Sonya Balmores

Sonya Balmores – “Wind River” Los Angeles Premiere – Arrivals – The Theater at Ace Hotel – Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2017 – Photo Credit: Carla Van Wagoner / PR Photos

Place of Birth: Kalaheo, Hawaii, U.S.

Date of Birth: June 23, 1986

Ethnicity:
*father – Filipino
*mother – English, Irish, likely distant Native American

Sonya Balmores is an American actress, model, surfer, and beauty pageant titleholder. She was named Miss Hawaii Teen USA 2004. She appeared in the films Soul Surfer and Den of Thieves, and on the shows Inhumans and I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Sonya is the daughter of Malana and Abraham Balmores.

Her father is of Filipino ancestry. Her mother has English and Irish ancestry. Sonya has specified, “I’m part of the Choctaw tribe from Oklahoma.” It is not clear if this Choctaw ancestry has been verified/documented.

Sonya’s paternal grandfather was named Severino Garcia Balmores. Severino was born in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, the Philippines.

Sonya’s paternal grandmother was named Lourdes Aquino. Lourdes was a Filipina.

Sonya’s maternal grandfather was Milam Rayford Sullivan (the son of Earl Edwin Sullivan and Beadie Bernice Snow). Earl was the son of William Henry Nelson Sullivan and Ammon Cozy Hickey. Beadie was the daughter of Milam Joseph Snow and Nancy Jane Wood.

Sonya’s maternal grandmother was Nedra Jane Marcum (the daughter of Charles Edward “Ned” Marcum and Jessie Eleanor Sutton). Nedra was born in Oklahoma. Ned was the son of Henry W. Marcum and Cordelia/Cardelia Beal, who was evidently of one eighth Native American descent. Jessie was the daughter of Dozier Thornton Sutton and Katie Griffin.

Sources: http://www.mochimag.com

Obituary of Sonya’s paternal grandfather, Severino Garcia Balmores – http://archives.starbulletin.com

Obituary of Sonya’s paternal grandmother, Lourdes (Aquino) Balmores – http://www.thegardenisland.com

Obituary of Sonya’s maternal grandmother, Nedra Jane (Marcum) Sullivan – http://www.thegardenisland.com

Sonya’s maternal great-grandfather, Charles Edward “Ned” Marcum, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org

9 Responses

  1. madman says:

    Her mother:
    https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V8NX-FFJ

    Her maternal grandfather was Milam Rayford Sullivan (the son of Earl Edwin Sullivan and Beadie Bernice Snow). Earl was the son of William Henry Nelson Sullivan and Ammon Cozy Hickey. Beadie was the daughter of Milam Joseph Snow and Nancy Jane Wood.

    Her maternal grandmother was Nedra Jane Marcum (the daughter of Charles Edward “Ned” Marcum and Jessie Eleanor Sutton). Ned was the son of Henry W. Marcum and Cordelia Beal, who was of one eighth Choctaw Native American descent. Jessie was the daughter of Dozier Thornton Sutton and Katie Griffin.

    This is where it says how much Choctaw Cordelia is:
    https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MLQ5-ZFJ

    • madman says:

      Her mother’s Choctaw fraction is 1/64th.

      • follers says:

        Is that for sure her mother’s only Native American ancestor? She could have other elsewhere, over generations.

        • madman says:

          Sure, but that census was the only one I found that listed an ancestor as Native, every other documents lists all family members as white. And it specifies that Cordelia was 1/8th Choctaw and her children 1/16th.

          • bablah says:

            All of these cases come here on appeal under the Act of July 1, 1902, from
            the United States Court for the Central District of the Indian Territory. All
            of the appellants claim Choctaw Indian Blood or intermarriage with persons
            claiming it, through the same common ancestress, Peggy or Margaret Marlowe,
            alleged to be the daughter of one Moontubbee or John Patterson.
            The opinion in this case is to determine the rights of all of the appellants
            before this Court; in each and every of the above styled cases. It was agreed
            by both parties appellant and appellee that the evidence in all these cases,
            so far as applicable, should be considered in each and every of the causes,
            and hence this opinion applied to them all. Separate judgments, however, are
            to be rendered in each case.
            Susan Eliza Pierce, a white woman of respectable appearance and bearing,
            was introduced as a witness for the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, who testified
            in substance, as follows: She stated that she was fifty-seven years of age and
            lived in Fannin County, in the State of Texas, and had lived in that State
            about fifty years. She was acquainted with Reuben Marlow’s wife, Margaret or
            Peggy, who is the common ancestress through whom these appellants, and those
            involved in the case of Epsie Underwood, and of Jane Marrs, and others mentioned
            herein, claim their Indian blood. She got acquainted with this woman, the wife
            of Reuben Marlow called Margaret or Peggy, about fifty years ago, and knew her
            up to about twelve or thirteen years ago; that woman is now dead, and she went
            before that time, about eight or nine years ago the witness thinks, to Cook
            County, Texas, and then she, Peggy or Margaret Marlow, as she was called, came
            to the Indian Territory. The witness knew that woman about as well as she could;
            lived within three or four hundred yards of her, and was very intimate with the
            family for a great many years. She first heard talk in that family about a Choctaw
            claim and Choctaw blood, she can not tell the exact time, but it was about the time
            that a man named Beal, a member of that family, came back from Indian Territory
            and through all the years that she had thus been intimate with this family
            she never heard any talk among them about their having Choctaw blood, until this
            Martha Beal came to the Indian Territory, then she heard the old lady Peggy
            or Margaret Mawlow talk about it, and she heard her say she had no Indian
            blood in her a dozen times, and that the old lady did not like for her
            descendants to make the claim of Choctaw blood which they did, and so far
            as she knows the old lady did not join in the claim; and in fact the records
            in all these cases show that she did not join in any of them.
            On cross examination the witness reiterated that the old lady above referred
            to told her that she had no Indian blood in her and that she looked with
            disfavor on the claim her children were making because she had no Indian
            blood and that she told her so a dozen times after the Beals moved to the Indian
            Territory from Texas. That she, the old lady, thought she had no Indian blood.
            There was then introduced a record in print of a case No 12742 wherein the
            Choctaw Nation and the United States were parties, and particular reference
            made to pages 255 and 908 thereof, wherein is given the family and children
            of Moontubbee a Choctaw Indian whom the applicants in this Court allege to be
            identical with John Patterson whom these claimants now for the first time
            in the case, according to the original petitions, claim to have been the father
            of the old lady Peggy or Margaret Marlow. Attention was also called to the fact
            that the applicants had relied heretofore in the case below, on the affidavit of
            a man named Sam Perry, who stands before this Court in other cases as an
            unreliable witness. The appellants in rebuttal then called S H Pierce, the husband
            or Mrs Pierce whose testimony I have stated above. He corroborated the
            statements of his wife as to the residence of himself and wife in Fannin County,
            Texas, within three or four hundred yards of the family of Mrs Marlow(Peggy or
            Margaret) as heretofore stated. He stated that he had never known that Peggy
            or Margaret Marlow ever claimed Indian Blood; he did not know that she was the
            daughter of John Patterson, but she claimed to have a brother of that name who
            lived in the State of Missouri, who she was looking to come and see her, but
            he did not believe he came to see her. There was then read to him by the cousel
            of the plaintiffs what purported to be an affidavit, which he said he had not signed
            and did not make, and could not recall it. He did not remember the statement
            in the alleged affidavit that these people had Choctaw blood in them; does not
            recall that he said all that was thus read to him, and he recalls making
            some affidavit before a Justice of the Peace, and the things stated therein,
            some of them, are not true as he said.
            Reuben Marlow was then called for plaintiffs and testified that the “old
            lady” Peggy or Margaret Marlow, was the wife of his grand-father. He stated that
            his grand-father at one time told him that his wife had Indian blood in her,
            when he was small, but if the tribe she belonged to was mentioned he does
            not remember it; that he was brought here to-day as a witness for the Nations;
            his grandmother has been dead two or three years, and he further states that
            she told him, after she came to the Territory, after some of these people
            had been admitted as citizens of the Choctaw Nation, about the time of the
            winding up of the Dawes Commission, that she had a right in the Choctaw Nation
            as an Indian, and would claim it and give it to him. Of course all the statements
            this witness made as to what his grandmother told him are incompetent, being
            heresay and self serving, and the declaration of one in his own behalf to
            another is competent when against the interest of the declarant but not in
            his or her favor. See P & TRR Co v. Stimpson, 14 Peters, US Sup Ct Reports,
            448. George Lee White one of the claimants was introduced for the appellants.
            He stated that he first moved from Texas to the Indian Territory about 1892.
            He lived in the Choctaw Nation about three years, then went back to Texas to
            wind up his father’s estate, and was in Texas three years, but his intention was
            to come back to the Territory. His mother was Cynthia Marlow, the daughter of
            the old lady Peggy or Margaret Marlow. His evidence as to his alleged ancestor,
            the alleged Moontubbee or John Patterson, was mere hearsay statements as
            to claims of his grandmother Peggy or Margaret Marlow, and is incompetent. The
            witness is an interested witness and in his original application makes no
            mention of Moontubbee alias John Patterson. He never knew this man except
            by tradition, and his understanding is that Moontubbee is on Ward’s Roll as
            a Mississippi Choctaw claiming under the treaty of 1830. He heard this from
            Henry Byington, his attorney, at Caddo. Then he says he believes he first
            heard it from Dixon Durant, a witness for him. He says Peggy or Margaret, his
            grandother, was never a party to any claim as a Choctaw by blood. His
            grandmother came from Missouri to Texas many years ago. He first looked over
            Ward’s Roll at the instance of Henry Byington. He sold his last land he owned
            in Texas four years ago after his admission to be a citizen by Judge Clayton
            of the United States Court for the Central District of the Indian Territory.
            His mother’s sister was the first one that told him about Moontubbee and Ward’s
            Roll; before that he had only heard that Peggy as the daughter of John
            Patterson, and he never heard his mother say anything about being related
            to Moontubbee.
            There was then offered as witness for the plaintiffs Duke Marlow, a step-son
            of Peggy Marlow, his father being her husband after the death of his mother.
            He is a white man and quite venerable(deserving of respect) in appearance.
            He was somewhere about four or six years old when his father married Peggy
            or Margaret Mawlow and he was born about the year 1826. On cross examination
            he states he was born in the State of Alabama and afterwards lived in the State
            of Missouri; his father lived in Wright County in that State and then moved
            to the County of Madison in the same State, and he himself lived there until he
            went to the State of Texas about the year 1850. When he first came to his
            father’s home from Alabama, when after his mother’s death, as a small child he
            had been living with his grandfather in Alabama, he found his father and his
            step-mother Peggy or Margaret Marlow, living in the State of Tennessee in the
            Cumberland mountains. The Cumberland mountains as is well known are in East
            Tennessee, far removed from the Choctaw Nation in Mississippi. They lived there
            six months and then went to Alabama, after the mother of Peggy aforesaid, who
            lived in Jackson County, Alabama. He knew his step-mother Peggy from that
            time until her death about two and a half or three years ago. He knows not what
            her blood was or who her father was save by hearsay. He thinks it was about 1832
            that his father married Peggy. Again he says the first time he ever saw her was in
            the Cumberland mountains in Tennessee.
            It appears in evidence in the Epsie Underwood case, a companion case to this,
            that the said Epsie Underwood, a witness for herself, made an affidavit in
            1896 to be used before the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, ex-parte
            before her attorney also acting as a Notary Public. All this witness Epsie
            Underwood knew about her being a Choctaw by blood, is hearsay and
            inadmissible. She first remembers herself in Missouri and then in Texas.
            She has no knowledge of the residence of her ancestors either in Mississippi
            or Alabama. Crawford Marlow, the brother of Epsie Underwood, as a witness,
            testified, he claims to have been admitted and his sister Mrs. Beal in the same
            case, which has not been appealed. His grand-mother Peggy Marlow was never
            an applicant for admission to citizenship as a Choctaw by blood; he knows nothing
            except by hearsay as to her Indian blood; he never heard his mother say to what
            blood “Peggy” belonged; he was born in Missouri. Mrs. Beal, his aunt, was a
            witness in 1892, for him before the Choctaw council and for Epsie Underwood also;
            his mother was living in 1896 and he does not remember whether she still lived
            in Texas or had removed to the Indian Territory. His father owned land in
            Missouri when he left there and went to Texas; he started from Missouri to
            Texas going through Little Rock, Arkansas and Clarksville, Texas; he has quite
            a number of brothers and sisters whose descendants now live in Texas; he
            claims, by hearsay about one sixteenth Choctaw blood.
            Others of the interested witnesses testify that Peggy or Margaret Marlow
            did not apply for citizenship in the Choctaw Nation and did not want it.
            William A Underwood a witness for claimants says, on cross examination, that
            he never heard his wife had any Choctaw blood until after his marriage; the
            older members of the family started the claims and he joined in. His wife’s
            mother Peggy or Margaret Marlow was the oldest of the family and knew
            more than any one else about whether they had Indian blood or not, and
            she seems to have denied to disinterested witnesses time and again that
            she had any Indian blood. I have not been able to find, after diligent search
            and examination, of all the oral evidence adduced here, in all the cases herein
            intended to be decided, and mentioned in the caption of this opinion, any
            evidence from any of the parties hereto, of a competent nature which shows
            that the “Peggy” or “Margaret” Marlow under whom all these appellants claim,
            had any Indian blood in her veins.
            Although these parties originally do not seem to have claimed through
            Moontubbee or John Patterson, as they claim him to have been, yet now they do
            claim through him. It is interesting and instructing in this connection to
            advert to pages 255 and 908 of a record before the Court of claims of the
            United States, entitle the Choctaw Nation against the United STates. It will
            there be found that according to that record Moontubbee in 1838, had as his
            oldest child a man named James Patterson; that he was 22 years old in 1838, or
            15 years old in 1831, or 16 in 1832, and living in the State of Mississippi,
            and yet this Peggy or Margaret Marlow (nee Patterson) was then married up in
            the Cumberland mountains in Tennessee, and the record of that case shows from
            the lips of her alleged father Moontubbee, under oath, that he had no such
            child as she was, and that his son and oldest child, was only 15 years of age
            in 1831 and 16 years old in 1832. This alone utterly disposes of any descent
            on the part of this “Peggy” or “Margaret” Marlow from Moontubbee, and many
            other facts appearing on the above merits … … or that … show the same.
            Then again D D Durant, an affidavit maker for these people, is shown in the
            case of John Mitchell, et al. No 101, on our Choctaw Docket, in his oral
            testimony before this Court, to have made affidavits in various citizenship
            cases like this and stated facts to be true therein, which he either knew
            to be untrue, or knew nothing about, except what some of these applicants told
            him.
            The use of such evidence as his and Sam Perry’s show these applicants utterly
            devoid of good faith in their applications, and taken in connection with
            all the other facts and circumstances developed in these cases, stamp their
            efforts to obtain by such means, the property of others, with the ineffaciable
            brand of fraud. It is plain to me that these peoples ancestors were not Choctaw
            Indians at all, nor do I believe they were of any other Indian blood.
            They or their ancestors are never shown to have been in the State of
            Mississippi where the Choctaws lived, or at all. As early as 1831 or 1832
            Peggy or Margaret Marlow, through whom they claim, lived and was a married
            woman, wife of a white man named Marlow, in the Cumberland mountains in
            Tennessee. They moved from there to North Alabama, and then to Missouri
            and then to Texas, where she lived for more than forty years. One of her daughters
            who married a man named Beal, came to the Indian Territory, and then it was that
            against the wishes of their alleged Indian ancestress, they hatched up the
            scheme to claim Choctaw Indian blood, and obtain rights as citizens. In dealing
            with the Choctaw council they either must have deceived it, or used other
            questionable means to get on the roll, for if the true facts in ther case
            had been developed then, as they are now, they could never have justly obtained
            what they sought, and others of the same blood have apparently done the same.
            I am of the opinion that none of the parties to this appeal, who are properly
            before this Court,(and none are except those included in the judgments below,
            and in the petition for appeal here), are entitled to be declared citizens
            of the Choctaw Nation, either by blood or intermarriage as their claim may be,
            or entitled to enrollment as such, or to any rights which flow therefrom, AND
            IT IS SO ORDERED. H S Foote Associate Judge.
            We Concur Sperreer B Aclerrer Chief Judge.

            http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txfannin/marlowfam.html

        • andrew says:

          If I’m correct here and Harry Dean Stanton are 4th cousins, once removed, through shared ancestors Thomas Marcum and Mary Wilson.

          Also the families who appear in Sonya’s family tree further back are the usual ones with non-European ancestry, including African too (Sizemore, Blevins, Bunch/Punch etc.) so it’s all a déjà vu. Through these lines she is related to Tom Sizemore and Shea Whigham, among others.

          • bablah says:

            4th cousins twice removed.

            Did anyone read the article I posted that disputes her Choctaw ancestry?

          • andrew says:

            I am too lazy to read it all. Summary?

          • bablah says:

            They claimed Peggy Marlowe was a daughter of a Native man named Moontubbee, which Peggy herself denied according to witnesses. There did exist a Native man named Moontubbee, but his oldest child James Pattersom was 16 in 1832, and at that time Peggy was already an adult and married. So in conclusion, Peggy claimed to not be the daughter of Moontubbee, and Moontubbee never claimed to have a daughter named Peggy. Also, Peggy was from Alabama and lived in Tennessee, and Moontubbee was from Mississippi.

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