The Good and The Bad

Well, I've had a lot happen over the past 10 or so days. Not so much with physically updating my family tree, but moreso in gathering information for it. As it goes with anything in life, this particular week has had it ups and downs. Most of it was good, however, which I'm very happy about.

The Bad:

My search for my Native American ancestry continues and probably will for quite some time. As stated in my previous post, I found a professor/author with a background in Native American history that I emailed in hopes of finding out more information on "Dragging Canoe", who is said to be my 7th great grandfather. I got a response back from her the very next day saying that she wasn't a Native American genealogist, so she referred me to a member of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council, who is supposed to be an expert in Native American genealogy. I emailed him, but have yet to hear back from him. With each passing day, my hopes of getting a response are getting less and less. I will not give up hope with him just yet. If it turns out that I don't receive a response, I will just look elsewhere.

In the meantime, I borrowed a couple of books from the local library on the Cherokee Indians. I have only got a little ways into one of the books, called "Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook". So far, it is very interesting reading. It talks about what the Cherokee people went through after the arrival of the Europeans. Things, such as being decimated by disease, trading goods with the British and their eventual removal from their native lands. I don't know about now, but this is the kind of things they never taught us in school when I was growing up. It makes you stop and think about why Native American people have a bit of a hatred toward the white people.

The Good:

While waiting to get an email from the Cherokee Nation, I picked one branch of my family tree to begin extensively researching. I'm still baffled with so much conflicting information or lack of information about the Hindman part of my family. This part of my family belongs to my paternal grandmother. I was so confused with some of the information I was finding, that I decided to post a message on a genealogy message board in hopes of getting some of this confusion straightened out. I got an answer here and there, but nothing that really could answer any of my questions. What happened next changed me profoundly!

One of the responses I got from my message board post suggested I visit a site called Find A Grave and send an email to the person who posted information for many of the people I had questions about. I did so and got a response the next day (Saturday, the 18th). Turns out, this person is a distant relative, where she and I meet in the family tree is at my great great grandfather. Small world out there sometimes. She has been into genealogy a LOT longer than I have and is in the area where some of my ascendents are from. Since Saturday, the two of us have been getting acquainted with each other and sharing photos and facts from what we have and know. Obviously, she has MUCH more information than I do about this part of my family, which is a part of my family that I never knew, beyond my grandmother, anyway. Needless to say, the past few days have been great!

My wife and I have been planning to go see the graves of these relatives for about 3 weeks. This was even before I met a relative right there in the area. There is a "famous" house that my great great grandfather built in 1914 and lived in with his wife and some of their children. If you have ever seen the movie "Children of the Corn", then you have seen the house, as it is in the movie. Another distant relative is buying back the house to "get it back into the family". He plans to have it restored to the way it was when it was originally built. He's hoping to have it completed by 2014, so a family reunion can take place in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the original house being built.

I had no idea that I had so many relatives still in that area, not to mention all around me and in other various parts of the country. All from the same ancestors that I come from. I'm just beginning to introduce myself to some of these other people who I am family with, but have never known or met. This is giving me a new sense of what a family should be like, even with distant relatives. I'm very much looking forward to getting to meet some of these people and am hoping to do so later this summer or early fall. My original goal of finding my ancestry has taken on a whole new meaning with being able to share information, stories and photos with living, breathing people. People that are called family.

I'd like to thank my grandmother (R.I.P.) who must be looking down and beaming at what I have just found. She is my link to this part of my family. Thank you to the person who suggested that I get in touch with my distant cousin, Barbara. Without you, this celebration of family might not have been possible, at least right now! I'd also like to thank my cousin Barbara for taking the time to answer my email and treat me like I am family by wanting to meet me and my wife, as well as sharing what she knows about this side of my family. I can't wait to meet you, too!

An Interesting Day!

The search continues for my Native American ancestry. I did some research last night on "Dragging Canoe", but it only added to my questions instead of answering any. According to my family tree in Ancestry.com (and others on the same site), he has a daughter named Abigail "Raven" Canoe. I decided to try and see if there was a list of his children on any internet site and I kept getting various numbers, ranging from one to four children. None of these searches turned up the name of Abigail "Raven" Canoe. This leads me to believe that either he has more children that aren't listed, this daughter is listed with a different name, or they are not related at all.

I did more searching this morning on Cherokee Indians in general and came across the name of a professor at the University of North Carolina, named Theda Perdue, who happens to be an expert in Native American History. The name Perdue/Pardue also pops up in my family tree, but I don't think she is any relation (direct, at least). Anyway, she is also an author with numerous books about the Cherokee people, including a book about "The Trail of Tears". In my moment of desperation, I decided to email her to see if she can point me in some direction to begin a search for this part of my family tree. We'll see what happens!

Meanwhile, my wife Stephanie and I decided to take a trip to some nearby cemeteries to find the headstones of some of her relatives. We came across quite a few that she had on her list. We learned pretty quick, though,  that you can't rely on "Google" to give you accurate addresses and directions to some of these places that are out in the middle of nowhere. There was one cemetery we couldn't find at all, which was in an extremely small town and another that goes by two names. We asked a couple of people (one of them a mailman) about how to get to "New Hope Cemetery" in Liberty, Missouri. He didn't know where that was, but gave us directions to another cemetery closeby. Turns out, we were trying to trace a cemetery that really doesn't exist, so our haphazard search in this particular cemetery turned up nothing. We didn't look hard, because we thought it was the wrong place. Turns out, it was the right place with the wrong name. haha...We now have more accurate information and will resume the search in these two cemeteries during the coming week.

After we got back home, we started doing more searches on her family, which a good portion of are in Caldwell County, Missouri. I came across an "ebook" on compact discs called "Caldwell County, Missouri Genealogy History" on Ebay. The company that made them happens to be in Joplin, Missouri, which, as you know, was devastated by a tornado on May 22, 2011. On the company's website, it said that they weren't damaged by the tornado and were still carrying on, business as usual. I talked Steph into buying a copy, because it listed a whole lot of different information that was on the cds. Hopefully, she will come across something that will be of use to her, as her Caldwell County family members have quite a history. At least I hope it's interesting!

And so.........the search continues!

The Native American Branch

I have known since I was little that there was Native American blood in my family (my mom's side). I have always been told that my Native American ancestry is Cherokee. This has been a lingering question in my mind for many years, but it didn't spark my interest until I began my recent genealogical searching. When I received the family tree information from my mom, I called her and she asked me about the Native American portion of it. She asked me, "did you see Dragging Canoe?" I said, "yes", but didn't think much of it until I started to do some searching on him the next day. Little did I know that this guy made a name for himself. I don't even think my mom knew this man was famous. He is my 7th great grandfather, via my mom's dad's mother.

Tsiyu Gansini, or "Dragging Canoe" was born in what is now Tennessee in 1734. His father, Chief Attakullakulla, or "Little Carpenter", was part Shawnee and part Nipissing, even though he was one of the early Cherokee Chiefs, or "First Beloved Man". Dragging Canoe's mother, Nionne Ollie was a Natchez living in a town of refugees from that tribe who had settled among the Overhill Towns on the Little Tennessee River. Here is a little bit about him taken from the website, "1776: The Revolutionary War (Year of Decision)"

"Long a powerful Indian nation in the Southeast, the Cherokee had lost much of their power by 1776, as disease and involvement in European wars and trade—including the slave trade that supplied Indians to colonists—had reduced them to around 12,000 people. The Cherokee also suffered from colonial traders who used debt as leverage to seize land. The Sycamore Shoals Treaty of 1776 (also known as the Transylvania Purchase) exchanged a cabin full of trade goods valued at around 10,000 British Pounds for 27,000 square miles of land (encompassing a large percentage of what is now the state of Kentucky), a deal that violated British law forbidding the sale of Indian land east of the Appalachians and angered many Cherokee. Tsi’yugunsi’ny, also known as Dragging Canoe, a Cherokee chief, reportedly pledged to render the land 'dark and bloody.'

The Revolution seemed like an ideal opportunity for Dragging Canoe and his young followers to make good their recent losses. In 1776, Dragging Canoe told a British envoy that 'he had a great many young fellows that would support him and that were determined to have their Land,' and he blamed the recent land cession on old men who were too old to hunt, and therefore desperate for money. The arrival at Chota, a key Cherokee town, of delegates from the Mohawks and several other northern Indian nations urging war emboldened Dragging Canoe’s young warriors, even as the British and many Cherokee women and older men urged patience.

After some initial success, the Cherokee raiders were repulsed by opposing forces and then punished. Many colonists welcomed the Cherokee attacks as justification for seizing even more of their land. Jefferson hoped that 'the Cherokees will now be driven beyond the Mississippi.' That would not happen until the 1830s, but the Cherokee lost a great deal in the Revolution. Big Island Town, which Dragging Canoe had been the leader of, was one of many villages destroyed by the patriots, and the Cherokee were soon compelled to surrender an additional five million acres. Dragging Canoe and his followers fled to the South, where they continued to fight against the United States throughout the Revolutionary War and beyond. Divisions within the Cherokee grew, yet Dragging Canoe referred to his followers as 'the Real people.' He died in 1792."

This is someone that I would like to know more about. I'm looking forward to finding some books, stories, etc, to read up on. Not only is he a blood relative, but he sounds like a very interesting person!

My Finds So Far

I just recently became very interested in my family origins, thus taking up the "hobby" of genealogy. I have always been interested in finding out where past members of my family came from, but never gained a keen interest in it, that is, until now. It all started when my sister-in-law came to visit us last month (May,  2011) to search for homes that her family members once lived in. She also did some research to find graves/headstones of past relatives. This is what got me interested in finding out about my own family.

I began my family searching on May 22, 2011 by opening an account on Ancestry.com. I really didn't do a whole lot that first day. I called my mom back home the next day to find out what she could tell me. She had been sent various family history items from other family members, who have been doing the same thing I set out to do. Mom told me that I could have all of the family history items that she had, so the next day, she sent them in the mail to me. I waited and waited and waited for the stuff to arrive. One week went by...Nothing! Two weeks went by...STILL nothing! Finally, on day 17 after she sent the envelope with part of my family history in it, it arrived, thanks to a neighbor, who had moved, but came to town to check their mail. He brought it by the house and NOW, I had something to sink my teeth into.

Meanwhile, while waiting for my mom's package to arrive, I did some other searching on Ancestry.com to see what I could find. I started with the obvious, my parents and worked my way up to my great-grandparents. I had them all correct until I got to my grandfather on my dad's father's side. I found out real quick that one wrong click of the mouse can lead you in the wrong direction, or as I like to call it, "barking up the wrong family tree". I received a couple of messages from someone who noticed that I had been gathering information off of their tree. Come to find out, I was, in fact, barking up the wrong family tree. I had been digging around in the wrong tree for a few days and was getting frustrated, because of various conflicts with one person in that tree. After digging around another few days, I found the RIGHT tree.

After I found all the right branches in my tree, I began "quick searching" through them all. Two of them, I hit early dead ends, but one of those, I didn't have to go far to find that I have blood from Wales in me. My great-grandfather (my mom's dad's father) came to the United States (New York is the suspicion) from Wales in 1887. I had achieved a small victory toward my ultimate goal...that of finding what countries my family come from. One other part of the family on my dad's side, I quick traced all the way back to the 1400s to find there is Scottish blood on that side of the family. Just out of curiosity, I searched to see where the origin of the "Kersey" name comes from. I found out that it is English, so England is also a possibility, though not yet confirmed.