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/VgB.2ACE/459.1.2.1 Message Board Post: If you had as much difficulty tracing your ancestry as most people doing their best with very little information to go on BECAUSE of the persecution of their ancestors, you might be a little more understanding and respectful when addressing them.No one has ever held that your personal family members didn't suffer persecution but you do not know personally all the types and means of persecution other peoples famiy went through. Perople know from from oral history and a few written records bits and pieces of their ancestry and are doing their best to find the truth. Most Cherokee that I know would never speak to a kin,near kin, or searching kin in such a shameful and disrespectful manner. It is possible that records do not reveal all things and no one person or handful of people know everything about their ancestors when 'if they themselves are honest' don't know all things about themselves even. It is better to respect other peoples efforts and not to critsize others...they just might be your kin and what would your ancestors think of THAT