Ever wondered what mysteries your family name might hold? Our guest, Dina Newman from Kansas City, shares her captivating DIY genealogy journey of tracing her roots, uncovering unexpected connections and piecing together a complex family history. As we delve into the unusual last name of Tyeskey, we explore not only a tale of adopted surnames but also a story that reaches back to ex-slave Phyllis Petite and a Texas plantation owner, Jack Bell. This isn't just a tale of name changes; it's a deep dive into the identities that names can shape, and the stories they silently hold.
As we navigate the winding roads of Dina's family history, we uncover the intriguing heritage of the Tyeskey family, and their ties to Oklahoma and Texas. We also shed light on the riveting tale of Phyllis Petite, revealing unexpected historical threads that challenge the familiar narratives of Dina's family history. From Fort Gibson to Rusk County, Texas, prepare to embark on an enthralling excursion into the past, unraveling mysteries, and exploring the fascinating intersection of names, family, and identity.
Be sure to bookmark linktr.ee/hittinthebricks for your one stop access to Kathleen Brandt, the host of Hittin' the Bricks with Kathleen. And, visit us on YouTube: Off the Wall with Kathleen John and Chewey video recorded specials.
Hittin' the Bricks is produced through the not-for-profit, 501c3 TracingAncestors.org.
Thanks to MyHeritage for their generous support to Hittin' the Bricks with Kathleen! Follow us on social media and subscribe to HTB with Kathleen in order to enter your name in our monthly MyHeritage Complete Package giveaway starting Jan 2024!
Ever wondered what mysteries your family name might hold? Our guest, Dina Newman from Kansas City, shares her captivating DIY genealogy journey of tracing her roots, uncovering unexpected connections and piecing together a complex family history. As we delve into the unusual last name of Tyeskey, we explore not only a tale of adopted surnames but also a story that reaches back to ex-slave Phyllis Petite and a Texas plantation owner, Jack Bell. This isn't just a tale of name changes; it's a deep dive into the identities that names can shape, and the stories they silently hold.
As we navigate the winding roads of Dina's family history, we uncover the intriguing heritage of the Tyeskey family, and their ties to Oklahoma and Texas. We also shed light on the riveting tale of Phyllis Petite, revealing unexpected historical threads that challenge the familiar narratives of Dina's family history. From Fort Gibson to Rusk County, Texas, prepare to embark on an enthralling excursion into the past, unraveling mysteries, and exploring the fascinating intersection of names, family, and identity.
Be sure to bookmark linktr.ee/hittinthebricks for your one stop access to Kathleen Brandt, the host of Hittin' the Bricks with Kathleen. And, visit us on YouTube: Off the Wall with Kathleen John and Chewey video recorded specials.
Hittin' the Bricks is produced through the not-for-profit, 501c3 TracingAncestors.org.
Thanks to MyHeritage for their generous support to Hittin' the Bricks with Kathleen! Follow us on social media and subscribe to HTB with Kathleen in order to enter your name in our monthly MyHeritage Complete Package giveaway starting Jan 2024!
Ladies and gentlemen from the depth of flyover country in the heartland of America, the Kansas City on the other side of the mighty MO, welcome to hitting the bricks with Kathleen. The genealogy show that features your questions and her answers I and john, you're a humble hubby host, and on this episode we'll be talking to Dina Newman, from the sunflower state, the wheat state via Coffeyville, Kansas. So now let's start hitting the bricks. So, in spite of all the technical issues, hopefully we'll be able to hear everybody. Um, if not, it's my fault, fire the technician. But we're here, Kathleen, with uh, another neighbor. We just finished with Stephanie Holthouse. Apparently, we're just running down the street and we are here with Dina Newman. Dina is Well, what is your official title? Director For the center of neighborhoods, kc neighborhood at um kc Yep.
John Brandt:And Dina does a lot of great work there. And Dina and I actually have a oblique connection because I worked with a guy named Mike Rowland who is also heavily involved in the community and has, uh, Ophelia's garden named after his grandmother. Some course is associated with Dina that way.
Dina Newman:So I also, when I'm not at the center for neighborhoods running that I also have a small non-profit called kancy black urban growers or kacy buds.
John Brandt:Mike is on my board before.
Dina Newman:I knew that Mike and I go way back from when we were doing the gardening stuff and urban farming.
Kathleen Brandt:Yep, well, that's new information. I did not know that you actually had this, not for profit.
Dina Newman:Oh we, okay, We'll have to sit on the porch and have drinks, and I'll tell you all about it, okay.
Kathleen Brandt:And , John, you and Dina have something else in common.
John Brandt:What's that?
Kathleen Brandt:Coffeyville, Kansas John has a connection. No, no.
John Brandt:Okay, so the only time I heard about coffee field prior to moving To the midwest with calf lane was there was an eagle song that mentioned coffee field and where the dalton brothers were killed. Yeah, okay, that's the only only reason I knew where coffee field was, um, and so we went to coffee field, though, and what I learned is it has more to offer than just eagles lyrics is also had Dust. There's a lot of dust, lots of dust, and and rattlesnakes.
Dina Newman:You can take some of that home with you for so many years, if you were.
Kathleen Brandt:So, dina, as you know, my family also is from coffee. They're a huge side of them. That came to coffee bill about 1909, and so I made john go to the cemetery in south coffee vale. Okay, and that's what's his. I would tell him, sweetie, watch those holes, those rattlesnake holes. He was fed up with me and the rattlesnakes and the cemetery While we were taking pictures of the grave site.
Dina Newman:Oh gosh, I've never been to the south coffee bill cemetery.
Kathleen Brandt:It is filled with african americans, of course, and any worse in that cemetery Is probably related to me, and that is how you also know. My cousin is from the morse side, mary joe. Yes, Mary joe is a morse, so that is why her family was there also. So all the morse's from that area are related to me, do my mother's side, but anyway. So we took a nap at the hotel and woke up about six o'clock at night or eight o'clock at night after the cemetery and john said let's go Okay.
Dina Newman:Okay.
John Brandt:love Coffeville . See, I'm gonna edit this. I love Coffeville . I've always had a good time the times we went and it was really enjoyable. And I've learned about coffee Phil through a song by the Eagles which I always was one of my favorites.
Kathleen Brandt:So Dana john is telling a story.
John Brandt:No, it's true, and so do we want to move on with yes, yes, Kathleen, as opposed to uh Hating on Coffeeville with John.
Kathleen Brandt:So, dina, you are from coffee bill and you called in for a couple things about your family because your family has been Oklahoma for years. So, tell us a little bit about your question and and something about your family.
Dina Newman:Okay. So my question was my maternal grandmother made a name, was a is a strange name, strange to us. I had never heard it and my grandmother was very private. Uh, we didn't get to learn a lot, she. She said that her father was native, her father's father was native, but there was never any real. It's like really are you? So? It's almost like I know a lot more about my grandmother's mother's side of the family, but her father's side of the family we really don't know a lot about. It's just an odd name and again we were curious are they really native?
John Brandt:What's that name? Dina Tyeskey. Get anything about Taiski Kathleen.
Kathleen Brandt:I do know quite a bit about the Taiski's, and I'm going to ask Dina. One other question, though, first, and that where was this that your grandmother lived in?
Dina Newman:Before she came to Coffeyville. Yes, Oklahoma, it escapes me Fort Gibson, maybe that's it. That's it, Fort Gibson?
Kathleen Brandt:Okay so the Taiski's are from that Fort Gibson area. The reason you think that name is kind of made up in your family is because it was adopted into your family. What your grandmother's ancestors adopted the name Taiski. That is not even a slave name of theirs. It was originally Harnage Family women Harnage, Harnage, h-a-r-n-a-g-e. Never heard of that, Dina. The Taiski's are from Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, and on their paperwork they tell you that their native name was Harnage and their English name is Taiski. So there was a time where everyone could adopt a name. They claimed to adopted it back to 1816.
Dina Newman:Kathleen, why would someone want to adopt?
Kathleen Brandt:a name, because sometimes they didn't want to carry on with the slave name. Okay, now your family were not slaves, though, under the Harnages either, but the Harnages married into the family where they were the slaves. So your family were slaves under a guy by the name of Jack Bell. What have you?
John Brandt:Oh look, this is sad this is not on video. Yeah, it should be a video Wow.
Kathleen Brandt:So the best part about your story is, dina, if you have heard of the work progress administration, the WPA, they went around and captured stories of the older ex-slaves. There is one particular one that followed Jack Bell because they were also on the plantation. Dina, your family was enslaved by Jack Bell. Jack Bell had property not only in Oklahoma but also in Texas and he carried his slaves back and forth. Before the war in the 1850s, one of the older enslaved purses by the name of Phyllis Petite not necessarily relation to you, he. She married a Petite but she also was a slave of his, of him. Her story is told. I have the links and I will send their story to you so you can see what your family went through. And I know your family went through it because they tell the same story in their Native American application how they went back and forth from Oklahoma to Texas and they tell about Jack Bell.
John Brandt:And they were applying for what the Native American applications were.
Kathleen Brandt:They were applying to be freedmen. Freedmen trying to get land and trying to get the benefits of the Native Americans. However, they were rejected.
John Brandt:Oh wait, hang on a second. Hang on a second. So this is like I think it was last season or something. Somebody was on rejected roles.
Kathleen Brandt:Yes, that is exactly where Dina is gonna find her roles. Also, that was Vicki Van, I believe, out of Tulsa also.
John Brandt:Okay.
Kathleen Brandt:Who is also from the same area Holberg, Fort, Gibson area and she was also on the rejected roles. Now, the reason Dina's family was rejected is a different reason. They could not prove that they came back to Oklahoma in time to apply. Originally, there was a deadline when you had to be in the territory, Whereas Phyllis, who was also a slave of the same men she was enslaved by Jack Bell she and her family were not rejected. They were accepted because they could prove that they came back.
Dina Newman:Oh my gosh. Okay, so are you saying they were Native, but they just-.
Kathleen Brandt:No, their family was not Native by blood Interesting Not on the Tai-I-Ski side at all. They did have very, very little blood. You have less than 2%, and some of that's from your father's side. Your mother had about 2%, so you're only going to inherit just some of that, but that doesn't mean that they weren't native. We're talking five generations away by the time. You get five generations away from a pure native, which supposedly was a lady by the name of Cynthia Harnage.
Kathleen Brandt:Cynthia Harnage had a child in 1816 called Jeff Taieski. He claimed that his father, or his descendants, claimed that his father, was a Taieski. It was not. It was tied to the Taieskis though. So not only are you not a Taieski, you're not a bell. You do have Harnage relatives, but your native side comes from that side that little percentage, and it's because their Harnages were related to two other groups of people called the wolves and the stand-seals. Now, all of that is way too complicated, but I have a chart of how your Native American bloodline is passed down. By the time someone is 100% native down to your mother. Your mother could only inherit about 1.56%, so that's why she has such a small amount. In between time, dana, I have to say you are and your mother was about 90-some percent African. It is what is the significance.
John Brandt:We're all laughing, but Kathleen explained the significance.
Dina Newman:Shout out to the motherland.
Kathleen Brandt:Exactly, oh my God Now, from several different countries, of course, within Africa, but your mother was 91% African. Now what we know is that DNA is not great at doing really small areas Like it can't really tell you that you're this much of a particular country, but it can definitely tell you what continent, and your mother had only about 7% European, which is actually not that common. So, for example, I have about 25% European. My family has between 25% and 30%. That would be a normal mixture of a lot of the enslaved having mixtures with the enslavers, right, but in your family that is not the case. Now your father's side proved to be a little different, because you have 13% European and only 85% of the African countries. I was quite impressed by that, because we don't normally see that, but it's not necessarily unusual when we have a lot of communities that are all based on African-originated slaves.
Dina Newman:Wow, wow.
Kathleen Brandt:So that should give you an idea of what Mary Taizki was In 1920, I believe, or 1910 census, and again you'll get all my notes and you'll get pictures. It does note that she was mulatto and I think someone mentioned that to you when we had the interview that she was mulatto. At that time she was living with Rosa Moore, her mother's family. Because Danford Taizki never married Rosa Moore. He joined the army, had six months between the draft and being actually active in the military. His father lived next door to the Moors. Rosa had a beautiful baby from this and in the meantime he went and joined the army and basically he never came back to that area. He was in Kansas City. Now I don't know the relationship after that, we don't see that part, but it's clear that then Rosa later marries and has her child and everybody knew the father of that child.
Dina Newman:So my grandmother married her mother's Rosa Rosa's. My grandmother's father was Danford Taizki.
Kathleen Brandt:That is correct, At least on paper, and it does look like it's correct because that is the connection to the harness, the stand-sills and the wolves.
Dina Newman:Then why would they say mulatto?
Kathleen Brandt:Perfect question. So one of the things we know about census takers is that, first of all, whoever answered the door, we don't know always who. That was Only certain census, 1910 and 1920, we didn't know who answered the door, so the person even given the information might have not been given correct information because it could have been a teenage child. They also might have looked at the family and taken down all the names, as they were supposed to, and Mary Brunis Taizki. She was marked down as mulatto, where all of the more kids, all of Alabama Moore's children, including herself, are considered black. So all that tells me is that Mary Brunis Taizki was lighter than everyone else in the household. Now, remember, her father is a Taizki and the Taizki's were bare skin. Okay, okay, generationally yeah, because I see them as mulatto quite a bit all the way back. Okay.
Dina Newman:Okay.
Kathleen Brandt:So that does not mean, though, that they were necessarily native, but they did have a little of other races that they inherited, and that is showing in their skin tone and also Wow. So that is a little bit about your great-grandmother, Rosa Mary's mother, okay, so Rosa Moore, Alabama's daughter, and on the applications they don't mention Danford. His line does not mention a lot of the information we had to dig in each application. So, in about 1904, they applied for freedmen status, and that's when they were rejected, and in doing so, we can see the Taizki going all the way back from Mary Brunis assuming she is Danford's child, which it appears she was and on that line, the harnesses and no Taizki's did do a lot of slave trading, but I never see them listed as a slave of Taizki, only of this Jack Bell.
Kathleen Brandt:Now, the story that we hear, though, is that there are other people who were involved in the slave trading In the meantime. Again, I'm using your mother, because she has just a little bit more Taizki than you're going to ever have, and so I'm able to also match you up on the DNA with other people that match with you. There are an extreme amount of African Americans, because they, too, were slaves. So they're going to be matched with you. They're also Jack Bell's kids or they're related. Now Jack Bell's son does testify for the Taizki man, for Jeff Taizki. The difficulty in your family tree is unscrambling the names. At one point, one of your Jeff Taizki's real name is Josh, what we see him first as Jeff and then he decides no, my name is really Josh, my son is Jeff and my father's Jeff, but I'm Josh. So we go through all of this information with your family.
John Brandt:Dina, Fun is what she calls work.
Kathleen Brandt:That's true.
John Brandt:That is true A lot of tedious pouring over records is what she's calling fun, Dina.
Dina Newman:Oh my gosh, yeah, that changed his name to Josh.
Kathleen Brandt:Jeff at one point was Jeff, jeff, jeff, and then he changed his to Josh. Now that's just one of the Jeffs. There are two other Jeffs, so you have a Jeff of 1816 who was the first one that they were able to find, and the guy who turns it in says his last name was Taizki and his mother was a harnage. So that's how I know where the harnage from about the time they came in, and her name was Alcy Harnage. And supposedly this Jeff Taizki was fathered by that Cynthia person that I mentioned earlier, and they use that Taizki name, but they also know that they were harnages because it's in all of their paperwork. Oh my gosh. Then there's another Jeff who is Jeff McKinley. So Jeff Taizki, who was born in 1874, fathered Rosa Moore. His father also went by Jeff for a while but then changed it to Joshua. He was born in 1843. And that one has another very interesting surname in that he married someone named Sealy.
Kathleen Brandt:Now your family is originally all claim Rusk County, texas. Okay, so then they came to Oklahoma and then they went back to Rusk County, texas. A lot of them did, and that's where you're going to find the majority of your family records. Why did you say okay? Did you hear that?
Dina Newman:Well, so my grandmother, Mary, inherited mineral rights that still has been passed down through my family in Rusk.
Kathleen Brandt:County Texas. Yeah, okay so there's the tie and, like you said, most of your marriages, a lot of the births in your family, are from Rusk County, especially as we go back further. Like you said, you're from Rosa back.
Dina Newman:We always was telling her name was Rosie.
Kathleen Brandt:Was it Rose, both? We see it both ways. We see it Rosa and Rosie. It just depends on what record. I saw a lot of Rosa, but I also saw Rosie.
Dina Newman:Did you see? Catherine to my grandmother had a half brother named Eddie. I don't know if that shows up.
Kathleen Brandt:Yes, it did In the 1910 or 1920 census the same one, and they also considered him a lot, but I didn't know who he was. Okay, that's half-brother grandmother's . We don't know he was born, like in Ohio or somewhere. It was in Iowa, Iowa, okay, so it was one of the "Vowel states.
Kathleen Brandt:Who was born in one of the Vow states, so I did not follow Rosa because I didn't have time and I have this limit, but I did see him and he is considered mulatto also in the household. But it didn't have his real last name so I couldn't figure out, whereas Rosie or Rosa says Taíski. I didn't know which child of Alabama, because she has all these grown girls, or maybe two or three grown daughters who could have been the father of Eddie, and it wasn't clear. Wait a minute.
Dina Newman:Rosa had more than one daughter. No, alabama, alabama had more daughters.
Kathleen Brandt:So they were all in the household with her at it. Okay, okay, wow, the story of the ex-slave Phyllis Petite. She talks about her full experience, but she also talks about her parent, what she has been told through the years and how they were split and how Jack Bell treated them on the plantation. So now, deena, the reason John knows the stories, because he sat in my office and I read it to him like story time yesterday.
John Brandt:I was like, no, read that to me. No, no, just stop what you're doing. I stopped all the work and I was like you've got it up on your screen, just read it and send me the link. Send me the link, yeah, and yeah, it's an interesting and definitely worth the read. Because I was like this is like really, miss Jane Pittman. You know, it's like you watch that movie when we were in elementary school and then this is the real thing though.
Dina Newman:So even though she wasn't a blood relative, we can assume that this slave owner, who had my family, possibly were kind to them as well.
Kathleen Brandt:Yeah, she talks about all the slave children and about the slaves in general. So when she's telling this story she even says he was Native American, I tell you, but he was a good man, those kind of stories that come out. Now she does talk about you know, the whooping, but it was. It was a typical submission of they had power over you, but it wasn't what she dwelt on. It's not what her memory was about as an older lady. Her memory was about all of the good things and going to church, even as an enslaved person, and the freedom that she had with her mother in the big house.
Kathleen Brandt:Oh, my gosh. Now I personally would want you to look up more information on Jack Bell and his plantations in Russ County, texas. I think that you should look up Jack Bell and do some research on him and see if there's any other stories. But that is the one whether it's two, my phyllis petite that I definitely have in your package, that so that you can click on the links, I think. In general, dean, I'm going to ask you, you know, do you have any questions? Because I have a lot more information on your family. And then we had these other people who came in play, because they also sold. They were selling people, and they didn't seem to change your names as they were doing. It Was somebody claimed Taíski. They kept it, even though they knew that their mother's name was Harnage, and that is where the Native American part really comes in. So that is, do you have questions for me?
Dina Newman:First of all, well, my mind is blown here and I've never heard these names this bell and this part Harnage, and yeah, I, okay. And then the story of going between Texas and Oklahoma is slay, I mean, yeah, I.
Kathleen Brandt:So Phyllis tells the story. Where she's telling the story. She says that her mama and her pappy said that it was because they were trying to avoid the war and that's why they took him back out of Oklahoma and back to Texas at this large plantation where a lot of family live. And she talked about how you can stand up and look at the big house on this hill and the people look like little beady people. It was so far away. I mean, she was trying to explain how big this plantation was.
Kathleen Brandt:And one of the things I have to tell you is a certain point in genealogy we have to trace the enslaver in order to get the other half of the story, because the transaction of buying people is just like buying anything else. It's in the D books or the minute books, or there's agreements or there's, you know, there's some sort of a court record. There's always more paperwork because we can always follow the money, and I did not do that for you, but I will help you to do it for yourself. One of the other things I did not do for you I did not print every document, but I'm hoping that you have a library card, do yes, and I'm going to ask especially that you get a MIG Continent Library card here in Kansas City. Ok, because they also have the records and the links that I give you. If you sign up using your MIG Continent Public Library card, you will be able to access all of the links, except for the ancestrycom ones, but those you can go to the local library right in our neighborhood If you don't want a prescription of it.
Kathleen Brandt:They all have a trial, though for like 14 days or something, and you might wish to use that trial and, as you're using it, print off all the documents that I have as you do some further search and see if you like it. It is a free trial. I think you have to give credit card, but you know you can test. But, dina, you seem to be emotional. I'm not sure if it's distraught or just surprise Both.
Dina Newman:I mean, you know there's, you knew they're growing up to hear these stories, right, and we always knew there were pockets that didn't make sense, or my grandmother was so adamant about not sharing her story and we always wanted what's the deal? What's the deal? And now it's just kind of like putting all these puzzle pieces together and I, you know, I kind of wish now I mean you know that you know we had had more opportunity to really kind of sit around as a family and dig into it, because there's still so many more questions in my mind. But, man, you've answered a lot. Like I said, that whole Russ County thing was just like what is that that's?
Kathleen Brandt:it.
Dina Newman:Yeah, and the staff, the Jeffs, yes, and the mulatto thing. Again, it was just kind of like what she has why? What was the deal? That helped a lot? How you explain the census taker, which is still I'm I can imagine that in my mind's eye that is crazy.
Kathleen Brandt:OK, right, I mean when someone would look at me and say, well, next to somebody else she looks mulatto. But maybe they look at your children and say, oh no, no, she's black, they're mulatto, so it's just, it's all on this range in the census taker's head. It's not scientific, it's not based on family history. It was based on a parent Unbelievable Well much like race in America. Exactly so. One of the other things I do want Dina to do, John, besides get her library card to print off everything and maybe look up Jack Bell.
John Brandt:She has a library card? No, but I wanted to get one of her.
Kathleen Brandt:Mecontin mecontin public library. But yes you do have it and the other one does work with ancestry. I don't know if it works with what's called bold three, and that's where some of the links I'm going to give you. You said bold three. Yes, it's a database. It's a database like ancestors. It's a database.
John Brandt:It's owned by ancestry actually, every time she mentions full three, I said, kevin, what is full three?
Dina Newman:The heart, ok, and it's a database it's a database.
John Brandt:Thank you, John, you're welcome. I listen to my honey bunny Occasionally.
Kathleen Brandt:Occasionally the other thing. I see, johnny, maybe lose my train of thought.
John Brandt:That was intentional, I sure was. Stop up here.
Kathleen Brandt:I was going to that was my last thing.
John Brandt:You can invite Dina up and chat.
Kathleen Brandt:Oh and I am going to because we're going to, I am. We are going to ask her. Let me see if you just try to create a family tree. Oh, you need to create a family tree. I did not create a family tree for you, but I will send you links of how you can put them, even online, for your family to see, because I did give you who we get who on the Taíski side. Just know that they're not really Taískis, but that is the name they went by. Ok, john, I think I am all done If Dina has no more questions. Dina, do you have more questions?
Dina Newman:Oh, thank you so much, Kathleen. I don't even know how you do this. That was. My head is already spinning. I was screaming looking at oh my gosh, wow, this is amazing this. I cannot wait to share this with my family.
John Brandt:This is a thank you so much and thank you Well, congratulations, you've made it to the end of another episode. Thanks so much for staying. Thanks to Dina for sharing her questions with us. Chewey Chubakka Brandt part-time our grass Somalia full-time and threat to any living thing in the backyard, for his unwavering lack of interest in anything we're doing. The theme song for Hitting the Bricks was written and performed by Tony Fisknuckle in the Centipedes. Watch for their next appearance where the crawdads sing. You can find us on Apple, Spotify and, of course, Buzz sprout. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast, so stop by our Facebook page at Hitting the Bricks and let us know.