Saturday, July 30, 2011

Our Indian Princess

Families often have stories that they descend from an Indian Princess... good possibility if one defines "princess" as the daughter of a chief.  There were obviously lots of tribes, lots of villages, and many chiefs.  Ours is different, in that she was well cocumented in the historical record.
Many Indian tribes were matriarchal; i. e. children were of their mothers’ clans. Since that was the Indian way (and male descent was barely kin) I thought it would be interesting to post the female lineage (by the way, this matches the mitochondrial DNA transmission through the generations).  Here is what I have for our maternal lineage from Princess Mary of the Piscataway. If I ever get to Maryland, I would like to visit our cousins and their museum there; maybe meet the current Tayac/ emperor (it appears they are now using “Tayac” as a surname).
  • Chitamachen (later Kittamaquund), Tayac of Piscataway tribe>
  • Mary (married Giles Brent)>
  • *Katherine Brent (married Richard Marsham)>
  • Katherine Marsham (married Samuel Queen)>
  • Margaret Queen (married John Belt)>
  • Katherine Belt (married Benjamin Brashear III)>
  • Sarah “Sallie” Brashear (married Christian Bingaman, Jr.)>
  • Catharine Bingaman (married William Washington White)>
  • Sarah Ann White (married Samuel Doherty)>
  • Mary Catharine W(hite) Doherty (married Albert George Reily)> William Morgan Reily (male lineage)>>Barbara
  • Sarah Ann Reily (married Robert Wesley Reiley, Jr.)> George Herndon Reily (male lineage)>> Larry
  • Mary> Anne= DIRECT MATERNAL LINE
  • Dolly> Patsy> Arlene= DIRECT MATERNAL LINE

 * There is some dispute that Katherine Brent was a niece of Giles’. If there is a female- line descendant of Katherine Brent’s sister, a DNA comparison with Patsy, Anne, or Arlene could settle that question.