Fred wrote: Sun Apr 16, 2017 5:00 pm
I am sure mark Williams captioned collingwood before then.
He might have played forcollington but he's not indigenous
Port coach Mark Williams' great, great grandad was a slave
RENATO CASTELLO, JESPER FJELDSTAD, Sunday Mail (SA)
August 9, 2009 12:05am
HE'S known as Choco, but the origin of Mark Williams' dark skin - and the family's athletic prowess - has always been a mystery...until now.
Research into the family bloodline has revealed that the Port Adelaide coach and SA's most successful football family are the descendants of an African-Jamaican slave.
Although some thought Choco was southern European, and many other believed he was part Aboriginal, Williams' cousin Christine Gibson has unravelled the family's history, revealing their great, great grandfather, Thomas Alexander Ferguson, was an Afro-Caribbean born 187 years ago - an orphan of the brutal transatlantic slave trade.
"It's something that I'm proud of," Williams said.
"I only found out about it through her (Christine's) research and she's done a wonderful job. She's spent huge hours and it's all true, there's no doubt about it. If you go back far enough, I think we're all from slaves. The Jamaican bit might explain the dark complexion a bit. And why I'm so fast ... like (Jamaican sprinter) Usain Bolt."
For years, many assumed Williams had Aboriginal heritage, often inviting him to take part in indigenous football matches during his playing career, which he declined.
"I said no because I didn't qualify and one player accused me of not being a brother," he said of one invitation which came in the 1980s.
Mrs Gibson, of Seaview Downs, said the news was a surprise to the whole family.
"We always laughed because everyone thinks Mark's got part Aboriginal blood in him, I always thought it was quite funny," she said.
"When I told him this (about their grandfather), we all laughed and (Mark's sister) Jenny and Mark rang me up and the first thing Jenny said was: 'It's no wonder we can all dance so well."
Using family archives, geneaology website ancestry.com and details gleaned from relatives, Mrs Gibson spent two years tracing her family tree. She has compiled an essay that links the Williams name with some of SA's founding fathers.
According to her investigations, Thomas Ferguson was born in Jamaica in 1822, possibly to a Negro Creole woman. His birth certificate listed his parents as "unknown".
At nine months old, he was registered as an "inherited slave" to his master Thomas Ferguson - a Scottish pastoralist - and was given the same name.
He worked as a slave in Scotland before coming to South Australia in 1854, at age 32, as personal valet to successful businessman, philanthropist and politician Sir Thomas Elder.
In an unusual event for the time he married Sarah Milligan - the white daughter of an Irish family - one year later at St Mark's Church in Adelaide.
Check out Choco's family tree in today's Sunday Mail
Thomas and Sarah's daughter, Soffea Ferguson, born on July 19, 1858, married lawyer John Williams, who was the grandson of Thomas Hudson Beare. He was one of the state's first settlers, arriving on Kangaroo Island in 1836 tasked with establishing a British colony.
The pair had five children including their only son Melville George Williams in July 15, 1883 who would grow up with a love for sport and excel at cycling, cricket, athletics and of course football in his hometown Quorn.
His genes would be passed on to his son Foster Williams, born in 1922, who along with his children Mark, Stephen and Anthony would make the Williams name synonomous with the success of the Port Adelaide Football Club.
Melville's granddaughter Jenny, meanwhile, become a member of Australia's world championship winning lacrosse team.
Ferguson moved to Nairne to work as a farm hand for Matthew Smillie, who was credited with being the founder of the Hills hamlet, before moving to Blinman, in the Flinders Ranges.
He died while working on the epic project to build a telegraph line between Adelaide and Darwin and is believed to be buried in or near Alice Springs, but Mrs Gibson said she could find no official recorded date of his death.
Mrs Gibson, who admitted "breaking down in tears" researching the history, said she was proud of her ancestors and the struggle they went through to build a future for herself and her family.
"We've all been a very close knit family...we're a fairly competitive strong willed very strong knit family," she said.
"From all the way down we've been encouraged to be the best we can be."
