GEORGE-L Archives

Archiver > GEORGE > 2002-11 > 1038285444


From: "Jerry Bryan" <>
Subject: [GEORGE-L] Rebecca Frances George, Cherokee?
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 23:37:31 -0500


My ggg grandparents in Jefferson County, Tennessee were Rebecca Frances
George and her husband Thomas Fielden Slaton. They moved from North
Carolina to Tennessee in about 1849. Rebecca Frances George was b. 7 Mar
1816 in North Carolina, d. 5 Jan 1892 in Jefferson County, Tennessee, and
married 14 Feb 1840 in Stokes County, North Carolina to Thomas Fielden
Slaton.

Rebecca Frances George is a brick wall. The closest I have to a plan to
find her parents is to look in Stokes County and neighboring counties for a
will or settlement for a George man who might have had a daughter named
Rebecca Slaton. There are very few North Carolina records in my library in
Tennessee, so I will probably have to drive to North Carolina to conduct my
search, and it feels like looking for a needle in a haystack.

However, I have a new lead. According to two g granddaughters of Rebecca
Frances George at a family get together, Rebecca Frances George was a
Cherokee. The story goes that the reason we know so little about her is
that many of the Cherokee who stayed behind wouldn't acknowledge being
Cherokee for fear of being shipped west. I'm going by memory, but I believe
the Cherokee removal was about 1836-1839, so the timeframe fits well with
the date of her marriage.

I know it's a shot in the dark, but does this story ring any bells with
anybody? I am well aware that many family stories of Cherokee or other
native American ancestry turn out not to be true. But I think this one is
worth checking out in Cherokee records. My fear is that even if the story
is true, there may be nothing to back it up in Cherokee records because of
Rebecca Frances George presumably not acknowledging that she was a Cherokee.
Any help gratefully accepted.

Jerry Bryan


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