Ancestral Roots

How Does It Feel To Be A Hatfield?

I don’t know just yet, but I’m willing to find out.

I can seriously ask people, “Don’t you know who I am!?” and mean it. Don’t take my word for it. My publication, “You’re Related To Who?!” has screenshots from Ancestry.com. Not just people I’m related to, but updated DNA results.

Finding out that I am the GGD of Henry VIII and related to many of his wives was way cool, to say the least. I think it’s totally badass to be a descendant of Mary I and Elizabeth I. While I know that Diane and Charles are 13th cousins; we share a common ancestor, which means I am related to not only the two of them but their offspring as well. Yes, I’m a distant cousin of the future king of England, William.

There has always been a suspicion on mom’s side of the family that there may have been some Native American peoples in the tree. Their only suspicion is that my grandfather (mom’s dad) could “catch a tan standing in the driveway” while the rest of us could not. We knew he had a rocky upbringing as a child and that he had been separated from the rest of his (half) siblings and was raised by the Plummer family. I have a thick file of which I have yet to read from a new cousin from that side of the tree who just happens to be a professional genealogist and teaches it at a local tech school in Delaware. She investigated the murder of my grandfather's father and the tree going out and down. Me? I went up which means I went back in time.

That’s when I came across the incredible information that I am the 11th GGD of Pocahontas herself.

Now not too long ago I discovered my connection to a famous US family, the Hatfields. The Hatfields were in a long-standing feud with the McCoy’s. I’m not going to rewrite it here. It’s been done to death. See for yourself.

There have been books written, stories told, heritage society’s established. Hell, even Kevin Costner was in a movie about these two warring families. So what’s going to make my story stand apart from the rest?

One, I’m not trying to get a Hollywood heavy hitter to back the project or even be involved in it. Two, I’m going to tell the story from the eyes of a grandchild. Because that’s what I am, after all. Their grandchild. I want there to be a kind of wonder to it all. Magic. To see the faces on the screen and in the books and know that I come from them.

Are the old stories true? Was it just dumbness and pettiness that caused so many to lose their lives? How are the descendants of both families fairing today as we are many and we are still here.

What will my cousins think when they find out that I am part Native American? Part royal? Part of the hung and part of the accusers? Part who knows what else?

I guess there’s only one way to find out.

I’ve ordered two books written by family members and I have contacted the Kentucky Historical Society. Not to mention tagging Roz earlier today for some guidance in my search.

Shit is about to get real up in here, folks.

Stay tuned.