Reply #110: African American and Cherokee

[goclark]

On my mother's side -

My grandfather was a " proud colored man."
He was always mistaken for White.
But the "rule" was if you had one drop of Black Blood you were Black ~ still is the unwritten rule in our culture.

His g mother was a White Servant from England . When she got to Virginia she had two children by the man that she worked for ~ both sisters moved to Maryland and married Black men.

Her mother was clearly "colored."

My father's side identified as "colored" or Negro.
All but my grandfather ~ he said he was a Cherokee Indian and proud of it!

He would show me an old photograph of an Indian by the side of the river and say, " That is your great grandfather!"

When I started searching for my ancestors I found that in the census records he was listed as Negro but he must have made the Census Worker cross it out and in big letters it says Cherokee.
He had a strong personality. : )

I only saw him once but he did look like an Indian and so did the siblings. So did my father for that matter.


All that said, WE are African American.

I do wish that I could find any trace of him in the records. I tried but as yet don't know how to dig for the information.