Author Archives: Roberta Estes

About Roberta Estes

Scientist, author, genetic genealogist. Documenting Native Heritage through contemporaneous records and DNA.

Cherokee-White Intermarriages in Indian Territory

James Plyant in GenealogyMagazine.com wrote about “Cherokee-White Intermarriages: Citizenship by Intermarriage in the Cherokee Nation” from testimony taken in Indian Territory. The magazine has made those documents free to download. You can access the article and downloads here. For white … Continue reading

Posted in Cherokee, Oklahoma, Uncategorized | Tagged | 16 Comments

Cherokee Ancestry – The Most Persistent Native American Family Legend

“An aged and dignified chief. … This man … as well as a very great proportion of the Cherokee population, has a mixture of red and white blood in his veins, of which, in this instance, the first seems decidedly … Continue reading

Posted in Cherokee, DNA | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Native Male Y DNA Haplogroup C-P39 Branches

I am extremely pleased to provide an update on the Haplogroup C-P39 Native American Y DNA project. Marie Rundquist and I as co-administrators have exciting discoveries to share. As it so happens, this announcement comes almost exactly on the 4th … Continue reading

Posted in Acadian, Appalachia, Canada, DNA, Micmac | Tagged | 15 Comments

Native American and First Nations DNA Testing – Buyer Beware

This week, a woman in North Carolina revealed that she descends from the extinct Beothuk tribe in Canada as a result of a DNA test from a Canadian DNA testing company. This has caused quite an uproar, in both genetic … Continue reading

Posted in Beothuk, DNA | 10 Comments

John Iron Moccasin, Story of a Sioux Man

Occasionally, the project administrators of the American Indian project at Family Tree DNA are presented with a rare opportunity to test an individual who is either full-blooded Native or nearly so. Recently, a Native Sioux man, John Iron Moccasin, born Earl … Continue reading

Posted in Algonquian, Canada, Chippewa, DNA, Kaskaskian, Mexico, Mohawk, Sioux | 5 Comments

1868 Mattaponi Indian Tribe Membership Roll and Petition to Governor

This petition from the Mattaponi Indian Tribe of King William County, VA to the Governor of Virginia is found in the Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, Vol 36 #4, and begins on page 257. The petition challenged an attempt by Thornton … Continue reading

Posted in Mattapony | Leave a comment

Indians in 1801-1804 Cherokee Agency Pass Book

In the now digitized editions of “Answerin’ News”, an early portion of the Cherokee Agency Pass Book has been transcribed. This portion covers from July 1801 to October 28, 1804 at Southwest Point, now Kingston, Tennessee. If you wanted to travel … Continue reading

Posted in Cherokee | 10 Comments

Hyde County, NC Indian Families in 1850

A friend was looking through the Hyde County, NC, 1850 census and noticed something quite interesting. On page 4 (at Ancestry.com) of the Currituck district, one entire page (except one person) is shown with M, for mulatto, overwritten over something … Continue reading

Posted in Algonquian, Bare River Indians, Bay River Indians, Catatkpncy, Cherokee, Chowan, Coree, DNA, Hatteras, Lumbee, Machapunga, Mattamuskeet, Meherrin, North Carolina, Pamplico, Peedee, Reservation, Tuscarora, Waccamaw, Weyanoke, Woccon, Wynganditoian, Yawpim, Yeopim | 42 Comments

1762 Indian Wars – John Martin Family Captured

The “History of the Church of the Brethren” tells us the following about a massacre and kidnapping of white settlers in 1762 in Great Cove in the Juniata Valley of Pennsylvania, by King Beaver and Capt. Shingas, who personally led the … Continue reading

Posted in Delaware, Military, Pennsylvania, Shawnee, Tuscarora | 7 Comments

Jackson Purchase Negotiations with the Chickasaws

This was one of several articles found in an old scrapbook in the 1980s in the library at Tazewell, TN. I copied the entire scrapbook given that I realized many of the articles are of historical significance and the local … Continue reading

Posted in Chickasaw, Treaty | 1 Comment