Pocahontas Project
Brown-Mannin(g)-Fugate Line
By Don Taylor
Last year, I learned that I may have Pocahontas as an Ancestor. I was comfortable that Rachel Fugate was my 4th great-grandmother. I needed to confirm the line from her to my possible 12th great-grandmother, Pocahontas. I went on to prove Rachel’s father was Reuben Fugate. To continue researching my path to Pocahontas, I decided to look at Reuben’s father, Josiah Fugate.
A couple of years ago, when I looked at my Fugate ancestors during a Surname Saturday, I wondered if my Fugate ancestors were related to the famous “Blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek, KY.” As I began researching, I found that Josiah was a first cousin, once removed, of Martin Fugate, one of the earliest Blue Fugates. So, some of my Fugate ancestors are used in classes to demonstrate how genetic disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive.[ii]
Ben Stacy, the last known blue descendant of the Fugates[iii], is my 8th cousin, 1x removed.
Now that I’ve had a fun diversion into my Blue Fugate relatives, I can return to learning more about Josiah Fugate, my 6th great-grandfather.
ENDNOTES
[i] Actually, first cousin, 1x removed.
[ii] Science Classroom Teacher Resources – Blue People Lab – The Blue People of Troublesome Creek, KY.
[iii] The Collector – “8 Astonishing Facts About the Blue Fugates” by Madison Whipple.
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My wife is a descendant of Pocahontas through Josiah Fugate-Mary Martin.
When I retired 14 years ago, my mother in law always said that there was Indian blood on her side of her family. I searched back to early 1800s and found nothing. Then my wife, a history major, wanted to be in the DAR. So I searched and found a Benjamin Fugate in the Revolutionary war. I was able to connect to her lineage. Then I google searched for Benjamin Fugate and found his connection to Pocahontas. My mother in law was correct but we never thought the blood would be so famous.