Who We are

The following information has been provided by multiple authors/researchers and will be corrected/updated as more information is found. Numerous historians and authors have stated in publications that the Sizemore people are actually Saponi Indians. These will be posted at a later time.

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The History of George All Sizemore and his Ancestors is suspected to have began in the early 1600s at Jamestown,VA with the Catabwa and Saponi. However, no real evidence exists prior to 1712 with the forming of Fort Christanna. George All Sizemore was not born at that time, but a lot of Saponi families were involved with and lived at Fort Christiana and surrounding area. The Sizemore’s (including George and Edward) were among those. The parents of George All Sizemore are not known. James Sizemore (born around 1720) and Henry Sizemore (born about 1698) are reasonable suspects. Edward Old Ned Sizemore is often mentioned to be his father in many stories and on Genealogy sites. Regardless of the identity of his parents, the fact remains that after DNA testing numerous Sizemores, George All Sizemore male descendants are the only Sizemores confirmed to carry the Q-Haplo gene. The Q-Haplo is the Male Native American Indian Gene passed down from Father to son for eternity.

The Catawba, Saponi, Tutelo, Eno, Cherew, and many others are/were all Siouan. During the Fort Christianna era, many of these small, low population groups banded together and were generally referred to as Saponi after that with the exception of the Catawaba. The Saponi and Catawba were close allies and often took up residence together for short periods of time. The Catawba were not known to be in the area of the earlier Sizemores such as Old Ned and his brothers, but the Eastern Siouan tribes such as the Saponi were known to reside in that area. They were very closely related groups. *

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Very recent efforts spearheaded by Alan Lerwick of Salt Lake City, Utah, have traced the Sizemores back to a Michael Sizemore. Michael was a London merchant who died in 1685. Lerwick has also mapped two distinct DNA lines in Virginia and North Carolina, one continuing the original R1b gene type and the other an American Indian Q haplotype. He believes that Indian descent entered the Sizemore family with Henry Sizemore, born about 1698. The descendants of Henry’s older brother Ephraim are R1b.**

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The following is taken from the Saponi-Catawba nation application. It is used to verify the Saponi heritage of the Sizemore name.

The Saponi-Catawba Nation is an Indigenous North American Tribal Nation that occupied what has become the great State of Ohio, long before any European explorers, settlers or encroachment occurred. Ohio was and still is the place we call home.

We are culturally and ethnically, the Saponi-Catawba Nation, the Ohio Valley Sioux, according to our historic documents, our ancestors and traditions. American archeologists and anthropologists confirm that the Tutelo and Saponi are the same people.

Our ancestors are documented as the Tutelo / Totero / Totera that occupied the Ohio Valley in Southeastern Ohio from c.a. 1100 AD to 1700 AD.

Criteria For Membership

(A) Must be a descendant from the Core Communities of the Historic Saponi Catawba Nation and Catawba Allied Tribes, otherwise by Tribal adoption.

(B) Must be a descendant from our Core Communities, within a fifty mile radius, or The Southern Ohio Region

(C) Must descend from the core names:

Blevis, Bowling, Boling, Branham, Brown, Burnett, Byrd, Chavis, Coker, Collins, Corn, Cousins, Croker, Dempsey, Dixon, Dixson, FInley, Gibson, Goings, Goins, Griffin, Guy, Harris, Hart, Haithcock, Haskins, Hawkins, Henson, Holly, Howell, Hughes, James, Jeffries, Jeffries, Johnson, Jones, Keels, McKeels, Keeton, Liggins, Long, Mabra, Mabry, Marsh, Martin, Mason, Matthews, McDaniel, McKeel, Mckinney, Moss, Newman, Nichols, Parker, Pettiford, Pitts, Ragland, Rickman, Richardson, Riddle, Robbins, Robinson, Saunders, Sanders, Scott, Simmons, Sizemore, Spears, Stevens, Stills, Valentine, Vaughn, Viney, Watkins, Watson, Whitt, Whitmore, Winborn and variants of those surnames ______________________________________________________________________________

Taken from the works of Vance Hawkins: There are dry spells where the Saponi aren’t mentioned much. Haithcock mentions some who had earlier gone north to the Six Nations, in the 1760s and 70’s. Unfortunately Haithcock mentions nothing more about those Indians that fought for the Brittish in the French and Indian War. He does mention some Saponi mixed bloods who are mentioned on militia rosters in 1777 during the American Revolution. He lists their surnames as Riddle, Collins, Bunch, Bollins, Goins, Gibson, and SIZEMORE.

Haithcock says a group of Saponi, Nansemond, and Tuscarora peoples organized together in the 1780s, and they formed what is today known as the Haliwa Saponi, around a place known as “the Meadows”. They are called Haliwa because they live in both Halifax and Warren Counties, in North Carolina.

In 1784, some old Saponi families are still living in Brunswick County, Virginia, near the location of the former Fort Christana. Their surnames are Robinson, Haithcock, Whitmore, Carr, Jeffreys, and Guy. Many of these families are also found in Hillsborough County, North Carolina. [73.]

Hathcock mentions the following, “The Saponi/Christanna Indians by 1827 were being documented or recorded as Catawba by their friends, neighbors and officials in the Department of the interior. He provides 2 quotes. I.] “If they descended from Indians at all, they were likely Catawba and lived in Eastern North Carolina.” and ii.] “It is a region much more likely to have been occupied by Indians from Virginia or by the Catawba Indians who ranged from South Carolina up through North Carolina into Virginia.” He mentions the surnames of these families; Hathcock, Dempsey, Jefferies, Guy, Johnson, Collins, Mack, Richardson, Lynch, Silvers, Mills, Riddle, Austin, Hedgepath, Copeland, Stewart, Harris, Nichols, Shepherd, Gibson, Coleman, Martin, Branham, Johns, Taylor, Ellis, Anderson, Tom, Ervin, Bowling, Valentine, Goens, SIZEMORE, Bunch, Coker, Rickman, Whitmore, Mullins, Perkins, Harrison, Holley, Pettiford. Haithcock then implies these families were recognized by the state of North Carolina as the Haliwa Saponi Indians in the latter third of the twentieth century. [74.] This is EXACTLY what they say about the Melungeon families. They say “IF” they are Indians. ______________________________________________________________________________

George All Sizemore Descendent and Family Historian Doug Keefauver says this in an email reply to the Chief:

Wingapo Chief, thanks for the replay and the update. Personally I believe that available documents point to the Sizemore family being connected to the Christian Saponi as far back as 1712. They are known today as the Occoneechee-Saponi Indian Tribe of Virginia. This tribe was once one of the original Virginia Tribes. Other than a few inner marriages with Cherokee and Creek the only mention “historically”of Native Indian Sizemores is in relation to this group or one of the Virginia tribes. There are more than 30 tribes who have been nearly erased from history by the English. I actually have documented evidence that one of my great-great-great grandparents is listed as a Saponi in court records.

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The Southeastern KY Saponi Nations will only accept descendants of George All Sizemore into membership.

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*Information Provided by Historians

**Taken From Internet Site