History

The Noah Family legacy brings together 2622 years of collective history, weaved from diverse cultural threads made up of - Norman, Seminole, & African heritage. According to oral history, our earliest traceable paternal ancestors, the Adangme ethnic group, originally migrated from the Near East (the territories of Gad & Dan) to the Nile Valley within the 6th century B.C. The Adangmes relied heavily on the influence of water and worked with the Nile river in guiding them through their migrations across the continent. Circumstances led them to migrate along the Nile through Ethiopia, South Sudan, and to settle for a brief period of time in the forest regions of the Congo. Confrontations with other ethnic groups forced them to move out of the Congo, and towards Same in Niger and later to settle in Ille-Ife, in the Yoruba Kingdom of Nigeria where they traded primarily in salt, cowries, and other commercial goods. Around 1100 AD the Adangme moved through the Dahomey Kingdom, and Oyo Empire until finally settling in present-day Ada, Ghana around 1400 AD. The ”Noah” household name stems from the warrior-household of the current Adangme settlers in present-day Big-Ada, Ghana the Adibiawe Clan.

Our maternal ancestry, represented by the Quarterman family, traces its roots primarily to Normandy, France, and the Black Seminole peoples of south Florida, USA. The Quarterman family has its earliest origins on record in the 10th century, as a family of knights from Normandy, France within the 10th century. Migrations took the family from Normandy, located in present-day France, to Oxfordshire, England. Robert Quarterman Sr. our oldest paternal ancestor on record was born in 1650 in Chalgrove, Oxfordshire, England, and migrated to Dorchester, Charleston County, South Carolina in the 1690s during the English Civil War. The Quartmermans have since established family branches in Georgia and North Florida -where the paternal branch finally settled. The maternal ancestry of the 2nd generation of the Noah Family traces its origins to the indigenous Black Seminole peoples of south Florida.