Grandma Reese, Was She Indian?

  

Grandma Reese, my dad’s maternal grandmother, was born Gertrude Mae Johnson on the 25^th day of February 1882 in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. At the tender age of 14, on August 11, 1896, she married Thomas Maple “Mape” Devine, a coal miner, in Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana. In April of 1912 she gave birth to her sixth child, a full term boy, stillborn, they named Orvil Lee Devine. Gertie buried him and was still mouring his death when her husband Mape died June 28, 1912, in Muddy, Saline County, Illinois, at the age of 36. His death certificate lists Bright’s Disease, a kidney failure, as his cause of death. Gertie was left with with no money and five children to raise by herself, John, 14, Annie, 12, Inez, 8, Charlie, 5, and Roy, almost 4.

 

Gertrude’s parents had divorced in 1891 and were not available to help her. Helena Johnson Potter, Gertrude’s younger sister, had four children of her own by 1912, unable to provide money but probably a shoulder to cry on.  Soon Gertrude’s situation became desperate and there was talk of the county taking her children and farming them out, a plan she could not tolerate. Nearby was a neighbor, a batchelor twenty years older than Gertie, William Edward Reese, who approached her and said if she would marry him he would be take responsibility for her and her kids, would keep them together. And so she did, in 1914, and became our Grandma Reese.

 

 

 

 

Gertrude and Bill Reese had two children together, Susie Ardena Reese in 1916 and Mary Jane Reese in 1919.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I first started studying our family history, thanks to my younger sister Kathy Benoit Hillary, I attended our annual Smith Family Reunions in southern Illinois each summer and asked a lot of questions. One subject that often came up was this “was Grandma Reese part Indian, i.e., Native American?” Many of us have remarked on her looks, dark hair, dark brown eyes, and high cheek bones. I now know that is a very common question by those who study genealogy, that many families have heard that someone in their family is Native American, most often Cherokee, but that after much study those same families rarely find proof of that. DNA testing has become affordable and popular and has helped identify ethnicity in families. Rarely is there evidence of Native Americans in the family trees.

 

 

Realizing that several of Gertrude’s relatives were interested in this I asked Mary Jane Reese Stark, Gertrude’s last living child, to take a DNA test, and at the advanced age of 98, she did! A special thanks to Mary's daughter, Lydia, for helping her mother take the test and for mailing it in. I really hoped that before Mary passed away I would be able to tell her, “YES”, you are part Native American, but I was not able to do that. Mary died August 31, 2021, at the age of 102, our longest lived relative. I have continued to study her family background, almost daily, as more and more DNA matches come in. Oh, I forgot to say that Mary allowed me to add her DNA results to my family tree so that I can see the names and family trees of those who share DNA with her.

Yesterday, October 18, 2024, my first cousin once removed, Patricia Faye Devine French, daughter of Gertrude Mae Johnson Devine’s son Charles, came with her husband Joe French, to visit me from their home in Missouri. We talked a lot about our families and, sure enough, the question of whether or not Grandma Reese was Native American came up again. That has prompted me to give my family an update on what I have learned, so far, about that.

 

 

 

 

 

Just this year (yes, it has taken me seven years!) I found that one of Gertrude’s ancestors is Elizabeth Jane Payne, born 1813 in Tennessee, Gertrude’s paternal gr-grandmother. Elizabeth’s great grandparents were, supposedly, both Cherokee Indians, Thomas Payne (Motoy), b. 21 Oct 1721 Christchurch, Middlesex, Virginia and Ardwood C (or Jennie Running Horse) Koch, b. 1720, Hanover, Virginia. I found this in other family trees and have not verified it!! As I told my cousin Patricia, I don’t feel confident about this and should not even put this word out without further study, but then I realize I am 77 years old and don’t want to go to my grave without someone knowing this might be real, provable information. And I want to point out that even if it is true this means Gertrude Mae Johnson was only 1/32^nd Native American, hardly enough to have a strong influence on her looks! But there you have it! 

I continue to study Grandma Reese’s family tree and may find another connection to Native Americans. If not, I am thankful she was a strong, healthy woman and I’m proud to be descended from her, through her second child, Anna Jane Devine.