My wife would like to prove her heritage as well and it’s not easy at all. If you or your direct ancestors were not on the roll of the various tribe, you are sunk. Apparently there was some social shame at the time and some folks made an effort to avoid getting their name registered. If you saw a photo of Her great grandmother you’d be lying if you hadn’t said, man that’s a native woman right there. and they were from the mountains of Tennessee/south Carolina so right area geographically and family stories etc. but all for naught. Also apparently by luck or design there is not much you can do to prove it DNA wise as well. Best of luck in your search.
I am part Choctaw and part Muskogee. A number of relatives including my sister and mother (now passed) are registered on the tribal rolls. I never bothered.
God Bless and Protect the Once and Future President, Donald John Trump.
Posts: 17613 | Location: Northern Virginia | Registered: November 08, 2008
Contact a Family History Center with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon). They can help you. They won't do it for you but they can help you get started. Or you could hire a professional genealogist.
You can do one of them DNA analysis tests unless you’re a serial killer who’s being hunted by the FBI or if you don’t mind your genetic markers in a government database.
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
Posts: 20263 | Location: The Free State of Arizona - Ditat Deus | Registered: March 24, 2011
I’ve been told my whole life that I have Native American heritage. I believed the stories until DNA testing showed Elizabeth Warren levels of heritage. I’ve since disavowed ‘lore’ and refuse to sit and listen to it and the cliched defense of it. I only post this now to correct the record in case I stated so in the past.
You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier
Posts: 30003 | Location: Norris Lake, TN | Registered: May 07, 2008
DNA doesn't work like you think it does. Every generation that goes by is a chance for Native genes to be, for a lack of a better term, bred out of you. Just because a DNA test shows no Native American doesn't mean that you aren't directly related to Native Americans. Old school genealogy is how you're going to have to either prove or disprove the stories.
Good video that explains how DNA inheritance works.
Posts: 11214 | Location: The Magnolia State | Registered: November 20, 2004
Through genealogy research on Ancestry @ FamilySearch I found on my great great grandmother through my great grandfather’s maternal side on my maternal side that I have Ottawa and Menominee ancestors dating back to the late 1700’s. Have not found much on my great grandfathers paternal side, pretty much a dead end there.
Hope how I explained it made some sense!
That together with French, Belgian, French Canadian, Austrian, German, Hungarian.
-------------------------------------—————— ————————--Ignorance is a powerful tool if applied at the right time, even, usually, surpassing knowledge(E.J.Potter, A.K.A. The Michigan Madman)
Posts: 8505 | Location: Livingston County Michigan USA | Registered: August 11, 2002
My wife and I joke about this all the time. Our families and many others we know have passed down all kinds of stories about Native American heritage. Here in Texas, it seems like 7 out of 10 people have been told that that someone in their family tree was an Indian. It's extremely hard to prove of course, but so far I've never known any of these claims to be proven true. If half these claims were accurate there'd be more Native Americans here now than when the Mayflower landed.
No one's life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.- Mark Twain
Posts: 3686 | Location: TX | Registered: October 08, 2005
Originally posted by sigspecops: My wife and I joke about this all the time. Our families and many others we know have passed down all kinds of stories about Native American heritage. Here in Texas, it seems like 7 out of 10 people have been told that that someone in their family tree was an Indian.
I'm one of those 7 out of 10 Texans.
No, I have not looked into it and figure it's probably nonsense.
______________________________________________ “There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.”
I can't count the number of Oklahomans I know who had a Cherokee grandmother. Most of them likely did (or one of the tribes). There are 38 Indian reservations in Oklahoma.
I didn't hear that story growing up in Texas. The Rangers drove the Indians out 2 generations before Oklahoma was founded.
I have a few SIGs.
Posts: 1983 | Location: Texan north of the Red River | Registered: November 05, 2003
Originally posted by Skull Leader: DNA doesn't work like you think it does. Every generation that goes by is a chance for Native genes to be, for a lack of a better term, bred out of you. Just because a DNA test shows no Native American doesn't mean that you aren't directly related to Native Americans. Old school genealogy is how you're going to have to either prove or disprove the stories.
Good video that explains how DNA inheritance works.
[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="383" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/geE7zsehccY" title="AncestryDNA | Why Is My Native American Ancestry Not Showing Up? | Ancestry" width="681"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]
Understood. Given how much heritage was claimed, there should have been some considerable lineage found. There was virtually nothing. Back in the mid 1900s it became virtuous to be Native American. My maternal natural grandfather dressed and lived like one. Convinced my mother she was half. When she was genealogically tested, nada, zilch, nothing.
You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier
Posts: 30003 | Location: Norris Lake, TN | Registered: May 07, 2008
