Are you a descendant of Nan-ye-hi/Nancy Ward?

Question

I have been doing clean-up on profiles of the first two generations of Nancy Ward descendants.  I've added skeletal bios (birth, death, marriage, children) and sources where they were lacking, but if you are a descendant of one of these folks and have more personal information to add, please do.

Comments

I will continue to work on clean-up of the next generation as well.

Answer 1

I have a great grandmother named Kezia Ward.... word around the web says she is the daughter of Nancy Ward.... however I have never been able to find any proof of this.

Comments

That’s where your tree is off. Betsy Ward Martin Hughes had two daughters, Nancy Martin Hilderbrand and Rachel Hughes  Rogers.  Neither woman had a daughter named Sarah, and none of their children married a Crittenden.  The only Henry Crittenden I find connected to Nancy Ward was the father of George W. Crittenden and Sarah Crittenden, siblings who married siblings Martha Jane Starr and Joseph McMinn Starr, great-great grandchildren of Nancy Ward, descended from Kati, Nancy Harlan, and Joseph Starr, born in 1839 and 1842 respectively.  An unknown Crittenden fathered a child by Lucy Starr born 1825, a first cousin of Martha and Joseph above. John Hair Conrad, born 1824, another great-great grandchild parented a child by Aelie Crittenden, and another great-great, Emily Roach b. 1832, married Aaron Crittenden about 1865. .  

Those are all the Crittendens connected to Nancy Ward descendants of the first four generations.

---

Right click on image, then "view image"

I'm working my way through your response. We do have a conrad line but the generation/name doesn't match up.

I'm going to try again to post the DNA match trees and then I give up.

---

And this is the tree showing DNA matches under Eliz. Ward.

Right click on image, then "view image"

---

Kathie, thanks for sticking with me...!

---

I think the problem is that people in Ancestry and FamilySearch have randomly attached “Sally Hughes,” the wife of Henry Crittenden, to the Cherokee Nancy Ward line and it just keeps getting replicated.  Whoever she was her descendants are related to her, but not to Nancy Ward.

---

But the thing is we're defn. descended from Bryant ward, correct? And also Hughes.

---

I wish it was that simple - and it's definitely not random. it's multiple matches on multiple lines, multiple generations... i guess we'll try the MtDNA and see if that gets us some answers. Thanks for your input,

Sara

---

It's random in the sense that Sarah is attached to the wrong family with no documentation.  Since the first name of Betsy Ward's "Hughes" husband is uncertain (even though you see "Daniel" in many places)  it's not possible to say if any specific "Daniel Hughes" is the right man.  I don't believe that the white wife and children of Bryan(t) Ward are documented either, beyond the knowledge that John/Jack Ward who married Katy McDaniel was his son and that his white wife was supposedly named Ann.  There is lots of Internet speculation about Bryan(t) Ward but the facts of his life are unknown. According to Emmet Starr he died not long after he lived with Nancy Ward.  He is also claimed to be the Bryan Ward who lived and died in Franklin County, GA (will dated Aug.1815).  William Martin, son of Gen. Martin and half-brother of Betsy Ward stated that Bryant Ward, who was very old, lived in South Carolina in the 1790's and was visited there by Nancy.  There are some who think that Bryan(t) Ward was actually from Virginia.

---

I provided a copy of Bryant Ward’s will which names his white wife and sons, plus a niece.

Also, Bryant Ward’s son, Samuel is listed in court records in the same county as being one of a group of NA’s to be allowed to appear before a white court.

I am not convinced that his “white” sons where not at least part NA. You can’t change old records or ignore them and have accurate profiles and effectively utilize DNA results.

As for Bryant Ward he consented to the marriage of a young female in North Carolina not many years before his death. What was his connection to her???

Still a lot of work and facts out there to be gathered to be fair to ALL descendants.

---

George, James, and Samuel Ward were Bryant’s grandsons, children of his son Jack and his Cherokee wife Caty McDaniel.