you might also try the Cherokee list from Rootsweb for resources. There are some folks on there who have spent a long while beating the paper bushes for information and can tell you where to start looking. If there is Cherokee in your line, you have the advantage in the tradition they had as good record-keepers. Don't overlook the census entries marked "mulatto" on the census. This meant anyone of color - even as little as 1/16th "colored blood" would label one as non-white even into the 1940s. It is a Catch-22 of sorts, though. On one hand, someone with a trace amount of Native blood could be labeled mulatto. On the other hand, many of "mixed blood" who could "pass" as Caucasian, did so -- changed their names, moved to where they were not known and for as far as anyone knew where as "white" as the original Pilgrims from the Mayflower. Some saw it as the only way to improve their lot in life.