My Great-Great Grandma is supposedly 1/2 Cherokee, how can i try to see if her parents were full Cherokee?

Question

I have her parents names and can even go back a few generations. They are from Kentucky.

Answer 1

If your family was from Kentucky it’s unlikely they were Cherokee, since that was not where the Cherokee lived and almost all Cherokee people were Removed from the east in 1838-39.    That being said, the first place to search is in the Eastern Cherokee (Guion Miller) applications from 1907. They are available on Fold3 and pretty much anyone who thought they might be Cherokee filled one out hoping for a share of 4 million dollars.  Most of the applications were rejected but they have massive amounts of genealogical information.  The rolls previous to Guion Miller were made in 1851, but there was only one Cherokee family living in Kentucky then.

Comments

I am wondering if there is any at all. My great grandfather definitely had the look.  But i just am not finding anything. I know the ancestors from trail of tears time frame were in North Carolina and Virginia i think.

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Can you place any of your ancestors in the Cherokee Nation (the area where Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina come together) between 1800-1838?

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Burton-9162 Charitie Bell Burton is the supposed 1/2 Cherokee. I have been trying to do all my research through wiki tree, census records, some info my nephew had from his ancestry account (all free). I may end up doing a pay service.

Everyone is mainly in and around Pulaski, KY. There are some from Virginia and Rachel Nee Burton b. 1790's in North Carolina. I am gathering that Nee is more of a social thing, to show she had a maiden name?

Louisa Vicey Burton had a daughter Mahala. Not much to go on I know. From Cherokee Rolls Burton is a surname that appeared. I honestly wonder if perhaps it's more of a mulatto heritage?

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“Nee”  is the French word for “born” so yes, it indicates that was her maiden name.  Both of Charitie’s parents and all of their parents were born in Kentucky.  Tracing them farther back in census records I don’t find anyone living in the Cherokee Nation prior to Removal.  There is no one named Burton or Trimble on the 1835 Cherokee census.

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Thank you so much! I'm still learning at all of this :).

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My great grandmother’s name is Mahala Ann Anderson. Aka Annie Anderson 1865-1935. Her husband was Joseph Anderson born 1865. She had a son Joseph John Anderson who married my grandmother Lillian Mae Anderson. She was born Jones 1897-1937. Her “nationality” is listed as Mulatto. She had sisters Maxilla Jones and Lucy. Lucy is listed as Native American. I have pictures of both. They were from Edgecome NC

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My great grandmother’s name is Mahala Ann Anderson. Aka Annie Anderson 1865-1935. Her husband was Joseph Anderson born 1865. She had a son Joseph John Anderson who married my grandmother Lillian Mae Anderson. She was born Jones 1897-1937. Mahala ‘s “nationality” is listed as Mulatto. She had sisters Maxilla Jones and Lucy. Lucy is listed as Native American. I have pictures of both. They were from Edgecome NC.

Black women had black kinky hair. Indian women had straight black hair. Both women have white children (one somewhat darker), their father was Whitmel Anderson and their mother was  Louisa Clark

I am desperately trying to find out if they were Cherokee from NC. Can anyone help?

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Mahala is my great grandmother. I have pictures of her sisters Lucy and Maxilla. One is listed as Native American. They both have at least one white child in the picture. Their mother was Louisa Clark and their father was Whitmel Anderson. I have more info But I need more info in order to prove Cherokee heritage. I went to the reservation a number of years ago but I didn’t have this info at that time. I was told that women would declare they were black or mullatto on the census because being Native American was frowned upon. If you would like to share info you can email me.

Terri Winters (born Anderson) NC

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Tarboro, North Carolina where this family lived is about 400 miles from the where the Cherokee lived.  The marriage record for Whitmell and Louisa identifies both as "colored." 

 "North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979 ," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPS9-5DGP : 28 November 2018), Whitmell Or Whitmel Anderson and Louisa Or Louiza Jones, 23 Feb 1851; citing Edgecombe, North Carolina, United States, p. , North Carolina State Archives Division of Archives and History; FHL microfilm .

You can see the actual record on Family Search.  Everyone in the family is listed as mulatto on the 1870 census, but in 1880 they are living in a different town and are listed as white.  Annie, Lucy, and Maggie are all listed as white in the 1900 census.  

I think you have the names confused.  Whitmell Anderson married Louisa Jones.  According to her death certificate their daughter Mahala Ann Anderson was married to a man named Joe Anderson.  She had a son also named Joe Anderson.  Ann and her children appear together on the 1900 census.  

"United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSY8-KPP : accessed 22 September 2020), Ann Anderson in household of William B Hendricks, Township 6, Upper Fishing Creek Whitaker town (prt.), Edgecombe, North Carolina, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 7, sheet 6B, family 118, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,194.

Answer 2

Hi, Susan,

One of your great-great-grandmothers, Catherine Pearl Wallace needs her LNAB corrected. All documents relating to her have the name spelled as Wallace, not Wallis.

I've added her death certificate to the sources on her profile.

Her parents were William Wallace and Mary Elizabeth Blue.