Some researchers thought they had it all
figured out, or hoped they did, so they could claim to be Cherokee, but they
forgot one important thing.................Claim an ancestor that doesn't
belong to you and the real descendants might come calling!
Based only on a name, a family now claims to
be Cherokee and have laid claim to another family’s ancestor. Their known
ancestor gave the name of his purported ancestor and said she was Cherokee in
an 1896 application for citizenship into the Cherokee Nation. Because of this,
the family went straight to Cherokee records to find a name that matched. When they
found one, they apparently stopped all other research, or ignored anything else
found that might have suggested their real ancestor was a different person and not
the Cherokee. This family has based their entire claim to this Cherokee
ancestor on a name given in an 1896 application that was eventually thrown out
due to widespread fraud and false testimony.
If these researchers would have thoroughly investigated
their genealogy using sound genealogical standards, they would have realized the
Cherokee could not be their ancestor. If they would have done an exhaustive
search of all records available, they would have realized the Cherokee could
not be their ancestor. Or if they would have resolved the information that
conflicted with their conclusion, they would have realized the Cherokee could
not be their ancestor. But they didn’t do any of this. Incredibly, many people
have now accepted the conclusion of one person and copied it to their family
tree without doing their own research. The conclusion of that one person was
WRONG, but, apparently, the “tree copiers” don't care because they proudly
declare this Cherokee as their ancestor, though they have no credible
documentation to base that claim upon.
With total disregard for truth, this family
has dug up the body of a Cherokee and propped it up in their family tree,
erasing all the real descendants and replacing those descendants with
themselves. The one thing they didn't count on was a real descendant, ME, discovering
what they did..............
Stay tuned for more on an 1896 application;
and how it and an incomplete search and evaluation of genealogical records has
turned one family into “ancestor stealers.”
Those are my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading.
copyright 2012, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB
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