Howdy,
My name is Dan Bunch. I would like to tell you a story. It may be longer than intended, but it is about Bunch Geno, and Geno in general, so I think I can make it worth your trip.
My mom and dad died the same year, and worse still, that made me the "old man" of the family! Of course for lots of years the family of my Bunch have tried to determin who and what and where. Mostly though, we had lives to live, and there were no computers.
I got tired of playing games, and designing homes, and such on the computer, after getting my son to start me off, and learning all the "how-to's", which ain't much help anyway if your dealing with windows, and I got to thinking I might just "find" us. That is, me and the family line. My dad remarried, so did mom, and I haven't much in the way of pictures and no paperwork at all, to start with. What I do have is my father's word. And I have found it to be very truthfull, surprisingly. And his handed down family gossip or things to be quietly studied? Anyway, I knew two things only; One: "We are Cherokee waaaay back." And Two: "We came from Maigs County, TN." That turned out to be Meigs county TN. But the Bunch's were never scholars. Well, not in my direct line anyway. These two items came to us from two sons that were born in TN before Sam Frazier Bunch migrated to Texas from TN. He somehow developed "lockjaw" on the way, and would never tell anyone anything about anything before his arrival in Texas. They say there was an "oath not to tell" taken by many at the time. So perhaps he did take an oath. If he did, he kept it. Typical for my Bunch family. That and fighting and a small bit of criminal behavior, mixed with loads of patriotisim.So with that, I started off pounding on the keyboard of my put together computer. I assembled it and updated it along the way. Then I traded up, finally I have a IBM laptop to deal with. This was about three years ago!
The thinking here was I would zero in on my line, then chase the paperwork, not knowing that there would be little of it, and most of it inaccuarate to outright lies! This also was from necessity, this internet search. I got lost in it, and never recovered.
I typed in "Sam Frazier Bunch" and all its dirrevitives over months. Until one day up popped my whole dern family! Yep, I got lucky. Thanks to real geno's. Anne Failcowitz (url below) had done years of work and had been kind enough to post it on the web. I was astounded! The thing that really made me "zero" in on Sam was not his name, nor his migration, it was a posting in the Bunch Forum, that said, "If your folks never told you anything, you might be..." That turned out to be quite a learning experience, since I had never heard the word "Melungeon"! If our connection had been known, even in the late 60's, I would have had to go to the little schoolhouse down at the bottom of the hill. It only had two rooms and one principal/teacher with one other teacher, for the "coloreds". In Texas it is ok, even then to be a bit "indian", but not African, as they say, and I have never heard much otherwise, positive or negative, (Cept' Dad's gossip!)that we are or are not African. I am only taking the words and research of a realy great goup of researchers and Name-collectors.So I found out that I am indeed "Cherokee". That I come from the old Cherokee land of Meigs county TN. That I am supposed to be African influenced, and also Saponi. I have run a rough road. Among the latest, a well known researcher that is named Bunch, and lives on the Cherokee reservation that told me, among other things, that: "There are no African blood in the Cherokee Bunch line!" And; "There is no way that the Saponi, our sworn enemies, would be part of the Cherokee mix!" I have no way to measure that statement, nor do I understand it from my much reading, this is beyond anything I have read. But I am indeed, it would seem, Saponi, and a Bunch, and a Cherokee (as the tribes assimilated; Pamunky), and a Melungeon, as the Bunch line of mine went to TN from VA and intermarried with those "tri-racial isolates" as some call them. This man heatedly denies and with name-calling, culls me out of any Cherokee, and indeed, Native-American blood. I told him "One day I will prove the connection, and then I will write you to show you that all that I was told and all that I have read and written is true."
Now I find this site of yours! And it seems to do the impossible. I have had to "collect" Bunch's from every source, to try to establish a connection between two major lines of bunch (I have seen three, perhaps four) that I have been following. I have worked with Anne Failcowitz to "kick" over stones, (I am quite good at that as a Name-collector) and sending them to Anne to work out the particulars and the lineage.Using the maiden names of the women in my line, I have tried to connect the two lines listed below with; McNabb; Wilson; Sneed; Drury; Graff; etc. And here you are, on your site, with this connection! How wonderful!
Now my question to you is; are you sure you want to stand behind this connection? And are you prepared for the fact that I have promised many, up to a thousand, Bunch and associated researchers, that if I found this connection that I would email them ALL to tell them where and how it is?This may cause you some work. It surely will cause questions, applause for your hard work, and more names to "meld" into your site than you ever imagined! As I am kin to many. The Bunch's, as you know, are kin to all the royalty in Europe, many Popes, many famouse people, and even one Nobel Prize winner, not to mention, Senators, spies, bad guys, patriots, Unionsoldiers (mine), and Southern soldiers (mostly yours:), farmers, hunters, trapers, murderers, and generally most of the surnames in the world, it seems at times. (none of which I have any paperwork to establish, only years of internet search and emails) I have tons of files on CD of Bunch's and their spouses and stories galore that I have collected over the years.
I have an idea, if you agree, that we should keep this email and its contents between just us two for the time being, until we can see if and how we "meld" into the two lines I am going to mention, and also, how I, meaning first person here,, "I" follow up my line, cross over to yours, (since I cannot establish my Cherokee connections yet, outside of your site) slide down my old granny's line, (she said she was Choctaw); Ronda Ruth McNabb Bunch; and find and establish my Cheorkee blood.
This is for my son, and grandchildren, since he asked me to help him establish so he could file, as it would be a help to him just now. And too, so we will not make a mistake in telling that the two lines do intersect. And too we then will not be leading the "real geno's" like yourself, down a muddy lane, but will be giving and posting positive real info, not a shotgun of misinformation. That is, if you agree. I sure would like to spill my compouter guts with you! I have files people have sent me, and files I have saved from the internet that may facinate you no end. Some you may have already, but we can compare notes! I am sorry to say that I have no direct connection to your one name, however I am said to be kin to;
Venable;Vardeman; Roy Acuff; Sneed the golfer; Babptist Mcnabb; bolling; brown; Powhatton; rolf; some of these I can not prove, and some I can, that is; proof of a computer internet source. One question is how Russ's ancestor of Dow Bunch fits in. Now I see there are two of them! Maybe that is why I could not help him so much? I do like to help people, that is why I have kept some emails of researchers. Health does not now permit my once ten hour days on the computer, and putting together a Bunch newsletter. Here then are the 'bone' a' fid' ais' that you might like to check on right now before writting me back.I was raised in Sulphur Springs TExas, hopkins Co. until the fourth grade.
That is the area My bunch's came from and where two of the family of; Jack Oo-sar-nar-le Bunch, wife is Scraper, came to get married. (initials only) (I found jack in the mormon site, mislabeled as being from Italy, the country:)Jack and family of Jug, Rabbit, etc, are kin to "the other bunch line" you have put mine together with. The two lines I have been searching for, yours of
English/Cheokee;
William Greenberry Bunch b MO d Mo m Leona Lewis
And My(our now:) line of Cheorkee/Saponi/Melungeon/Scot;
William Greenbury Bunch b TN d Civil WAr m Sidney Armstrong Kuntz
Here are some Url's to help if you need them.I am truely thankful to you for your site and hard work, and am waiting with
anticipation your return email.
Your buddy, and family kin,
dan bunch
tx
My line:
(Henry Bunch?)
Paul Bunch (Paul Bunch sons are Samponi)
Martin Bunch (brother to Micajah Bunch, "King of Melungeon"
William Greenbury Bunch
Sam Frazier Bunch
Walter (Dude) Bunch
Walter Lee Bunch
Dan Bunch (full name and stats later:) yepper! I'm old!
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