Person:Mary Driver (4)

They had three children, Martha, Violet and Mose.

From Bob Smith

One question I have is regarding the Driver/Barnes side. Have you ever heard of an American Indian connection here? If there were one, you'd be part of the same lineage. My father and others in the family claim that Wesley & Ruth's daughter, Mary E. (Driver) Higgins was 1/2 indian. Nothing I've found has substantiated that persistent family oral tradition. My father talked to me about this as a child and claimed that his father, my grandfather, was 1/8 "and that's why he has high cheekbones" which he did. Some of the legends in my family pan out upon intensive investigation and some, with a germ of truth, end up being confused over time (like assigned to the wrong branch of the family). It's made me gunshy about believing them. If this were true about Mary and if the fraction (1/2) were correct, that would mean that Ruth was a full-blooded indian. That cannot be true, since her father in Baltimore was named Adam Barnes and his wife was Elizabeth Paine. Strange names for indians, don't you think?

As for the indian thing, this was told to me first by my Dad. 10 years later it was corraborated by an uncle. Then later, when I did some detective work and located all my second cousins (Smiths & allied families), they all told the same story. Nobody LOOKS indian whose photos I've seen, including Mary E. herself. Not obviously, anyway. My grandpa did have high cheekbones, though and my skin is red/tan year around (hahaha).

Mary had wide, squarish eyes. My grandpa (her grandson) had them too and I have one brother who inherited them.

Her middle initial E. comes from the 1850 census.