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I undid changes by 68.229.26.10 which said the settlers in included members of the Lumbee tribe. This may be true , but not mentioned in the sources. Please find a source for this information and we will be glad to include the information and the reference in the article. Thanks. GeorgeofOrange (talk) 01:17, 12 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Early records consistently place the Roberts family among long-standing free households in Virginia and North Carolina prior to the American Revolution. They appear as land-holding and legally free, without documentation typically associated with enslavement, such as bills of sale, emancipation records, or identifiable enslaver surnames. While classified in legal records as “free people of color,” “other free,” or similar terms, these designations functioned as administrative categories rather than precise statements of ancestry and were applied broadly to Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, and other mixed-heritage families living in colonial and early national borderlands. Published locality and surname studies situate members of the Roberts family in regions later closely associated with Tuscarora, Meherrin, and Lumbee communities, and at least one Ishmael Roberts has been described in such studies as “probably Lumbee.” Contemporary accounts and later community histories emphasize intermarriage with other free families and relative social separation from enslaved populations. Subsequent classification of descendants as “mulatto,” “Negro,” and eventually “African American” appears primarily in later census records following westward migration, reflecting evolving governmental racial categories rather than newly discovered evidence of ancestry. ~2025-40006-39 (talk) 05:46, 13 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This edit reorganizes and synthesizes existing published scholarship regarding the origins of the Roberts family and other founding families of Roberts Settlement. The language reflects conclusions already present in secondary sources describing the founders as long-standing free families from Virginia and North Carolina rather than recently emancipated enslaved people.

The discussion of “free people of color” follows established historical usage of the term as a legal and administrative category in the 18th and early 19th centuries, which encompassed Indigenous, Afro-Indigenous, and other mixed-heritage borderland communities and did not function as a precise ethnic designation. No claim of formal tribal enrollment is made. The wording relies on documented land records, wills, census classifications, locality studies, and settlement histories already cited in the article or widely used in the relevant historiography.

The paragraph noting the absence of enslavement-related documentation reflects standard genealogical methodology and is framed cautiously (“the documentary record does not show”), avoiding original research or speculation. Later reclassification of descendants in Indiana is discussed in line with well-documented changes in census practices and racial categorization in the 19th century.

The goal of the edit is clarity, historical accuracy, and consistency with published sources, not to advance a novel interpretation or advocacy position. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2025-40006-39 (talk) 05:38, 13 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]