Selia Elisabeth Bircheat (1847 - 1910)

Selia Bircheat was one of my ancestors on my father's side as was Christopher Columbus Bircheat. Christopher Bircheat was my father's grandfather. From what I found on Ancestry.com, Selia was an Alabama Native American hired by Henry Hyde to take care of his many children. He was a farmer and after his wife passed away he found it difficult to raise the children and work on the farm. He paid Selia for her work then decided it was cheaper to marry her so he did. They went on to have kids together.

My DNA doesn't show any Native American DNA and I had it tested by two different companies. I was told by someone at Family Tree that the Native American data bank is relatively small compared to others. The person told me that also, when there are a lot of children from the Native American ancestor, the DNA gets 'watered down' as it passes from person to person and by the time me and my siblings were born, there was no Native American DNA left. I thought that was pretty interesting if it's true.