Hi Peter. I am new to ancestry.com and am wondering if I'm related to Perry Cohea who died in MS in 1848 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetary. History is full of pain and my family's would be no different. I believe that a descendant of Perry Cohea fathered my grandfather, Oliver Clifton Carter. His mother would have been a laborer named Belle Carter. They may have had 4 or 5 children together: Winnie, Minnie, Alma?, Oliver and John. Oliver, my grandfather, would have been born in 1895 in MS (died in Chicago in 1968). Whoever it is in the Cohea family that fathered my grandfather, would not have found it in his interest to publicize his relationship with Belle, therefore records are not going to be found. Belle was most likely of Choctow descent and possibly Negro as well. We have verbal accounts of her telling Oliver her son, that she was Choctow. The Cohea man, who my grandfather said was a soldier, provided for Belle and the children financially.
My uncle named his son Christopher Cohea Carter. He and my mother were made to visit the gravesite in Greenwood Cememtary, Jackson, MS to pay their respects to the Cohea man buried there— possibly their grandfather. My two uncles, mother and another aunt lived only around the corner from Greenwood under the care of Minerva "Minnie" Carter Ingram, who is Belle's daughter and my grandfather's sister. I know Belle's mother was named Amy and she had a brother named Flaria.
To quote my uncle, "we are largely what we develop into by character". My brother, sister and I really would love to put this story to rest and find out who we are! We are simply interested and fascinated by the history and genetically speaking, would love to find out where some of our ethnicity comes from.
If you have any information you could provide, please contact me. My personal email address is:
theaigners@comcast.netThank you!
Mrs. Urmila Aigner