Terry men that married Native American women (need help finding the truth of the context)

+3 votes
526 views

Terry-1030 John William Lock Terry
Born 1838 in Lawrence, Alabama, USA
Husband of Francis Cemelia Cheatham — married 7 Sep 1859 in Lawrence, Alabama, USA
Father of Vashti Cornelia (Terry) Smith (who is my 2nd great grandmother)

I have scanned documents from ancestry member, about Terry men in my family who married women, who were of Native American origin. I have never in the history of my family, ever heard of this before. Neither has my grandmother or her mother, or their family (of whom this line comes from) have ever spoken about this.

Contact with the members, family and the man who reported this over the phone to a family member (Ricky "Butch" Walker) Oakville Mounds, Moultan, AL, have been unsuccessful. 

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

WikiTree profile: John William Lock Terry
in Genealogy Help by Living Armstrong G2G1 (1.6k points)
I see that you have taken DNA tests at both Ancestry and MyHeritage. Are there any indications of Native American heritage in either test result?
Ancestry keeps changing my results. I did have (other than European) north African. Myheritage has given me west Asian. I tested my mother also, she has west African with our almost matching European results.

I used gedmatch to help clarify some of the results. And I get under 0.89% Amerindian. My mother is at 1.1%.

My grandmother passed away years ago, and so did her sister. That part of the family is pretty much gone, and I can't get any answers as to why the documentation was posted with my family's names and members with attached mentions like (Choctaw) or (Cherokee). It irks me, because I don't like lies in my family tree. I am THE only one documenting a tree at all. Literally the last of the line. Besides what passes on to my children.
Well, if you're not getting results for Native American on either Ancestry or MyHeritage, I would dismiss it as a family myth. There is certainly no indication that John Terry's spouse was Chocktaw.
The “Echota” group in Alabama is a NOT a “tribe”. They have no connection to any of the three recognized Cherokee tribes and most of their members have no connection to any Native American person.  They sell memberships in their organization based on family stories and undocumented family trees. Only a handful of Native Americans remained in Alabama after Removal and they (and their descendants) are pretty well documented. I don’t find anyone named Terry or Cheatham on the 1835 Cherokee census or on the 1851/52 roll of Cherokee East of the Mississippi so it’s unlikely your ancestors were Cherokee.  A number of people named Terry applied for a share of the Eastern Cherokee payment in 1907 and all were rejected since they had no Cherokee connection.  The applications are on Fold3 and they have a wealth of genealogical information.

John Terry's mother, Rebecca Love, who according to the doc attached to her husband, is supposed to be 1/2 Cherokee, but is enumerated as white on the 1850 census. 

There is no one named “Love” on the 1835 census or 1851/52 rolls.
That's what I was trying to tell the family relation, when I looked up the name. I left a comment about it, respectfully, to help "correct" that.

I didn't know about the whole group or about the eastern Cherokee payment. This would also explain why my side absolutely did not ever insinuate or speak of a Native American tale. They knew it was false.
I believe Ricky 'Butch' Walker has written books about the Cherokee, whom he claims as ancestors. I only looked briefly at one, the Dragging Canoe book, and he perpetuates a lot of myths without offering sources. Not sure how much I would trust his claims without documents to back them up.
I want to thank all you guys for helping me out. I hope soon to get everything straight. And if no one from that side wants to listen to me, there's not much else I can do.
Theirs a book about a marriage like this and the surnames walker ill see if I can find it
This was a question about a specific family in Alabama.  There are plenty of records documenting intermarried whites, but none named Terry.

1 Answer

+1 vote
For what it is worth, My grandmother, Lina J Terry told me a similar story, that one of the Terry relatives were descended from an American Indian. If I remember correctly it was her grandmother as well.  She died in 1981.
by Clifford Carter G2G6 Mach 2 (23.3k points)

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