Beginning March 2nd, 2020 the Mailing Lists functionality on RootsWeb will be discontinued. Users will no longer be able to send outgoing emails or accept incoming emails. Additionally, administration tools will no longer be available to list administrators and mailing lists will be put into an archival state.
Administrators may save the emails in their list prior to March 2nd. After that, mailing list archives will remain available and searchable on RootsWeb
Hi, Pat~ I think that it's very necessary to avoid generalizations. If you
go to Champaign Co., Ohio, you can't swing a dead cat (sorry, cat) without
hitting a Colbert descendant. As far as I know, they're Causasian, but that
may be changing.
----- Original Message -----
From: <PogosBill(a)aol.com>
To: <COLBERT-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 8:30 AM
Subject: Re: Geneology
> Sorry I made a reference to most Colbert's being African American. My
> husband is white...however, he is a retired military man and we have been
all over
> the country and the world and have only met one or two white
Colberts...all
> the rest have been black. Plus, we live in Georgia now, and the only
white
> Colberts in our town are my husband, two sons and grandchildren. So I
guess my
> comment is based on that. My husband's grandfather was a bigamist...this
has
> greatly put a crimp into my research for his family...he married the first
of
> his (at least two???) wives in AL, but we believe he might have been from
GA
> through the remnants of oral history. Through searches on the internet
it
> seems that there were a lot of French traders who came down through Canada
and
> intermarried with Indians....so I have no idea. I am sure that the name
> Colbert....like so many other names....can be found all over Europe, in a
variety
> of spellings. But, unfortunately, I have not been able to get out of AL
due
> to William Alfred's misdeeds. Colbert is not a common name, but seems
more
> common in the South than anywhere else I have been. We have a Colbert, GA
as
> well as a Colbert County, AL.
>
> I have apparently caused quite a stir with my original reply to someone.
> Sorry about that...but it has finally gotten me some mail!!!
>
> Pat
>
>
> ==============================
> 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
>
>
Sorry I made a reference to most Colbert's being African American. My
husband is white...however, he is a retired military man and we have been all over
the country and the world and have only met one or two white Colberts...all
the rest have been black. Plus, we live in Georgia now, and the only white
Colberts in our town are my husband, two sons and grandchildren. So I guess my
comment is based on that. My husband's grandfather was a bigamist...this has
greatly put a crimp into my research for his family...he married the first of
his (at least two???) wives in AL, but we believe he might have been from GA
through the remnants of oral history. Through searches on the internet it
seems that there were a lot of French traders who came down through Canada and
intermarried with Indians....so I have no idea. I am sure that the name
Colbert....like so many other names....can be found all over Europe, in a variety
of spellings. But, unfortunately, I have not been able to get out of AL due
to William Alfred's misdeeds. Colbert is not a common name, but seems more
common in the South than anywhere else I have been. We have a Colbert, GA as
well as a Colbert County, AL.
I have apparently caused quite a stir with my original reply to someone.
Sorry about that...but it has finally gotten me some mail!!!
Pat
I am sorry if you thought I was passing on misinformation...I was just
stating things that had been told to me. I have not delved into the slave situation
but very briefly and was trying to relay to the other person that I have no
idea whether or not my Colbert has any African Amercian blood, but it did not
appear to be so. As for the bump on the head....the person who wrote me about
that refered me to a website with a great deal of information about the
subject. Considering that my husband's other line, Butts, has passed down a
certain shape of ear (and I have pictures to prove it) I guess anything is possible.
I would hope that others, as I do, take what they find on the internet to be
a clue to check out, not a fact to add to their personal history. Happy
hunting!
There sure is a lot of innuendo and misinformation in this exchange! This
past year I posted the biography of a famous French member of the court
named Colbert, whose ancestry was Scottish. What we know is that some
Colberts are European, some are African-American, some are Native American
and some are a combination.
My own line is that of Jesse Colbert, b. ca 1775, probably in Va. There
is a possibility that some of the Virginia Colberts descend from the Calvert
who was kidnapped from Md. and held in Va.
If the reference below is to French Guyana or Ghana- I can't tell. The
latter was not a French colony. It is true that many slaves carried the last
names of the plantation owners, but many chose their own names when they
could; e.g., Frederick Douglass was called "Wright" before he escaped from
Md. and changed his name. When Africans were caught and sold as slaves in
the Caribbean or the Americas their own names were usually taken from them.
Lastly, I wouldn't count on a large knot at the back of someone's skull
to be a good genealogical clue. A good knock on the head could produce the
same effect..
.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Dunn Brown" <mdbrown(a)mn.rr.com>
To: <COLBERT-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 4:27 PM
Subject: Re: Geneology
> Dear Pat, Did you write to me specifically regarding William Colbert or
> was this letter generic on the Colbert message board? In either case,
> you make a broad statement that "most Colberts are black" without
> back-up data. My William and Sophia Colbert were white, born about 1800
> in PA. Although I have been unable to trace the line further back, I
> know that the Colbert name is (1) probably originally French (2) Hugenot
> (3) who fled to England and Ireland from whence they immigrated to the
> Colonies from early on. There are Colberts today in Ireland and England
> although it is not a common name. There were Colberts early in
> Maryland. One of them, a William Colbert, married into the Stroud
> family of Stroudsburg, PA. He was a circuit riding Methodist preacher.
> Their son William became a printer in in Philadelphia. I learned of
> them researching my William Colbert in Philadelphia whose origins are I
> don't know where. One of the problems with the name is the diversity
> among spellings. Even the census records compile Calvert, Culvert,
> Colbert together. I have no solid information for you about your
> William Colbert but I want you to know that not all Colberts are Black
> or Native American although there seem to be a great many of them
> searching for their ancestry as well. M. K. Brown
> On Wednesday, July 30, 2003, at 10:50 AM, PogosBill(a)aol.com wrote:
>
> > Well, as best I know my husband does not have any African American
> > blood in his line. I know that my husband's grandfather was white
> > (although I do not have a picture of him). They were married in Belle
> > Ellen, AL in a garden ceremony from what has been passed on to me.
> > Since AL is still a long way from being liberal when it comes to
> > Black/White marriages I can pretty well assume that William Alfred
> > Colbert was white...cause back in those days there would have been a
> > lynching not a wedding.
> > However, sometime last year I was contacted by a girl who told me about
> > Mulgeions...that is not spelled write, sorry. Anyway, she said that
> > Mulgeions were Black mixed with Appalachians and that people with that
> > connection often had a knot at the base of the back of their skull. My
> > husband does have a large round knot in that place. But, on the other
> > hand, he does not have any other features...nor do our children..that
> > would suggest African American blood.
> > My suspicions are that the Colbert line was French...and more likely
> > would have married into Indians. My husband and his father had very
> > high cheekbones. But then...on the other hand...there were some
> > Africans that came from areas where the features were very fine, more
> > European looking. Had a black friend and co-worker in Germany who told
> > me that once...can't remember what tribe it was or where from in Africa.
> > Who knows....and I am not sure that I will ever find out. It does
> > appear that most Colbert's are black. Not sure why that is. Are you
> > Black?? Since it is a French name (I think that is correct) it seems
> > it would most likely have been passed on to slaves from their owners.
> > But...on the other hand...was Ghiani (also probably not spelled right!)
> > an African nation...and wasn't that controlled by France...now or at
> > one time? Were slaves taken from there? Did they take their names
> > with them? For some reason I thought that I had heard slaves always
> > took the names of their masters...but they may have changed names after
> > the CW was over. I certainly would have if it was me...unless of
> > course I had somekind of positive attachment to my master. (Hard to
> > believe!) My husband's maternal grandmother's side of the family were
> > actually slaveholders in Madison, GA. That has been a real eye opener
> > for me. My side of the family was from the North so until working on
> > my husband!
> > 's side of the family had never really been that much aware of the
> > Civil War, or slaves or any of that. Since then I have read a LOT of
> > documents and seen LOTS of old newspapers....hard to believe!
> > Pat
> >
> >
> > ==============================
> > 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
> >
>
>
> ==============================
> 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
>
Dear Pat, Did you write to me specifically regarding William Colbert or
was this letter generic on the Colbert message board? In either case,
you make a broad statement that "most Colberts are black" without
back-up data. My William and Sophia Colbert were white, born about 1800
in PA. Although I have been unable to trace the line further back, I
know that the Colbert name is (1) probably originally French (2) Hugenot
(3) who fled to England and Ireland from whence they immigrated to the
Colonies from early on. There are Colberts today in Ireland and England
although it is not a common name. There were Colberts early in
Maryland. One of them, a William Colbert, married into the Stroud
family of Stroudsburg, PA. He was a circuit riding Methodist preacher.
Their son William became a printer in in Philadelphia. I learned of
them researching my William Colbert in Philadelphia whose origins are I
don't know where. One of the problems with the name is the diversity
among spellings. Even the census records compile Calvert, Culvert,
Colbert together. I have no solid information for you about your
William Colbert but I want you to know that not all Colberts are Black
or Native American although there seem to be a great many of them
searching for their ancestry as well. M. K. Brown
On Wednesday, July 30, 2003, at 10:50 AM, PogosBill(a)aol.com wrote:
> Well, as best I know my husband does not have any African American
> blood in his line. I know that my husband's grandfather was white
> (although I do not have a picture of him). They were married in Belle
> Ellen, AL in a garden ceremony from what has been passed on to me.
> Since AL is still a long way from being liberal when it comes to
> Black/White marriages I can pretty well assume that William Alfred
> Colbert was white...cause back in those days there would have been a
> lynching not a wedding.
> However, sometime last year I was contacted by a girl who told me about
> Mulgeions...that is not spelled write, sorry. Anyway, she said that
> Mulgeions were Black mixed with Appalachians and that people with that
> connection often had a knot at the base of the back of their skull. My
> husband does have a large round knot in that place. But, on the other
> hand, he does not have any other features...nor do our children..that
> would suggest African American blood.
> My suspicions are that the Colbert line was French...and more likely
> would have married into Indians. My husband and his father had very
> high cheekbones. But then...on the other hand...there were some
> Africans that came from areas where the features were very fine, more
> European looking. Had a black friend and co-worker in Germany who told
> me that once...can't remember what tribe it was or where from in Africa.
> Who knows....and I am not sure that I will ever find out. It does
> appear that most Colbert's are black. Not sure why that is. Are you
> Black?? Since it is a French name (I think that is correct) it seems
> it would most likely have been passed on to slaves from their owners.
> But...on the other hand...was Ghiani (also probably not spelled right!)
> an African nation...and wasn't that controlled by France...now or at
> one time? Were slaves taken from there? Did they take their names
> with them? For some reason I thought that I had heard slaves always
> took the names of their masters...but they may have changed names after
> the CW was over. I certainly would have if it was me...unless of
> course I had somekind of positive attachment to my master. (Hard to
> believe!) My husband's maternal grandmother's side of the family were
> actually slaveholders in Madison, GA. That has been a real eye opener
> for me. My side of the family was from the North so until working on
> my husband!
> 's side of the family had never really been that much aware of the
> Civil War, or slaves or any of that. Since then I have read a LOT of
> documents and seen LOTS of old newspapers....hard to believe!
> Pat
>
>
> ==============================
> 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
>
Well, as best I know my husband does not have any African American blood in his line. I know that my husband's grandfather was white (although I do not have a picture of him). They were married in Belle Ellen, AL in a garden ceremony from what has been passed on to me. Since AL is still a long way from being liberal when it comes to Black/White marriages I can pretty well assume that William Alfred Colbert was white...cause back in those days there would have been a lynching not a wedding.
However, sometime last year I was contacted by a girl who told me about Mulgeions...that is not spelled write, sorry. Anyway, she said that Mulgeions were Black mixed with Appalachians and that people with that connection often had a knot at the base of the back of their skull. My husband does have a large round knot in that place. But, on the other hand, he does not have any other features...nor do our children..that would suggest African American blood.
My suspicions are that the Colbert line was French...and more likely would have married into Indians. My husband and his father had very high cheekbones. But then...on the other hand...there were some Africans that came from areas where the features were very fine, more European looking. Had a black friend and co-worker in Germany who told me that once...can't remember what tribe it was or where from in Africa.
Who knows....and I am not sure that I will ever find out. It does appear that most Colbert's are black. Not sure why that is. Are you Black?? Since it is a French name (I think that is correct) it seems it would most likely have been passed on to slaves from their owners. But...on the other hand...was Ghiani (also probably not spelled right!) an African nation...and wasn't that controlled by France...now or at one time? Were slaves taken from there? Did they take their names with them? For some reason I thought that I had heard slaves always took the names of their masters...but they may have changed names after the CW was over. I certainly would have if it was me...unless of course I had somekind of positive attachment to my master. (Hard to believe!) My husband's maternal grandmother's side of the family were actually slaveholders in Madison, GA. That has been a real eye opener for me. My side of the family was from the North so until working on my husband!
's side of the family had never really been that much aware of the Civil War, or slaves or any of that. Since then I have read a LOT of documents and seen LOTS of old newspapers....hard to believe!
Pat
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/iQJ.2ACEB/16.19.61.1
Message Board Post:
Are your Colberts African American?
God bless
Gordon
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: colbert, mcpeak, whittaker
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/iQJ.2ACEB/348.360.361.363.366.37...
Message Board Post:
I am looking for info on John Thomas Colbert born in Surry county. NC He married Cordelia McPeak born in Floyd County, VA in 1866 so I guess J.T."s birth date is around there to. They married supposedly on 2-20-1890
They had a daughter, Myrtle Dove who'd be my maternal gramma [i was adopted] John thomas's Dad was John and his Mom was Mary J. That is all I have.
Does anyone know if members of this Colbert family served in the War of 1812
and were with the American forces under General William Henry Harrison,
actually commanded by Generall James Winchester, who were defeated at the River
Raisin Massacre?
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/iQJ.2ACEB/544.1.2
Message Board Post:
I am interested in the Colbert from Randolph County IL. My gggrandparents were Philip Colbert and Amelia Rauch. They had a son, Edgar. I know that the family came from Kaskaskia, IL before it flooded. That's all I know.
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/iQJ.2ACEB/544.1.1
Message Board Post:
I am interested in finding out about William "Bill" Colbert or his Family. Bill moved to Nashville/Madison, Tenn. in the late 1930s with his brother Donald, his widowed mother Ruby, form Stafford County, Virginia. Both of the boys were young at that time. Bill later worked during WWII for Vultee Aircraft Company. His brother was killed during WWII. If you have any information on this family I would like very much to hear from you. Bill and Don were born in the mid.-1920s.
Thanks,
Henry Moncure
henrymoncure(a)yahoo.com