James Daniel Bell, a farmer, was born November 8, 1828 in Bryan County, Georgia. The son of John Clayton Bell and Mary Cowart Bell, James Daniel Bell had five siblings and three half-siblings. His stepmother was Keziah Sweet Bell. One of his brothers was William H. Bell who married Lucinda Hendrix Bell. James married Lucinda's sister, Mary Hendrix Bell, and they had eleven children: David Clayton Bell, Sr., Joel Henry Bell, Wiley M. Bell, James Israel Bell, Andrew P. Bell, Emily Sophia Bell, Daniel Mack Bell, Mary Caroline "Mamie" Bell, Martha Elizabeth Bell Braid, Moses F. Bell, and Joseph Columbus Bell. He died September 15, 1885 in Bryan County at age 56 and is buried in Little Creek Cemetery in Bryan County. His ancestry was Scots, English, and--through the Bell surname--Native American (Lumbee).

There are a variety of reasons Native American (American Indian) ancestry may not show up in a person’s DNA. One obvious reason is that a person may never have had any Native American ancestors. There are, however, other reasons. For most Americans with Native American ancestors, that ancestry is five or more generations back. In fact it can be so far back in a family tree that it does not show up in DNA tests. Also, most ancestry testing companies use only a small sample of Native American groups (often less than half a dozen tribes) as a reference for testing, and many of those sample groups are from South, rather than North, America. (My own case is a good example of how inaccurate genetics testing companies can be when it comes to Native American ancestry. Three different companies have estimated my Indian ancestry as none, a trace, and 9%.) Another important point about Native American DNA ancestry should be made. Anthropologist Mary Helms created the term “colonial Indian tribes” in the 1960s to refer to societies which originated as recognizable entities only as a direct result of colonial policies. Colonial tribes are often a racially mixed people that over time became identified more with their Indian ancestry rather than their African or white ancestry. These groups are culturally Indian while ultimately having little, if any, Indian DNA. Colonial tribes include groups as diverse as the Miskito Indians of eastern Nicaragua (whom Helms studied); various Amazon tribes in Brazil; the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina; the Black Seminoles of Oklahoma, Mexico, and the Bahamas; and many others. The term colonial tribe attempts to get at the idea that someone can be culturally something (Native American, for example) without being biologically something. So, for all of the above reasons, it should not be surprising that someone with, for example, a Lumbee Indian ancestor would not necessarily test as having significant or any Native American DNA.

I hope one of James’ descendants will add his photo to this site. Thanks so much to my grandmother Nevada McClelland Bell (whose husband was James’ grandson), Bell family researchers, and various census rolls for much of this information. Any errors, however, are mine alone. Please go to the "edit" link on this site with any corrections or additions.