Hi everyone and welcome again to our new members, and thank you to all who have responded to our issue. Yesterday a friend of mine brought me a Genealogy column from the Leesburg, Florida paper. This is a small town and the paper is published bi-weekly. The column is written by Jeannette Phethean and is titled "On Kinseekers", she has some very iteresting articles. In this issue she reviewed two books "Sumter County Alabama Wills: 1827-1872 by Gwendolyn Lynette Hester" She stated that this is a very good source for people searching that area. The other book which is of interest to us. It is "Cherokee by Blood, volume 9 by Jerry Wright Jordan". Jerry is a member of the Wright List that I belong to, (another good list). I sent him an email telling him about the clipping and am mailing it to him today. We chatted back and forth for a couple of emails and Jerry told me that his grandmother Wright's, maiden name was Hendon, she was born in Cowetta County Ga. but her parents grew up in TROUP COUNTY. Small world isn't it. In the article Mrs. Phethean states "Cherokee By Blood, Volume 9 of a series, deals with the records of eastern Cherokee Ancestry in the U.S. Court of Claims 1906-1910, compiled by Jerry Wright Jordan, and published by Heritage Books Inc. These books will be sought after for the major help they offer in tracing Cherokee ancestry. The series follows families through all the claims filed by people individually, and organizes them so that you can locate the files for cousins as well as siblings, and compare their applications, in the hope that you will be able to make a family connection. The stories contained in the applications are so detailed that you can follow the journey of the applicant through his whole life. Grievances over treaties, filed by the Cherokee, were recognized by the courts, and more than a million dollars in reparations was awarded. To determine who should get the money, Guion Miller investigated the claims of more than 45,000 Cherokee. Many were rejected for various reasons, and these files became the basis for the books. The original report was microfilmed but it is very hard to use, the author of this book has tried to put together the claims of relatives and has kept the file numbers with each application, so that it is possible to tie families together. The stories in the applications are engrossing, and it's easy to understand the difficulites of deciding on the rightful applicants. Names, places, and relationships given in the applications may help to identify a Cherokee ancestor, or occasionally to refute the claim of Indian blood. Whether the claim was accepted or rejected these books can be helpful in locating Indian connections. If you know the number of the application of an ancestor, you can choose the book which deals with that application in a Heritage books catalog in the Leesburg library. "Cherokee By Blood", any of the nine volumes may be ordered from Heritage Books, Inc. 1540-E Pointer Ridge Place, Suite 300, Bowie Md. 20716. Each volume is $36 plus $4 shipping costs. Credit cards, money orders or checks are welcome. End For those of you searching your Indian Heritage, you may want to go to the Library or Archives to check out the catalogue to see which volume deals with your family and order it for your personal Library while they are still available. Hilda