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Family legends


gofish

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There are 2 family legends from my Mothers family.

 

The first one is that a mercenary from France came over to fight in the French and Indian war and that is how my Grandfather's family came to the US.

The second one is that my Grandmother was related to President Herbert Hoover.

 

My BIL didn't believe the one about the president and since he's nerdy and has more time on his hands than I do he did the research.

Only one of the legends is true.

 

 

My Grandmother was related to Herbert Hoover.

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My maternal Great Grandmother was said to be pure blooded Indian..depends on who you talk to whether she was Cherokee, Blackfoot(said that way, NOT like the tribe from the NW), or Chickasaw. Census records do not indicate she was other than white. But a cousin plans to do the DNA testing to see if we can get some answers. I think if she was of some Indian decent, it goes farther back. Matters not, but inquiring minds kinda want to know. We DID find out that on husband's mother's side, they have Nancy Ward as an ancestress. I always admired her..

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My grandmother was Penobscot indian. I am not sure if she was half or full blooded as the family story has it both ways and no one cared about geneaolgy enough to ask her when she was alive. However, years later, my father went to the tribe and was enrolled on the tribal roles. So although I am not sure where it comes from, it was recently enough to satisfy them. Now, as for her parents all I can see are two French names for them. Her family was French Canadian.

 

As for not having it on the record. When my Dad was heard telling his buddies about his ancestry during WWII, they were kicked out of a bar. Oh, his buddies could stay, but only whites were allowed. They heard him admitting to being an indian and that got him kicked out. That is the reason that was given that his mother's birth certificate listed her as white. The indians could and did "pass" for white at times and the children were often given the white parent's race on the birth certificate. Part of this might have also been that they were trying to integrate the indians. It is funny when you think of it. Intergration was not a big thing in the 1800's, but maybe it wasn't really about integration, but more to do with breaking up the tribal idenity. Either way, my dad told us we should check indian on the census because we needed to stand up for our race.

 

I tell my daughter that she is more indian than I am. Her great-grandmother on her father's side was definately full blooded Seminole. They didn't even have to pay property taxes as long as the property was in hers or her daughter's name. Taxes only had to be paid after they both died and the house was left to the sons. They didn't have enough indian in them to qualify for no taxes.

 

Years ago being indian was not popular and those who could did not draw attention to that fact. It was only in fairly recent times that it became the thing to claim your indian ancestry. This makes it hard for those of us trying to research out families past.

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My maternal Great Grandmother was said to be pure blooded Indian..depends on who you talk to whether she was Cherokee, Blackfoot(said that way, NOT like the tribe from the NW), or Chickasaw. Census records do not indicate she was other than white. But a cousin plans to do the DNA testing to see if we can get some answers. I think if she was of some Indian decent, it goes farther back. Matters not, but inquiring minds kinda want to know. We DID find out that on husband's mother's side, they have Nancy Ward as an ancestress. I always admired her..

 

 

I've got almost the same story in my family!!! My paternal grandmother said her great grandmother was Blackfoot. The cousin that did the family tree argues it was Cherokee because of location. I don't think he has taken in to account that many tribes traveled in Ken-tuck to hunt including the Blackfoot. I've thought about a DNA analysis, maybe one day.

 

My great grandmother on my mom's mom side always said Mark Twain was her cousin. I think it was her grandmother and his grandfather that were supposed to be cousins.

 

One that is true is that my great uncle designed the gas cap on tanks. Cousin that was a tanker in the Army confirmed his initials are on the caps.

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My maternal Great Grandmother was said to be pure blooded Indian..depends on who you talk to whether she was Cherokee, Blackfoot(said that way, NOT like the tribe from the NW), or Chickasaw. Census records do not indicate she was other than white. But a cousin plans to do the DNA testing to see if we can get some answers. I think if she was of some Indian decent, it goes farther back. Matters not, but inquiring minds kinda want to know. We DID find out that on husband's mother's side, they have Nancy Ward as an ancestress. I always admired her..

 

 

I've got almost the same story in my family!!! My paternal grandmother said her great grandmother was Blackfoot. The cousin that did the family tree argues it was Cherokee because of location. I don't think he has taken in to account that many tribes traveled in Ken-tuck to hunt including the Blackfoot. I've thought about a DNA analysis, maybe one day.

 

My great grandmother on my mom's mom side always said Mark Twain was her cousin. I think it was her grandmother and his grandfather that were supposed to be cousins.

 

One that is true is that my great uncle designed the gas cap on tanks. Cousin that was a tanker in the Army confirmed his initials are on the caps.

There was a Shawnee chief named Blackhoof, who lived in the late 1700s-early 1800s. It's not a far stretch from Blackhoof to Blackfoot..considering my maternal Georgia roots, and that one possible line for this grandmother goes back to Kentucky in that timeframe...it's possible. The other part of the story goes that my great grandmother's daddy was a chief and granddaddy got lots of land when he married her..now, Cherokees figured land ownership/control through the ladies..it's possible my legend is a white interpretation of al that. Even so, I have a feeling this grandmother was not full blooded..she died fairly young, so my grandfather and his brothers might have had sketchy memories of her.

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Let's see....one family legend is that we're descendants of Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, on my mother's side (maiden name is Rush). Haven't traced it back that far, but I've gotten back to the 1850s and we were still being born in the States, so who knows!

 

Another rumor/legend/story...apparently my grandfather (Mom's Dad) was a womanizer. My grandparents were divorced in the 1910s; the divorce was granted by the TN State Legislature! Anyway, the story is after my grandparents had had a couple of kids, Grandpa abandoned Grandma. Grandpa ended up 'north' somewhere, in a logging camp. I guessing probably Wisconsin? Supposedly Grandpa got to messing around with another logger's wife. At some point, Grandpa and a third man got into an argument over the woman and Grandpa killed the third man. At some point she warned Grandpa that the law was after him and he hi-tailed it back to Tennessee, where he arrived in time to find Grandma about to get re-married. Instead he sweet-talked her into remarrying him. They then had another 9 children together, but it wasn't happily ever after. They got divorced again about 1941 and stayed divorced.

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My great grandfather was a womanizer too. He had 2 women pregnant at the same time and they gave birth hours apart. Then he named them both the same name! Either to not mess up calling them by the others name or else he had no imagination.

 

One of the daughters (my grandmother) dated Ken Maynard a Hollywood cowboy star. I have some of the cd's. I wish my grandmother could have seen them. Or maybe not...he got fresh with her and she kicked him to the curb. This was before he went to Hollywood.

 

 

My grandmother's family knew the Dillinger's well. She said John's sister used to leave food and things hidden in the woods for him when he was younger. Everyone knew it but was afraid to tell.

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My fathers dad was a womanizer too....I discovered 2 more families he had after the original bunch that my Dad was in. He sometimes forgot to get divorces apparently. He also used his oldest son's birth certificate to join the Army in WW2. He was in his mid 40's and wanted to serve his country, so I guess he wasn't all bad.

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Oh, Jeepers, that reminds me!!! After Grandma and Grandpa got re-married, the first baby was a girl. She was named Bernice Lucille; the story goes that those were the names of Grandpa's 2 girlfriends at the time....

MEN! What'er ya gonna do; can't live with em...can't shoot em. :shrug:

 

:icon19:

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