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Jennie was the wife of John Downing. Her last name or Cherokee name is unknown[1] [2], although there has been speculation that she was Jennie Fields, a member of another prominent Cherokee family.
Jennie was a member of the Twister/Long Hair Clan (through Mary Grant).
My primary sources, the Starr[3] and Hicks[4] genealogies claim Jennie as the mother of all 17 of John Downing's children, but Jennie could not possibly be the mother of all of his children, who span 40 years between the oldest and the youngest. She would have been in her mid to late 50s when the last child was born. There is a 13 year gap between Moses (1788) and Peggy (1801), so I speculate that either birthdates are wrong or another marriage happened about 1800. Also, because Jennie was still alive in 1851, I believe that she is probably the second wife.
Possibly the daughter of Mary Grant. If, as Hicks claims, Jennie's daughters Charlotte and Cynthia were members of the Long Hair Clan through Mary Grant, then that would mean that Jennie was probably the daughter of Mary Grant and unknown father. There is not enough distance in ages for there to be a generation between, and Mary Grant would have been within child bearing age well into the 1770s. But I don't know the source for Hicks clan information, so I am currently working on that.
Another possibility. According to Hicks, Mary Grant Emory had a daughter, a fifth child born about 1751, whose name is unknown and who married an unknown Lee. They had two children (unknown). If we adjusted Jennie's birthday up a decade to 1770, She could possibly be one of those children of Emory and Lee. Otherwise, I'm confounded. --Duane Poncy
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