>Then a relative came along not that long ago that annouced that my >g-grandmother, Ora Etta Mason, was full blooded Cherokee. This is something >I find impossible to believe. I've traced the Mason family back to Germany. Where does this family originate in the US? Mason is a common name among blacks and mulattoes in this part of the country, dating back to the early 1700s. Claims to Indian ancestry were commonly used by light-skinned people people trying to camouflage black ancestry.