when it comes to Cherokee genealogy there are more sources to use than the Dawes rolls many
think these rolls are the only source but you are missing out on a lot of good information
if you only use those on today's episode of the ancestral findings podcast I'll
give you some alternatives you can use to discover or confirm Cherokee ancestry
the usefulness of tracing Cherokee ancestry using the Dawes rolls is controversial among those
who claim Cherokee descent some say the lists are invaluable and highly accurate in tracing
these family lines while others say many did not register with the Dawes rolls because they did
not trust them and so the cherokee ancestors are some people who claim it may not be found there
both sides are passionate about their stance and it is an ongoing debate the debate itself
will be left to those who are debating it and not be discussed here what will be discussed here are
alternatives to the Dawes rolls when it comes to tracing your real or supposed Cherokee ancestry
the Dawes rolls are very famous in Cherokee ancestry research the US government organized
the Dawes Commission in 1893 in order to force the so-called Five Civilized tribes to agree to
a plan of land allotment in exchange for doing away with the reservations for these tribes the
tribes included in the Dawes Commission's projects are Cherokee Choctaw Creek Chickasaw and Seminole
every member of these tribes has to be accounted for in order to allocate the communal land in a
proper way freedmen emancipated slaves who were owned by Native Americans prior to the Civil War
were also included on the Dawes rolls because of the allotment of land involved more than 250,000
people applied to be on the rolls however the Dawes Commission did its research and ended up
qualifying only just over 100,000 people to be on the rolls and receive land categories for joining
the Dawes rolls included Native by blood including newborns and minor children native by marriage
freedmen formerly owned by nato's or adopted into their tribes including newborns and minor children
Delaware Indians Natives adopted by the Cherokee tribe but registered with Dawes as a separate sub
tribe within the Cherokee tribe while das can be useful in tracing cherokee heritage it is by
no means the only source those who suspect they may have Cherokee ancestry or who have always
been told they did but have no proof can get a DNA test done at any of the commercial DNA companies
to determine if they have Native American DNA and what percentage by connecting with other matches
on these sites who also have Native American DNA a family tree can often be pieced together and
the tribe of origin determined it may actually be Cherokee DNA doesn't lie and a mistake can't
be made on its paperwork so it is an excellent way of determining if you have Native American
DNA you can work on determining the actual tribe from there if you have an ancestor who was rumored
to have married a Cherokee and you know that ancestors name you can look for them in the
US census records any record after 1880 will show ethnicity look at their spouse usually a
wife does it's a Native American Indian or name an individual tribe you have your answer right
there without even needing the Dawes if you don't know the ancestors name but know the line in your
family we're at Cherokee supposedly married in do regular genealogy research down that family
line until you either find a Native American as a spouse or take the line all the way back
to Europe or another continent without finding a native both situations occurred in my family one
line was always rumored to have had a many-times great-grandfather who married a Cherokee woman
research on that line all the way back to England showed no one who appeared to be native or who
was listed as such later DNA research showed not a drop of native DNA in me then deeper
more detailed research showed a man in that same family line in the 1700s did marry a half Jewish
woman her father was a Jewish immigrant from the Netherlands it is now supposed that is where the
rumor of a cherokee relative originated with the half jewish woman you could do these things
and discover you do have native DNA or locate a native in the paper trail in your family history
and that location does not have to be in the Dawes rolls especially if the native DNA came
in to your line before the rolls were taken in addition there are other Native American registry
rolls besides the Dawes the u.s. government took rolls of the names of tribe members in
1817 1835 1851 1876 1880 1894 1896 and 1890 you can search these roles at the National Archives
in Washington DC or request copies of roles to be sent to you and look for your ancestors there you
may even be able to trace them across more than one role and thus establish several generations
of a Cherokee family missionary records are another good place to look missionaries took
it as their sacred duty to convert Cherokees and other natives to Christianity and they
kept detailed records of the tribe members with whom they worked on conversion these documents
are usually from the early 1800s but could be even earlier as missionaries were coming here
from Spain as early as the 1500s look for records from the mission schools as those are most likely
to have been preserved as historical documents and they have detailed information on children
and families within the native tribes keeping your search for mission schools in the East will
give you a better chance of finding Cherokees in your family or who could be other sources include
the federal government's 1848 and 1851 rolls of eastern Cherokees which are pretty good census
records of Cherokees and other Eastern native tribes there is also a list of 1,600 Cherokees
who the federal government slated for removal from their land on what became known as the Trail of
Tears you might find your ancestor there when it comes to Native American genealogy particularly
Cherokee genealogy the Dawes rolls are not the be-all and end-all of research not by a long way
you probably know the name John Hancock but do you know anything about the man
behind the famous name on the next episode of the ancestral findings podcast I'll talk
about this American patriots copyright by ancestral findings all rights wizard
you