About physical characteristics...In some cases you can tell *partly* about someone's heritage, but only partly...Someone can look Indian, but also have African and/or white, or they can look African, but have Indian and/or white, or look white, and have Indian and/or African...Africans also have high cheekbones, so you can't assume high cheekbones are coming only from any Indian blood you may have...So again, you can only tell partly about someone's heritage from their looks..Doing genealogical research on them will tell you a lot more than their appearance will... Hope that helps.. B. ----- Original Message ----- From: "okeefolkie" <okeefolkie@mindspring.com> To: <CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, September 02, 2002 12:53 PM Subject: [CHOCTAW-SE] Bounds family name > Lori and Barbara, thanks for your kind words. I have been hanging back > because > I don't know if I really belong on this list, my heritage being very cloudy. > Here is a message I composed a few days ago and was kinda shy about sending: > > Hi - I'm new to the list, and very new to geneology. My mother's folks came > from Miss, and a family rumor is that we have a Native American forebear > (Indian? I'm > not sure of the PC, but the Seminole here in S. Fla. use the term "Indian"). > > The key person seems to be of the name "Bounds." I have found some Bounds' > in one of the rolls NARA has, under "Choctaw by Birth," and "C. by > Marriage," and I am fairly sure that my gggrandfather was Gilliam Bounds, m > to "Lizzie," no maiden name, with 4 sons, Henry, John, Wilke, and Gilliam; > and 2 daughters, Sally and Elizabeth. Gilliam is not one of the first names > in the NARA rolls. No definite indication of where he was born/lived. > > Elizabeth Bounds m. William Jefferson Smith, my ggrandfather, probably in > Hancock County, Miss., so I'm hoping that is where the Bounds' lived, to > keep it simple. Elizabeth died in 1924. > That is every bit of information I can glean so far. > > I hope I will not offend anyone, but are there physical characteristics that > one can use to "pin down" genetic heritage? My grandfather, James Woodard > Smith, had very prominent cheekbones, straight black hair, and his son, my > uncle, has often been asked if he is Native, or even of Aisian descent. On > the other hand, my mother's features were more Celtic - as a child I always > thought she looked like Maureen O'Hara - auburn hair, those cheekbones, and > freckles. Her brother, my uncle, is dark, short of stature, and there is an > old > b&w photo of him taken during the Korean War that I thought at first was a > Korean > soldier, when I was a child. > > So, who knows? It is wonderful to think that I am a mixture of many > different parts of the human race -- it makes one much more interesting, I > think! But I'd still like to know... > > Thanks for any help any of you can give me. > > SandyM > > > > > ==== CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST Mailing List ==== > To subscribe to CHAHTA-L list discussions on history, culture, language. Send msg. to CHAHTA-L-request@rootsweb.com > Put "one" word in "body" of message:... "subscribe" without the quotes, nothing in the subject line, turn off signatures. > Nothing in the subject line... Turn off signatures....... > >