descendant of Pocahontas. My grandmothers maiden name was Blair and my uncle has done genealogy to trace back to that time. My maiden name is Higgs and I was wondering if this is to be true

miss anne said...

You know whats so awesome. Being that my grandmother was in The Daughters of the American Revolution and my Great Grandmother, a Colonial Dame..see , you have tobhave death AND birth certificates dating back to The Revilutionary War and for the Dames, BEFORE..when the 13 Colonies were.
Well, a member of the D.A.R. called my sister who was then, one of the big cats in the southeastern region and they pointed out that we are direct descendent to Pocohontas.
Wow.
Talk about having to be pedigree.
.its just strange how sometimes we just dont know.
II'm guessing you have death and birth certificates and when that wasnt avwilable..the standard registry...
dating back too.