I have been checking my Ancestry again and have found some
new holes to be filled in yet. I got
quite a few accomplished I think, and it is still astounding me that I cannot
find my Cherokee link. I have the
stories of my Grandmother and Great Grandmother, which are fine, but the real
link and connection does not show in either naming or in the roles. None of the names come up in the search zones
with Cherokee heritage or their research site.
Perhaps they were under an Indian name I am not familiar with or heard. I was told our family’s tribe did not follow
the association with the roles and that may be why they don’t surface. But all I see back many generations into the
1600’s and up are very white names: Tefteller,
Whitehead, Simerly, and such. Definitely no Greywolf or Walkingstick which
are common of the Cherokee heritage in East Tennessee.
I plan to focus my efforts on just filling out the tree and
leaving the Cherokee past as it is, a few stories that maybe one day will
amount to some truth. Right now, they
appear to be just stories and I am just a White-Anglo Saxon bred from
British-German stock. We wreaked a lot
of havoc through the centuries and help establish many a historic feat and foothold
for country and our ethnic heritage but no Cherokee evidence exists as of yet.
It’s a downer for sure given all the pride I have taken in it
as well as believed the stories and of course, I am sure my mother, grandmother
and on believed it because they must have been told the same. When you’re poor in the south, it seems
natural that many would want to separate themselves from the common poor folk
and color it appropriately to avoid being looked down upon for just being
poor. Being part of an oppressed culture
and ethnicity brings nostalgia and pride to a conversation otherwise viewed as
humdrum.
Well on with it!
