Dora, I find your question very interesting. My family is a long time resident of new england - arriving in the 1600s. And they are dark skinned, black or near-black hair, and brown eyes. My ggrandfather fought for the Confederacy (he was from Maine). He was captured at Petersburg in 1864/5 while serving with G. Lee. The write-up in his civil war record said that he was 5 ft 4 in, dark skinned, had black hair and brown eyes. My aunt who lived to be 100 told me of walking with him in a 4th of July parade - she was six and he wore his Confederate uniform. She was very embarrassed as she felt that he had been on the "wrong side". I used to ask my family when i was young why they were all dark and they told me that many people of English descent were dark. (I personally think that they intermarried with native americans - but I could be wrong - these "indian" marriages seem to be hard to find.) They lived in N. Governadale CT. My husband's mother was a Hubbard and I think she was descended from George Hubbard - does that make him and you distant cousins? I am a John Alden descendant on my mother's side and a descendant of a German man killed by Indians in 1792 in the Ohio Valley on my father's side; that side of the family intermarried with the Dutch from New York, Barbara -----Original Message----- >From: Susan Hedeen <chantillycarpets@earthlink.net> >Sent: Jan 13, 2009 11:33 AM >To: Dora Smith <tiggernut24@yahoo.com> >Cc: mamiddle@rootsweb.com, MAWorces@rootsweb.com, rice@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [MAWORCES] Which of these old New England lines had dark skin and hair? > >Dora--not related, but will try to muddle you a bit. Genes are funny >things. If we were to listen to the anthropologists we'd have to accept >that at one time tens of thousands of years ago all peoples had dark >skin, hair and eyes. That being said the genes that transmit skin, hair >and eye color--the darker hues are generally dominant while the lighter >hues are recessive. Simply put, in any match up the off spring are more >likely to exhibit through natural selection the characteristics of the >dominant unless recessives match up. Genetics is far more complex than >that, but this explanation is the easiest way to begin to understand. > >During the ice ages, populations which had migrated north--northern >Europe, Scandinavia, and west into the British Isles etc. and caught by >them underwent genetic mutations towards the lighter skin, hair & eye >colors traditionally associated with those areas today. Much later on >via invasions, conquests, occupations etc--just a couple of more recent >history, the Romans, Huns, etc. the gene pool became more mixed--no >longer was the blonde/red hair, blue/green eyes, and lily white skin of >the northerners was diluted through intermarriage etc. as the migrants >settled in. > >I understand that your question really is of a more recent nature than >all of that and doesn't really answer the question you are asking as to >attempt to pin-point the exact relative--you very well may not find that >answer. > >Dora Smith wrote: >> My great grandmother adn her mother had very dark skin and hair. The trait is found elsewhere among the descendants of William Raymond and Mercy Davis of a broad area of Worcester County, Massacusetts. My great grandmother was descended from William Raymond and Mercy Davis three times via a chain of first cousin marriages. Looking at family photos it further looks that as much as ancestors in Dorsetshire may possibly have had both dark skin and hair, and long faces, the long face came down the Raymond line, and the dark skin and hair came from the Davis line along with a distinctive but more ordinary looking face. One of the less inbred descendants of this set of marriages had Morgan eyes and eyebrows blended into the same look. >> >> I am dying of curiosity. Which line or lines really contributed the dark skin and hair? All lines in this part of my family tree are of English origin. Mitochondrial DNA is consistent with the notion that the dark skin and hair came straight down my maternal line from Anne the wife of Thomas King of Sudbury, but that isn't necessarily true. Particularly as teh face shape appears to be that which was typical of Dolar Davis's descendants, and he was from Kent, and of male line Saxon descent. Some of my Raymond relatives had a face typical of the Bishop clan. Could be partly that 19th century George Bishop clan hair, beard and sometimes glasses they had on. (I've been collecting photos from published genealogies for 20 years.) >> >> I'm also curious who had those downward slanting eyes. >> >> The Davis line were a clan of families that started out in Sudbury, which is in Middlesex County. It includes Hubbard and Rice, though those aren't the only families that fed it. >> >> There should be people on these lists who are descended from these lines. Whose lines were full of people with dark skin and hair? >> >> By the way, I've an idea that Mary Meads' father was not born in Lynn in 1614. >> >> >> First Generation >> >> 1. Mercy DAVIS: born on 23 Jul 1725 in Bedford, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 4 Feb 1810 in Holden, Worcester, >> Massachusetts. >> >> Second Generation >> >> 2. Daniel DAVIS: born on 16 Mar 1673 in Concord, Massachusetts; married on 27 Apr 1699 in Concord, Massachusetts; died >> on 11 Feb 1741 in Bedford, Massachusetts. >> >> 3. Mary HUBBARD: born on 3 Apr 1682 in Concord, Massachusetts; died on 2 Feb 1769 in Bedford. >> >> Third Generation >> >> 4. Samuel DAVIS: born 1635 or 7/11/1639 in Kent, England or Duxbury or Concord, Massachusetts; married on 11 Jan 1665 >> in Lynn, Massachusetts; died Living on 15 Mar 1714. >> >> 5. Mary MEADS (MEADDOWS) (MEDDOWES) : born about 1639; died on 2 Oct 1710 in Concord, Middlesex, >> Massachusetts. >> >> 6. Jonathan HUBBARD: born on 3 Jan 1658 in WEthersfeld, Connecticut; married on 15 Jan 1681 in Concord, >> Massachusetts; died on 15 Mar 1681/82 in Concord Massachusetts. >> >> 7. Hannah RICE: born in 1658 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 9 Apr 1747 in Concord, Middlesex, >> Massachusetts. >> >> Fourth Generation >> >> 8. Dolor DAVIS: born around 1590 in Kent, England; married on 29 Mar 1624 in East Farleigh, Kent, England; died in Jun >> 1673 in Barnstable, Massachusetts. >> >> 9. Margery WILLARD: died before 16 Feb 1667 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts. >> >> 10. Philip MEADOWS: born about 1614 in Lynn, Massachusetts; married in Apr 1641 in Lynn, Massachusetts. >> >> 11. Elizabeth IGGLEDEN: born on 20 Jan 1620 in Biddenden, Kent, England. >> >> 12. John HUBBARD: born in 1630 in England; married in 1648 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts. >> >> 13. Mary Sheafe MERRIAM: born in 1625 in Hadlow, Kent, England; died on 8 Mar 1721 in Hatfield, Massachusetts. >> >> 14. Samuel RICE: married on 18 Nov 1655 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 25 Feb 1685 in Marlboro, >> Massachusetts. >> >> 15. Elizabeth KING: born in 1635 in Dorset, England. >> Ahnentafel of Mercy DAVIS 13 Jan 2009 >> 2 >> >> Fifth Generation >> >> 18. Richard WILLARD: married on 28 Sep 1601 in Westgate, Margate, Kent, England; died on 20 Feb 1616 in >> Horsemonden, Kent, England. >> >> 19. Margarie HUMPHRIE: born in 1575 in Horsemonden, Kent, England; died about 11 Dec 1608 in Horsmonden, Kent, >> England. >> >> 24. George HUBBARD: born about 1594 in England; married in 1627; died in Jan 1683 in New Haven, Connecticut. >> >> 25. Mary BISHOP: born about 1633; died on 14 Sep 1675 in Guilford, Connecticut. >> >> 26. William MERRIAM: born on 21 May 1564 in Hadlow or Tudeley, Kent; married; died on 27 Nov 1635 in Hadlow, >> Kent. >> >> 27. Sarah BURGESS: born in 1559 in Goudhurst, Kent, England; died in Hadlowe, Kent, ENgland. >> >> 28. Edmund RICE Deacon: born about 1594 in Suffolk, ENgland; married on 15 Oct 1618 in Bury St Edmunds St Mary, >> Suffolk, England; died on 3 May 1663 in Marlboro, Middlesex, Massachusetts. >> >> 29. Thomazine FROST: died on 13 Jun 1654 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts. >> >> 30. Thomas KING: born about 1605 in Dorsetshire, England; married in Dorset, England; died on 3 May 1676 in Marlboro, >> Middlesex, Massachusetts. >> >> 31. Anne TYCE: born in 1608 in Dorsetshire, England; died on 24 Dec 1642 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts. >> >> Yours, >> Dora Smith >> Austin, TX >> tiggernut24@yahoo.com >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MAWORCES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message