Indian Princess Posey - Actual name

Back in 1968, I was 12 years old. My Grandfather, James Walton Posey told us about his gg grandmother Indian Princess and Nehemiah Posey. Sr., He also told us that his father (Nehemiah's) was neighbors to George Washington.
I wish I could shed some more light on Indian Princess but that is all I can tell you.

This is a family story. No one is named "Indian Princess" and there is absolutely nothing to suggest that Nehemiah had a Native American wife. There was a Posey family living in Spotsylvania County, VA in the middle of the 18th century. Nehemiah Posey lived in Orangeburg, S.C. during the Revolutionary War. He is probably the Nehemiah Posey on the census in Chatham County, N.C. in 1767, He and his family are found on the U.S. Census in Orangeburg in 1790, and 1800. Everyone is reported as "Free White" and the census taker would not mistake an Indian woman for a white woman. Nehemiah was a blacksmith, and was paid by the State of South Carolina for "smith work," making swords and shoeing horses for the Revolutionary War. http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/ArchivesImages/S108092/S10809201190...

According to his record at the DAR, he was married to a woman named Anna Trantham and was the Nehemiah Posey who died in Georgia about 1821.

The Posey family associated with George Washington is well documented and there is no son named Nehemiah.

Here's a link to a lot of sourced information about Nehemiah: https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/posey/2914/

and a transcript of the marriage record :Posey, Nehemiah, to Anna Posey, Decm. 15, 1777. By John Brantley, J. P.
(Certificate)
North Carolina Whereas Anna Posey hath this day applied to me for a Chatham County Certificate of Marriage contracted between her that S. Anna Posey and Nehemiah Posey of the same County of said State on the 7th day of June in the year of our Lord 1777.
I do hereby Certify that on the day and date above mentioned Nehemiah Posey and Anna Trountham was lawfully Joined together in the Holy Estate of Matrimony.
Certified before me this 15th day of Decm 1777.
John Brantly, J. P.

Thank you, I’ve updated the profile.

Based on the supposed ages of children and Nehemiah's age, it's possible Anna/Ann was a second wife. In the material I skimmed I didn't seen another wife mentioned.

Anna/Ann was the wife of Nehemiah Posey in another line. This Nehemiah was the son of Humphrey Posey son of /Benjamin Posey/son of Humphrey Posey/ son of John Posey Sr./ son of Frances Posey

Indian Princess was Nehemiah Posey's wife, This Nehemiah was the son of John Posey IV/ son of John Posey III, son of John Posey II/ son of John Posey Sr./ son of Frances Posey.

This line has been passed down from generation to generation. When someone on Geni.com that there are two Nehemiah's with the wife of the same name they will start combining these profiles. And they are different people.

So Erica, please change my 4th great grandmothers name back to Indian Princess until a name can be established. Because I don't want any confusion or trees combined that I have worked so hard on for our family.

Thank you,

Mark Posey

Where is any of this documented? The Indian Princess profile said that she was born 30 years after she was married and lived hundreds of miles away from her supposed husband. I’m sorry, but virtually all the Native Americans who lived in Virginia were wiped out or driven out by the early 1700’s - and even earlier in Maryland. Those who survived remained in a few tiny communities apart from whites. White men who married Native American women were living in the Indian communities, not in white communities.

So if we think Anna Trouthman was a different Posey family, we can revert her to “unknown wife.”

Private

Was this info reviewed ? Which person do you descend from ?

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/posey/2914/

“We believe that the only sons of Nehemiah Posey born of Anna were Humphrey, Benjamin and John.Other possible sons of Nehemiah were Andrew, William, Dennis, Lain (or Belaine), Francis, Nathaniel (or Nathan), and Nehemiah, Jr.Before 1820, all of them left the area except John, who stayed in Telfair County.Humphrey and Benjamin stayed in Pulaski County.We have been unable to identify the mother of the other children of Nehemiah. ...”

Renamed “Rebecca Posey
And set up a separate profile for 2nd wife Anna Posey

I believe this is the same Rebecca:

Rebecca Posey

I based this on documentation found on Ancestry. I attached two screenshots under the Media tab for "Indian Princess" Posey.

The screenshots give the Dees lineage of the Rebecca who married Nehemiah Posey.

There are no references in the Dees lineage, as far as I saw, to any Native American ancestry but that doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't any. For example, Rebecca's mother is just known as Grace, no maiden name or lineage provided.

However, giving her the title 'indian princess' perpeuates the myth of such titles and is considered a red flag to lack of knowledge of Native American history and culture. My dad told me we had a Cherokee princess in our ancestry. We do have Cherokee ancestors and people are fond of claiming to be descended from a princess. One would think the Native population was full of princesses. Anyway, we all have right to be proud of our Native ancestry and to claim and have it acknowledged, without feeling the need to add mythical titles to them to make them seem more special than they were just for being who they were. Tribal leaders typically had ranks of chieftans and in a few rare known cases there were famous female leaders. Each tribe had their own names for their various chieftan titles. Titles like King, Queen, Princess, etc. would have been used only by non-Native colonists in their attempt to identify tribal leaders in terms of their own understanding, which had little to do with actual tribal practices and titles. Chiefs often had mutliple wives and many children, so I suppose in theory all the daughters would have been a 'princess', in non-Native terms. But wouldn't that have also made all the sons princes? And yet we never hear anyone claiming to be from an indian prince! In any case, if any given Native American was considered a 'princess', her lineage would be known to establish that title.

Our tribal leaders have asked that we do what we can to correct the notion of the 'indian princess' when and where we can. I know it can be a touchy subject, but it 'should' be enough just to be able to identify our Native ancestors without attaching such titles unless they were actually documented to have been a notable Native person who was given such honorary titles by the colonists and even then, that wouldn't have been a title they would have had within their tribe. There are many, many more Native ancestors who were just regular tribal members living normal lives in their times. Not everyone was a chief or a chief's child. And being a chief wasn't necessarily an office for life. Some chiefs died in battle or old age while still holding their title but some tribes actually had elections for their leaders with changes in power. My own Creek ancestor who was at one time the elected head chief for the Creek nation tried to resign because he was getting old, but the people insisted he stay 'in office' for a while longer before he was replaced. His son who I'm from was a lesser chief, a war chief for their village. None of his sons were chiefs because their times were changing during the Creek removal. Like many tribes, they were a confederation of various village / town leaderships each with their own ranks and titles among their specific chiefs. There was no line of royal succession for any "princesses". They would have married, had families and just lived normal lives for their given time in history.

It seems that more often than not, it's the less well-documented lines where we find descendants claiming to come from an indian princess. I know that's the myth passed down. As I said, my dad told me the same thing. He was right about the Native ancestry, but if he were alive today I'd have to tell my own dad to stop referring to any of them as princesses.

My interest in these connections and the reason I have them in my Ancestry tree is because my youngest son Jamey Boleware (now deceased) descended from the Dees lineage Rebecca was from and, depending on who Nehehmiah's parents were he may have been a cousin line as well. My son's line is from another Rebecca Dees who married a Bass. I know the Bass line has Native American lineage but I haven't seen anything indicating it in his branch of the Dees lines.

Yes, the Friday line is how I'm related to them, as a Friday descendant.

I did find trees on Ancestry showing the info from this from the Ancestry Hints:

Dulyea Family Tree
Owner: Brandi Dulyea

Rebecca “Indian Princess” Posey
BIRTH1751 Chatham, North Carolina, United States
DEATHafter 18 Nov 1820 Orangeburg County, South Carolina, USA

sources (2)records (1)stories (1)
Family Info
Father
Shadrack Dees (1738–1797)
Mother
Grace Erlene Barefoot (1725–1820)
Spouse
Nehemiah Posey Sr (1745–1824)
Married 1767
Children
Nehemiah (1769–1843)

Be sure to look at the screenshots under the Media tab.

As I originally indicate, my search is for the correct parents for the Nehemiah Posey who was married to Rebecca Dees since Geni doesn't agree with the trees on Ancestry and I don't know which info is correct going backward, not coming forward.

But, it was in the search for his parents that I came across the additional info on his wife.

Yes, I had posted earlier the profile of that Rebecca (Dees) Posey because they 'seemed' to be the same but I wasn't sure and thus the reason I brought them into discussion. It 'looks like' on Ancestry folks have mixed two Rebecca's up and that has led to confusion.

What you sorted out also explains why the Ancestry Hints keep trying to make Rebecca's husband ALSO married to Anna Trauntham who was his mother, not his wife, but married to a same-name Nehemiah Posey.

Don't you just love these same-name confusions! lol

Erica Howton thanks so much for helping me sort them out. I could tell from the Hints and trees on Ancestry that there was confusion and sites like Wiki and Find-a-Grave didn't have enough info to be helpful. So you got them sorted and now I can connect them correctly in my tree and hope the correct connections get picked up by others.

I know! I've attached the screenshots to the appropriate profiles in my tree so hopefully others will sort their trees correctly as well. Sometimes it just takes another set of eyes to check it all out, so thanks so much for helping with this.