Articles & FAQs

Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes: Southeastern Indians Prior to Removal Book Review
Reviewed by Carla Toney

Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes: Southeastern Indians Prior to Removal is by Rachal Mills Lennon (Certified Genealogical Records Specialist) and is published by the Genealogical Publishing Company.

From Virginia to Louisiana, from Florida to Tennessee, Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes will help researchers and family historians to ferret out information and tribal ties from the colonial period to removal throughout the southeastern United States.

Ms. Lennon fully recognizes the difficulty of tracing Indian ancestry: "Traditionally, the underclass has
been far less likely to keep records, either because its members were inadequately educated or because record keeping was politically dangerous.

"At the same time, many individuals escaped the underclass by concealing or even denying their own cultural, ethnic, or religious heritage. Modern researchers therefore struggle to uncover what their forebears struggled to hide."

In spite of the difficulties of genealogical research into Indian ancestry, the research strategies presented in Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes will help to assist genealogical researchers in their quest to end speculation about Indian ancestry and unearth lineages.

With a wealth of historical data (about 30% of whites marrying into the Cherokee Nation were women), this impressive treatment of the cultural and historical background, and genealogical records and resources of the colonial and pre-removal periods is also a pleasure to read. It entertains with incidents about traders and their 'harems' and presents information about 'crossing over' from Indian identity to white. David Moniac, "four generations removed from one full-blood Creek ancestress, three from another" was the first of his family to attain the post of sheriff of Baldwin County, Alabama - "a post strictly reserved for whites."

It also addresses the Indian/Black question that has frequently been lacking in other research guides and gives good examples of how African-Americans can attempt to trace their Indian heritage.

By suggesting numerous avenues of research that are not generally known, Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes will prove invaluable to genealogists and family historians. It is an excellent guide from which one can begin to search.