I am finding out the hard way, many of the "family stories" were just that - stories. No evidence to substantiate. Therefore, I have to go with the lack of evidence and go toward the direction of what is true, according to records. Disappointing to say the least. I basically grew up, believing I was part Cherokee. I also never knew I had more Scandinavian than anything else. Even though, the many Swede's I have known throughout my life, always said, they were convinced by looking at me, that I was Swedish. I still don't know what part of Scandinavia my Ancestors came from. Doesn't much matter anymore.
I am the only one of my birth family, still alive. My sister, left me in Sept. 2015. Killed me. I wanted her and me to investigate more into our family. We never got a chance. I would have loved to have found out, what DNA, she got from our parents. I always assumed, siblings would get the same DNA from our parents, but that is not so. It would have completed the whole picture for me - I am one who enjoys the science of all of this, more than anything else.
For the BS stories, look for the labels that say BS. If said BS Story is found to have some evidence, then I will change it. Until then, the Cherokee in my family is a big, story of bull-shit.
What I have discovered is the stories are true. But, they are much further back than you expect. My dad would describe how Georgia was when they first settled. Many of those settlers came from Virginia and Massachusetts. The stories were much older.
ReplyDeleteI did my mom's DNA and her fifth great grandfather was Cherokee Indian Chief Robert Fields who was only 1/8th Indian. You might come across native ancestry or may find what I discovered which are siblings of ggg...grandparents who married native people. What I learned the most is that people passed for white and left the native or African American behind.
There is no doubt that I also have Cherokee in my lineage - however you're right - they choose to pass as white and leave their tribes. Which is why there is no documentation on any of the Indian rolls.
DeleteMy DNA does not show any Indigenous Americas DNA. I do have one cousin, that shows a trace.