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"But my grandpa said he's Indian!" Adventures in Genealogy

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MattOKC:
The "courthouse burned in a fire" thing is SO common you'd thing there was an epidemic of arson across the known world in the early 1900s. The other explanation is "she [my Cherokee great-grandmother] denied she was Indian because of persecution, so she pretended to be Mexican instead." Nevermind the bald racism or implausibility of this claim, could there be something else going on?

Yes! In fact, it's actually very likely that many peoples' great-grandmothers DID claim to be Cherokee!

When Allotment divided Indian treaty lands into individual homesteads, many whites saw a chance to profit. Since genealogies were less accurate (if kept at all) for women's lineage (because of patriarchal family rights under the law), a scam was concocted to have women claim Cherokee identity in order to "access" (that would be "steal" in today's parlance) Indian allotments. This means two amazing things. First, far from trying to hide being "Cherokee," it became advantageous to contrive such a claim. And second, these sad people who think they have a cool Cherokee ancestor have seriously misunderstood history. They don't have a Cherokee great-grandmother; they more likely have a WHITE great-grandmother who was part of a con to steal land FROM the Cherokees!

milehighsalute:
not to mention real cherokees have huge family bonds......i cant imagin many cherokee women chasing white men down for marriage....i know it happened but cmon....how many women actually want to lay down with the people who abused them and thier people every night.....oh nevermind thats any modern injun woman...wow now im off-track.....i'll shut up now before i talk myself into a corner

Litsehimmel:
Hi,

The records about my native ancestor were unfortunately destroyed in a flood, which is pretty common here in The Netherlands *wicked grin*

Seriously though, I am a semi-professional genealogist and working with info from The Netherlands can be just as frustrating and annoying. The times I see faulty information just being copied and pasted by loads of folks on the net are just too numerous to count. As a former research journalist, the one important thing I have learned is that nothing, and I mean nothing should be accepted as truth if it can't be backed by at least one reliable source.

For my own family tree I have spent hours and hours delving through dusty records, just searching for that one clue or registration that will justify any hunch or theory I might have. Even though I have gotten pretty good at making a hypothesis about something, and it usually pans out, I never submit it as truth unless I can back it up.

As for native american ancestry, I presumably (note, I use the word presumably so please stop groaning - smirk) have some myself. As I know the sea faring British male ancestor who married this basically unknown woman just prior to 1800 did reach North Carolina and traveled up an unknown river deep into the 'hinterland', I am cautiously thinking possibly Tsalagi. Then again, it could be Sappony, or Waccamaw-Siouan, or Coharie, or Tuscarora, or ... All my British family knows for sure is that she came from the USA, had long black hair which she 'greased', and 'missed eating corn'. She was called Ann but called herself something like Anja or Anya. No definitive records survived, so it's "just another story".
Interestingly enough, when I married my 1st husband in Asheville, NC - my complicated family history made us want to avoid a stressed marriage, and good friends of ours lived there - we had to fill in forms to apply for the wedding. We had to fill in our race, something that really took us aback as we're not used to that here in The Netherlands. Naturally, we both entered 'caucasian'. My form was not accepted until I strenuously argued that, as we would be going back to The Netherlands and not live in the USA, I would not apply for "US citizenship based on native american ancestry". I was blown away! The registrar at the Asheville Court House had taken one look at me and had known, just known, that I had native ancestry. During our 3 week stay there I often was asked what tribe I was related to. Sadly, I was never able to answer. It still seems strange to me, as my colouring (prior to the dreaded advance of pepper & salt) was basically Celtic: auburn hair and green eyes. But I have to admit that people in The Netherlands often thought I had Indonesian blood. Which I don't.

LH

earthw7:
I have heard many story and some of the stories we just can not comfrim because of the time,
There were many people on the east coast who were either taken as slaves or married into non natives
and we never heard from them again. The problem is they were told to forget who they were and to fit in the
white society so the history is lost. There are so many tribe on the east coast that no longer exist over a
thousand tribes that are now extinct we will never know there names. So you may never know who you come from.
The way genealogy works in Indian country is hard

Epiphany:
For anyone doing genealogy, this from Kathryn is important to keep in mind:


--- Quote ---Sadly, it's pretty common for liberals (and exploiters) descended from colonial Indian-killers to try to rewrite their history and give themselves NDN ancestors. But anyone with experience spots this: you'll have a bunch of well-sourced info on the white people, then some alleged NDN with no data, no source documents, and the clincher: a stereotypical name in English. Like "Mourning Dove," or "Rushing Stream," while the only real NDNs in that area at that time have names in the relevant NDN language.
--- End quote ---

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=4063.msg34342#msg34342

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