Ancestors!

Smudging is one of my favorite practices. We must remember why we adhere to certain traditions, where they originated, who created them to preserve our heritage. So I decided to dig deeper into my Native American and African lineage. It has been a long journey and I have decided to share it here!

The practice of burning fragrant herbs and resins has been around a very long time. Incense burners have been found that date back to Egypt's 5th dynasty - that's from the 25th and 24th centuries BC - 4500 years ago. Burning sage — also known as smudging — is an ancient spiritual ritual. Smudging has been well established as a Native American cultural or tribal practice.

Except for my paternal grandfather, all of my ancestors were traced back to Southern Virginia. However, we all know that the first signs of human existence was found in Africa. The motherland! Mother of all civilisation! The cradle of mankind!

So who are you???

Slavery existed in the Americas, before the arrival of Europeans, as the Natives often captured and held other tribes' members as captives. Some of these captives were even forced to undergo human sacrifice under some tribes, such as the Aztecs. The Spanish followed with the enslavement of local aborigines in the Caribbean. As the native populations declined, mostly (nonsense) from European diseases, but also and significantly from forced exploitation and careless murder - true), they were often replaced by Africans imported through the large commercial slave trade.

By the 18th century, the overwhelming number of black slaves was such that Native American slavery was less commonly used. Africans, who were taken aboard slave ships to the Americas, were primarily obtained from their African homelands by coastal tribes who captured and sold them.

The high incidence of disease nearly always fatal to Europeans kept nearly all the slave capture activities confined to native African tribes. Rum, guns, and gunpowder were some of the major trade items exchanged for slaves. (http://www.realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Images_Olmec/Zouave/Brazil_data.htm)

My maternal grandmother's side trace waaayyyy back to Campbell County which is part of Lynchburg is a United States county situated in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Grounded on a tobacco cash crop economy, Campbell County was created in 1782 from part of Bedford County.

The independent city of Lynchburg, Virginia was established in 1786, was incorporated as a town in 1805, and became an independent city in 1852. It all started as a part of Campbell County but is not a part of any of the counties that surround it now.

The Native American tribes of the Monacan, Iroquois, and Cherokee were the original inhabitants of the Campbell County area but were later forced west due to the settlers' progress.

My paternal grandparents were from Dinwiddie County. The first inhabitants of Dinwiddie County, Virginia area were Paleo-Indians, before 8000 BC. They are believed to have been nomadic hunter-gatherers following animal migrations. At the time of European contact, Native Americans made their homes in the region. Dinwiddie County was formed May 1, 1752, from Prince George County. Dinwiddie County was the birthplace of Elizabeth (Burwell) Hobbs Keckly, a free black dressmaker who worked for two presidents' wives: Mrs. Jefferson Davis and later Mary Todd Lincoln. Thomas Day was also a native; he was well known later at Milton, North Carolina, as a free black cabinetmaker. Another native son was Dr. Thomas Stewart, perhaps America's first free black 18th-century rural physician.

My maternal Grandfather was from Alabama, after I finish VA, I'll be moving on to AL.

So far, I have reached the 1700's for many of my ancestors. Some were enslaved many were free natives.

If you are family, I hope you enjoy searching with me. If you're not, start your own genealogy search!

These are my favorite genealogy research sites...

familysearch.org

findagrave.com

accessgenealogy.com

familytreesearcher.com

usgenweb.org

usgwarchives.net

worldgenweb.org

archives.gov

okhistory.org/research/dawes

narf.org/nill/resources/roots.html#tribal

familytreemagazine.com/premium/indian-territory/

accessgenealogy.com/native/native-american-Indian-rolls.htm

Or you can reach out to changeournarrative.com or johnnieaboriginegenealogyresearch.com/researchservices