ELVIS PRESLEY’S ROOTS
Mother’s Side
Elvis's great-great-great-grandmother,
Morning White Dove (1800-1835), was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian.
She married
William Mansell, a settler in western Tennessee, in 1818. The Mansells migrated from Norman France to Scotland, and then later to Ireland. In the 18th century the family came to the American Colonies. William's father, Richard Mansell, had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Mansell is a French name--its literal translation is the man from Le Mans.
William Mansell married Morning White Dove. The newlyweds migrated to Alabama from Tennessee to claim lands garnered in the Indian Wars. The Mansells settled in Marion County in northeast Alabama near the Mississippi border. Morning White Dove and William Mansell prospered in Alabama. Their land was fertile and they built a substantial house near the town of Hamilton.
They had three offspring, the eldest of who was
John Mansell, born in 1828, and Elvis's great-great grandfather. He was "half Scots-Irish, half Indian, (but) seems to have grown up wholly "wild Injun."
John Mansell married Elizabeth "Betsy" Gilmore and they would have some nine or ten children John Mansell squandered the legacy of the family farm. In 1880 he abdicated to Oxford, Mississippi, changing his name to Colonel Lee Mansell. His sons left Hamilton to seek their fortunes in the town of Saltillo, Mississippi, near Tupelo, the birth place of Elvis Presley.
The third of John Mansell's sons,
White Mansell, became the patriarch of the family White Mansell was Elvis's great-grandfather.
White Mansell married Martha Tackett, a neighbor in Saltillo. Martha's mother, Nancy Tackett is Jewish. Like many other Southern families, they sold their lands and became sharecroppers. Their third daughter’s name is
Doll Mansell.
Doll Mansell married her first cousin, Robert Smith (son of Ann Mansell). Bob Smith was very handsome, his Indian blood evidenced in a noble brow, good bone structure, even features and dark, deep-set eyes. His black hair was dark as coal. Therefore, Elvis Presley's maternal grandparents, were first cousins.
Doll and Robert had eight children,
Their third child was Gladys Smith, who was Elvis’s mother.
Genetically speaking, what produced Elvis is quite a mixture. At the beginning, to French Norman blood was added Scots-Irish blood. And when you then add to these the Indian strain supplying the mystery and the Jewish strain supplying spectacular showmanship, and you overlay all this with his circumstances, social conditioning, and religious upbringing--specifically his Southern poor white, First Assembly of God upbringing--you have the enigma that was Elvis.
Father’s Side
Less is known of Elvis's paternal heritage through his father, Vernon.
The first Pressley in America was an
Anglo-Irishman, a Celt, David Pressley, who settled with his son, Andrew Pressley, Senior, at New Bern, North Carolina in 1740. Not until the third generation is there significant historical record of the Pressleys, beginning with Andrew Pressley, Junior. The history of the Presleys picks up again with Dunnan Pressley, Junior, in the middle of the 19th century.
Dunnan Pressley married Martha Jane Wesson. They had two daughters, Rosalinda and
Rosella. Dunnan next abandoned his wife and two daughters.
Rosella was Elvis's great-grandmother. Rosella bore nine illegitimate children, never once identifying her lovers or making any claim on them. The children never knew of their fathers as Rosella stubbornly, and resourcefully, supported them through sharecropping.
Elvis's paternal line continued through Rosella's son, (1896-1973), Jessie Presley who was Elvis's grandfather. He enjoyed drinking whiskey and was often involved in drunken bar brawls. As a result, Jessie spent many a night sobering up in jail.
In 1913
Jessie Presley married Minnie Mae Hood, "Grandma Dodger," who was to live with Elvis throughout his adult life.
In 1916 their first child was born,
Vernon Presley, Elvis Presley's father.
In many respects it was as if Vernon had no father as Jessie repeated his own father abandonment on his children. This theme of father abandonment reverberates throughout Elvis's paternal lineage. It is a strong clue to the abandonment that Elvis felt, and perpetrated, in his own life.
Elvis's genealogy holds slim, handsome man about six feet tall with raven black hair
ELVIS PRESLEY’S ROOTS
Mother’s Side
Elvis's great-great-great-grandmother,
Morning White Dove (1800-1835), was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian.
She married
William Mansell, a settler in western Tennessee, in 1818. The Mansells migrated from Norman France to Scotland, and then later to Ireland. In the 18th century the family came to the American Colonies. William's father, Richard Mansell, had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Mansell is a French name--its literal translation is the man from Le Mans.
William Mansell married Morning White Dove. The newlyweds migrated to Alabama from Tennessee to claim lands garnered in the Indian Wars. The Mansells settled in Marion County in northeast Alabama near the Mississippi border. Morning White Dove and William Mansell prospered in Alabama. Their land was fertile and they built a substantial house near the town of Hamilton.
They had three offspring, the eldest of who was
John Mansell, born in 1828, and Elvis's great-great grandfather. He was "half Scots-Irish, half Indian, (but) seems to have grown up wholly "wild Injun."
John Mansell married Elizabeth "Betsy" Gilmore and they would have some nine or ten children John Mansell squandered the legacy of the family farm. In 1880 he abdicated to Oxford, Mississippi, changing his name to Colonel Lee Mansell. His sons left Hamilton to seek their fortunes in the town of Saltillo, Mississippi, near Tupelo, the birth place of Elvis Presley.
The third of John Mansell's sons,
White Mansell, became the patriarch of the family White Mansell was Elvis's great-grandfather.
White Mansell married Martha Tackett, a neighbor in Saltillo. Martha's mother, Nancy Tackett is Jewish. Like many other Southern families, they sold their lands and became sharecroppers. Their third daughter’s name is
Doll Mansell.
Doll Mansell married her first cousin, Robert Smith (son of Ann Mansell). Bob Smith was very handsome, his Indian blood evidenced in a noble brow, good bone structure, even features and dark, deep-set eyes. His black hair was dark as coal. Therefore, Elvis Presley's maternal grandparents, were first cousins.
Doll and Robert had eight children,
Their third child was Gladys Smith, who was Elvis’s mother.
Genetically speaking, what produced Elvis is quite a mixture. At the beginning, to French Norman blood was added Scots-Irish blood. And when you then add to these the Indian strain supplying the mystery and the Jewish strain supplying spectacular showmanship, and you overlay all this with his circumstances, social conditioning, and religious upbringing--specifically his Southern poor white, First Assembly of God upbringing--you have the enigma that was Elvis.
Father’s Side
Less is known of Elvis's paternal heritage through his father, Vernon.
The first Pressley in America was an
Anglo-Irishman, a Celt, David Pressley, who settled with his son, Andrew Pressley, Senior, at New Bern, North Carolina in 1740. Not until the third generation is there significant historical record of the Pressleys, beginning with Andrew Pressley, Junior. The history of the Presleys picks up again with Dunnan Pressley, Junior, in the middle of the 19th century.
Dunnan Pressley married Martha Jane Wesson. They had two daughters, Rosalinda and
Rosella. Dunnan next abandoned his wife and two daughters.
Rosella was Elvis's great-grandmother. Rosella bore nine illegitimate children, never once identifying her lovers or making any claim on them. The children never knew of their fathers as Rosella stubbornly, and resourcefully, supported them through sharecropping.
Elvis's paternal line continued through Rosella's son, (1896-1973), Jessie Presley who was Elvis's grandfather. He enjoyed drinking whiskey and was often involved in drunken bar brawls. As a result, Jessie spent many a night sobering up in jail.
In 1913
Jessie Presley married Minnie Mae Hood, "Grandma Dodger," who was to live with Elvis throughout his adult life.
In 1916 their first child was born,
Vernon Presley, Elvis Presley's father.
In many respects it was as if Vernon had no father as Jessie repeated his own father abandonment on his children. This theme of father abandonment reverberates throughout Elvis's paternal lineage. It is a strong clue to the abandonment that Elvis felt, and perpetrated, in his own life.
Elvis's genealogy holds slim, handsome man about six feet tall with raven black hair
