So to find out I just wanted to apply for the associate membership to the Patawomeck tribe. It seams from what their historian says there is one mistake in my line. They say that quote:”
Here is an excerpt from William Deyo's book about Monteith "updates and revisions" section:
There needs to be some clarification in regard to another child that so many people have claimed was a daughter of Henry Meese, namely Grace, the wife of John Ashton. It is important that this is NOT a family tradition but was inferred by a deed of gift (a cow) of Henry Meese to Mary, the daughter John and Grace Ashton. Many believed that this meant that Grace was a daughter of Henry Meese, which was impossible. First of all, Henry Meese, who was indeed very close to the Ashton family (including Col. Peter Ashton, who is strongly believed to have married another daughter of Chief Wahanganoche because of the gift recorded in the Virginia Council minutes that the Chief gave to Peter Ashton), only made a deed of gift to ONE child of John and Grace Ashton, named “Mary”, and made no gifts to any of Mary’s siblings. This appears to have been a frequent gesture made when a person was a godparent of a child. Henry Meese was likely the godfather of Mary Ashton, who was very likely named after Henry’s Indian wife, which is why his wife has been called “Mary”, as well. We now have proof that Grace could not have been a daughter of Henry Meese. Meese was born in 1628, which is inferred by the baptismal records of the English Overwarton Parish in Oxfordshire. Even though his own baptismal record is lacking, he is listed in the English Visitation of Oxfordshire between the baptismal records of other siblings and his place as a numbered son is given. Grace, wife of John Ashton, was married to her husband before 21 June 1651, when she made an oath, as the wife of John Ashton, and relict of William Best, deceased, that Best’s inventory was a true account. Best’s inventory was made on 4 May 1650 in Warwick County, Virginia. Grace was a widow of William Best by that date and may have been married to him for a number of years. Even if she had only married William Best in 1649, the year in which John Ashton appeared in the records of Warwick County, and was only 16 years old when she married him, her birth would have been in 1633, when Henry Meese was only 5 years old! Grace was more likely to have been the wife of William Best for a few years and was probably older than Henry Meese, who was called her father by many! Grace was apparently the daughter or very close relative of Dr. William Frizer, who made her the executor of his estate and gave large tracts of land to her children.”
So if true that breaks my blood line to the Native American lineage. It was a cool though and at heart I still have some Native American in me. Unfortunately my bloodline can not be recognized by the Patawomeck tribe. I’ll continue to do some more research to see what I can find. History is hard when so many records are lost and some things are inaccurate.
