Origins of "cherokee in the family" stories

Also, please read the comments on the blog if you have time, they are interesting.

http://www.cherokee.org/About-The-Nation/History/Biographies/Redbir...

You
→ Roger Sheldon Scott
your father → Charles MacDonald Scott
his father → Charles Lincoln Scott
his father → Charles Benjamin Scott
his father → Esther Erwin
his mother → Benjamin Erwin/Ervin III
her father → Benjamin Erwin/Ervin II
his father → Mary Erwin
his mother → Dr. Robert Curry
her father → Sarah "Sallie" Curry (Young)
his mother → John Lamont Young, Sr.
her father → Lady Mary Young
his mother → Alexander Adair
her brother → Thomas Adair
his son → Joseph Adair, Sr.
his son → James Adair
his son → George Ross Adair
his son

George Ross Adair

Chief Redbird Smith, Chief of the Nighthawk Keetoowahs (Cherokee)

Should we be updating the profile for James Adair of Bladen County to clarify he has no known Cherokee descent?

I thought he was a white trader and "medicine man" .....not Cherokee. He wrote the book "History of the American Indians" that proposed the theory that American Indians were the lost tribes of Israel.

James Adair was said to have married or had children with a Cherokee woman. His children married Cherokee as well.

Maybe Kathryn Forbes can you help us confirm this?

Erica Howton

you just adjusted the connection for my line on Adair. It seems to be correct all the way up to Nancy Adair Tyner Stevens as she was the daughter of Dr. James Adair and according to her find a grave Esther McBride Adair (fullblood Cherokee)
According to the records I have found and traced from my tree up to the ones researched and entered by Jane Angela Leavell

As she has done much research.

My question is, will you be changing this tree anymore? I believe that Nancy's mother changed a few times. I see there is a refernce in the about section of Esther McBride.

https://www.geni.com/path/Jamey-Balester-Pls-message-me-regarding-c...

thank you

I think that line needs more research and notes.

“My” Adair line in South Carolina is now clearly not related - they were, in Geni, some years back - except possibly the mysterious Ann (Adair) Musgrove, whom I’m not sure existed.

So my answer to the future is - get the known facts in as best you can.

When we did a cleanup years ago it was a hedgehog. What I saw in the findagrave mixup on George Ross Adair does not inspire my confidence.

Thanks for all the thoughtful contributions to this discussion! We just started this project a week or two ago, so we have only touched the tip of the iceberg. I work full-time, so I can only work on this a few hours a week, and we certainly can't monopolize Kathryn's time. But we will work though, family by family, over the next months and (possibly) year(s). Our goal is not to dismantle trees as much as it is to get them to align with known facts and documentation. That will definitely mean cutting some ties, but also in writing better explanations in the overviews about what is known and NOT known about these various families.We hope Geni will eventually become a trusted site for Cherokee genealogy exactly because it will be based on known documents and research.

The "stories" (fanciful and wishful and partial truths, etc.) can still be added to the overviews. For example, Jamey, it is valuable to add notes like, "My family has passed down an understanding that X was married to a Cherokee woman, and we believe her name was Y. However, this is not yet documented so her name on the Geni tree is listed as Unknown (or NN). Here are some stories my family tells about her...."

I've also been an active curator of the medieval part of the Geni tree, and we frequently have those kinds of notes in the About section about "supposed" connections. It's important to write these down. That way, your family stories are preserved. However, we can't build the tree based on family stories alone. So the stories go in the About overview, or attached if they are separate documents, butthey need to be qualified and treated as undocumented stories that may contain some tidbits of truth and are important to a family's identity.

And Find-a-Grave, just like any other crowd-sourced tree that is uncurated, is to be taken as speculative. You should always look for documentation. The "I found it on the internet" rationale is the source of SO MANY of these problems we are trying to clean up.

The Adair families are good examples. There were several arriving from Northern Ireland, and people have been trying to sort out who belongs with whom.

So it’s not just “family traditions,” or “born on the internet.” it’s obscure records that take digging and interpreting, and that can be changing information, particularly now that DNA studies are part of the mix.

Sometimes genealogy is easy and it falls right into place. But without references, so many mixups are possible, even likely.

Thank you Pam and Erica, Kathryn , Lloyd, Ashly, Eldon, and all involved in researching these trees. I do try to find documentation as much as posible. I will continue to add the family stories passed down in the about section as well. Yes, I do understand this will be an ongoing and tedious project.

Please forgive me if my last few posts seemed combative or rude. It is not my intention. I would like the truth as well. I will still give creedance to my families stories while searching for more information.

I have dna matches to people with Adair in their trees. Any info I have added comes from dna trees and researching. For example, the John Adair that Kathryn mentioned is here...

John Adair, Sr.

His father was Dr. James Adair (wrote the book). James is my 10th cousin, 8x removed. So James's daughter Nancy Jane Tyner / Stephens is my blood. And the above mentioned John Adair, his wife Nancy "Ga-Ho-Ga" or "Ge Ho Ga" Lightfoot, is my 9th cousin 8x removed thru her dad John.

Pardon, I meant to say Heather...not Ashly.

Diana Collins then we would be related through the Adair line. Nancy Adair Tyner is my 7th gr grandmother.

And Erica, the following profiles are the same.... according to the different trees provided to me....

Thomas Benjamin Adair, Jr.

Thomas Adair

Jamey, I believe we are related in more ways than one....

I need notes in profiles.

I should be clearer. Margaret Maria Adair shows as the wife of Thomas Adair but Margaret Mary Adair as the wife of the MP Thomas. I have no way of knowing what is correct.

Yes...according to the trees, those Thomas Adairs are the same person....the Thomas I added has wife as Margaret Moore. I just didn't add her, as you already have her on the other Thomas profile.

I can't merge until there are notes in profiles to guide me. Otherwise the tree will turn into chopped suey left out overnight. Trust me on this one. :).

NOT talking about Thomas Adair...born c.1680. Talking about the two Thomas Adair listed together in my previous post.

Thomas Benjamin Adair, Jr. b 1705 no notes no references

Showing as son of Thomas Adair b 1680 of Duncan's Creek, wifes name Margaret Henert (supported ?)

Notes in profile

Thomas married Margaret Agnew about 1708 in Ireland. They had the following children:

James Robert Adair
Joseph Adair Sr
William Adair Sr

This other Thomas Adair b 1705 "found on Geni" not researched, just kept separate

Clue: son William Bozeman Adair

Could be an avenue to finding references

Too many Margarets! I have Margaret Agnew married to Alexander Adair b.c1658.... had son Thomas Adair b.c1680 who married Margaret Henart.....had son Thomas Adair b.1705 who married Margaret Moore. I will search in a little while to try and find more proof besides my dna matches.

Oh, and the info from the trees does show William Bozeman Adair, and his son Bozeman Adair, and so on...

No kidding about the Margaret confusion. :)

There's a good Duncan's Creek Adairs study in the George Ross Adair profile. The locations for George Bozeman Adair "could" put him in that family, but hard to say without really reviewing it. The family I looked at went to Alabama.

This is the arriver for the Ducans Creek SC line (or so they think)

http://www.myfamilysearch.net/getperson.php?personID=I3692&tree...

I don’t believe that parents of the John Adair who married Gahoga are documented, only speculative. Whoever they were they were both white and John was white.

Here's a long discussion about William Bozeman Adair. He's not in the site just linked but they definitely looked at him as possibly of the Duncan Creek SC Adairs.

http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/adair/6273/

So should I go ahead and disconnect James Adair of Bladen County from parents ?

All I see for evidence is

Parents: said to have been a member of the Fitzgerald family