Fri Aug 9, 2019, 03:26 PM
Lunabell (2,308 posts)
My family thought for generations that we had a Cherokee ancestor.
We even new her name, Susie Redman. She was a family story and I grew up very proud that me ancestor was a Native American.
Long story short, my sister did a DNA test and we have zero Native American blood. She did some research and found that Susie, was from Germany. She couldn't find the origin of the family legend. Lmao, true story I just found out.
|
32 replies, 1444 views
![]() |
Author | Time | Post |
![]() |
Lunabell | Aug 2019 | OP |
DFW | Aug 2019 | #1 | |
Lunabell | Aug 2019 | #2 | |
DFW | Aug 2019 | #10 | |
Nay | Aug 2019 | #15 | |
Codeine | Aug 2019 | #18 | |
Nay | Aug 2019 | #20 | |
trueblue2007 | Aug 2019 | #23 | |
Codeine | Aug 2019 | #24 | |
The Velveteen Ocelot | Aug 2019 | #25 | |
DFW | Aug 2019 | #30 | |
SCantiGOP | Aug 2019 | #3 | |
DFW | Aug 2019 | #11 | |
Docreed2003 | Aug 2019 | #12 | |
SCantiGOP | Aug 2019 | #14 | |
Arkansas Granny | Aug 2019 | #4 | |
WePurrsevere | Aug 2019 | #7 | |
PandoraAwakened | Aug 2019 | #9 | |
Niagara | Aug 2019 | #22 | |
d_r | Aug 2019 | #29 | |
Buckeye_Democrat | Aug 2019 | #19 | |
WePurrsevere | Aug 2019 | #5 | |
lark | Aug 2019 | #6 | |
RobinA | Aug 2019 | #31 | |
Farmer-Rick | Aug 2019 | #8 | |
applegrove | Aug 2019 | #13 | |
nolabear | Aug 2019 | #16 | |
Kashkakat v.2.0 | Aug 2019 | #17 | |
Kali | Aug 2019 | #21 | |
Merlot | Aug 2019 | #27 | |
PoindexterOglethorpe | Aug 2019 | #28 | |
RobinA | Aug 2019 | #32 | |
Brainstormy | Aug 2019 | #26 |
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 03:32 PM
DFW (41,235 posts)
1. Better be careful with revelations like that
Republicans will start calling you Pocahontas.
|
Response to DFW (Reply #1)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 03:38 PM
Lunabell (2,308 posts)
2. Lmao
I was so disappointed. I would have been 1/16th Cherokee according to family legend.
|
Response to Lunabell (Reply #2)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 04:44 PM
DFW (41,235 posts)
10. I, on the other hand, can boast 2 distinguished grandfathers
One was descended from a deadbeat Mississippi riverboat gambler who fled noth to escape his debts, and the other was the son of a South Carolina tailor who worked his way through college as a janitor. Pocahontas ain’t got nothin’ on me!
![]() |
Response to DFW (Reply #10)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 07:09 PM
Nay (11,519 posts)
15. Interesting! A similar story about our family says that the original ancestor
was on the run in Scotland, chased by the sheriff for horse thievery. He jumped onto the first boat out of Glasgow and it happened to be coming to the New World. This was in the mid-1600's.
|
Response to Nay (Reply #15)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 11:07 PM
Codeine (25,586 posts)
18. Jesus, we have the same story in our family.
I wonder what book it’s actually from.
![]() |
Response to Codeine (Reply #18)
Sat Aug 10, 2019, 07:58 AM
Nay (11,519 posts)
20. Really! I wonder what book it IS from! The larger story is that my grandfather
was doing genealogy research in the hope that we were descended from a lord, earl, prince, etc., and it turned out we were a bunch of thieving bums brawling in the dirt. Hysterical!
|
Response to Codeine (Reply #18)
Sun Aug 11, 2019, 02:17 PM
trueblue2007 (13,142 posts)
23. WE supposedely have an Indian ancestor on moms side. My dad ALL Germans. (probably the BAD guys)
you know who i mean. Gees, I wish i had "the good guys" in my family tree.
|
Response to trueblue2007 (Reply #23)
Sun Aug 11, 2019, 02:39 PM
Codeine (25,586 posts)
24. I think around the 1960s every family
suddenly had a Cherokee ancestor slip into the family history, right around the time a lot of families started to accidentally forget some of their ancestors from south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Our family always claimed some Scots lineage with the name McDiarmid (something like that) popping up a bit, but when online ancestry searches became possible I learned that it was actually Madeiras, and that we had a chunk of Portuguese background that was, for whatever reason, embarrassing enough that it got hidden. |
Response to DFW (Reply #10)
Sun Aug 11, 2019, 03:39 PM
The Velveteen Ocelot (91,426 posts)
25. Ha, we have one from northern Ireland who was a rum-runner.
There was also a GGG grandfather, a Presbyterian minister in those parts, who was defrocked for officiating at a wedding between a Protestant and a Catholic. I was hoping to find more disreputable ancestors but so far that's about it.
|
Response to The Velveteen Ocelot (Reply #25)
Mon Aug 12, 2019, 10:11 PM
DFW (41,235 posts)
30. Sounds like a good reason to be neither Catholic nor Protestant! But hardly disreputable.
In New York, it's a good thing our daughter had a justice of the peace do a civil ceremony. She has a mother from a 600 year old German Catholic family, a father who is an Eastern European mongrel (me), a husband who is from a Russian Catholic family (born in Moscow), but grew up in Israel and is still a Catholic Israeli citizen in the USA with a green card. They both fortunately have no use whatsoever for religion, though they both are perfectly aware of their multi-cultural backgrounds.
|
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 03:52 PM
SCantiGOP (11,016 posts)
3. As George Carlin observed
Americans are mongrels, but some of us were kicked out of some of the best countries in Europe.
|
Response to SCantiGOP (Reply #3)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 04:49 PM
DFW (41,235 posts)
11. As Bill Murray observed.....
Response to DFW (Reply #11)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 06:18 PM
SCantiGOP (11,016 posts)
14. Carlin also said that Canada
was like a nice apartment on the 2nd floor over a meth lab.
|
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 03:52 PM
Arkansas Granny (28,751 posts)
4. It was the same with my family. Supposedly 8 generations ago
someone married an Indian "princess". The DNA test my sister took proved that wrong. 0%
|
Response to Arkansas Granny (Reply #4)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 04:20 PM
WePurrsevere (24,224 posts)
7. While it's possible that it's a family myth, it's also possible that it isn't...
8 generations ago would have a very slim chance of showing up as is explained in the part of the article that I link to and quote below. The full article has embedded links that are also helpful.
![]() http://www.rootsandrecombinantdna.com/2015/03/native-american-dna-is-just-not-that.html Three Reasons Why Native American DNA Does NOT Show Up On Your Test Results ... |
Response to WePurrsevere (Reply #7)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 04:35 PM
PandoraAwakened (905 posts)
9. Best explanation I've seen of this phenomenon yet. n/t
Response to WePurrsevere (Reply #7)
Sun Aug 11, 2019, 01:01 PM
Niagara (2,917 posts)
22. Thank you for sharing this! n/t
Response to Arkansas Granny (Reply #4)
Sat Aug 10, 2019, 12:52 AM
Buckeye_Democrat (10,407 posts)
19. Probabilities from the International Society of Genetic Genealogy...
https://isogg.org/wiki/Cousin_statistics
![]() These probabilities are in reference to autosomal DNA tests -- the ones from AncestryDNA, 23andMe, MyHeritageDNA and others that focus on the DNA that's inherited from both parents and all branches of the family tree. There's also Y-DNA and mtDNA tests which can indicate relationships and ancestry along the all-paternal and al-maternal lines MUCH farther back in time. Those trees are always traced back to African roots, of course. |
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 04:05 PM
WePurrsevere (24,224 posts)
5. FWIW, it's possible to have NA ancestors and not have it show up.
While your sister may have found records showing that Susie was from Germany it's still possible that you do have NA ethnicity back in time and it's just not showing up.
Here's a great article that explains why this can happen with NA DNA: http://www.rootsandrecombinantdna.com/2015/03/native-american-dna-is-just-not-that.html For a decent explanation about ethnicity in general not being reliable this is a good one: https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2019/01/27/and-still-not-soup/or DNA for ethnicity, as a science, is not as accurate as it is for matching. As an adoptee searching I'd tested at the big 2 plus uploaded my raw data to GEDmatch, MyHeritage and FTDNA. Now that I'm 'in reunion' with both sides I have a decent family tree started that's based on records (plus DNA) so I can tell you from experience ethnicity definitely can vary quite a bit between testing sites. |
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 04:09 PM
lark (17,373 posts)
6. Well damn.
I really hate the idea of these DNA tests, don't trust the government or industry to not abuse them. However, now for the first time ever I wonder if I should? I'm pretty sure my Cherokee ancestor is real and my great great grandmother. Her husband was a french trapper who got injured and was nursed to health by a Cherokee tribe and mainly my great great grandmother. It's insufficient Indian blood to mean anything, but I love the story and it still means something to me. I don't know how accurate these tests are and I know I'm mostly a mix of lots of various European blood, but definitely more English than anything else with German, French, Spanish, Irish & Swedish verified as well. Still don't trust the government or industry not to somehow abuse these tests so will just stick with the story about my grandfather's origins for now.
|
Response to lark (Reply #6)
Tue Aug 13, 2019, 12:09 PM
RobinA (7,915 posts)
31. YYMV, Of Course
but my 23 and Me DNA test was extremely accurate. We know our genealogy back to the various old countries from which all but one branch emerged in the late 1600s through the mid 1700s. We know what towns they are from and the test really hit the nail on the head. Now, we are strictly northern Europe and UK, which is probably the biggest share of their database, so we hit their accuracy sweet spot, but still they did a damn good job. It is possible.
|
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 04:32 PM
Farmer-Rick (4,762 posts)
8. There are so many other possible explanations for why that corporation
Did not find their version of what they consider American Indian DNA in your sister's blood test that I would not trust it. If you have pictures (as my family does) or other evidence of American Indian ancestry, I would trust that over a DNA test.
|
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 05:28 PM
applegrove (98,209 posts)
13. I've researched family stories. I've proved one wrong while another has been
proved to a certain extent.
|
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 08:07 PM
nolabear (37,565 posts)
16. I had a similar result but given the odd NA DNA issues
and the fact that we have exactly one ancestor we can’t trace, the father of the purported Choctaw g-g-grandmother I still hold on. That and the fact my grandmother, great aunts and grandmother knew her well and she wasn’t some legend.
Who knows... |
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Fri Aug 9, 2019, 08:52 PM
Kashkakat v.2.0 (1,576 posts)
17. What I want to know is - why does everyone claim Cherokee ancestry, wny not some other tribe like
Modoc or Potawotomi? Kinda reminds me of people I used to know who claimed to have past lives - it was always something like ancient Egyptian priestess or queen of Atlantis, never anything like a peasant on a farm in China or a somalian Pirate or .... oh there was this job in 18th century England going around and collecting the contents of chamber pots. How come no one was one of those in their past life?
Anyway Im glad you see the humor in your humorous story - actually its a better story than if Susie Redman (red man, seriously?) had been a real Cherokee! |
Response to Kashkakat v.2.0 (Reply #17)
Sat Aug 10, 2019, 05:44 PM
Kali (50,871 posts)
21. ...
![]() |
Response to Kashkakat v.2.0 (Reply #17)
Sun Aug 11, 2019, 03:46 PM
Merlot (8,600 posts)
27. That's what I thought too
"Susie Redman (red man, seriously?)"
|
Response to Kashkakat v.2.0 (Reply #17)
Sun Aug 11, 2019, 03:54 PM
PoindexterOglethorpe (17,748 posts)
28. That's crucial.
You'd think that if there really were real Native American ancestors, the various different tribes would all be named more or less equally.
As for past life stuff, people who have actually done past life regressions always come up with things like being a peasant somewhere. The royalty/famous person/life in Atlantis is invariably among people who've never done an actual regression. Plus, of course, Atlantis is pure myth, and too many people really don't get that. |
Response to Kashkakat v.2.0 (Reply #17)
Tue Aug 13, 2019, 12:17 PM
RobinA (7,915 posts)
32. I Always Wondered This
myself. My cousins had an Indian grandmother and she was Choctaw. I saw her because she lived with them, she was clearly native. I didn't know she was Choctaw until I did some Ancestry research. Is it just the eastern US people that claim the Cherokee relative? Maybe it's the only Indian tribe they know lived in the area. The Choctaw lady in my family came from Arkansas and she met my relative when he was stationed down there.
|
Response to Lunabell (Original post)
Sun Aug 11, 2019, 03:43 PM
Brainstormy (2,253 posts)
26. EXACT SAME THING
happened in my family. My ex-husband had always said his great grandmother was full-blood Cherokee. Well, not a drop of Native American blood in anybody. But a good bit of mid-eastern and Northern Africa. I'm loving it!
|