Isolated Families

There are many ways to mix ancestry.  One can have Asian and European ancestry.  Or one can have African and Indian ancestry.  Any combination imaginable is not only possible, but exists. 

There are a lot of  families (including this one) that have many combinations.  However, the Drocks first emerged noticeably as a tri-racial group, a combination of European, African, and Native American.   The Drocks and related families functioned as isolates.  Basically, this means that the families settled with or near each other, intermarried, and intertwined over the generations.  Thus, from 1809 until approximately 1900 (and possibly later), the family tree is very tightly branched, and there is a great deal of intermarriage among first cousins.

Allegany County, New York is where the Drock family stayed the longest.  They owned land along the river in Caneadea, subdividing a large parcel several times.  The Little's, too, settled here, on the parcel beside the Drock's.  And they proceeded to choose spouses from the families they were most familiar with, had the most in common with...  each other.

This part of New York was not known for its large African population.  In the larger (relatively speaking) villages in the county, there were a very few families who were not white.  There was a part of the county known as 'Snowball Hollow', facetiously named after its residents, who were primarily black.  The social divisions were very clearly drawn, just as they had been in Delaware County.  The family continued to remain static, unable to advance economically or socially.

To learn more about mixed or African ancestry, or tri-racial isolates: