Sunday, September 20, 2015

Coming Soon - New Series: The "forgotten" descendants of Sequoyah

When my mom asked me to do the genealogy of her friend, I said I would, but I didn't think it would be much fun. The person appeared to descend from one of the most famous Cherokees that has ever walked the face of the earth, so I thought the lineage had probably been researched inside and out, backward and forward, with every tidbit of information scratched out of our records. But, because my mom asked, I started the work on the "well known genealogy."

After researching off and on for about a month in my spare time, the following topic came up on Facebook and it got my attention:


I stared at the screen in disbelief. George Guess Jr., the son of THE Sequoyah, did have descendants and I was researching those very descendants, per my mom's request. I also knew that Winnie Guess Perdue didn't descend from nor claim to descend from Sequoyah's son, George, but instead, Richard. And she does descend from that son, Richard.

My shock increased as I continued to read the comments in the thread:


and



Normally, I might have let it go, but the person spreading the untruths about Sequoyah's descendants is a self described "Cherokee genealogist" on Facebook and the name redacted by the red box is a Cherokee Nation council person! There is no way I could overlook the idea that some Cherokees might demand another Cherokee to stop claiming her own ancestors and that they might actually convince a Cherokee Nation tribal council person to get involved in helping with such a demand! 

When my mom suggested I do genealogical research for her friend, I assumed it would be a quiet job I did privately, simply to help a fellow Cherokee learn more about his ancestors. I was wrong. This research has become important in light of the inaccurate information being shared across social media and that has been far reaching enough to get the attention of our tribal council members.

In the upcoming weeks, with the permission of my client, I will be sharing information, supported by documentation, that will make it clear that George Guess Jr. and Richard Guess, sons of Sequoyah, did have descendants. These are apparently the "forgotten" descendants of Sequoyah and because of that, their stories need to be told.

Those are my thoughts for today.
Thanks for reading.






** Names redacted in black are commenters on the Recaps from Cherokee Nation Tribal Council Meetings Facebook page. The name redacted in red is a Cherokee Nation Tribal Council person who was mentioned in a comment, but who did not actually comment in the thread.


copyright 2015, Polly's Granddaughter - TCB

8 comments:

  1. Sounds as if that particular person is a wannabe, a wannabe genealogist!

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  2. So I see I got blasted in Twila's blog this time, wow just wow. When I answered the post about Winnie Guess Perdue, the Ballerina's post it said she was a descendant from George Guess to Sequoyah, well as we all know George Guess did not have any descendants. I decided to look further into her claim and found that the George she was talking about was not Sequoyah's son it was her grandfather. So then I looked farther into her family line and found a letter from one of her Ancestors (which is below) and it says she is descended from his other son Richard or Dick. So thank you Twila for using me in one of your blogs I really appreciate how you do it without taking the time to talk to the person to find out what was really going on. But I don't expect any more from you than what you have already done..

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    Replies
    1. George was Winnie's father, not grandfather. Reading comprehension is another skill you need to brush up on.

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  3. Standards for Sound Genealogical Practices require a genealogist to do a reasonably exhaustive search of records. The records linking Winnie Guess Perdue to Sequoyah were not difficult to find as you learned AFTER you had made her a target of ridicule. Not only did your irresponsible comments make Winnie a target, they also misled at least one of our tribal council people into believing you. That is unacceptable.

    Also, I don't know what you believe, but I know that George Guess Jr, the son of Sequoyah, had descendants and there are still living descendants today. Perhaps you'd like to follow the series and learn more about them. :)

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  4. Kathy, reading comprehension matters! Where did I say Winnie descends from George Guess Jr, the son of Sequoyah? I didn't. What I said was that she descends from Richard (see the actually blog post) and that Sequoyah's son, George, HAD descendants. I did not say Winnie was one of them. I know the lineage. I actually did exhaustive and thorough research before I ever blogged about it. That's what responsible genealogists do.

    Now you say that you don't even believe there was a George Guess Jr, son of Sequoyah? Two weeks ago, you said, George Guess, the son of Sequoyah, had no descendants. That was the same time you said you could probably name all the descendants of Sequoyah because you knew the line so well and that you didn't think the line had been well researched before you looked at it. Please fill us in on which of your versions of this Guess family history we should believe because it seems to be changing as we speak.

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  5. As usual, Kathy Griffin White lies to deflect then runs to the Land of Denial. Her previous posts in Recaps about Winnie Guess Perdue have been immortalized through screen shots. One would think any normal person would apologize, then sit back and remain quiet hoping to learn a bit. But given her track record, that's not likely.

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  6. It's really sad to see that Kathy Griffin White has been harassing people since 2015....I'm sure it goes way beyond that though.

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