My Indo-Powhatan 2nd Great-Grandmother
This is my 2nd great-grandmother Page Tongs / Townes. She is an Indigenous woman from the Pocahontas tribe, Powhatan.
She went by the name Tongs I’m assuming because she’s at least half Asian. Her father was an Indian named Vival.
Vival is a Sanskrit name that translates to “turn away”.
Page sometimes went by the last name Tongs instead of Townes. Her race is recorded by the State of Virginia as “Colored”.
The record to the left is the birth of her son, Stuart.
Her father was Vival Townes. You can find her marriage certificate on familysearch.org.
My grandfather Vival’s name was frequently misspelled in records. Probably due to an accent.
Vival written as विवल् in Sanskrit that translates to “turn away”.
DNA Analysis
Two of Vival’s grandchildren.
The slither of purple on my results represents Egypt. The slither of green on Ashley’s represents India.
These two pie charts represent 23andMe’s analysis of my and my cousin’s DNA.
I show Egyptian markers possibly due to our connection to Canaan (modern day Israel and Palestine). However, many Virginians report Coptic and Egyptian ancestry. Ashley herself is a direct descendent of Pharoah Ramses III through her paternal line.
I’m a Harris through my maternal line, however we don’t have a male specimen to test at this time.
And, my cousin, Harold Morris (Jefferson) shows Northern Indian and Pakistani markers. This alongside the Sanskrit name “Vival” indicates Brahmin ancestry.
These results prove my father has Indian ancestry on both sides. You can see an in-depth comparison of our 23andMe results here:
Powhatan: The Pocahontas Tribe
Tongs’ father-in-law, my 3rd great-grandfather Andrew Miles, and her husband my 2nd great-grandfather William Miles.
A full Pamunkey man to compare.
The Pamunkey are the Native American tribe Chris Brown belongs to.
The Pamunkey are historically part of the Powhatan Empire or Confederacy. The difference between a Confederacy and an Empire is merely the distribution of power.
The Jeffersons
Sally Hemings was the matriarch of Thomas Jefferson’s second secret “shadow family”.
I am not one of Sally Hemings’ grandchildren; rather my ancestors were sold from Monticello to a private buyer to one of the Hemings women. I am from Thomas Jefferson’s never-before-discovered third secret Native American family.
My father only has 2 Black third-great-grandparents. The rest of his ancestors are Colored — which can range ethnically from Indo-Indigenous people like Tongs to white-passing Mullatoes with distant Indigenous ancestry.
So, with that said, there is a stark contrast between us and the Hemings-Jefferson descendants who are just white and Black. My branch of the family is also Chicano. But we have distant relatives like Harold Morris Jefferson who are non-Latino Jeffersons.
While there are possibly hundreds of people, dead and alive, who can claim descent from Thomas Jefferson; I’m one of the only people in the world that can use his last name. There are maybe 20 of us total; and only 7 men alive.
Thomas Jefferson’s grandchildren from Powhatan include: my great-grandmother Estelle Johnson; my aunt, Peggy Ann Royall, a near full blood Native American. My Mexican-American father, Steven Todd Morris Jefferson. And the rest of his extended family.
Pictured above, my aunt Peggy Ann “Cane” Royall playing with her daughters at my childhood home, 1530 Franklin, with her aunt, my great-grandmother, Estelle Carey Johnson-Bolden, my father, Steven Todd Morris Jefferson. Photo taken by my grandmother, Geraldine Bolden-Morris Jefferson.
My great-aunt, Cane’s mom, Elizabeth Royall was the last caretaker of our land in Powhatan.
