Can anyone point me to factual information on Cherokee intermarriage in NC between 1745 and 1754?
This question is inspired by genealogy. I have seen the claim that a distant ancestor of mine* is Cherokee. This specific claim is probably spurious—the notorious “Cherokee grandmother” phenomenon—but what I’m trying to evaluate is the plausibility. How likely is it that a white man in 1750s western North Carolina would marry a Cherokee? I assume that it’s between “zero” and “low,” but I don’t know how low, and I don’t know if “Cherokee” was ever used as a cover, say for marriage to a black woman or a Catholic or something.
Most of my research has been stymied by the profusion of sites capitalizing on people’s apparent burning desire to enroll in the Cherokee Nation.
*For those who have access to ancestry.com, she is sometimes named Naktika Redfern and in any case is the wife of Jacob Davis, d. 1796 in Rowan Co., NC. I haven’t seen anything that would allow me to verify her existence much less this claim; the name is odd and the birthdate sometimes given of 1760 is impossible for someone bearing children in the 1750s.
I assume by intermarriage you mean between Indians (there were many tribes in NC other than Cherokees) and whites.
Racial divisions were less rigid in the 1700s than in the 1800s, especially in the backwoods. For Indians, it was possible to “become white”, by joining the Christian church and living in a settlement. Later, there would be laws against racial intermarriage, but these were not really enforced until the run-up to the Civil War when the races became totally polarized and Southern society could no longer acknowledge the free black and Indian populations.
The involvement of blacks was complicated. Some Indian tribes held black slaves, while others accepted slaves who had run away from white masters (“Maroons”) into their tribes. So there was quite a bit of black-Indian mixing by 1750, so much so that blacks who in fact had no Indian blood could make a play to pass as Indian, because many “Indians” were in fact part black.
I assume you know there is today an Eastern Band of Cherokees in NC, so not all eastern Indians died or were driven off. Out of the remainder, surely many intermarried with whites or blacks. The evidence is the so-called “tri-racial isolates”.
The Wikipedia article on the Melungeons gives a reasonable discussion of tri-racial isolates and a good list of other groups such as the Redbones, Brass Ankles, Lumbee, Ramps, and on and on. Intermarriage happened all over the upland South, it was just “forgotten about” for various reasons.
Thank you—this is interesting and surprising, especially your second paragraph.
I did mean Cherokee, but a closer look at the map reveals I was mistaken—the part of NC I’m looking at was Catawba territory in the 1750s, though obviously it’s anachronistic to assume whites in the 1750s cared much about the difference.
There’s really two questions here:
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Is it possible you have a Native ancestor among your forebearers in that time period and location? And the answer is yes, it is quite possible. Intermarriage wasn’t terribly common but it most certainly did occur. By 1800 several prominent Native leaders were unquestionably the product of Native/European marriages, and given the ages of those folks, must have been conceived fairly close to the time period in question. Less prominent folks were likewise the product of such unions.
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Can you conclusively document said relationship? And the answer to that is less certain. Just because you can’t provide proof does not mean such a marriage did not occur… you just can’t prove it.
I will also point out that one of the reasons for the ubiquitous “Cherokee grandmother” is because the Cherokee did marry across ethnic lines fairly readily, as did some other tribes. Another reason is that the Cherokee were seen as a “civilized” tribe, so someone part Native (or even wholly Native) who wished to deal with European settlers might well claim Cherokee descent rather than that of a lesser known tribe or one hostile to the people the person was dealing with. While a lot of claims of Cherokee descent (or other Native descent) are false, there probably are a substantial number of people who do have Cherokee/Native ancestry as related by family history but can’t prove it.
I am a member of the Cherokee Nation, (holder of the Blue card, CDIB card etc.) and my family can trace it lineage to the mid 1700’s when a Major Downing of the British army married my multi-great grandmother. Don’t know how wide spread it was, but I can confirm at least one instance.
I also found a family tree with a native American sounding name and haven’t had a lot of luck verifying. Is there a recommended site for researching this type of info. A lot of the Cherokee seems to be pay, not an absolute barrier but it does raise questions of scams.
On a related note, if someone claims to have an ancestor who was a “Cherokee Princess” they almost certainly wrong.
Entirely plausible. My family can trace its ancestry back to a marriage between Ghi-goo-ie, a full-blood Cherokee of the Bird Clan, to William Shorey, a British officer. We don’t know the date of their marriage, but their daughter, Anne Shorey, was married in 1770, which suggests her mother and father were together in the 1750’s.
Incidentally, Ghi-goo-ie was the great-grandmother of John Ross, so her marriage to William Shorey is fairly well-documented.
Look for the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. I notice it is pay. I’m certain it’s not a scam, though I can’t vouch for the results. It’s operated by the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.
Thanks, everyone, for the information. I was inclined to dismiss the original claim out of hand, and now I’m inclined to look into it.
I am a direct descendant of these folks. I am unsure of her name and if she was Cherokee, but I have my thoughts. Jacob Davis met this woman in Rowan County, a place usually associated with Lumbees. Now…Lumbees who take an autosomal dna test usually show Portuguese and African (Moor/Berber) bloodlines, just as the Melungeons do. Just as I do. I think she was a Lumbee/Melungeon and I have no idea what her name really was. But other Davis descendants of these mentioned married into last names of known Melungeon families like Sizemore, Osborn, and Jackson. I have pictures of some of these Davis people in the 1800’s and they are brown people. My great grandmother wouldnt let you speak about her ancestry or skin color. Send me a message cousin or call, lets figure this out. Jason 252-326-1133 eballz2000@yahoo.com