Dorene Soiret has been conducting research into her family genealogy since the early 1980s. She has a special interest in her maternal family line. Her family roots run deep in Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. Maternal family surnames (direct family line descent): Adkins, Bromley, Cornstalk Dameron/Damron, Drake, Franklin, Hatfield, Jarrell, Lucas, McComas, McCoy, Murray, Owens, Parker, Row(e), See, Shelton and Vanderpool.
Dorene is a confirmed member of the Adkins family and she’s here to set the record straight about Bluesky Cornstalk and Parker Adkins — the REAL STORY as passed down unchanged in our family from generation to generation for 250 years.
Very interesting. Love reading these stories.
Thank you, Arley!
hello, my name is antonette stewart , and i have been doing my childrens family research for at least 30 years now.my children’s father is related to chief cornstalk , chief cornstalk is his fifth great grandfather. i would like to thank you for sharing all this and the hard work you have done.
Thank you for the kind words, Antonette. I am constantly adding more information. Please check back often ;).
love reading this. I too am running into the Charity/Randolph ,Parker/Bluesky in my Family tree……you have been so helpful in getting things straight with the resources you have posted thank you for that
Hi, Martha :). Great to hear from another cousin! I’m so happy to share what I know with our family. Thank you for the kind words!
I am extensively searching my heritage and I am a descendent of Elizabeth Parker, Sherrod Adkins, Charity, Chief Cornstalk, Owens, Bowens, Keziah, Hezekiah, Elijah…I could go on and on. There are so many, my trees can’t even keep up. I am also of Cherokee descent. I just need some help, I think.
Hi, Kara. I’d like to hear more and figure out how we connect. I sent a message to your website with my contact info ;).
Hi, I am a decendant through Littleberry Adkins. How can I connect with you. I have done DNA test.
Hi, Cassie. Thank you for your kind offer. I have all the family DNA that I need at present. Have a nice weekend 🙂
Hi! My father was adopted in 1935, I found his biological father who was Ray Vernon Adkins. A direct descendant of Mary Bluesky and Parker Adkins. I happen to stumble on your website and have read some of your blog. It is very interesting and I love learning about the family that I should have had.
Hi, Dana! I am happy to hear you are enjoying the information ;). Welcome to the family! We have a BIG and really wonderful family. I hope you get to know more of us!
Good Evening, I think you are so amazing and the hard work of diligent research seems to be a special gift you possess! I too am connected to this line through William & Elizabeth Adkins. Parker Adkins was the brother of my 6th GGrandmother Anna Adkins b 1710. Now I am a novice and I have such a respect for people who stick with the program until they’re completely satisfied they’ve carried it as far as they can. Another thing that fascinates me is I think you may have said your were raised in W.Va….my mother who just passed recently was from Beckly. But my ancestors from Tennessee and North Carolina.
My mother was the first in our extended family to move from the south to Penna in the 1930″s. I have my trees on Ancestry and feel they need improvement. I myself had my DNA tested and Native American did not show up. But my first cousin did through 23 & me in 2018 and she showed 3 %. I have photos of 2 of my ggreat grandmas & it’s plain as day they are Native American. I documented their lines, marriages, etc back to some fascinating people in our history, My GGreat grandma looked like an Indian in white man’s clothes.lol On another branch I just discovered my direct lineage to Abigail Raven Canoe. She married my 4th GGrandpa Charles B Roark. Jane Roark their descendant was my 2nd GGrandma.
I also just uploaded my DNA to gedmatch yesterday. Honestly I feel like your stories are mine too…..Everyone always asked me if I was an Indian in my youth whenever I got a tan. But these days I am very pale because I’m cautious with the sun especially at my age. So they now say “You look like a white Indian !” Hahahaha.
I wish you all the success with the next part of this big dynamic adventure we are all on together!
Warmest Regards,
Good Evening, Philene.
Thank you for the nice compliments! I really do love researching and learning more about our family. I’m happy to hear that you are enjoying it too. Stick with it and you will continue to improve with more experience. It is great to hear that you uploaded your DNA to GEDmatch. You will love it. There are lots of great tools to utilize there. Don’t be intimidated. If you don’t know how to use some of the tools, you can find great tutorials on YouTube. Thank you for taking the time to share some of your story with me.
Take good care.
I need to tell you that you are a beautiful radiant soul, inwardly and outwardly. Also I really admire that you post creative endeavors of family on this site. I really am grateful to see how you use this platform for the benefit of so many. Loved the man who played the Native American flute……Well Done!
Thank you again, Philene for the kind words. I’ll let David know he’s got a fan club brewing 😉
Hello, my name is Talya Parsons. I am a direct descendant of Kesiah on my maternal side. I am planning to have my DNA tested(I have the kit ordered) from Ancestry.com. My paternal great great great grandmother was supposedly full Native American and I would love to find out .
Hi, Talya 🙂 That’s so exciting! Please check back and fill me in on the results. 😉
Hello,
I came across this great website in my continual research into my Adkins family history. I am a descendent of both Parker V. Adkins (b. 1720) and his brother William Adkins Jr. (b. 1718) I’m a descendent of Parker V. Adkins through both his daughter Keziah Adkins (b. 1754) and Millington Adkins (b.1755). I’m a descendent of William Adkins Jr. through his daughter Agnes Adkins (b. 1740).
I’ve done the Ancestry DNA and my results came back with a mix of Scotch, Irish, English, and German ancestry. I noticed that DNA Consultants seems to have a more refined method of identifying Native American ancestry. I’m considering purchasing one of their tests. Which one would you recommend? Also, are there any other companies you would recommend?
Thank you for all of this great information.
– Matt
Hello, Cousin Matt
Always great to meet new family :). Thank you for reaching out! I am happy to hear that my research has been helpful :). I strive to add more information as I find it, including new DNA developments. I believe it is SO important to stay current with the DNA research. The information to be had is growing by leaps and bounds on what seems to be an almost daily basis. Most of the companies have something positive to offer their customers, so the way I look at it is that no one is wasting money. They are all valuable tools in one respect or another to learn more about your family. For example, with 23andMe you get a lot of bang for your buck because a customer is informed of their general mitochondrial haplogroup (male customers receive Y-DNA and their mother’s mitochondrial haplogroup) and cousin matches. Ancestry is great for building your family tree, looking up documents and cousin matches. FTDNA has their Y-DNA projects and cousin matches. What’s great is that all of those companies’ SNP-based autosomal raw data can be uploaded to GEDmatch.com where there are so many amazing free tools to use (cousin matches into the thousands [with a Tier 1 membership, make that tens of thousands and other tools of a more complex level], admixture tools, one-to-one matches, one-to-many matches, archaic DNA etc., etc.). The only drawback to those companies’ tests (with the exception of GEDmatch) is that they have SO FEW populations in their computer algorithms to match a customer’s DNA — and they are SORELY lacking in Native American populations, especially Northeastern Native American DNA. What I really appreciate about DNA Consultants’ tests is that they are more forensic-level tests. They do not use their customers’ DNA to derive their populations. They are STR-based and the studies from which they draw their populations were conducted by highly-respected universities and institutions. (The raw data from DNA Consultants’ tests cannot be uploaded to GEDmatch or to other DNA companies for the simple reason that the technology DNAC uses is different — STR-based rather than SNP — so, therefore, it is not compatible.) Their populations database has over 500 specific populations to match a customers’ DNA — 60 Native American populations alone and other indigenous populations from around the globe, i.e., Polynesian, Indigenous Australian, etc. — and that figure is growing! Another aspect that I really appreciate about DNA Consultants is that they are on the cutting-edge and are well-respected in the true professional community (meaning scientists and medical professionals who are not their competitors at rival testing companies).
As far as which test I would recommend to find your Native American, it depends on what you want to accomplish and your budget. A great starting-off point is the Basic American Indian test. That will show you your top 50 populations (which will not change with any of the tests from DNAC unless you are updating after a period of time and they’ve added some new studies or you are taking the Rare Genes from History test which matches you up against archaic DNA, which does not supply your 50 top matches). If you decide later you want to upgrade to the full Native American Fingerprint Plus test, again, the top 50 stay the same, but you are provided with a much more in-depth analysis of those top 50 matches. You can always upgrade later to the full test without retesting and pay the difference between the two tests. Below I have placed links to sample tests for each so that you can decide which test is best for you:
Basic American Indian sample test: https://dnaconsultants.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Master.Basic-Am-Indian.CERT_.012820.pdf
Native American Fingerprint Plus test: https://dnaconsultants.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/website.NA_.DNA-fingerprint-plus.101620.pdf
I hope that helps!
Thanks so much for all the helpful information. I think I may try the Basic American Indian test and will let you know the results when they come in. Thanks again, Matt
You’re welcome, Matt :). Anytime.
Hi Dorene,
I received the results from the Basic American Indian test and it came back with “very significant levels of American Indian ancestry”. It also listed that I have two alleles in the Native American II marker test. I wasn’t sure what that meant though. I can email you the results if you like.
Thanks,
Matt
Hi, Matt 🙂
Are you a member of Adkins Family History Group on FB? You can reach out to me there. I look forward to hearing from you!
Hello i am looking for information on Lecetta E Adkins born ABT 1837 died abt 1910 .she was Married to Joseph Gibson abt 1870 in Lincoln West Virginia ..some say she is the daughter of John T Adkins and Rebecca Smith i am looking for Documents that prove that any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hello, Martha. I am not familiar with that line. I recommend you try the Adkins Family History Group on FB. There you will find a bunch of my family who are very versed in Adkins genealogy. You might find some answers there 😉
I searched and didn’t see Mintha Parker mentioned. As she was supposedly Elizabeth’s mother and was Shawnee and it appears that his brother Joseph married a Cornstalk, it couldn’t be a reach that Parker had children with MBC. I see that there may even be debate over Mintha Parker, though.
I fit in as a Bowles, and in my shared dna, I find Ruth Bowles Thacker (wife of Benjamin Thacker whose mother is likely mistaken as MBC) in a solid grouping. Where it gets interesting is in other confusing Ancestry trees that lack documentation, naturally, Diwali Bowles is listed as her brother in MORE TREES LIKE THIS. Lucky Thacker also married into the Adkins family.
I am glad DNA is being challenged because I am working to prove the Bowles DNA project has 2 unidentified flaws. NPEs are already tricky enough, but I scour my shared dna, along with a distant cousin’s, and I have groupings showing the contractions. Also, about the Cherokee testing company you use…I ordered a test for my significant other, and it showed he is not Cherokee; however, he was identified with a non-federally recognized tribe called Lumbee near us. What is odd: his Ancestry test shows NO Native American dna. I only have 1%, but I have the Cornstalks, Montoys, and Powhatans in too many shared matches’ trees when working in my Bowles dna. My cousin has none, but her matches’ trees show the same. I wonder if my ancestor George Bowles was not a child or grandchild of Diwali Bowles, but the y-dna would say not. I believe when NPEs happen so far back it takes a deep dig into ancestral dna for a comparative view, not just the written family tree…and I would imagine chromosome comparison could also be misleading.
Of course, all of this includes the Adkins line, so I should say, cousin, I am happy I’m found your research. I don’t know where Adkins belongs in my tree, yet, but I am sure to find the connection by chance at some point. My research time is spent building out bare trees and comparing common ancestors (some matches have too many to count) and making notes for my own confirmations.
Hi, Lisa D.
I would be interested in trying to figure out where we connect in the Adkins family. I’ll try to answer your questions the best I can because I am not familiar with your family lines :).
Sounds like you’ve done a lot of work…and I love that you’re using DNA to prove your lines…DNA doesn’t lie, does it? I look forward to hearing how your study turns out. To answer your question about Mitha/Mintha Parker, I did not cover Elizabeth’s mother because the focus of the blog is Bluesky Cornstalk and Parker Adkins.
Thank you for your comments!
Do you need another dna test subject . I am
Direct male
Descendant of John Thomas Adkins, William
Adkins, Parker Vincent , Hezikiah Sr and Jr Adkins. Just now discovering my heritage.
Best Regards,
John W. Adkins Jr
Hi, John. Great to meet you and thank you for your kind offer. If you have taken a Y DNA test and have a GEDmatch number, I’d be happy to take a look at your DNA results. If you’ve taken a Basic American test from DNA Consultants, you can include that too :).
Thanks for replying. I am waiting for results from two kits purchased. Ancestry.com and
23andMe. Will get a GEDmatch # and share when received after uploading data.
Best Regards,
J. Adkins
Excellent news, John. I look forward to it.
Dorene
Hi Dorene,
I downloaded DNA to GEDmatch but I’m unsure how to get the information needed. I have a direct maternal line from Charity. I have Amerindian on several chromosomes but that is as far as I can go.
Thank you for any help you can give me.
Nina
Hi, Nina :). When you mention that you are unsure “how to get the information needed,” I am not sure what you mean. Send me an email at dorene@thecaseforblueskyandparkeradkins.com and give me a little more detail. I’ll see if I might be able to offer some advice.
Hello,
My name is Taylor West, and I am the grand daughter of Daizy Y Adkins. She passed away in December of 2014, but always told us as kids we were descendants of the infamous Chief Cornstalk. Her father was Ira Richard Adkins, who is the son of Elmer Franklin and Daisy Adkins. Based on my Ancestry research, Daisy and Elmer Adkins are second cousins, sharing great grandparents, Johnston and Maria (Page) Adkins. If I am not mistaken, Johnston Adkins would be the direct grandson of Sarah Cornstalk Adkins. I believe that there were more than one Cornstalk sisters to marry Adkins brothers, so there are a lot of lines crossing and intertwining within each other.
I believe that Johnston Adkins was one of the first to leave the Kentucky area and move into Missouri where most of my family was born and raised. Elmer and Daisy Adkins were both residing in Wakenda, MO when my great grandpa Ira Richard was born.
I hope I am on the right track with my research! If any one recognizes these names, please reach out. I would love to hear and trade stories and more information!
Dorene, thank you so much for providing all of your research and information. This is truly amazing and it brings me so much joy to be able to kind of connect these dots and see the actual proof to the stories I always heard as a child! You’ve blessed us all with this!
Hello, Taylor. Nice to meet you. You are very welcome. I am traveling, so it took me a while to answer. I am glad you are enjoying the information on my blog. I am not familiar with Sarah Cornstalk Adkins, but I encourage you to keep working. I shall keep my eye out while I am researching. Please check back in and let me and the other readers know if you make some progress. Thank you for writing. Good luck with your journey!
Hello there fellow Damron/ Adkins descendant. I’m still not sure what set me on this research path today, but here I am. One google search for Aggie Little Owl, and the other for Mary Bluesky Cornstalk. My dad (b. 1927) has no Native American DNA per Ancestry … but that’s the line that’s supposed to have it. Mom’s line, OTOH, has no such stories, but she shows NA in her ethnicity!
I’m here for the very important “other side of the story!”
Hi, Susan. You did everything okay. I’ve been traveling 🙂 Welcome to the other side of the story…the real story ;). I hope you find the information helpful to in your journey.
I’m only a little paranoid … just made a comment, hit send, and it’s disappeared. I’m not familiar with WordPress, so I donknow if comments go into limbo-land until you see them. If that is the case, just ignore this one. Basically trying to decide if I did something wrong or not! Here goes nothing!!
Hi there;
I found your site as I’ve just (later in my life) gotten into the researching of my lineage. I’m not sure if this is relative to any of your research or whether we are related as Adkins line. I am looking through much of what other people have put together on Ancestry.com after my DNA results came back. I started doing my own digging based on things I heard as a child visiting relatives in Kentucky (Adkins relatives). I was puzzled Ancestry.com has no Native markers at all, when the evidence of it shows up in the looks of family members born every so often (dark complexion or tan easily, dark brown eyes, pitch black hair) though these things are not really an indicator of DNA/Native American ancestry.
My grandfather was Ranzie Adkins and his father was James Frelin Adkins and his mother was Martha (Marthy) Mauk. I had heard my grandfather’s lineage contained Native American roots through the Adkins line but can find nothing on being related to Cornstalk through Ancestry though on someone’s tree that Ancestry linked to mine, someone does show up with the Littleberry name as middle name or a second name. I think her name is Elizabeth. I apologize, not on Ancestry.com at the moment. Someone else with a tree I looked at who is a possible ancestor listed someone named Nathaniel as a possible Cherokee ancestor but they were not sure. Jeesh, I admire the hard work you have done on your own roots. I can’t seem to get anywhere on mine. I do agree that with the Adkins’ in Appalachia, the marrying of first cousins seems to make unraveling the lines very hard. I seem to have found that my own grandfather and my grandmother may bave been second cousins. They might not have known that, for neither of them mentioned it when they were trying to “fix me up” with first and second cousins in KY. LOL.
I wish you luck and will follow your page. I am looking into some of your other recommended DNA tests for Native American DNA markers. We know it’s there. We have an oral tradition, but like most Adkins in our family we only heard the stories. My grandmother was Rosa Edith Lyons Jones Adkins. I am uncertain if there are any NA markers from her side. My mother’s side is Williams and that will be a hefty knot to untangle on its own when I get there.
Peace to you!
Hello! I was reading you page and find it very interesting. My husband’s family are descendants of Charity Adkins. I do not need DNA testing to tell me they are native american, all I have to do is look at my father in law after he has been in the sun all day. Only native americans have that complexion!! Anyway, I found an article that I think may interest you. I found it at https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1101&context=humbiol_preprints. What I got out the document is that 5% of the study group Splatsin has haplogroup H. Additionally, I found this site where someone was saying that the wife Mary actually died and the slipped cornstalk’s daughter in her place. See: https://adkinsmetcalffamily.wordpress.com/adkins/ All interesting stuff! Also, according to 23andme, I am 0.2% indigenous american, 99.4% european, 0.3% north african and my halogroup is H6a1b.
Hi, MIchelle :). Thank you for the nice compliment, family information and the links you shared. The digital commons article is particularly interesting. I was very excited at first. I happened to notice it was a link to the prepublication material. I found a link to the published article from 2016. Sadly, even though all participants in the study were enrolled tribal members, the researchers chose to eliminate the mitochondrial and Y DNA that they categorized as nonautochthonous. My hope is that one day a brave researcher will take it a step further and not be so quick to dismiss them.
Hi Dorene, thanks for your well researched blog and for sharing your story. I am Hal Sherman’s daughter, the artist who painted the portraits on your site, of Bluejacket and Emma Bluejacket. Hal was a historian and artist and was made honorary member of the Piqua Sept of the Shawnee Tribe in 2010. With his sudden passing in 2014, we are still locating some of his original artwork that are currently displayed in museums across the country. I was happy to see these two paintings on your site and would love to hear from others that enjoy his paintings. My email is SusanRwhorton@gmail.com
Hi, Susan :). Thank you for the kind words! My condolences on the passing of your father. I love his artwork and I know Carlyle really loves it as well. I wish you luck in locating more of his paintings. I aspire to be half the artist he was. Let me get this posted for you and, with luck, others will reach out. I look forward to getting to know you. God bless!
Hello Ms Dorene, and thank you for sharing your intensive research and continued dedication to set the truth straight! I have recently started working on my paternal side of my family tree and Littleberry Adkins is supposedly my 5th great grandfather. I am related to Littleberry by two different ancestors “Hezekiah Adkins” and “Christina Adkins” who were brother/sister and then their children “Hezekiah Fry” and “Elizabeth Adkins Fry” who were cousins had then “Christina Fry Frazier” who had “Charles W Frazier” who had “Ramona Gail Frazier” Dorene, do you have any information that cross-references my family tree to further verify? Thanks again!
Hi, Kristen :). You are quite welcome. I’m sorry, but I am not familiar with those two lines. I see you’ve already done what I was going to recommend ;). Good luck to you in your journey!
Hi. I really enjoyed reading about your story and commend your dedication! I have been working on finding relatives and have family roots in a number of states and countries. I wonder if we could be related. Regardless, I would love to exchange e-mails with you for tips and tricks; you should see it. Does not help that I am big on saving money these days! It seems like you have to pay to access so many records or the format is tricky or something is ambiguous, such as names, dates, and places. 🙁
Hello, D :).
Thank you for reaching out and for the nice compliment! If you have not taken a DNA test yet, keep your eye out for sales. For the most bang for your buck, I would recommend initially testing through 23andMe, You will learn your basic mitochondrial haplogroup and you can download your raw data so that you can upload it to the GEDmatch platform. Gedmatch is a platform where you can compare your DNA with a huge base of users from several DNA testing companies that use SNP technology (1.4 million users and counting worldwide). https://www.gedmatch.com/. There are innumerable self-help videos located on YouTube to help you get started for which you do not need a subscription. Here is a link to a “how to” video explaining how to transfer your raw data. The particular series I find most helpful and is connected to GEDmatch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g84YAqzR17U. If money is tight, you can build your tree on Ancestry. (There are other free platforms where you can build your tree; however, other users can change your work.) I would advise being very cautious when building a tree/trees on any platform, especially when examining other member trees or any “hints” that you might receive. Do not take anything at face value. You need to ensure that you vet all documents and data yourself. Yes, it is very time consuming; however, that is the only way to ensure that the information truly belongs to your ancestor. A great free resource to locate various records is FamilySearch. Fingers crossed that one of your father’s direct paternal relatives will test for you. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend and happy ancestor hunting!
Also, I understand that what you write about is a touchy subject as it has separated families and been used to divide people, so I write this more anonymously, at least for now. This is more for you to read than anyone else. My maternal haplogroup is either X or H, based on the data I have used. I do not know my paternal one, since I would need a male paternal relative who is comfortable with having his DNA put in a file lol. The problem with that is if unless it is a straight maternal or paternal line, you cannot know that haplogroup purely from yourself. I am researching my father’s side more and I am obviously a woman, but am interested in my mother’s side and any advice would be helpful! 🙂
Thank you so much for this! Bluesky came up in my heritage. It’s been an oral tradition in my family as well. Something didn’t add up for me so, I came across your blog and was fascinated. I first came across the name when I saw my great-great grandmother, Anna Mari Cochran. Her mother, Viana (Adkins) Nicely is how I went down that line. It shows a Mary “Bluesky” Cornstalk as Hezekiah Adkins mother. Looking at the hints, I saw your post! Hezekiah was born in Halifax, Va. It then says that Mary “Bluesky” was born in Goochland. I too, traced my lineage to Jamestown! (Who knows, maybe we are related).
I stopped there because things were not adding up. I’ve not done a DNA test yet but my aunt has. It showed we are mostly German and Scottish with a 1 percent unknown. I will be doing mine soon.
I will have to finish reading through your information. Would love to hear more about what you find. That’s kind of where I had to stop on that part of my ancestry line.
Hi, Jess :). Thanks for commenting! Keep researching and exploring. You’ll get there. Take a look at the “Rebuttal” page. That might give you a new perspective about DNA tests. Remember, the DNA shuffle is different for each family member, so it helps to compare several family test results if possible. Don’t give up and good luck!
I can tell we are related as Damron’s —tenacity is in our DNA—literally and figuratively. Whenever I feel like just giving up and accepting others telling me they can’t connect me on paper to the relatives I know to be mine—I just re-read your blog and it motivates me more. Now I have DNA to show my lineage and still get pushback. Crazy that someone in the USA can be indicted for murder on DNA but try using it to join the Colonial Dames!! But I am determined! How one lost paper in the mid to late 1800’s can invalidate my existence—
Hi, Heather. Sorry for my late response. I’ve been traveling for research. Wow, thank you for the nice compliment! I agree 100%. DNA Doesn’t lie. You’ll get there. Stay strong!