Why do Many People think they are Cherokee or part Native American, when they are not?

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I describe myself with just two words. "I am".
Not in the Biblical sense as I have no misgivings of being god-like. I just find that putting more after "I am" limits me. It would take pages in order not to restrict who and what I am or may become. Be assured that not all of what I am is necessarily good. I have flaws too.
I used quote Popeye in my profile.

"I am what I am that's all that I am."

Ben
 
The point about people wanting to be descended from powerful or glamorous people is interesting. Tracing my paternal grandmother's family back to the 1500s, we found out that her side was descended from a Scottish clan, but moved to Norway and became the largest landholders in Norway in the 1600s. The Barony Rosendahl in Kvinnherad, Norway was part of their land. And one was an Admiral in the Norse navy, while another was a pirate, backed by the Danish crown. Of course, going back that far, one must assume that a fox never got into the hen house if you want to claim such a distant ancestry...😁
 
A factor to consider is only the rich and powerful were recorded in history. If looking for a historical person the only option is rich and powerful.

Otherwise ties to a family may be the only option. The Princess is a green/grey eyed red head decended from a Scottish line with a noble name that translates as "lion" but that will not even get her a discount at Lowes.
;)

Ben
 
The point about people wanting to be descended from powerful or glamorous people is interesting. Tracing my paternal grandmother's family back to the 1500s, we found out that her side was descended from a Scottish clan, but moved to Norway and became the largest landholders in Norway in the 1600s. The Barony Rosendahl in Kvinnherad, Norway was part of their land. And one was an Admiral in the Norse navy, while another was a pirate, backed by the Danish crown. Of course, going back that far, one must assume that a fox never got into the hen house if you want to claim such a distant ancestry...😁
I think that is very interesting. My daughter is half Norwegian. Someone in that part of her family did a lot of research in the 1950's and put together a notebook. I made a photo copy of it. Norwegians had symbols for their names. A post on each corner of their property had that symbol on it, denoting that it was their property.
 
My mom is a Yoder from Yoder. And so were my grandparents and great grandparents. Real simple around here. Some people don't even have to change their last names when they marry. You're either a Miller, Bontrager, Yoder, Eash, or a Schrock.
I used to work with a music teacher, named Yoder. He was a Mennonite.
 
I used to say "I'm a Vermonter" when asked. Now I say "hillbilly Vermonter", so as not to be confused with the other kind.

Good idea, my uncle has lived in Vermont for a million years but I bet your nothing like him. I love him, bless his heart, but I have to snooze him on facebook every other month or so.
 
My mom is a Yoder from Yoder. And so were my grandparents and great grandparents. Real simple around here. Some people don't even have to change their last names when they marry. You're either a Miller, Bontrager, Yoder, Eash, or a Schrock.
I work with a guy named Schrock who was raised Amish but lives modern now. I'll have to ask him where he's from.
 
My heritage is entirely Northern European. No native American here. Nothing remotely close. If there were an interesting people somewhere along the line it would have been Vikings.
 
Met a distant half cousin-in-law winter before last. He had sent out a letter with pics and ancestry info to as many Mader/Moder descendants of great great great great great grandpa and his first and second wives, who settled in a "staunch" German Lutheran farm area in NW Ohio. He lived on what was left of the farm where the original log cabin with attached barn still stood. His wife was a descendant and he had to sell most of what land he had for her cancer treatments, a battle she lost. He took us to one of the cemeteries to show us where "Civil War George" Mader, who as it turns out was the son of the first mentioned grandpa's first wife and not grandpa's. This info had not been passed down our way previously, but the cousin had taken photos of the church records that declared the first wife to have an "illegitimate" boy child when she crossed the Atlantic with great great great great great grandpa, only the language wasn't quite that kind. Her maiden name spelling placed her family in a certain European area to where Germanians (somewhere in what was once Germania) had escaped one of the old wars and were identified as such by the spelling. For over 55 years, I was born a Mader/Moder descendant, only to find out I wasn't! My grandpa Moder, a skilled worker, and his only wife had one son and then he was drafted into WWII in his late 20's and sent to the Battle of the Bulge where is was killed by Germans.

My maternal side of German Lutherans definitely has some dark olive pigment, but I don't know if that will show up in an ancestry DNA test, I haven't tried one. It shows up strong in my grandmother's one brother in pics and her one daughter, whose father, my grandfather, was a pale West Virginian Irish United Brethren. He and my grandmother were apparently quite the comedy on Sunday mornings when he turned on the radio and sang along to his hillbilly gospel, told by my mom's surviving twin (a UB parishioner). They met while she was playing piano in a UB church in the big city where the younger crowd headed for jobs in the 30's. She was also a part-time nanny for room/board while attending a business school. My grandma didn't go to church until after he passed at 57 from a heart attack and she got a driver's license and a car! My "granny go-go" picked me up every Sunday morning for as long as I can remember and drove to the nearest Lutheran church where she played piano. My paternal grandma apparently went agnostic because of the war and passed that down, so my mother rarely attended church. Her mother had died not long after her youngest sister was born and it's clear they were far from well off. Only the boys went to live with her parents on a farm, the oldest sister stayed at home to cook and the younger ones were taken to the county children's home then apparently sent to different families as house girls, something she never mentioned. We only learned about her childhood after her death and were able to verify from records that still existed. I cringe to think what she may have gone through. Having ultimately ended up in the big city, when she met my grandpa it had to be the best time of her life.

DH's kin claims a Cherokee woman in their ancestry, but no one has been able to show me any evidence of the claim, although there were and are hoards of his Irish/Scottish/English surname in the Appalachians, particularly eastern Tennessee. (I miss the days when there were phone books in lodging rooms divulging such info.)

Unlike in my formative years, I find ancestry and migration history and tribulations that went with it fascinating. Knowing now that I've got a lost link and at least a part of me is not who I thought I was is kind of sad, but of course I'm not alone.

I've enjoyed reading your histories and thoughts, thanks all!
 
I ain't got a Lick of 'NA' in me (Italian / Scottish/English mutt ;) but.. Wife is pretty-much pure 'Pipil-lineage' (no Spanish 'Conquistador' / Euro-blood mixed in, as far as they've been able to research..) so..

..She, at least, Can say she's 'Native Central American' - Which means our Daughter is the 'Best of both recipes'.. ;)

jd
 
As a child I heard this story, a Cherokee woman married into our all white family back about 3 gen.
I never met her, but my mother did. Was she Cherokee or even native american, who knows, I have not had a DNA test, so I do not know. What shocked me was all the lilly white guys who told this story about their family with Great Pride.
I do not look Cherokee, Greek or near eastern, I look like Irish/Scottish/English with a French last name, we all have brown eye, two brothers have a year around tan, but that proves nothing in the south.
 
I think I told this story already somewhere here. I was taking a genealogical writing class at Denver Public Library's Central Library. People drove in for the class from miles away.

One woman started doing research, and as it typically goes, you write what you know, and with those closest to you and go back. She had always been told that they were Native American. She got as far back as the Civil War and ended up sending for one of her grandfather's records. She got around 400 pages back. What she found out was that someone who helped move Natives along the Trail of Tears was a whit man. There was a woman who helped with cooking and that kind of stuff. She ended up having a child by this man. The woman was black. The son she had could pass for white, and did. Son grew up with his mother, so everyone around knew he was not white. Son went to the Civil War and never went home again. Anywhere else in the world, he was white. So the descendants realized that being black in the South was not as good as being Native American, so they claimed that. The Civil War records told another story. This woman in the class was the child of a man who had two wives, and she was from the second wife. Children from first wife were always nasty to second family. So they started calling her a liar and giving her a hard time. Then one particular half sister demanded a copy of the records, 400 pages. Woman in the class told her how she could get herself a copy. They also denied being black, but the woman in the class said they all had curl in their hair and if they were Native American's, where did that come from? I don't know if there are any Native Americans with curly hair.
 
I am from the south(SC), so I think we have many blood lines crossing since the 1600 & at this point I do not care who did what with who 100 years ago. 100 years from now I doubt anyone will know or care.
 
I am Swiss, German and French. But there is the Miami Indian part of my ancestry. I am the lightest complected of my family. My one sister looks 1/2. My other sister and brother are lighter than her. I'm the only one with light hazel eyes and light brown hair. What genetic trait I did get is wanted. I have no hair on my body. I'm 55 and have smooth legs, back and well you know... When in the Army I didn't Have to shave. saved me so much time. I only started having to shave my chin in my mid 40's before work once a week.
My daughter thanks me for the genetics. She's 35 and doesn't have to shave her legs. She looks like she is in her lower 20's her skin is so fine.
 
A guy I worked with told me he was part native American. He was.
All you had to do was take a look at him. It was unquestionable.
Features that cannot be mentioned anymore because of political correctness.
1. Absolutely no trace of any facial hair. (a trait unique to native Americans)
2. Skin that was never 'white' even in the winter. Like he had been out in the sun, slightly red. (you can't say that today)
3. Completely straight black hair. Not a hint of a wave anywhere, but not stiff like Asians.

Great guy and a good friend.
 
It happens because of family lore & members who are prone to hyperbole. It's also a factor that prior to computers it wasn't easy to trace genealogy. For the longest time, my family believed we were part Native American. Even had the name of the ancestor, tribe, etc written in our family tree. My paternal grandfather (who died before I was born) was known for hyperbole & was quite the storyteller. He had jet black hair and attributed it to an ancestor named Hannah Bush from the Lenape tribe. My high cheek bones were attributed to being part Native American.

It wasn't until recent years when we were using computers to access files to do the family tree and in the spot where Hannah was supposed to be there was a white woman of English decent, BUT, IIRC, she's part of a family that married in to my family after the child produced by the Native American ancestor was born. I wish I could remember more clearly, but IIRC, Hannah's son married one of my ancestors and had a child and then he died & the widow re-married a man from the Anderson family. This could be completely untrue though as it's hard to find the records & I no longer have a paid account with any of those sites. So, it's possible we could still have Native ancestry but unlikely.

There is also a possibility that my grandfather may not have been my dad's biological father. My dad was born 5 years after my grandfather had a vasectomy. His side of the family accused my grandmother of an affair & treated my dad like garbage bc they thought he wasn't really family. My grandfather told my father that the vasectomy healed & he was still able to have another child. Not sure which scenario is true.
 
I find the whole, Native American facial hair thing interesting. I work with a lot of Navajos and it's fairly common for them to have a little facial hair. It's always thin, and usually it's confined to their mustache and under the chin, but it's there...
I never asked what tribe he was descended from, but he didn't have to shave and his face was 'shiny'.
 
It happens because of family lore & members who are prone to hyperbole.
I have some of this in my family. A woman who has been dead more than 100 years paid people in Chicago to change records. There are several lies that rest with her. Sadly, these lies were used in a family history booklet and people have bought them hook, line and sinker. Years later, I documented births, marriages and deaths, and only recently did one of the g granddaughters stop arguing with me about it. Documentation is the only way to go.
It's also a factor that prior to computers it wasn't easy to trace genealogy.
I can verify this as a fact. I have found so much on the internet whereas I have driven back and forth across Iowa and Nebraska, trying to figure it out. Czech records go back to the 1600's and I have spent hours and hours going through them and learning some of the necessary words and some of the horrible writing.
 

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