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Greetings all,
My story starts with a visit with my paternal grandfather when I was 15 years old. It was something of a rite of passage, my brother and I were old enough for some of our family history. Part of this involved a woman described as a “Blackfoot Indian princess”, which is a direct quote.
I took this and compared it with my vast knowledge of the world and assuming the western tribe was being referred to, let it go at its face value.
Fast forward 37 years, I had decided it was time to start working on family history and genealogy. This Native American connection had been in mind for some time along with possibly resolving some mystery with my maternal grandfather. Along the way I had come across this website, looked around a bit, then moved on, still assuming the western Blackfoot connection.
Discussion with other family members has yielded little helpful information, other than some saying the woman in question was Blackfoot Sioux and others saying possibly Cherokee. This and the information gathered in my research is making any connection to the western tribe appear to be very unlikely. And, as ridiculous as it may sound, it doesn’t “feel” right, if that makes any sense. I will expand on this in the Genealogy forum soon.
So here I am at the Saponitown website again, a new member with a lot of reading to catch up on and still looking for the truth.
Steve
Perhaps you should start with a search for matching surnames here. There are some people who are here or have been here in the past from MO.
I just ran a search for my surname, and WOW!!! Not only found a number of threads with my last name but also encountered 3 surnames from my mother’s family as well, all of which are supposed to be Scots or Welsh. A lot of new research possibilities, this will be interesting.
Steve
I have found through searching genealogy that many of the same surnames recur again and again. People are not necessarily related; often native Americans took surnames of white people they admired or who lived near them. Natives moved west to avoid whites, so these surnames show up in many tribes.
I spend a week on Pine Ridge every year. Even one of their past tribal chairpersons is named Steel. That is a name you would find on this forum.
Techteach
Please don’t take the wrong impression, I was merely surprised that a search for my last name turned up so many results in the forum. There are several lines in my family that are currently being researched, all but one have been traced to the Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee area. I am just mentally keyed to sifting certain names and places from text that I’m reading and commented on finding some of them.
I approach genealogy with the full knowledge that a lot of the information I need has gone to the grave and is now beyond knowing. The same may well be true for the research that brought me to this website and forum. If I can find the information I am looking for, that will be great. If not, I have an oral history to pass on someday. Either way, I feel a connection to the others here who are trying to find their answers and i hope to make some friends along the way.
Steve
And, as ridiculous as it may sound, it doesn’t “feel” right, if that makes any sense. I will expand on this in the Genealogy forum soon.
Greetings. I know exactly what you mean. Even with all the talk about ancestors of the Blackfoot tribe in my family, I couldn’t fathom a connection with the Blackfoot Indians of the western planes. No one seemed to have facts to prove a connection and I had nothing with which to dispute the claims.
After a relative asked me about our Blackfoot connection, I got another “feeling”. For no apparent reason other than my supposed Blackfoot ancestor had the surname THOMPSON and my only record of her was in Ohio. I Googled “Blackfoot Thompson Ohio” and found this great site. Best of luck to you.
Regards,
Dave
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