World History

Last edited Fri Mar 24, 2023, 03:44 PM - Edit history (3)

We don't know their names. We only know that he was from France and she was Algonquin. She was said to be sweet and perceptive. That was more than two centuries ago on my mother's side in her maternal line.

My second known European American immigrant married the daughter of this French/Algonquin couple. He was from England. We know his last name was Cooley, which I have since learned is Welsh. They met at a Methodist Camp Revival in Florida (we think maybe Florida, New York?), and they lived in Vermont. They were happy for many years, raising several children together, until she died in childbirth. He encouraged our family to keep speaking a little French in her honor (we still do, a little). He is said to have declared in his grief that she was a "real princess" (please do not misunderstand: calling a woman a "real princess" back then meant that she was so good a person that she would have deserved to be a real princess).

My father's side also has Native American ancestry. About 160 years ago, a man with mixed Irish/English ancestry immigrated to Texas, where he married a lady named Zoe Brant, said to be from the Mohawk tribe in Canada. She was said to be feisty and adventurous. Later, we found out that her father had fought with the Union Army to help free the slaves. Tragically, Zoe died within the first year of marriage, in the childbirth that produced my father's grandfather. The young father, in shock and totally ignorant about babies, accepted the offer of very kind family friends named the Johnsons. He left the baby with them and sent money to them periodically. and came to visit the child a few times. If you are related to these wonderful Johnsons who did this, I still bless them for their kindness.