The daughter of John Reynolds Sarvis and Elizabeth Ruth “Ruthie” Hardee Sarvis, Rhoda Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sarvis Cartrette was born on December 1, 1854 in Allsbrook, Bayboro, Horry County, South Carolina and had ten siblings. She married Richard Kenneth Cartrette, and they had four children: Armatha L. Cartrette, Louisa M. Cartrette Suggs, Caroline Cartrette Anderson, and William Thomas Cartrette. Lizzie died in Bayboro on January 28, 1934 at age 79, although her death certificate says she was 83 and died of old age. She and her husband are both buried in the Cane Branch Baptist Church Cemetery in Horry County. Through both her mother and father, she was of French Huguenot and English descent. Sarvis is a coastal Carolina Native American surname. In this case, however, the Sarvis surname may have originally been Serivens, a French Huegenot name.

An important point about American Indian (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, 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 (American Indian, for example) without being biologically something. So, it should not be surprising that someone with, for example, a Lumbee Indian ancestor would not necessarily test as having significant American Indian DNA.

I hope someone will add a photo of Lizzie. Thanks so much to Kay Evans and to "Anonymous" 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. If a closer relative than I would like to take over management of this site, please let me know.