Source: [email protected] From: "Graham, Jenny" <[email protected]> Subject: [NAFAMLEG] 1820s KY/IN poss Indian ancestor I have an ancestor named Mary (surname unk, or may be Rafferty), who is said by one branch of the family to have been an Indian, possibly Cherokee or Shawnee. My branch of the family didn't even know the history back that far. I don't know if this means anything or not, but Mary was said to have been a practitioner of folk medicine who was looked to for help in the community she and her children settled in in northwest AR. Mary _____, b. ca 1790s/1800 in KY set up housekeeping (prob did not marry) ca 1819 in KY or IN with - Hugh McGary, b. ca 1790 in KY, probably a son of Robert McGary and Betsy Womack and thus a grandson of Maj. Hugh McGary who hung out with Daniel Boone, and a nephew of Hugh McGary Jr., who founded Evansville, IN. They had the following 3 children, all born in IN, Posey and/or Warrick County: 1) Eliza McGary, b. ca 1820; married Simeon ATWOOD in IN. 2) Mathew McGary, b. ca 1824; married Martha Graham Clark in AR. 3) Keturah McGary, b. ca 1827; married Nelson Reed Graham, Jr. in AR. Hugh McGary disappeared in 1830 from the family's home in KY, leaving Mary and the kids to fend for themselves. We think he went to IN and married a white woman. Mary and the kids went to IN, then IL, then AR by 1840. She never remarried. Mary and Hugh's granddaughter Mary Elizabeth Graham Ralls lived in MO and was said to have been known publicly as being part Indian. A picture of her makes it plausible, but not definite. Several of her grandchildren had stated emphatically that she was 1/4 Indian. We know of no Indian blood whatsoever on her father's side. Mary Elizabeth had two nieces who also looked part Indian, but no one else in the family did or does. We have no pictures of Mary and Hugh's children except for a picture of their son as an old man with a bushy beard; can't tell what he looks like.