The Indian Heritage of our Grandchildren.
I don't know much about our Native American and Indian heritage,

but I would like to share what I do know for our grandchildren.

Painting by Lee Bogle from Ron Potter
Email Barbara Neel Blizzard and Ron Potter

Clyde's Headley and Smith Family Page


Our Headlee and Blizzard Heritage
by Barbara Neel Blizzard

Welcome to the web page dedicated to our grandchildren and the ancestors of siblings Nora, Rit, Margaret, Claude, Clyde Headley and his wife Sybil Newman, and Clyde's sister Golden Daisy Headley and her husband Harold Potter, and our Blizzard family as well. We have always been proud of our American Indian heritage from the cradle, so it is only fitting that we have a web page dedicated to our Native American ancestors. Because this is a web page for children, the words are of many colors like "Joseph's coat."

I think some of our Indian blood through the Smith line came from Shawnee and Cherokee who blessed me with shovel teeth. We also have some Romany as well. That would explain the Headley love of music and the barn dances they held on Saturday nights. They charged 10 cents of everyone who went to their barn dance.

Within a few years the twins Claude and Clyde were married to Gertrude Shanks and Sybil Newman. Then Claude, Clyde and Rit Headley moved to California in 1932 or 33, having first gone there in 1930 to scout the area after much coaxing by older brother Rit. My grandparents drove a pickup truck with a feather bed in back for their children to sleep on. Along the way they camped out, cooking on an open fire because in those days that was the way it was--no motels everywhere as there are today.

Uncle Rit used to eat my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother's biscuits because she was the best cook, my grandpa said. My grandparents  told stories about the past along with that Scottish delight, oatmeal....... An Englishman would have called it "horse feed," but it was a treat to a Scot.

Needless to say all that family history was bound to rub off. Grandma's family connection with Pocahontas was served up along with turkey at family gatherings. We were all proud to be descended from the Indian princess who saved Captain John Smith from her father's axe. Captain Smith's brother was my grandpa Clyde's ancestor William Smith of Willoughby, England, whose grandson Thomas came to American and married Barbara Schencking in New Kent Virginia in 1705. Ron Potter and I are descended from two of their grandsons; William Smith's sons, George "Thomas" and James.

The children of these two cousins Elizabeth Smith and William Smith were married in Knox Co., Tennessee and died in Iowa. Their granddaughter Caroline Smith was more than half Indian, of Shawnee and Cherokee Indian, but her mt-DNA was not. Caroline's husband George Headley was about half Indian, grandpa told me, but he couldn't compete with tales about someone like Pocahontas that my grandma told. He liked to say "Peanuts!" when he couldn't get a word in edgewise.

Grandpa's Indian heritage was second fiddle to Pocahontas every time. So grandpa would hrump and say "Peanuts. No one wants to hear about my Indian ancestors." And that's how our family gave up "a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush." Because, while my great-grandmother's cousin John Randolph of Roanoke did descend from Pocahontas, I have yet to prove we are.

My grandpa Clyde and his sibs were in fact no less than half Indian, and the other half English Welch/Irish and Scot. Cousin Glenn Headley proves our y-DNA line came from Europe, so as with Caroline's mt-DNA none of those direct lines were pure Native American.

Ron's mother Daisy and her brother Clyde, my grandpa, were more than half Indian, because their mother was more than half Indian, and their father was also of Indian descent, and do share the DNA marker 16111 with Native Americans.

It is a known fact that some of the Romanians who originated in India, went the Carolinas and Tennessee, called themselves Indians rather than Romany for better treatment, so that they could settle down in one place and farm. In the end many were sent on the Trail of Tears as well as the Native Americans to finally settle in Oklahoma and nearby states. Among these were many of my paternal "Bridges" relatives, but no direct ancestors of mine were involved.

Indian women who married Anglo men were not caught up in the system, which was the case with our families. That is, with the exception of my my step-mother Frances Marrow Neel, whose brother Leroy "Slim" Marrow is in the Oklahoma Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Native Americans and Romany said each was the other nationality to avoid whatever legal battle they were facing, or disclaimed any Indian or Romany ancestry whenever possible, to the point that their grandchildren don't even know who they are,and that's a shame.

All of our grandchildren are no less than one quarter American Indian. Ron's wife Pam is Wyandotte Indian plus Ron's Indian blood makes their grandchildren more than half Indian.
My daughter-in-law Mary is half Cherokee and half Irish, and proud of it. My other grandchildren's father, Jim, is about three-quarters Cherokee.
My husband Tillman Blizzard is more than half Indian and Rom from Maryland to South Carolina.

Who they were is reflected in the water

Where they came from
A map of Tribes of the Indian Nation
Native American Facts for Kids
An old black and white map of Indian Tribes

Ron and my Headley family is connected with North-Eastern Lenni Lenape tribes of the Delaware Indians.
Ron and my Smith family is connected with Virginia and Tennessee tribes.
Ron's grandchild are also connected with his wife Pam's Wyandotte Canadian and Eastern tribes.

Barbara's Family

My Kelton grandchildren are also connected with their father's Arkansas tribes.
My Blizzard grandchildren are also connected with their mother Mary's West Virginia tribes.

and their son Anthony recently graduated from High School with honors.
My Rowles family is connected with the Virginia tribes of Chief Powhatan, through my great-grandmother's cousin, Virginia statesman John Randolph was a direct descendant of Indian Princess Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan.

These are our Blizzard children and grandchildren in 2002

The Ron Potter Family

These are Ron Potter’s son Bryan's children

A True Story
told by Ron Potter about his father's family

I think I may have told you about my history on my father's side, the Hall family. In 1832 they were massacred by the Sioux who stole two I think as I remember of the g,great-Aunts---sister's of my g,great-grandmother Temperance Hall Potter married to Thomas Potter mother of Vishni Potter---and took them to there camp. When the girls were in the Indian camp they saw their mother’s hair hanging on a pole.

I read the story years ago not knowing that they were my ggreat-Aunts. It started the war. I think it was called the massacre of Indian creek in Illinois. Two of the brothers escaped. They were out in the fields working and saw it from afar. My g,great-grand mother from the Hubble line Louisa Hall Hubble was married to Brower Hubble parents of great-grandmother Helen Hubble Potter married to Vishni Potter. They lived out in the prairie and were good friends. They were said to have stopped by for supper many times with Chief Waubonsie, the chief of the Pottawatomie. He later traded some horse's to get the girls back to the family. There is a whole book about this some were, but I lost the one I had.

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Our Indian Ancestors came from the East coast and migrated Westward.

Our Smith and Headley ancestors migrated from Eastern America to the Mid-West in the early 1800's, settling in Iowa. Caroline Smith's maternal line has been tested to determine Indian mtDNA ancestry, which turned out to be Haplogroup H. We now know her maternal line came from Christina Ollesdotter of Sweden, but she also has the Native American 16111 marker of Haplogroup A. That means her Native American ancestors were not through her direct maternal  ancestry, which is the mother's mother's mother, etc. but was more likely other grandmothers and great-grandmothers. 

Kennewick Man of Washington state, living there over eight thousand years ago, is similar to the eastern woodland Indians. If he came from the East coast of America he was a long way from home, or else part of the original group who migrated Eastward. Some scientists claim he originated in China.