Phoebe (Unknown) Fennell (abt. 1775 - bef. 1820)

Based on the research of Steven Pony Hill on the Redbone migration, Henry's son Dempsey who married Margaret Turner is listed among the Redbones in the migration:

https://www.sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/RedBones.html

I came across this while trying to find the parents of my Fronie (some have Nancy / Nance Fornie) Fennell who married Joshua Rigdon. They're my 4th great-grandparents.

I did some Googling on Dempsey and learned that his father Henry had instructed in his will date 1835 that money owed to Joshua Ridgen was to be repaid from the estate. While Fronie by any name isn't mentioned in the will, this is her husband, which led me to believe that there was some kinship there. It would make sense they'd be related since her husband sold land to Henry Fennell and his wife's maiden name was Fennell. I continued Googling for information on the family and based on what little info I could find and placing people together based on dates, I connected Dempsey as Henry's son and Fronie as Henry's daughter.

I use Ancestry, so I connected them this way in my tree just as a hypothesis but then today I ended up with 55 DNA matches connecting at Henry and his wife Phoebe.

This brings me to this...if Dempsey Fennell was known to be Redbone indian, then his sibling who is my direct ancestor would be also. Since their father was a white slaveowner, that would indicate that that Phoebe is where the Redbone ancestry comes from. Since I have some half-matches, this indicates another wife whose children are my half-kin. This leads me to wonder if Phoebe was a slave/mistress or if Henry had multiple wives.

In any case, I'm from Phoebe's grandson James Rigdon. We have a photo of James and his wife Barbara. James definitely looks to be of mixed ethnicity. So it all 'comes together' and makes sense.

I have several Native American lines of ancestry and it's very common for there to be only a first name (if that) for a Native wife/mother and little if anything documented on her family. When a whole lot is known about the male's line and their descendants but only a first name for the wife/mother, it's definitely a clue. White women were documented at birth, marriage, inheritance, deeds, and death. Native women most often weren't.

My point being, it's very unlikely more will be found on Phoebe, but since she has known Redbone descendants, that's what we have to go on that she herself was Redbone.