This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: CelesteHolly51 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.lawson/6860.1.1.1.2.2.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Actually the Cherokee were in that area of what later became Henry, Pitts., and PCVA until 1761 when they sold that land to the British by a treaty where the British paid them for that land. There definity had been Cherokee in that area for yrs. It was one of their main hunting grounds and some had started to settle but were pushed south into NC by British settlers moving in so they sold to the British. Then some individual Cherokee stayed behind as our guy (b c 1700) did. He was probably the Robert (called Robert "Sr" later in Henry Co.,VA) Hooker who acquired land in the 1740s and 50s in the area that became Pitts. and Henry Co., VA when those counties were formed. There are land records of this. His son b c 1730 in that area was said to be full-blood Cherokee by MANY of his descendants in the Guion Rolls (probably was only 1/2 or so Cherokee). This son b c 1730s was called Robin/Robert (jr) Hooker. He and his wife Alice/Ali also bought and sold land in Henry Co.,VA in the 1870s and 1880s. Their children (for sure sons Wm b c 1755 and Samuel b c 1765 and probably some other sons named Robert [b c 1761 who lived in PCVA] and maybe a James and John - who probably went to Randolph Co., NC) were born in that area of what became Pitts and Henry Co.,VA along the NC line and lived in the area of Henry, along the Dan River, which became PCVA when PCVA was formed. So there is much info on Cherokee in that area. Later after the Trail of Tears roundup c 1835 the Eastern Cherokee who had still been on the Cherokee land and escaped and hid re-located in central western NC (Cherokee, NC) along the Blue Ridge in an area which had been part of their traditional lands which stretched originally from southwest VA into NC and down to GA and west into TN and AR. First, they gave up southwest VA to the British and later slowly gave up land to the new US Gov't due to broken treaties in the 1800s which is why the law suit was brought which led to the Eastern Cherokee Funds and the Guion Miller Rolls. Because our Hooker guys had been living "off" Cherokee lands in 1835 when the Cherokee were rounded up in the Trail of Tears, and because they lived as "white" in white communities for a long time before 1835, they were turned down for the Cherokee funds as were many from PCVA. Many families from the area of the present PCVA have a long history of Cherokee heritage and there are Cherokee and other older Native American (maybe ancestors of the Cherokee) sites in PCVA. As you said earlier the long history of Cherokee heritage in the PCVA families, and their knowledge of their ancestors and their customs is evidence of this ancestry. Also, this Q1a3 haplo has been seen in present day "official" Cherokee males. More reeserch on that is now being done by several groups. Celeste 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.