Last Name Unknown ~ a family history mystery is a genealogy blog exploring the identities and lives of my ancestors, especially the matriarchs whose last names are often lost to time. Through personal narratives, genetic genealogy research, ancestral healing, and decolonization, I explore how patterns in their experiences shape my own identity and connect to broader themes of history and multi-ethnic heritage and racial identity in the United States. Join me on this journey of discovery and reflection as we uncover the mysteries of our past together.
About My Ancestors
Along the way you’ll meet an interesting cast of characters that make up my family tree and those whose lives were impacted by them, each with their own complex histories and interwoven stories. We don’t get to choose who our ancestors are, and each of their stories is an important piece of how we got here today. We’ll discover some humble, everyday folks and some notable historical figures. The good, the bad, and the ugly; no uncomfortable truths will be held back.
- Colonial Pilgrims and Planters and the Indigenous people already inhabiting the lands they colonized.
- White European plantation enslavers and the enslaved Africans who built the foundations of the American way of life.
- Freedmen, indentured servants, tri-racial isolate communities, Melungeons, Louisiana Creoles, and Asian Pacific Islanders.
- British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Vikings, Dutch, Germans, French, Portuguese, Moors, Levantine, Sephardic Jews.
- Salem Witches, war heroes, founding fathers (and mothers!), kings and queens, lords and ladies, convict brides, shipwrecked colonizers, pirates, captains, pioneers, Native American “princesses”, musicians, artists, abolitionists, professors, preachers, priestesses, prostitutes, farmers.
And me, Chloe Unknown! You might even discover some of your own ancestors here too…
Ancestral Journeys
Our genealogy journey will cross paths with ancestors in key communities and historical events around the world:
The Americas
- Tidewater Virginia & Maryland: Jamestown Settlement, Bacon’s Rebellion, Colonial Richmond and the Westover Byrds, Great Dismal Swamp, “Pocahontas” legends and reality, and the Algonquian Powhatan, Pamunkey, and Delaware tribes
- Appalachia Settlement: Melungeon and tri-racial isolate communities; East Tennessee especially Greene, Sevier, and Rhea counties; Watauga Settlement, Free State of Franklin, and John Sevier; Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia; Trail of Tears, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Catawba, Saponi, and Creek tribes; the Clack, Randles, Rogers, Howerton, Lawson, and Dunn families; modern Memphis and the Mississippi Delta
- French Louisiana: founding of New Orleans and the German Coast, German “Pest Ships”, John Law, and the failed Mississippi Company, French convict brides and casket girls, Creoles and mixed raced identity, Natchez Massacre, Whitney Plantation
- Massachusetts Bay Colony: the Mayflower and the Great Puritan Migration, Plymouth, Boston, Salem Witch Trials, Ipswich, and Andover
- Colonial New England: New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
- The Middle Colonies: New York/New Amsterdam, New Jersey, Pennsylvania Quakers, and Philadelphia
- 1800s Missouri Frontier Settlement: Long Lane, Dallas, Laclede, and Webster Counties, Shannon, Osage, and Troy
- California: 20th Century Migration and the Great Wars
- Canada & Arctic: Colonial Ontaria, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Leif Erikson’s Vinland exploration and Greenland settlement, Tlingit, Thule, and Inuit Indigenous migrations
- Carribean, Central, and South America: the Sea Venture shipwreck, colonial Bermuda, Barbados, Bahamas, and the Somer Isles Company, the transatlantic slave trade, Yucatan, Andean and Amazonian Indigenous tribes, Population Y and Polynesian contact theories, and modern Costa Rica
World Travelers
- Northwest and Central Europe: England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, the Protestant Reformation, Vikings, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and the Indo-European migration, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, Slavic, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Edward III and European royal dynasties
- Mediterranean and North Africa: Spain, Portugal, the Spanish Inquisition, Conversos, Moriscos, Coptic Egyptian, Amazigh, Libyan, Levantine, Romani, Persian, Sephardic Jews, and the Silk Road
- SubSaharan Africa: Ethiopian, Somali, Beta Jews, Angolan, Congolese, Ghanaian, Biaka, and Malagasy ancestry, and the transatlantic slave trade
- Asia & Oceania: East Asian indentured servants, Filipino, Austronesian, Indonesian, Papuan, the Manilla Galleon trade, Siberians, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Indigenous American ancient migration paths
Welcome aboard! We’ve got a lot of stops to make on this journey and it’s time to set sail…
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