Dear Cousins All: My Choctaw heritage begins with: John Jackson Smith (b. 1799 South Carolina d. Bosque Co., Texas 1867) and Martha JONES (b. abt 1801) who is said to have been 3/4 Choctaw They had eleven children, all born in Choctaw areas and/or cessions in Mississippi. They did NOT go west with the majority of the tribe(s) in the 1830s since John Jackson Smith was an Indian Agent and stayed behind. The family apparently emigrated to Texas right after the Civil War along with most (but not all) of the children. While a resident of Hill County, Texas, grandson Burton Smith Burks applied for Choctaw Citizenship in 1896 and it was granted to him and his children. I have all the documentation from the Dawes Commission. The Choctaw nation sued him and the decision was reversed without any clear explanation in the documentation. Many family members later moved to Garvin Co., Oklahoma, where my grandfather Carl Self was born in the small community of Antioch in 1906. Cousin David in El Paso DMNewlin@aol.com Researching: Newlin; Self; Rupp; Vaugh'a'n; Rain'e's; Burks; Snedeker; Davidson; Pickleshimer and variations; Blaine; Hamaker; Spurling.