Why Native American ancestors had European sounding names -last-

Indian Traders

European Indian traders, British soldiers and merchants that married Native American women, they passed their family names on to their offspring, disrupting the Native traditions of child naming. Europeans were determined to continue their well-established system of family relationships with the Scottish ‘cousin system’, used through Western Europe, to prevent possible incest in future generations.

Native Americans had a long-standing system that prevented incest by prohibiting anyone from the Mother’s Clan from marrying. They had a matriarchal system of family relations where blood relationships were passed from mother to child. A child born into any one Clan was prohibited from marrying anyone else from that same Clan, but condoned marriage to any of the other Clans.

In many cases, Indian Traders were ‘traveling salesmen’ and had ‘families’ in each town they visited on their established route. This is how the same family names appeared in the various Indian Nations at the same time. Since the mother’s Clan was responsible for the raising and teaching of all children born into that Clan, the mother’s were not very concerned as to whom the father really was, as the child belonged to the Clan.

The following family names were introduced into the Eastern Indian Nations as indicated below. Some of these men also traded with the other Tribes in the area and nearly all of them left children behind. This list is dated 1776, shortly before the Revolutionary War when the British still controlled this area.


Adair, Andrews, Bowles, Burrowson, Calbert, Campbell, Creadle, Crongleton, Cruise, Curtone, Danford, Derise, Dukes, Duncan, Francis, Foreman, Gilchrist, Gooding, Grant, Hannah, Highrider, Hildebrand, Hyde, James, Kemp, Lynch, McBean, McCartan (McCurtain), McDonald, McIntosh, Price, Rogers, Ross, Scott, Sealy, Shorey, Sims, Starr, Stuart, Vann, Wood

French explorers, soldiers and Indian Traders did business with the Shawnee, Creek, and Choctaw. If your Native American ancestor had a French family name, this early influence was the source of those names. Their range of influence was from Central Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and all modern states within the Louisiana Purchase. Most of the fur trade was based along rivers that were used for ferrying the trade goods to and from New Orleans.


The ‘Lost Colony’ of Roanoke Island, NC

These family names were introduced to the Cherokees of North Carolina between 1580 and 1600, from the settlement that White left behind. The English sailors of that early time were not familiar with the American hurricanes and their effect on low lying ‘barrier islands’ on the Atlantic seaboard. The survivors of these hurricanes intermarried with the local Indian bands and kept these names alive. Many of these names were already in circulation in the Old Cherokee Nation by the time the British Army built the fur trading post at Fort Louden, TN in 1740.

Some researchers have classified the descendants of these people as Melungelon Indians who had stories of picking up shipwrecked survivors and spreading into the hills of North Carolina and Kentucky. Spellings of these names are as listed from the original roster of settlers placed on Roanoke Island in 1587.

Allen, Archard, Arthur, Baily, Bennet, Berde, Berry, Bishop, Borden, Bridger, Bright, Brooks, Brown, Browne, Butler, Burdon, Cage, Chapman, Charman, Cheven, Clement, Colman (Coleman), Cooper, Cotsmuir, Dare, Darige, Dorrell, Dutton, Earnest, Ellis, English, Farre, Fernando, Florrie, Gibbes, Glane, Gramme (Graham), Graeme, Harris, Harvie (Harvey), Hemmington, Hewett, Howe, Hynde, Humphrey, Johnson, Jones, Kemme, Lasie, Lawrence, Little, Lucas, Mannering, Martin, Merimoth, Myllet, Mylton, Newton, Nichols, Paine (Payne), Patterson, Pierce, Powell, Phevens, Prat, Rufotte, Sampson, Scot (Scott), Shabedge, Smart, Smith, Sole, Spendlove, Sutton, Starte, Stevens, Stilman, Taylor, Tomkins, Topan, Tappan, Traverner, Tydway. Viccars, Warner, Warren, Waters, White, Wildye, Willes, Wilkinson, Wood, Wotton, Wright, Wyles, Wythers.


Excerpt from a recent article on the ‘Lost Colony’

This “Indian English” mixed-blood group migrated inland as early as 1650. When the first white settlers arrived in the area that was later called Robeson County, NC, they found a large tribe of English speaking Indians. They were farmers and practiced many of the so-called ‘civilized arts’ such as keeping slaves and building their houses in an old English country style. Many of these Indians had English sounding names that have been matched to the list of colonists left on Roanoke Island in 1580.

This material was found in a book, "Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony” by Hon. Hamilton McMillan, of Fayetteville, N. C