After months of research, I can finally say with certainty that Martin Trantham’s wife was the great granddaughter of Pocahontas.

Wouldn’t that make for a great opening sentence?

A few hearts were broken and tears were shed at our last family reunion when I revealed my DNA showed no traces of Native American ancestors. Neither did my father’s or his 1st cousin’s. But does that rule out the possibility that Pocahontas was our ancestor as our grandparents claimed? Not by a long shot.

First, Pocahontas lived quite a long time ago. Since we inherit half of our DNA from each parent, by the time it travels seven or eight generations downstream the chances that we might still carry any of it are slim. Second, historical records can also support the notion in the absence of DNA. DNA is better naturally, but at some point the odds are against us.

Thumbing through one of the many genealogy book catalogs I picked up in Raleigh, I learned that the descendants of Pocahontas are well-documented. Pocahontas’ Descendants, Third Corrections and Additions contains the names of 6,500 known descendants spanning 7 generations! That’s either a lot of cousins or a lot of strangers, or both.

I’ve ordered the book from Amazon. While my turkey is overcooking and my stuffing stove-topping, I’ll be scanning each page looking for my name.

Kenfolk: Tranthams
Relation: Please, please, please let my name be listed!
Common ancestors: C’mon, let’s not push it!