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Wondering if anyone can help out with my husbands line. He is a Keller what we have learned so far on his fathers side is that they moved from Anson County NC into Burke County NC then to Bedford County Tn. They have a family history of being Blackfoot. The family surnames I have gotten so far are: Drake(they came out of Laurens county SC) Kelly, Mc Dowell, Couch, Terry(they moved to TN from Halifax district NC), Husky (from Missouri) and then of course Keller.
His mothers line is a big problem for us: all we have so far is Roberts and Beard. His grandfather was a Roberts and that is all we know since he deserted his wife Hattie Beard and their four children never to show his face again. Hattie’s parents were Samuel and Sol Beard. They lived in Southeast Missouri. Sol Beard was reportedly nearly a full blood. My brother in law remembers going to what he called a reservation as a child. It was more likely an Indian settlement since this would have been in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Do any of you know of any Indian settlements in Southeast Missouri? Terry(my husband) believes his mother told him Cherokee when he was a child but he’s not sure and she has Alzheimer’s now so well we can’t ask her and his father doesn’t remember either ( too much firewater) 🙁 We did find a Beard on the 1817 census of the Arkansas Cherokee. Any help would be appreciated.
Linda
Linda:
You may have to repost this request later. Many of the folks on this forum are at the camp-out this week (not me – I have a conference).
I lived in Cape Girardeau for 4 years. The Shawnee had been there in the 1800’s, but I knew of no specific settlement, but maybe there was one and I just did not know.
Techteach
Techteach,
have you ever heard of the Northern Cherokee of the Old Louisiana Territory? They have a district in cape Girardeau. I just learned this tonight in my studies trying to help him locate his people. By the way his Blackfoot is Saponi. He got that from his Dad and the Cherokee from his Mom.
Linda
Sorry, Linda, I am not a native of MO; I just lived there for 4 years. I am from Iowa. A bunch of my NA/mixed ancestors went there from Licking County, OH and from around Pittsburgh, Lancaster and Wheeling.
I did visit the cemetery there in Cape a few times. I took my classes there and did an activity rubbing the tombstones.
Techteach
Thanks for the replies but I have to ask why were you rubbing tombstones?
Terry is really trying to remember what is mother told him. He thinks she told him he was 1/4 Cherokee and a “bit” of Blackfoot. He said when he was a child it just didn’t matter but now he’s kicking himself for not paying better attention when she spoke of her heritage. He does remember talk of Jesse James and him being friends of his great grandmother’s family. There is reference to Jesse James on the website were I located the Cape Girardeau district of Northern Cherokee of the old Louisiana Territory. Apparently in the early 1800’s Missouri had a law that it was illegal to live in the state if you had native blood. Anyway according to the census reports I have seen on Samuel and Sol Beard, Sol was born in Missouri but her parents were born just across the river in Illinois. She was born in 1873 so most likely her parents were born in the 1840’s or 1850’s then everything goes stone cold. It’s the same way with Samuel Beard too but according to the census reports his parents were born in Missouri. According to the website it says the Cherokee went underground and held their tribal business in secret. The world was crazy back then…..but it’s not much better today.
I should tell you what happened to several of us mixed bloods at work just yesterday. Several of us were in the break room just discussing things and of course there were several other people around. Anyway this black girl was sitting across from us and she got up and moved to another table and as she sat down she says to the others that she didn’t want to sit down there with the indians. To the credit of the others they didn’t say a word just looked at her. Needless to say she shut up real quick. Can you imagine someone saying that is 2005. Racism is still big these days it appears. The funny thing is if you look at this girls features you can be sure that she is not completely African American. The humor in that of course is priceless.:D
Linda
To read the names on the tombstones. Some are really old and that is the only way to read them. We were looking at the ethnicity of Cape. Little did I know at the time that the founder of Cape Girardeau was married to a woman who was half Shawnee.
BTW, Jesse James had a hideout very near to my NA ancestors in Iowa. I have the picture in my genealogy books. His brother, Frank, was married to a Ralston. My Blackfoot ggggrandmother married a Ralston. Supposedly, though, the James family denies a link to our family, saying that a letter from the Ralston wife said that her father was born in Ireland. However, my great aunt’s book says that a cousin talked with Frank when he traveled with the wild west show. Frank was supposed to have confirmed that they were second cousins. Leaves one wondering when one of the hideouts was so near to the Ralstons who were really correct. Claiming to come from Ireland was a ruse to cover a dark complexion and accent. It was used by the daughters of my Blackfoot grandmother. Why could Frank’s wife not have used it? Anyway, fun to speculate.
Techteach
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