I cannot count the number of times that I have had a person call on the phone or show up in person to ask if the BDC staff could help them prove that there was a Cherokee brave or chief or princess in their family tree charts. The usual statement is something along the lines of "Grandma said that there was one," so of course it had to be true. Well, maybe it is true but a statement made by an elder or in a printed family history is not a proven fact backed up by genealogical evidence. It's not that Grandma is a liar. She's just relaying information that was probably relayed to her across the dining room table or perhaps at a family reunion picnic at some point in the past. Genealogical research, however, requires proof.
Technically, meeting the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) requires that a researcher gathers and weighs the evidence for his/her statement based upon:
1. Reasonably exhaustive research.
2. Complete and accurate source citations.
3. Thorough analysis and correlation.
4. Resolution of conflicting evidence.
5. Soundly written conclusion based on the strongest evidence.
Diane Haddad offered this advice about how to check out family lore regarding Native American ancestors in your family tree in an article I received by email back in July 2023. She offers these "5 Clues [that] You May Have Native American Ancestry:"
1. An I or In designation appears in the "race" columns for an ancestor in the 1860 - 1950 Federal United States censuses.
2. A proven blood relative is named on an Indian reservation census or a tribal enrollment. Ancestry.com has a Native American Research guide posted online to point you to databases that may help you. FamilySearch.org offers a Native American wiki article with plenty of links out to potential sources as well. Although the free US Indian Census Rolls, 1885 - 1940 on Access Genealogy are not indexed, you can read and scroll through a lot of agency and tribal lists.
3. A genetic genealogy test indicates you have DNA markers associated with American Indian ancestry - though it is important to remember that only half of your parent's genes make it to you and through the generations the likelihood that a particular string of genes or individual gene will endure becomes less and less. She also makes the point that DNA alone will not make a tribal government recognize you as a member. Since the predominant ancestor I get told about is purportedly a Cherokee, here's what the Cherokee Nation requires of its applicants for tribal membership (2018).
4. Family stories and newspapers tell of Native ancestry, and your ancestors lived in areas where they would have come into contact with Native Americans should be treated as clues for further research. [The underline is mine for emphasis since so many family historians tend to jump to the conclusion that this "proves" their Native American ancestry. It does not meet the criteria of the Genealogical Proof Standard alone.]
5. An ancestor lived in Indian Territory (a.k.a. the state of Oklahoma) by the year 1900.
Let me conclude that because the Cherokee were more of an upstate tribe, they fall outside the BDC's geographical imperative. We have a few sources related to the coastal Indian groups, more specifically about the Yamasee, but other Native American groups in what is now the Southeastern part of the United States falls outside our collection scope. BDC staff will always share the resources we have in the Research Room with our in-facility customers who make an appointment: bdc@bcgov.net ; 843-255-6468 and will do our best to guide you to sources at other locations or on the open internet to assist you with your research. We do not however have the resources to do this type of in depth research on your behalf.
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