This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: Claire_Cantrell Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.coonrod/18.24.25.26.27.40.147.3.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I still have not proved the Indian connection. Elijah Messer served in Thomas's Legion, which had a full battalion of Cherokee Indians, along with the mountaineers. Elijah's brother George W. also served in the same company E, and they enlisted on the same day. Christina and Elijah were married 19th Dec. 1866 after the war. His grand daughter who knew him when she was a child, said that some of their children were very dark with dark eyes and several were fair. I have a photo of Christina who looks very Indian and is so much darker than the other family members in the photo. She was shown in many documents with different names, such as Matilda and Catherine and Malinda. Elijah always carried a medicine bag around his neck, so it seemed that he carried on some Indian ways. There is documented evidence that the Conards, referred to as Conrads married into the Cherokees. Jenny Taylor, a Scotswoman, married an English peer named James or Charles Fox. They had two sons, James and Charles Fox. She divorced and married a Hollander named Conrad and had a son named Hamilton. They along with her second son by Fox, Charles came to the US. Charles married a dau. of Nancy Ward,Jenny Walker. Nancy was the famous Cherokee woman, and Hamilton married Onai, of the Bird Clan. Those children with the name of Conrad were Rattlinggourd, Hair, Youngwolf, and Quatie. They were all born in the late 1700's in North Carolina. I don't know if this family was connected to George Conard. I do think that George may have been the son of a James and Elizabeth Conard who were in the area of Hayward Co. and show up on the census. George had a connection with the Davis family and I believe that the Davis cemetery sits on land that once belonged to George Conard. George married Chaney Williams dau. of Eleanor(Ellender) and Daniel Williams. I could find no Cherokee i! n the Williams family, but Ellender who was a midwife (maiden name unknown) may have been Indian. I was told in an e-mail that their daughter's name was Che-a-Nay but they could not offer proof other than saying it was in an old letter in their family. Christina Catherine Malinda Conard Messer named her youngest dau. Chanie. She died at age seven and was born with some strange disease and according to my husband's cousin who knew Elijah, was not "right in the head". Hope I haven't bored you. Regards, Sami Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.