This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: drdjones Surnames: Hooker, Lawson, Sizemore Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.lawson/6860.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Here is the real problem that you face in trying to confirm Cherokee ancestry. There were no Cherokees in Stokes or Surry counties when the Hookers, Sizemores and other families who do sometimes show a y-Indian haplogroup. This is because the Cherokees lived in the higher mountains, not on the foothills or the plains of NC. There is a book that you can read for free at Google books written by John Brickell in 1737 called "The Natural History of North Carolina". He spent a lot of time discussing the Indians and explains very well who lived where, and the fact that there were very few Indians by numbers anywhere in NC, as well as why there were likely few white males with an Indian y-haplogroup but perhaps many with an Indian mt-DNA haplogroup. The NC Indians died off very quickly after 1700. Likewise, the Indians were long gone from Patrick County and surrounding counties by the time the families from Stokes/Surry arrived in those counties. There is a written account of this from around 1820. A few settlers did reach Eastern Tennesse while the Cherokees were there and there are several Tennessee Supreme Court records--also free at Google--that identify where the Indians in Tennessee lived--primarily around the Chattanooga (and Cherokee County, NC), and Central Tennessee. Many were removed in the removal years, and some of they came back after removal. The pre-removal Cherokees were not friendly. There are numerous reports from General Sevier and in the newspapers of the 1790s in Tennessee about the murders of whites. When the Sizemores and related families from Stokes/Surry counties were rejected from the Eastern Cherokee roll, they were not reject because they were not Indian, but because they were not Cherokee Indians. You should go online at footnote.com and read the applications yourself. I think you will begin to see that the evaluators were very careful in their evaluation, and they had many official records of which Indian groups lived where and when to work with. They also had very good records of Indian groups living throughout the area. If you or your ancestor did not live in close proximity to known locations of the Cherokees at conception or you or the ancestor or were not on a previous roll, then you had no valid claim to be a Cherokee in the government's view. 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.