Sylvia traces her ancestry back to multiple Native American tribes including Creek, Seminole, Muscogee, and Cherokee as well as Scottish, Irish, African, and Asian heritage. Her ancestors included the Olivers who first settled in South Carolina and later Georgia, intermarrying with Creek and Muscogee women. Sylvia's father Henry was part Seminole through his mother Ruby, whose father Charles married a Seminole woman Ida. Sylvia's mother Agnes was part Cherokee. Sylvia grew up in racially integrated Decatur, Georgia and graduated from high school and college, working as an educator while raising her four daughters. She hopes to become an education administrator.

1. Hi! I’m Sylvia
By Sylvia Oliver

2. SICCAA
Scottish-Irish-Creek-Seminole-Musckogee-Cherokee-African-Asian
I traced my genealogy back to Scotland and followed it through Ireland to the New World. This is when the Oliver family settled in
South Carolina and part of the family moved to Georgia. The Oliver family brought along with them a young woman and a
little girl from the Creek tribe. Years later, the son of the original Oliver had a child by the young woman and named him
John. John inherited a large portion of the land owned by his grandfather and married a young woman from the Muskogee
tribe. Her name was Ellen. John was my great-great grandfather. They called him Big John. Big John and Ellen had many
Children. One was named Charles. Charles married a Seminole woman named Ida. They had many children and one was
named Henry.
An Asian man whose father was white, moved to Georgia around the time that Charles and Ida were married. He brought with him
a young son, and daughter, Harriett. He called himself B. Wortham. People thought he was a white man. He married a
Seminole woman and had three daughters, Blanche, Ruby and Rose.
Henry and Ruby were married. They were my dad’s parents.
During the time of the Trail of Tears, many people from the Cherokee nation hid in the Kennesaw mountain area in Georgia. That
was where my grandfather Rufus and my Grandmother Agnes Tecoa married. They were my mom’s parents.
The Muskogee nation was comprised of African slaves and the Creek Nation. At least that is what I have always been told. They
had medium toned brown skin and beautiful coarse thick hair.
The Cherokee nation have sculptured long noses and wavy thick hair.
Most of the Oliver/Johnson family have sculptured long noses and beautiful thick coarse wavy hair. Some of us have ivory-tanned
colored skin while others have the medium toned brown skin.
We are a proud family. Proud of our heritage. Our eyes or those of our children are shaped to fit our ancestor B. Wortham from
New York. Our stature stands tall like our grandfathers. We are talented, raised with our parents singing, dancing, paying
musical instruments, designing houses, teaching schools, speaking in courts of law, performing heart surgeries, serving in the
military and so much more.
So, my mother and father finally settled in Decatur, GA in the late 1960s. The neighborhood we lived in was predominantly white.
Therefore the schools reflected the same . My father became a store owner while my mother sometimes bay sat for the
neighbors. This helped us to not see too much of the racial oppression that was popular during that time. Every holiday,
neighbors celebrated at our house. Our community was a close nit village. I’ve known my classmates from elementary
through high school.

3. I graduated from Decatur High School
in Decatur, GA
Freshman year picture Decatur High School I also was in the marching band

4. I went to several colleges before I got
to Ashford
Morris Brown College
University of Illinois at Springfield
Graduated in 1994 from Richland
Community College
with an AA in Sociology
Graduated in 2015
Ashford University
with an BA in Sociology
and a Minor
in Social Criminal Justice

5. I have 4 beautiful girls

6. And 9 grandsons

7. I work as a Special Education
Paraprofessional at Columbia
High School
And recently as a Community
Services Intervention
Specialist at Camp Sunrise

8. I am now pursuing my
MA in Education
at Ashford University
I hope to become an
Education Administrator
someday soon.
Receiving my BA helped me
so much in achieving a goal
I worked so long to
achieve.
I am also a writer and have
an online bookstore.
Being an Ashford University
student had allowed me to
realize that dreams can be
achieved at any age. Also,
obstacles are only
temporary and the future is
just a click away.