"Finished" Family Line Is Questioned

I was very excited to make a cousin connection a few months ago on Ancestry. She found me because our DNA matched.

We quickly began to email each other back and forth. Everything was going along nicely, until she was contacted by Our Families USA saying that our Bowser family line was incorrect. What? I couldn't believe that. My aunt and scores of other people recorded our great grandfather as John Bowser. John was the son of Henry Bowser and Catherine Long of Montgomery County, Ohio. Henry Bowser, born about 1810 in Ohio, was the son of George Bowser and Elizabeth Moyer. At least that is what we all thought. After all, this family line was "finished" a long, long time ago.

The message my cousin received called into question the validity of the relationship between Henry and his parents George and Elizabeth (Moyer) Bowser. Their evidence suggested that Henry's parents were not George and Elizabeth, but rather Henry Bowser Sr. and Mary Bowman, also of Montgomery county.

My cousin was worried. Not only because of their information, but she found something of her own.

"John Bowser, Retired Farmer, Tells Story of Vital Interest," read the newspaper headline. The Newark Advocate had interviewed our great grandfather and published his story in the March 15th, 1920 paper. It stated:

"It is told by John Bowser, 77 years of age this coming birthday, a retired Dunkard farmer, who is now living at the home of his son Arthur K. Bowser, at 1109 West Pleasant street, Springfield, O. In reciting his experiences he says: "I was born on a farm in Montgomery county, located between Salem pike and Wolfe Creek pike, which was owned by my father who was known as "Young Henry," and before that my grandfather, "Old Henry." This takes us back over a hundred years ago. This farm of one hundred acres cost $1,400, but is now part of the city of Dayton and is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars."

John Bowser 1841-1923. Picture courtesy of the Barnhart family collection.

Oh no! I had never seen this. In all honestly, I had never questioned this family line because like I said, this line was "finished."

Was it true? Was John's father Henry the son of a Henry Sr. described in this newspaper article as "Old Henry?" I am going to need to investigate...thoroughly!

It may be a while until you read the final proof summary of this investigation. The lesson learned today is never assume because a family line is "finished" that it is correct!

Update: More information in this "finished family line" has been discovered in the most unusual place! Read more of the unfolding story here: "Finished" Family Line Questioned, Part II.

More family mysteries uncovered. Read more here: http://www.mykithnkin.blogspot.com/2015/07/dna-may-have-revealed-family-secret.html

DNA May Have Revealed the Family Secret

I was born and raised a blonde, blue-eyed, "White" child. I look like my  mother, also blonde and blue eyed. So you can imagine the surprise while researching her family, I found that her great grandfather, his siblings, and parents were recorded as "Black" in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census. Surely, there was some mistake. Wasn't there?

Read the full article here at RootsBid.com/blog and learn how DNA may have finally revealed the family secret.

Southeastern Native American Research

Southeastern Native American researchers are pretty familiar with the term "5 Civilized Tribes".  They are the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole.  They were deemed "civilized" by the white man for the following reasons:

           "Americans, and sometimes American Indians, called the five Southeastern nations "civilized" because they seemed to be assimilating to Anglo-American norms.  The term indicated the adoption of horticulture and other European cultural patterns and institutions, including widespread Christianity, written constitutions, centralized governments, intermarriage with white Americans, market participation, literacy, animal husbandry, patrilineal descent, and even slaveholding.  None of these attributes characterized all of the nations or all of the citizens that they encompassed.  The term was also used to distinguish these five nations from other so-called "wild" Indians who continued to rely on hunting for survival."  Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, "Five Civilized Tribes", http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/f/fi011.html  :  accessed 11 Jun 2014.

While researching my own family lines of supposed Native Americans, I wondered if they had applied for enrollment in the Five Civilized Tribes.  In 1893, an act of Congress approved the establishment of a commission to negotiate agreements with the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Cherokee Indian tribes.  The commission became known as the Dawes commission.  The commission was to divide tribal land into plots which were then divided among the members of the tribe.  The Commission either accepted or rejected applicants for tribal membership based on whether the tribal government had previously recognized the applicant as a member of the tribe.  Applicants were categorized as Citizens by Blood, Citizens by Marriage, Minor Citizens by Blood, New Born Citizens by Blood, Freedmen (African Americans formerly enslaved by tribal members), New Born Freedmen, and Minor Freedman.

The first step in locating whether your ancestor had applied for enrollment is to check the index.  Go to the card catalog online at Ancestry.com.  (If you are not a subscriber to Ancestry.com, you might wish to check at your local library or family history center as many of them have subscriptions for their patrons.)

Then you will type in “five civilized tribes” in the keyword field as show below.

Click “Search” and 6 results come up.  You will first need to check the two indexes.  One index is for those applicants who were admitted into the tribes and the other index is for applications that were overturned.

I first checked the admitted applicants index for my targeted ancestor, Jacob Cole, and found no matches.  Next, I checked the overturned index.

I only fill in the name fields and leave everything else blank.  Then click "Search".

My results found Jacob Cole and several other names I recognized!

Use the "Tribe" column and the "Case number" column to find the actual application they filled out.  In this case, I will use Jacob's tribe as Cherokee and the case number 639.  Go back to the card catalog results and choose between the two application databases.

Because I found my ancestor in the overturned index, I would expect to find his application in the overturned applications.  This is the difficult part.  When you click on the database and enter in the name of the person you are searching for, the application or case number, and the tribe; the system only brings up the index page which you have already seen.

Instead you need to enter the information you have in the fields to the right. Choose which tribe in the first field.  I was looking for "Cherokee".  Then choose which roll based on the case number you found on the index.  Jacob Cole was case number 639.  Then click "ALL".

Now the database takes you to that roll of microfilm and guess what...you have to search through image by image until you find the right application.  Don't be discouraged, it is worth it to look through hundreds if necessary!  Here are some of the "goodies" I found in Jacob's application on image number 1408.

This is the only record I have found with the two daughters, Martha age 19 and Mary J. age 1.  Martha was from Jacob's first marriage and Mary J. was from the second marriage.  I do not know what becomes of either of them, but it was a delight to find them in this record and to know of their existence.

Further research into the applications of other family members led to several previously unknown children, a name of an unknown grandfather, and a location of residence for that grandfather.  In areas where birth and death records are scarce, searching unusual databases for information can add to your genealogical data and family history.  If you suspect that you have a Southeastern Native American ancestor, I would highly suggest taking some time to review this neat resource!  Happy Hunting!

Read more about finding your Native American heritage at: http://mykithnkin.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-myth-of-indian-princess.html

The Myth of the Indian Princess

Many people have a family tradition along the lines of "my third great grandma was a Cherokee princess".  I have heard it several times, but here is the bad news;  there is no such thing as a Cherokee princess.  In fact, there is no such thing as any Native American princess.

Native American tribes did not have lines of royalty.  Perhaps your ancestor was the daughter of a chief, but that didn't make her a princess.

I have many clients ask me to find the truth behind their Native American family stories.  In every case thus far, the people who think they are of Native American heritage are NOT and the ones that had no idea they were of native stock, ARE!  Isn't that funny!?

When I started researching the Cole side of my family about 10 years ago, I feel over backwards when I found the census below.

1900 Federal census, Harlan County, Kentucky

You should note that I consider myself "white" and I am blonde and blue eyed!  Wash, born May 1893 is my great grandfather.  Want to see a picture of him?

George Washington "Wash" Cole, born about 1893

So you can imagine my surprise at the census above after viewing the column for race.  That is a "B" my friends and "B" stands for Black.  I was going to need to do more research.  Take a look at other census records for Wash Cole and his ancestors.  The Jacob Cole listed in the census below is Wash's father.

1870 Federal Census for Harlan County, Kentucky

The family could not be located in the 1880 census, but above is the 1870 census and below is the 1860 census.  Note that Jacob Cole is 2 years old in the 1860 census and though it is beyond a little weird, his mother is the 18 year old Eliza and his father is the 61 year old.  I know, I know...that story is for another time!

1860 Federal Census for Lee County, Virginia

Both the 1870 and 1860 census records record some form of "Indian", though that was not a standard answer option on this form.

Lastly, the 1850 census.  Note that John Cole is the father of Jacob Cole.  He had been married before and by this time, his wife had left him with the children.  Eliza-age-15 is NOT the same Eliza listed above in the 1860 census.  This Eliza, age 15, was his eldest daughter.

1850 Federal Census for Knox County, Kentucky

As you can see, in 1850 the family is listed as "M" and that is for "mulatto".  Mulatto does not necessarily mean a mix of "black" and "white", but rather a mix of any two races.

How do I explain this?  I guess my family wasn't always "white"!  Most likely, they were of Native American descent.  My grandfather never claimed he was an "Indian" and no one in the family had any idea. Why?  I speculate that being an "Indian" in the hills of Virginia and Kentucky during this time frame was not something you would go around talking about.  After all; we know the stories of the forced move to Indian Reservations were true.  The family lived as white people for the most part and did not find themselves being forced to move.

I began to research the family ties to Native American tribes.  The Cole's had all tried to apply as "Cherokee's by Blood" in 1898 in hopes to gain land from the government.  I first checked the Dawes Roles.  This is an index.  Once you find your targeted ancestor, you then need to find the Application for Enrollment packets.  These can be found on Ancestry.com.  It was here that I found each of the application files for my family members.  These applications led to a great deal of genealogical data.  It mentioned a grandfather by name who I did not have and children that I did not know about.  The family was ultimately denied enrollment by the Cherokee Nation.  The names of our earliest know ancestors could not be located in the censuses taken in the 1830's of the Cherokee Tribes.  My family members had left the area prior to 1830 as did many people trying to escape possible removal that seemed inevitable.

But wait, there's more!  Just recently, I ran across a webpage that suggests that my "Appalachian Indians" might not be Cherokee at all, but Shawnee!  It was suggested that a break off of the Shawnee tribe happened in the late 1700's and some went south and found friendship with the Cherokees.

I am fortunate enough to have two uncles who are direct male descendants of the known "Indian" ancestor and we are having their DNA tested (stay tuned for the results!).  Though DNA can not tell me which tribe we are from, it can indicate if the targeted male ancestor was Native American, African-American, or European.

So the moral of this story is:  Don't go around saying your grandma was a Native American princess, because people are laughing at you.  And if you think you are Native American, look for something to back it up...even if it turns out your aren't, you will have fun trying and might find gems of genealogical information along the way!

Read more about finding your ancestors on the Dawes Rolls and the Applications for the 5 Civilized Tribes at: http://mykithnkin.blogspot.com/2014/06/southeastern-native-american-research.html