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My favorite "Black" person:

Heather Locklear:

Another family whose name is a giveaway for their African heritage is that of Locklear - yes, the same one that Heather, the blond bombshell of the TV series, "Melrose Place," claims as her own. Although as Anglo Saxon sounding as you can make it, the name is, in fact, an Indian one and in the language of the Tuscarora tribes means "hold fast." Indeed, it would appear that Ms. Locklear's family, at least on her father's side, once belonged to a segment of the population which in academic terminology is referred to as a tri-racial isolate - a community of individuals whose ancestry is a mixture of European, Indian and Black and who intermarried only with each other. ...

"tri-racial isolate" can be applied to several other interesting early populations, not just to your basic Indian/African/Norse deals.

One of the earliest settlements in York (Yoik) Pennsylvania consisted of Smolt Saami from Pechenga Piek (Pike's Peak) which is now within the Russian borders, just West of Murmansk.

When the border was drawn in the early 1820s almost all of them hopped on their tiny fishing boats and fled to their American colony thereby boosting the (our) local population's numbers substantially. There was also a drought with famine in 1810-1813 in the area, and that served to precipitate Saami evacuation to more Southerly areas within Scandinavia and the Baltics.

These are the Saami who really don't look all that much like the Norse who populate most of the rest of Europe.

I've found many frontier Midwestern records where your basic Smolt/Scots/Iriquois or Susquehanna blend folk were identified by locals as "colored". No doubt this would get any particular family so identified the appellation "tri-racial isolate" by the ethnologists. Toss in a bit of Romany or Traveler, and you have Bill Clinton's people.

Odds are Heather is part of this early clan.

Man, that is fascinating about Heather Locklear. She is my fave blonde bimbo. I have a lot of good feelings about Heather, I'm quite sure she is very professional in her dealings, I'm sure she shows up on time, knows her lines and her blocking and just in general seems to be a nice woman. I'm convinced that's why she gets so much work.

And Coleus, very interesting post about Al Hamilton, my fave founding father. Although I can sympathize with the author's curiosity I don't think Mr. Hamilton's bones should be disturbed to settle such a trivial question.

My fave founding father and my fave blonde bimbo on the same thread! Is this the best place in cyberspace, or what?

Another family whose name is a giveaway for their African heritage is that of Locklear - yes, the same one that Heather, the blond bombshell of the TV series, "Melrose Place," claims as her own. Although as Anglo Saxon sounding as you can make it, the name is, in fact, an Indian one and in the language of the Tuscarora tribes means "hold fast."

Rats rear. Ms. Locklear gets her name from the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina and I don't think it matters what it means to the Tuscarora's of Delaware. As to having a large number of blacks it's news to me, but if so I may ask for reparations. Ms. Locklear is my 4th cousin once or twice removed.

Is Heather related to a baseball player named Gene Locklear? (b. 7/19/1949 Lumberton, NC, OF Reds 1973, Padres 1973-76, Yankees 1976-77 per 1996 ed. "The Baseball Encyclopedia" [Macmillan]). Around 1973 I was watching a baseball game on TV, Mr. Locklear was batting and the announcer was saying that Locklear was Indian (didn't catch which tribe was mentioned). I myself consider myself white but am told I have a Nanticoke chief among my ancestors.

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