Susan, I've read your entire note and realize you have theories. Are you asking for advice if your theories might be correct? or are you hoping someone has the proof? I hate to comment much without knowing what you want. I do want to suggest several things: (1) check into Wilkes co. NC where a group of Aldridge or Eldridges were. I have one in my own line, unproven still. (2) check into the "Melungeon" group of people, who are not really an ethnic group persay, but a group of people with similar background. Some are white/ind. some black/ind., some tri-racial. I believe ALDRIDGE name is among them. (3) There is a man who has researched the mixed people in NC, he tends to claim most had black blood and it's the one flaw I see in his theories, because not all do have Black. He places many early native people in this group, the Catwbas, Lumbee, Melungeons ect. It is still worth finding his site because he has done alot of research on suranmes and ALDRIDGE/ELDRIDGE might be one (contact me if you want help finding the url) (4) you mention another name for Robt. Aldridge, but be careful you aren't grasping at straws. Have you any proof of this 2nd name? What leads you to believe it is a name change? about 'crossing over'. YES, I have heard of it, know for a fact some of my cousins did it. Know many Melungeons did it. Reasons are varied, but think if you could not vote, not send your kids to the schools, could not own land if you remained 'black' or mixed black, and you could move and be white, would you? Would you move on, leave it all behind to better yourself and your kids? Many did. Today we are proud of our racial backgrounds, but back then, such prejudices existed, especially after the Civil War that many escaped the past, trying to establish new beginnings. Not just mixed raced people but some who fought for a side not popular in their neighborhood. Please keep posting what you are looking for. I hope I've been somewhat helpful. Debbie ----- Original Message ----- From: <susanaldridge2000@yahoo.de> To: <CREEK-SOUTHEAST-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 10:28 AM Subject: [CREEK-SOUTHEAST] Crekk Indians with Aldridge names > This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. > > Surnames: Aldridge Newkirk > Classification: Query > > Message Board URL: > > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/5R.2ADI/967 > > Message Board Post: > > I wondered if you might have run across might have run across (supposedly Creek or half Creek) Sallie Mae Aldridge b. SC or her son Robert Aldridge born SC ca. 1890 who came to Ga between 1890 and 1910 who may be the one who suddenly appeared in Al after 1920. He told his daughter he had many sisters and brothers, including a Frank (Aldridge?). Or he may really be of a family from Muskogee Co, near Columbus, GA.which I cannot find.. > > I am doing a family tree for my children and have come across the possibility that they have black cousins, or even black heritage. Definitely Indian heritage. > > Below is my info. I have 2 births for Robert Lee Aldridge Oct 5 , 1890 from his daughter and SSN- and Nov. 12 1892 on his gravestone in Bessemer, AL. It is coincidental that last week I had published a partial list of slaves from the wills of the SC and AL Hardys on Gen Forum in case black SC and AL Hardys were looking for their relatives. Now I myself am looking for answers on another branch of the family who may have been slaves. > > I thought it would be so easy to connect with the right line of Aldridges and from there so much research has been done that it would be a piece of cake. > > Not so. I have just come across a 1910 census in GA -Camden Co. Thompkins Dist. (on the GA coast) Robert Aldridge supposedly came from Columbus, GA on the AL border to AL around or before 1920. I say supposedly because he kept his life a secret I think, so whatever he said is unreliable. Anyway here is the story and any help would be appreciated. Some grandchildren heard he shot somebody in the middle of the night and left. Some grandchildren say he deserted 13 children when he left. No one knows the truth. Some grandchildren say he changed the spelling of Aldridge from another spelling. My deceased husband heard the Aldridges ran to the NC mountains in the Civil War to escape the fighting. > > Lorene his daughter claims to know part of the story which I will incorporate below. > > I would like to say that I am not an Aldridge by birth, but my children are. I will also say that although the Aldridges were desperately poor and beset by tragedy, they were the handsomest, tallest group of people I have ever seen and all musically talented and tops in sports. My mother thinks they must, somewhere in their genes, have a very distinguished family. > > I have a lot of difficulty with the Aldridges - in finding documentation -except a few AL ssn s. These Aldridges seem to have threatened to shoot every census-taker in GA and AL and ILL where they worked in the mines. After interviewing one of his last surviving children and getting a possible birth date for him, I still had nothing, despite hours of searching in data banks----till today. Lorene Aldridge had told me her father Robert Aldridge looked Indian in that he was darker skinned and black hair, but blue eyes. He told her he had a half Indian or Indian mother called Sallie Mae (no record of marriage). He never said anything about his father-no name, no description. > > Lorene also told me that he told Lorene that he left 2 children behind in the care of a relative after a wife Phoebe had supposedly died. Lorene Aldridge Freeman also said he came from Columbus,Ga. which is Muskogee Co.- but I find nothing. > > But it could be that I was only looking for "white" families, because today I hit the jackpot when I changed my tactics---- and have finally found a Robert with the correct birth year which Lorene swears by for Robert in Ga. -1890. Only the Co. is wrong. > > In the 1910 GA census, Robert Aldridge is 20 years old living with his brother in Camden Co., Thompkins district-Militia 32. Robert is listed as head of house and his older "brother" is delegated to 2nd place, even though the brother is older. Robert's brother has another name -Henry Newkirk - and is "married " (although there is no woman listed) and is listed as "black." The whole page of the census is black people. Robert Aldridge is listed mixed race and is one of only two of a hundred people in front and behind who is anything but "B" for black. > > Well to be living away from his father makes sense because Robert claimed he hated his father for allegedly beating him bloody all his life, so if it is true ,he must have left home as soon as possible, and to the other side of the state at that. > > Have you ever heard of the term "crossing over?" Mulattos or mixed race people used it when they look white enough to change their identities and start over somewhere else where no one knows them. I ask myself this question for 4 reasons. > > 1) Lorene said her father never took them to visit his relations. > 2) Lorene said a man across the hallway in a hospital where her brother Seaborn was recovering in Birmingham sent a note thru the nurse saying - "What ever happened to Robert Aldridge from Georgia?" and she was told not to talk to him and they did not reply to the note. > 3) There were some Aldridges who working in the same Bakery in Birmingham as Robert's daughter Lorene- and she was told not to associate with them and Lorene could not understand why. > 4) when Robert Aldridge supposedly went back to GA ONE time ( years later ) to try to find out what ever happened to his own flesh and blood he had left behind in GA. , he said he came no more than 20 miles from the parents place and would go no further. He asked an old acquaintance Seabourn Callatt about them but no one knew anything and he went back to AL without seeing his parents which he had never seen since leaving all those years before, and Robert never saw again in his lifetime. > > What do you folks think? Maybe in order to "cross over" and disassociate from his black relatives, he wanted to cut all ties and make a better life for himself, which is every man's right, or was he just afraid of the police? > > A possible scenario as follows which I have constructed from the information in the 1910 census. > > Robert Aldridge's father is born in NC around the time of the Civil War. His father has a son by a black or black/Indian woman called Newkirk in NC in 1888. He is called Henry Newkirk and looks black enough to be listed as lack in the 1910 census > > Robert's father moves across the order to SC where his mate Newkirk dies. He takes up with an Indian woman called Sallie Mae and has Robert Lee Aldridge by Sallie Mae in Oct. 1890 in SC, and this SC birth is what was told to the census taker. Robert Lee Aldridge looks mixed race, blue eyes. > > The family supposed then moves to GA. (Maybe it was only Henry newkirk and Robert. who moved to GA.) Between 1900 and 1910 Robert Aldridge moves out of his family house in GA. and moves in with brother Henry who meantime married. They find work in Camden Co. Henry in a store. Robert -odd jobs. In 1910 they are living together in the Camden Co. Ga. census in a black neighborhood. > > Phoebe part Creek Indian or Creek Indian marries somebody and has a daughter before 1910. Between 1910 and 1920 Phoebe Creek Indian "marries" again to Robert Aldridge . Since Robert's own mother is Indian, this is natural for him. They have Jessie and Aline before 1920. Phoebe Creek Indian Aldridge supposedly dies -before 1920. > Robert Aldridge gets a girl pregnant in Muskogee Co. The police in Columbus GA tell him to cross the river to Alabama and don't come back. > > Robert Aldridge leaves the 2 children in care of his step daughter part Indian (or his black brother's kin?), "meandering" (Lorene Aldridge) to Ragland, AL (where , by the way, there are also Arledges- he does not mention them ) never to see them again. Robert Aldridge marries Cora Mewbourn in Ragland, AL in 1921 (at the home of her uncle John Layton who is a preacher). > > He talks about a Frank and other forgotten names to his daughter Lorene. He never sees his family ( who ever they are) again. Is it possible that he has crossed out of the Indian (and black) community in Ga. into white Alabama? Do you know who this Robert Aldridge in 1910 could have been? > > I have to find out who Robert Aldridge's father of is. Is he Mulatto who has a blue eyed parent? Is he white and the Robert's blue eyes come from him? Is he black and the blue eyes come thru Sallie Mae his half Indian mother who had a blue eyed father? Was his name Aldridge? Or was Sallie Mae an Aldridge? > > That is the latest in my search....anybody have any advise on researching this? > susan aldridge > > > ==== CREEK-SOUTHEAST Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe, send to CREEK-SOUTHEAST-L-request@rootsweb.com the one word, UNSUBSCRIBE, in the BODY of the message. If you are subscribed to the digest, send your unsubscrbe message to CREEK-SOUTHEAST-D-request@rootsweb.com > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >