This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/5R.2ADI/1236 Message Board Post: Thanks to the internet, I think I may have traced our Creek lineage back another generation, but I admit I am confused. Here's what I've always known based on affidavits, census records, etc. My Great, great, great Grandmother was who our family based our Creek heritage on. Her name was Elizabeth English Ward, born in Georgia 1798, died 1876. Records say she was an orphan. From there, we go to her son, my great-great grandfather, his daugher, my great grandmother, etc. etc. to me. While trying to track down a 'tribe' that Elizabeth may have belonged to, I starting digging deeper to find that Elizabeth's husband, James B. Ward, born 1796 in South Carolina, (no date of death available), was also full blood Creek. Apparently, his father, Jack Ward was an Indian Chief and married Nahoga Moniac around 1792/1793. They had 14 children. Supposedly they were fur traders and travelled alot. Well, in an effort to confirm James and try to find him in a census somewhere, I stumb! led across the 1832 Creek Nation Alabama Census where a Nahoga Ward is listed (!). Could it be??!! She is #67 on Hickory Ground Town, listed as head of household and she is the only name listed as owning slaves (possibly because she is the wife of the chief?). Could she be my great-great-great-great Grandmother? All these years my family has based their Creek lineage thru Elizabeth, my g/g/g grandmother when it now appears our lineage may go even further back thru her husband's parents instead. Can this be considered maternal lineage, or is it paternal? I'm confused. If so, does anyone know what specific tribe my family came from and where it was located? (Was it "Hickory Ground" tribe or something else?). I don't whether it's true or not, but I've been told that I may be eligible to apply for membership with a tribe. That would be such an honor I can't hardly imagine it happening, but I am committed to finding out as much as I can on behalf of my family and espec! ially my son. Somehow, I want him to know the difference between sim ply saying you're part Indian and actually being one. Thank you so much for trying to help me or point me in the right direction!