In all the years I was living at home I had heard that my 2X Great Grandmother Nellie Hawkins-Smith said we were at least a dash Native American. And not just any old Native American but Cherokee, one of the Five Civilized Tribes. Grandma Nellie - and in all honesty her father James Hawkins as well - certainly has features that I could see as belonging to someone of Native American heritage. I see if even more in my 2X Great Aunt Bertha Smith-Rothery. That could just be me looking for something that isn't there. You can judge for yourself below:
The picture above is Lorene Rothery-Lebo, Bertha Smith-Rothery (Lorene's mother) James Hawkins (Lorene's great grandfather) holding Joanne Lebo-Bolivar and Nellie Hawkins-Smith (Lorene's grandmother).
I've made it my mission over the last 12 years of doing family research to find the answers to the hard questions. Finding the spouses that we know existed but records don't show. Finding the family connection down the line to myself, my husband or some other relative and finding our Cherokee blood has been that for me. Now, having located a record within my ancestry.com family tree that directly references a relative I know I can say I think I may have finally found that missing link just where Grandma Nellie said it should be.
Here is how it all began...
Most days at lunch when I have a few minutes I will check my ancestry.com page for new hints. I have too many to count so I try to be methodical about getting them cleaned out. I selected the top name on my list which was my 5X Great Grandmother Nancy Hale and a record popped up that had the name Robert Anderson on it. Knowing full well Robert Anderson and Nancy Hale were not the same person I selected the record to view it. What I found was a lawsuit filing of RM Anderson versus Cherokee Nation case #154. Knowing that somewhere along the Hawkins-Skaggs line was where our native heritage was supposed to be I opened up the record and started looking it over.
It became a case of follow the bouncing ball until I landed on Robert Marion Anderson's Find A Grave page. Lo and behold RM Anderson was listed as being a full blood Cherokee as was his mother who it happened was none other than Sarah Hale, sister to my 5X Great Grandmother Nancy Hale-Skaggs. That got me just a little bit excited and so last night I sat down and read all 81 pages of RM Anderson's lawsuit against the Cherokee Nation alleging he was wrongly excluded from consideration to joint he tribe. In doing so I found that Nancy Hale-Skaggs had submitted an affidavit that indeed the people requesting to join the Cherokee's in the Five Civilized Tribes were Cherokee by blood.
It appears that the lawsuit was rejected just as the original application for admittance had been but gives not legal reason as to why either was rejected. I will keep looking and post more information as I come across it. Until then here is a picture of Sarah Hale - My 5X Great Aunt
I've made it my mission over the last 12 years of doing family research to find the answers to the hard questions. Finding the spouses that we know existed but records don't show. Finding the family connection down the line to myself, my husband or some other relative and finding our Cherokee blood has been that for me. Now, having located a record within my ancestry.com family tree that directly references a relative I know I can say I think I may have finally found that missing link just where Grandma Nellie said it should be.
Here is how it all began...
Most days at lunch when I have a few minutes I will check my ancestry.com page for new hints. I have too many to count so I try to be methodical about getting them cleaned out. I selected the top name on my list which was my 5X Great Grandmother Nancy Hale and a record popped up that had the name Robert Anderson on it. Knowing full well Robert Anderson and Nancy Hale were not the same person I selected the record to view it. What I found was a lawsuit filing of RM Anderson versus Cherokee Nation case #154. Knowing that somewhere along the Hawkins-Skaggs line was where our native heritage was supposed to be I opened up the record and started looking it over.
It became a case of follow the bouncing ball until I landed on Robert Marion Anderson's Find A Grave page. Lo and behold RM Anderson was listed as being a full blood Cherokee as was his mother who it happened was none other than Sarah Hale, sister to my 5X Great Grandmother Nancy Hale-Skaggs. That got me just a little bit excited and so last night I sat down and read all 81 pages of RM Anderson's lawsuit against the Cherokee Nation alleging he was wrongly excluded from consideration to joint he tribe. In doing so I found that Nancy Hale-Skaggs had submitted an affidavit that indeed the people requesting to join the Cherokee's in the Five Civilized Tribes were Cherokee by blood.
It appears that the lawsuit was rejected just as the original application for admittance had been but gives not legal reason as to why either was rejected. I will keep looking and post more information as I come across it. Until then here is a picture of Sarah Hale - My 5X Great Aunt