Lou Patsy is said to have been part Blackfoot but I’ve found no records for her parents and can’t confirm. I’ve found some slave owners by the name of Charles and Chiles in Virginia at that time but haven’t been able to connect to the Herndon’s or find any documents on her prior to 1840 in Caddo Parish. We know for sure that in 1840 John Frederick petitioned the Caddo Parish Court with a request to free his slave Patsy; the petition was for her freedom and all of her offspring. Even though he did free Lou Patsy and her children John continued to own slaves, he had 81 in the 1840 census, down to 10 in 1850 and 2 in 1860. Another Emancipation record from 1845 states Patsy’s 5 children that John promises to take care of: Mary Ann, Sarah Jane, Joseph, John, and Jacob. John Frederick and sons became quite wealthy from various investments in real estate, farming cotton, timber, buying gold and having oil wells on their properties.

A native of Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania, Virginia, where his family had been substantial citizens since the 1600s, at least one of JF’s relatives was intermarried with the prestigious Randolph family of early Virginia history, and we believe that Herndon was a relative of Meriwether Lewis, the personal secretary of Thomas Jefferson and leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (there’s a few marriages between the Herndon & Lewis family at that time). John Frederick’s parents were John Herndon & Mary Fleetwood, both of his parents died in the early 1800’s and he had 7 other known siblings. The Herndon’s had a long history in Virginia dating to the first Herndon on record in the US William Herndon who came from Kent England to Virginia about 1673 and married Catherine Digges, the daughter of Gov. Edward Digges. There is some controversy on this marriage, although most historians accept it as fact, along with the marriage of William’s son Edward to a Mary Waller, this also is disputed by some but accepted by most historians. The controversy is due to the fact that both Mary Waller and Catherine Digges are linked to the Neville family and long lines of English Royalty. DNA testing done by other Virginia Herndon's show Y-Chromosome R1b subclade R1b1b2 which is the most common R1b subclade in Western Europe.

John Frederick & Lou Patsy originally settled just a little north of Shreveport in Caddo Prairie in one of the earliest settlements documented there, they lived in the area now called Erwin's Bluff and are documented there in the 1840 census where JF had 81 slaves and had Lou Patsy and his first 2 children Mary Ann and Sarah Jane living as free persons of color, it's written in some Caddo History books that JF had a 1,000 acre plantation at this time on Red Bayou. The family finally settled in Pine Island a nearby community between Vivian and Belcher-Gilliam. At the time of his Will in 1880 he owned 600 acres of land; this property was divided up in his Will. JF and Lou Patsy listed themselves in their census reports as married in 1835 which has never been verified but would be highly unlikely.

JF never married a white woman nor had any known children other than with Lou Patsy. JF and Lou Patsy had many children, some we know that were living with them but were grandchildren, and some could possibly be adopted freed slaves of his that took his name but not actual children of his. His Will mentions 8 “natural” children, 7 living and lists Isabella as “not my daughter” and as a half sister, so this would mean that Lou Patsy had at least this one child with someone else, Isabella’s father is unknown. The only child mentioned in his Will that had died was Jacob and it’s due to his heirs’ inheritance. John and Sarah Jane are mentioned in the 1845 Emancipation document, so there are 10 verified kids of JF and Patsy and Isabella makes 11. I think some of the others died young with no offspring so therefore wouldn’t be mentioned in the Will. His Will is also the main document to prove his parentage; in the Will he gives $500 to his niece Louisa Connery (b1827) of Lewisville, Arkansas. She was found and verified in the census as the daughter of Fleetwood Herndon born and living in the exact area of Lewisville in 1880 when the Will was made, Louisa Jane Herndon married William Connery (Connevy?), so this would make Fleetwood and JF brothers. This is the only solid link to his parents. We know that JF traveled to Arkansas to visit family also, so from the Will naming his niece and her location I was able to pin down the relationships.

Herndon (courtesy of Mark Tyson / www.caddotrees.com)