Betsy Walker Sources

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Genealogy Sources related to Betsey Walker

This page is to gather in one place sources related to Elizabeth "Betsy" M. Walker (abt.1732-abt.1756), of North Carolina or Tennessee, who was said to be a full-blooded Cherokee, and her many descendants.

She is easily confused with her daughter, Elizabeth (Walker) Leatherwood (1753-1835).

She is referenced in many places as an ancestor to many people, but primary sources are hard to find. Hopefully this page will help people find sources relevant to Walker-Leatherwood-Hyde genealogy.

Betsey Walker is also known as: Elizabeth Walker, and Betsie or Betsy Walker. She was apparently the ancestor of many people.

The 1906 Guion Miller Applications

When the US government approved compensation payments to Cherokees and their descendants, many people applied for these benefits. The applications are great genealogy source material because they often list ancestors and other family relationships. There appear to have been some 45,000 Eastern Cherokee Applications filed between 1906 and 1909.

So many applicants cited Betsey Walker as their Cherokee ancestor, that the commission wrote a special report analyzing those applications specifically and why they were denied. Denial does not necessarily mean that she was not a Cherokee Indian, but only that she was not on the approved rolls of Cherokee.

The applications are on-line at Family Search. They are only partially indexed. You can look up a person, and find their application number, but then you still have to look through hundreds of pages to find it. If you find it on this page, though, all you have to do is click the application number to be taken straight to the first page of the application.

The overview of the Eastern Cherokee Applications is here. If you scroll down on that page, you will see the links to the on-line images.

The following table should help you find some of the many "Betsy Walker" Applications. For genealogical purposes, the whole should be greater than the sum of the parts. These are the best "primary sources" available for many of these people. Be aware that it is not complete -- there may be many more related claimants not shown here.

You may sort this table by clicking the headers.

The Betsey Walker Cherokee Applications 1906-1909

The table above was created with this tool.

Research Notes

So far, we have found 46 applicants which relate to Betsy Walker.

You will see the notation "With #500" on many applications. Application #500 was the examiner's original "Betsy Walker" application, and they refer many others to it. The notation "Betsy Walker case" is also common. Their logic was if an ancestor was deemed to be on the rolls, then everyone descended from that ancestor should be admitted. On the other hand, if an ancestor was not on the rolls, then everyone claiming from that ancestor should be denied.

Many times related applications appear with sequential numbers. Families submitted their applications as a group, or used the same lawyer, who submitted them together, therefore they were assigned sequential application numbers. If you find an application you are interested in, be sure to look forward and backward a few applications to possibly find related applications.