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Seems mostly everyone here has somewhere to start searching for their past and their ancestors. But, what do you do when you don’t even know where to start? Let me explaine. For as long as I can remember I’ve been told by my father who I know to be a honest man, that my great grandmother was a Iroquian woman from Virginia, her name was Martha White. My great grandfather, a man who sailed the seas from Ireland to America in the 1800’s. His name was Thomas Bailey. According to what I have been told, Thomas made his way to Virginia where me met Martha, they fell in love and he took her off the reservation and they married. They moved to Kentucky and had two children, Ernest Bailey and (I don’t know the name but I was told there was another boy.) Ernest Bailey is my father’s father and he died when my father was nine years old. He worked a hard living as a coal miner and farmer. He was at least in his 60’s when he died of cancer and gaingreen. Mind you, I have seen no records in my family about any of this. If any even exist, I don’t know. But I need answers to this mystery. Is there anyone out there who may have any information how I can get started in my search? Right now, it seems very near impossible. This is something that I really want to know about. All my life I have felt a piece of myself missing and I suppose my father has always felt the same way, especially after seeing a black and white photo of a couple in a store front window (when he was a teen) that he believes to have been Thomas Bailey and Martha White.. But he, like me didn’t know where to start. If anyone can be of any help it is muchly apprechiated.
‘Siyo, Sunalei. Or, good morning, Morning. ;~)
Welcome to the group!
The experts say to start with yourself and work your way backward.
Something in your post that jumped out at me is Martha being
1. Iroquoian and
2. From a reservation in VA.
To my knowledge, there would have only been one Iroquoian tribe who still had a reservation in VA in the 1800’s– Cheroenhaka (aka Nottoway).
Here is a bit of history:
http://virginiaindians.pwnet.org/history/1800s.php
Yeah, I did some research on the net. And I ended up with results pointed to the Cheroenhaka tribe. I have even emailed two members I found via forums to ask for their assistance in learning how to research this stuff but nothing came back that helped. Thank you for the link and the suggestion. I really apprechiate it.
May or may not matter, but just so ya know…there are 2 tribes to look at in VA. One uses Cheroenhaka, but the other uses the Nottoway name. Both host pow-wows.
Which end of NC do ya live in?
Oh, okay well I didn’t know that. I just knew about the Cheroenhaka one. I found their site online. I live about two hours from Asheville. You mentioned powwows. Where could I find out about these tribes powwows? You know, honestly I have never been to a powwow but they do sound interesting from what I have read about them. Sounds fun.
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