Native American genealogy, especially the Cherokees, was heavily blended with early explorers and traders from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany.  The Choctaw and the Creeks were blended with French, and the Seminoles with Spanish.  From the days of the earliest European ‘intruders’, the European system of family names was introduced to the off-spring of the traders and their Native American wives.  Therefore, many of the Native American families can trace their ‘roots’ back to the European origins of their first white ancestor’s family.

I am a member of the Assocation of Professional Genealogists (APG). My records ( among others, see example of part of my list of resources below ) consist of the Dawes Application Rolls, taken between 1896 and 1906, of the Five Civilized Tribes that were ‘removed’ from the eastern United States and ‘relocated’ in Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi.  The ‘Rolls’ cover Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Delaware (Osage), and Seminole peoples.  The Dawes Application Rolls are much more extensive than the Final Dawes Rolls, as they include parents, orphans, duplicates, Freed-Men, rejected, and Not Registered individuals.

 In addition, I can cross-reference many of the family elders (registered parents) to genealogical records in “The History of The Cherokee Indians”, written by Emmet Starr, my great-grand-uncle, published in 1921. This book currently contains 6,000 Cherokee families and their children born between 1650 and 1850, from which, family trees can be constructed.  Individual contributors have supplied over 1,000 additional names of people born between 1850 and 1912.

If I can locate one of your ancestors on the Dawes Application Rolls, I can provide you with copies of the Dawes Roll pages, and a ‘reconstructed’ census card for their family.  Census cards typically list the head-of-household, their spouse, their children, and their Qualifying Parents that were ‘parties’ to the Treaty Rolls taken between 1848 and 1852. These cards list the persons name, age at the time of the census, an estimated date-of-birth, sex, blood quantum, census card number, Dawes Registry Number, and registration District.  With copies of these documents, and suitable ‘proof’ that you are descended from the listed person, you can qualify for membership in the Tribal Nation of your ancestor.

 With this data, you can order photocopies of the original Census Card and the original Dawes Application Packet from the National Archives.  The Application Packets contain family information and, in many instances, narrative letters from your ancestor to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, describing bits of family history from the time of the Civil War to the early 1900’s.

 If I can locate your Cherokee ancestor in The History of the Cherokee Indians, copies of the pages where your ancestors appear will be provided, and you can qualify for membership in the First Families of the Cherokee Nation, sponsored by the National Historical Society of the Cherokee Nation.  They will send you a certificate, suitable for framing, listing your Cherokee Ancestor.  In addition, you may request inclusion of your branch of the family tree be included in my genealogy records, with connections to your Cherokee ancestors.  This data will be published in a book in the near future.

 In order to qualify for admission into a Tribal Nation or the First Families of the Cherokee Nation, you will be required to provide copies of birth and or death certificates, showing your relationship to your ancestor.  In all cases, you must be a ‘direct’ descendant of the listed ancestor.  Simply having a listed great-uncle or great-aunt is not sufficient for admission.

 To begin this process, download one of the following forms:  Pedigree Chart  if you have Excel, you can type directly on the chart from your computer and return it to me via e-mail, or Pedigree Chart in PDF format ( you will need Adobe Acrobat™ ) that you can fill out and return by snail-mail ( e-mail for details).  At a minimum, I need the name of your ancestor that was alive in 1900, including their date of birth and death (an ‘approximate’ year of birth and death is usually sufficient).  If I need more information, I will contact you by e-mail.