Online sources say Hezekiah's mother was Margaret Powell. It looks like she may have died in Fairfield Township, Butler County Ohio. Apparently, some of the extended Ricketts family helped settle Fairfield County Ohio early in. So I wonder, was Fairfield Township in Butler County named after the Fairfield County Ohio community? ~~~ I think Hezekiah's mom was a melungeon. I think she may have been from that group of so-called "Indians" living at Fort Shirley, Old Aughwick, in the 1750s, or perhaps with family ties back to Rockbridge County, Virginia's Melungeon community of 'Irish Creek.' So assuming she is the mother, could Margaret Powell Ricketts have been a melungeon woman? Most probably. I spoke (9/22/2018) with a Ph D anthropologist who said that the surname of Powell shows up on the Dawes listing of Cherokee families, being one surname of about 150 Cherokee and other native surnames in that Dawes listing. She also said that the name of "Margaret" was one name within a main group of first names that was commonly adopted by Cherokee women when they began adopting white names, in the 1600s. When I ask her if "Margaret Powell" sounded like a Cherokee name, without hesitation she said "absolutely." This anthropologist also went on to say that the Indians of Appalachia, and the melungeons were all overlapped, and commonly interacted, and would have at times intermarried. An internet Dawes census rolls check shows 107 persons with the surname of Powell. Plenty of online sources cite that Margaret Powell Ricketts is the mother of Hezekiah Ricketts and his brother Zachariah Ricketts, (but where are the original records?) who is likely the Zachariah who deeded the Hill Valley farm to (his probable brother) Hezekiah, in 1784. ~~~ The pinpointed epicenter of melungeon land is Newman's ridge and Sneedville, in Tennessee, whereby immediately south is Powell Mountain, and the lush Powell Valley and Powell River; thus this Powell Mountain, with massive Powell valley and Powell River are located in long-held Melungeon and Cherokee territory. Is this just coincidence? The great Appalachian valley road conveniently connects all three areas of: the Powell Valley in north-east Tennessee with Rockbridge county VA, and"with south central Pennsylvania. ~~~ Some years ago in the Cumberland county archives of Pennsylvania I saw a record that shows a Miss Sarah Hamilton the wife of a Zachariah Ricketts of Derry township in Mifflin county PA. Sarah Hamilton Ricketts' father was a Robert Hamilton. According to old records at the Cumberland County archives. She was the wife of Zachariah Ricketts of Derry township Mifflin County Pennsylvania. These records date from the 1760s. So seems Sarah Hamilton was the sister-in-law of Hezekiah Ricketts, and wife of his brother Zachariah Ricketts, who signed the Hill Valley farm to him in 1784. ~~~ According the the Hill Valley PA deed, Zachariah and William Ricketts were living in Rockbridge County, Virginia in the year 1784. What is the connection there? Was Zachariah's wife Sarah Hamilton, her people from Rockbridge County? Or, was Zachariah's mother from Rockbridge County? If Ricketts men were living in Rockbridge County VA in 1784, which is when he deeded the Hill Valley Pennsylvania Ricketts farm over to his apparent brother, Hezekiah Ricketts, then I wonder if Zachariah and William were perhaps living in the IRISH CREEK COMMUNITY of Rockbridge County, VA, which was, and still is, an "interracial" community, being made up of "melugeons." This Zachariah married Sarah Hamilton. Interestingly there are 'melungeon/Indian' Hamiltons living in Rockbridge County VA in the 18th/19th centuries. So is Zachariah's wife Sarah Hamilton Ricketts tied to these melungeon/Indian Hamiltons of Rockbridge County? Especially if his mother, Margaret POWELL, was connected to Rockbridge county VA. ~~~ Thus I think that Hezekiah Ricketts' (1754-1816 of Hill Valley Pennsylvania) mother was likely a Margaret Powell she being a melungeon "Indian." ~~~ Interestingly: the lost colony of Roanoke has an Edward Powell and a Winifred Powell listed as colonists in 1587. Thus Occam's Razor would suggest that it's not unreasonable to consider the possibility that Margaret Powell Ricketts could indeed be a direct descendant from the Edward and or Winfred Powell, colonists of the lost colony of Roanoke, with Edward and or Winifred's descendants having absorbed into, and living along side, some of the American Indian tribes of North Carolina and Virginia then those later generations moving logically along the Roanoke river to the tail-waters, to present day Roanoke, Virginia vicinity, then moving a-bit northeast to present day Amherst and Rockbridge Counties. ~~~ My dad's first cousin shows a trace of South American DNA, which I'm thinking might be a trace from when Francis Drake brought servitude, south American Indians from the sacked Spanish colony town of Cartagena, on the coast of present-day Colombia, all the way up to the English colony of Roanoke Island in 1586, thereby dumping them on the Island of Roanoke to help establish an English colony at Roanoke. Thus Margaret Powell might also be a direct descendant of Francis Drake's Cartagena indentured servants dropped off at Roanoke Island, in 1586. This is not unreasonable. ~~~ Author Robert Bruce Baer had been corresponding with the Ricketts brothers, Rueben and Laban, in Breckenridge county Kentucky, in the 1890s, and there's no doubt that these Breckenridge county Ricketts would have told Baer that the Ricketts had "Indian" ancestry, but Baer never wrote this in his book, entitled: "Genealogy of Johannes Baer 1749-1910," which certainly indicates that he was ignoring the issue that he indeed had been told that the Ricketts had Indian DNA, or mysterious dark skinned (melungeon) "Indian" DNA. In the 1880s and beyond it was certainly considered "undesirable" to have "dark skin DNA" like Indian, or melungeon, or black DNA. So I think that certainly Robert Bruce Baer conveniently and quietly ignored what (my ancestor) Laban Ricketts of Breckenridge county Kentucky/Hardin county Illinois, (and probably laban's brother Rueben) was most certainly telling him (through mail correspondence. And I have seen this old mail correspondence), and that's most likely why author Robert Bruce Baer stopped doing research into the Ricketts branch of his genealogy, and why he did not make a concerted effort to go back further than his great grandparents, Hezekiah and Hannah Wilcox Ricketts of Hillvalley Huntingdon County Pennsylvania. Because Robert Bruce Baer KNEW, from family stories, tradition, that he would surely discover "weird," "interracial," "dark ancestors" (Indians, melungeons, mulattoes, God-forbid: "blacks!") and thus Mr Baer delved no further back, than his great grandparents: Hezekiah and Hannah Wilcox Ricketts, on that particular branch, and Baer quietly STOPPED researching his Ricketts linage, To keep from discovering his most-likely dark-skinned, melungeon, 'boogy-man' Indian ancestors.