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DNA for Native American Genealogy

Marian Hoffman — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 16:40:31 +0000

Written by Roberta Estes, the foremost expert on how to utilize DNA testing to identify Native American ancestors, DNA for Native American Genealogy is the first book to offer detailed information and advice specifically aimed at family historians interested in fleshing out their Native American family tree through DNA testing.

Figuring out how to incorporate DNA testing into your Native American genealogy research can be difficult and daunting. What types of DNA tests are available, and which vendors offer them? What other tools are available? How is Native American DNA determined or recognized in your DNA? What information about your Native American ancestors can DNA testing uncover? This book addresses those questions and much more.

Included are step-by-step instructions, with illustrations, on how to use DNA testing at the four major DNA testing companies to further your genealogy and confirm or identify your Native American ancestors. Among the many other topics covered are the following:

Tribes in the United States and First Nations in Canada
Ethnicity
Chromosome painting
Population Genetics and how ethnicity is assigned
Genetic groups and communities
Y DNA paternal direct line male testing for you and your family members
Mitochondrial DNA maternal direct line testing for you and your family members
Autosomal DNA matching and ethnicity comparisons
Creating a DNA pedigree chart
Native American haplogroups, by region and tribe
Ancient and contemporary Native American DNA

Special features include numerous charts and maps; a roadmap and checklist giving you clear instructions on how to proceed; and a glossary to help you decipher the technical language associated with DNA testing.

About the Author

Roberta Estes, author of the popular blog www.DNA-eXplained.com is a scientist, National Geographic Genographic affiliate researcher, Million Mito team member, and founding pioneer in the genetic genealogy field. An avid genealogist for the past 40 years, Roberta has written over 1,500 articles about genetic genealogy, many for the Native Heritage Project at www.nativeheritageproject.com. Roberta took her first DNA test in 1999 and hasn’t stopped.

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Genealogy at a Glance: Cherokee Genealogy Research

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:27:34 +0000

Designed to cover the basic elements of research in just four pages, Myra Gormley’s Cherokee Genealogy Research attempts to give you as much useful information in the space allotted as you’ll ever need. In less than a handful of pages, it provides an overview of the facts you need to know in order to begin and proceed successfully with your research: it covers Cherokee history, surnames, migrations, and basic genealogical resources, describing original documents as well as the latest online resources.

The largest Native-American tribe, the Cherokees are associated primarily with the state of Oklahoma, which was formed in 1907 by a merger of Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory, though smaller groups of Cherokees are found in North Carolina and elsewhere. Not all groups are federally recognized, and while a great many Americans claim some degree of Cherokee blood, there are only three Cherokee groups that have official status: The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (North Carolina).

The most useful records in Cherokee research are membership rolls, which were designed to allocate reservation lands, provide annuities, and pay compensation. Not all Cherokees are named in these rolls, because certain individuals did not meet the specific requirements for enrollment, but starting with the 1817 Reservation Roll, membership rolls are the best documentary sources available, and this handy research guide identifies the twenty most important rolls, including the 1835 Henderson Roll (called the Trail of Tears Roll), the 1848 Mullay Roll, which was the first census of the Eastern Band of Cherokees, the 1852 Drennen Roll, which was the first census of Cherokees living in northeastern Oklahoma, and the 1898-1906 Dawes Roll, which established official tribal enrollment of the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles.

Like all publications in the Genealogy at a Glance series, Cherokee Genealogy Research provides all the instruction you need to get you started in your research, including research tips, references to key publications, and an indispensable list of online resources.

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The History of the Great Indian War of 1675 and 1676, Commonly Called Philip’s War

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:25:47 +0000

King Philip’s War was the most violent conflict between the indigenous population and the New England colonists during the 17th century. The war, which ensued between 1675 and 1677, was named after the sachem of the Wampanoag tribe, Metacom, the son of Massasoit. Metacom had been given the English name “Philip” by the royal governor, accounting for the name commonly used to title the conflict.

King Philip’s War began as an ambitious attempt by a number of Indian tribes to drive the English from the Connecticut Valley. Their reprisals stemmed from the Wampanoags’ frustration with and resentment over English encroachments upon their land and refusals to honor various treaties. Starting in June 1675, the conflict quickly spread from the Wampanoag citadel of Mt. Hope (today Bristol, Rhode Island), Swansy, and other Narraganset strongholds to Deerfield and Northfield in western Massachusetts–where the Indians scored a number of major victories-and to various Connecticut river towns. Hostilities ensued until the Fall of 1677, although Philip himself was killed in July 1676. Probably several thousand persons on both sides died in the conflict, which was decided by the settlers’ superior numbers, alliances with such friendly Indian tribes as the Mohegans and Pequods, and the Indian federation’s inability to re-supply.

This account of King Philip’s War was compiled originally in 1712 by Thomas Church, the son of Colonel Benjamin Church, a leader of the New England forces. It was subsequently edited and annotated by the noted 19th-century Indian scholar, Samuel G. Drake. The second half of the book contains Col. Church’s memoirs from the “French and Indian” wars of 1689 to 1704. An appendix and an index of names round out the volume.

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A Gazetteer of Indian Territory (U.S. Geological Bulletin No. 248, Series F, Geography, 44)

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:24:00 +0000

Students of Native American genealogy will welcome the re-publication of Henry Gannett’s Gazetteer of Indian Territory, first published in 1905. Gannett, geographer for the U.S. Geological Survey, oversaw the publication of the Gazetteer between the Oklahoma Land Rushes of 1889 to 1895 and Oklahoma’s admission as the 46th state in 1907. Indian Territory refers to those remaining southwest lands that had become home, primarily, to the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Chocktaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole) following their removal from the southeastern states in 1833. (Small reservations of Quapaw, Peoria, Modoc, Ottawa, Wyandot, and Shawnee dotted the northwestern corner of the territory.)

Indian Territory is bounded on the north by Kansas, on the east by Arkansas, on the south by Texas, and on the west by Oklahoma. Readers will find a valuable description of the region’s geological, geographical, demographic, and economic characteristics in Mr. Gannett’s Introduction. The bulk of the book, of course, consists of an alphabetical list of 2,100 place names, scattered through Indian Territory. The place names range from villages, to railway stations, to bodies of water, and to other natural formations. Each place name is identified in relation to the Indian nation on whose reservation it could be found and with reference to Indian Nation atlas sheets published separately by the U.S. Geological Survey. All in all, this is a great tool for researchers with ancestors among the Five Civilized Tribes and other Indian nations.

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Pocahontas’ Descendants, Fourth and Fifth Corrections and Additions

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:24:17 +0000

Thomas Rolfe, the son of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, the legendary Indian princess, was the father of Jane Rolfe and (possibly) Anne Rolfe, by different wives. Jane married a Bolling, and Anne married an Elwyn, from which unions issued an enormous progeny, today numbering in the tens of thousands and encompassing numerous lines of the colonial Virginia gentry.

Over nearly 20 years, Mr. Brown and his associates at the Pocahontas Foundation in Berryville, Virginia, endeavored to compile the definitive genealogy of Pocahontas’ descendants. Starting with the Bolling lines, which include the “white,” “red” and “blue” Bollings, the Foundation has issued a series of books that carries Pocahontas’ descendants down to the present time. The base volume in the series, Pocahontas’ Descendants, was originally published in 1985, followed by three volumes of corrections and additions. In 1994, Genealogical Publishing Company reprinted the base volume, along with the first two volumes of corrections and additions, in a single hardback volume. Third Corrections and Additions, published in 1997, is also available from Genealogical Publishing Company.

Clearfield Company is pleased to announce its publication of a paperback edition of the final installments in this series, Fourth and Fifth Corrections and Additions to Pocahontas’ Descendants. This present volume, consisting of two separate sections of additions and corrections to the existing canon, contains over 80 pages of changes and revisions, with separate indexes referring to more than 2,800 names. Following the pattern of the earlier volumes, the name of the spouse of a Pocahontas descendant is listed even though that spouse is not a descendant of Pocahontas, but the name of a parent of such a spouse is not indexed unless, of course, that parent is a descendant of Pocahontas as well. This volume is an indispensable adjunct to contemporary Pocahontas scholarship and should be sought after by all persons and libraries that possess the earlier volumes.

N.B. Clearfield Company published the Fourth Corrections and Additions to Pocahontas’ Descendants in 2001. Since that work was out of print when Mr. Brown and Ms. Myers had completed their fifth supplement, we have chosen to combine them in a single volume at this time.

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The Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:23:53 +0000

Based upon the famous Draper Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society, this transcription of original sources was conceived as a sequel to the Society’s volume on Lord Dunmore’s War of 1774. The documents selected by Thwaites and Kellogg pick up the story in March 1775 and continue through May 1777, essentially the first two years of the American Revolution. The sources, while not forming a continuous narrative, nonetheless shed light on the principal incidents and personalities (Matthew Arbuckle, William McKee, George Morgan, the Delaware chief White Eyes, and the Seneca chief White Mingo) of importance along the broad frontier that extended from the Greenbrier region of Virginia to Kittanning on the Upper Allegheny. The focus of the documents is on the defense of the American border while it was still being undertaken by the militia of the western counties. The volume closes with the transfer of the command of Fort Pitt to General Hand-an officer of the Continental army-signifying a milestone in American military history and in the history of westward expansion. In these pages the reader will learn about daily life on the frontier; massacres and other atrocities; the reactions of Americans in the West to news of the Revolution in the East; daring missions to re-arm the militia; plots and counter-plots hatched by the British, Spanish, Patriots, and the regional Indian tribes (Creeks, Shawnees, Delawares, Ottawas, Senecas); and the crucial Treaty of Pittsburgh of September 1775 agreed to by the colonists and a large Indian delegation. The net effect of the latter was to free up a number of frontiersmen to fight in the eastern campaign of the Revolution and, perhaps more importantly, to open up Kentucky and by extension the western territory to greater settlement by Americans. While not a genealogical volume in the true sense of the term, The Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777 allows us to place many individuals-any one of whom is easily found in the detailed index at the end of this intriguing book-on the frontier during the two years under investigation.

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Early History of the Cherokees

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:23:00 +0000

Unlike Emmet Starr’s better known and much longer History of the Cherokee Indians (originally published in 1921), this 1917 work focuses on Cherokee life, culture, politics, and self-governance, not genealogy and biography. Mr. Starr, whose grandparents had settled in the Cherokee Nation “West” (Arkansas Country) by 1832, explained in his preface to the book that, with this volume, he strived to “present many of the phases of Cherokee Indian history that might not be preserved and understood.” Transcribed by Cherokee expert Jeff Bowen from a very scarce copy of the 1917 edition, Early History of the Cherokees commences with coverage of the origin of the Cherokee name, religion and creation myths, alphabet, poetry, and related topics. The author devotes about a third of the work to verbatim descriptions of laws enacted by the Western Cherokee Council prior to the Eastern Cherokee exodus from Georgia. He has included the wording of a treaty between Texas and Texas Cherokees. Mr. Starr also devotes a great deal of space to the various missionary groups and churches that worked with the Cherokee. The book is not completely devoid of historical commentary, when one considers the discussion of the legendary 18th-century Cherokee figures Charles Hicks and Sequoyah (George Guess) and their 19th-century counterpart John Ross, as well as others. All of these historical personages and more can be found in the 1,000 person name index at the back of the volume.

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Osage Indian Bands and Clans

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:23:04 +0000

The grandson of an Osage Indian, author Louis Burns wrote this primer to help persons of Osage descent trace their paternal lineage and to introduce researchers to Osage culture and the nuances of its language. The book opens with a discussion of the Osage dispersion from Missouri to Oklahoma and Kansas from about 1800 to 1870. Mr. Burns provides very helpful maps showing the concentration of the various tribal bands in each state. Next comes a summary of the richest sources of 19th-century Osage heritage, namely, Jesuit records, a great source of information concerning baptisms, marriages and interments; U.S. Government Annuity Rolls; and Osage Mission records, the best source of Osage family data. The aforementioned is followed by a list of tribal towns, as extracted from Jesuit records, and a list of Osage bands as found in the Annuity Rolls of 1878. When these sources are used in conjunction with the author’s detailed listing of clans and their members, which furnishes names in both phonetic Osage and English, researchers stand a good chance of tracing their Native American heritage from about 1800 to the present. The balance of this carefully crafted volume focuses on aspects of the language, some knowledge of which is indispensable for successful research. Featured are an index to Osage names in Osage and in English, a listing of and indexes to kinship terms, a critical pronunciation key to Osage, and a conversion table for Osage Indian syllables. Mr. Burns’ seminal work concludes with a bibliography of tribal literature.

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Indians in Seventeenth-Century Virginia

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:22:45 +0000

The purpose of this work is to offer a comprehensive summary, prior to the Indians’ disappearance, of all manner of life and culture of the Algonquians and of the other tribes known to have inhabited 17th-century Virginia, namely the Iroquois and Sioux. Following his description of the principal tribes within the Powhatan confederation, tribes such as the Nansemond, Pamunkey, Pissaseck, and so on, the author’s primary focus thereafter is with the social organization of the indigenous population, and the topics covered are legion: village structure, housing, foods, hunting and fishing methods, tobacco cultivation and usage, ornamentation and decoration, tools, pottery and furniture, implements and weapons, methods of warfare, music and games, marriage and burial customs, crime and punishment, religious beliefs, seasons and festivals, and more.

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Pocahontas

gpcdevel — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:22:28 +0000

Mr. Brown, the author of three volumes on the descendants of Pocahontas, has here assembled all that is known about the famous Powhatan Indian princess who reputedly saved the life of Captain John Smith, the leader of the Jamestown expedition. Diminutive in size, the book transports the reader back to 17th-century Virginia by weaving the quotations of people who knew the Indian maiden with reproductions of more than a dozen contemporary etchings, drawings, or maps. In this way, we are able to appreciate the romantic legend we first heard in grade school while, at the same time, being reasonably confident that we know all that can be known about actual incidents of the story. This is the unembellished Pocahontas story, the only story that can possibly be developed from historical fact.

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