[LadyRobyn]

If you don't mind me asking...

Some things a few of you have mentioned, (jessaka's great-grandmother and the trail of tears, redbird learning the teaching of his people etc.) got me to wondering.

We may have been born in CA, but our roots are deep here. My Father was born here (and came back in 1976) , my Grandfather is buried here as is my Great-Grandfather and possibly my Great-great Grandfather. (still working to confirm WHERE he is buried)

My strongest roots are in and around Jefferson county, with tendrils reaching into Carter, Love and Northern Texas. My great-grandparents had their first child (of 11) in Sulphur, OK 1884.

My husband's family (father's side) are from Bryan county... Blue, OK. late 1880's as I have been able to trace so far. (still working on some details )

We came back to visit my Dad in 1994 and the moment I stepped out of the car I knew I was HOME. Very hard to explain, but the sensation was overwhelming...when our 3 weeks were up I cried off and on all the way back to CA and I vowed to return HOME someday, someway!!

I'm here to live and learn... still trying to shake off a few bad behaviours from too many years on the west coast. I can always count on my Dad though... that one raised eyebrow always stops me cold! He is my compass and my ancestors are my 'Map' to this magnificent state.

[_redbird_]

...so deep, my ankles are red.

(I know. Don't quit my day job.)

[Nameless]

About 28 years or so. My parents moved here from Atlanta in like 1979. Almost all of family is from the north. Parents are from Iowa and Wisconsin. I feel a bit displaced here compared to my family roots. But I was born here and for the most part love it. Especially the people.

[Synopsis]

Good post LadyRobyn. My roots go way back. As far back as I can see on my family tree everyone was born in Oklahoma; even before statehood. Although I'm 46, my father was 57 when I was born. So, he was born in 1904, three years before statehood (near Eufala). His father/my grandfather was killed when my father was five (around 1909). My grandad was born in the 1870s and was a Federal Marshal in the Indian Territories; he was killed by a member of the Belle Starr gang (shot in the back of the head). My mother was born in Arkansas but moved to Oklahoma very young. Her mother/my grandmother was from Oklahoma.

[peggydavis]

Almost 50 years for me. My parents moved here in 1958 or 1959. It was the year Oklahoma first had liquor stores. My parents were from South Dakota and Minnesota.

I wasn't born here, but I got here as quick as I could, as the saying goes.

[Mattie Jo]

I was born with my roots in OK. My mom talked about her mother often. Her mother even posed for an Indian calender, and we still have the photo, but it is a nudee, so it can't be posted. I thought that rather racy of my grandmother doing that back in the 1920s or so. Don't recall the real date.

Sometime in the 80s I went to visit my relatives in Ardmore, OK, and they denied any Indian blood. Said that they didn't even know what an Indian looked like. That was a put off for me. Photos of my grandparents have Indian characteristics, and we all have high cheek bones. I have tawny skin when my tan starts to fade. When I was young kids in CA where I grew up asked me if I were Mexican.

In high school I did a term paper on the Trail of Tears and had also spent time tracing my ancestry. I could never find the connection, but in the Roll books there are a lot of Mary Jane Browns and one Nancy Jane Clementine Hobbs. So I don't know, but I thought of doing a DNA.

So no matter what I have always considered my roots to be Cherokee, but not necessarily OK. But I do feel rooted here now. The moment we drove into Tahlequah I had a feeling about this town, it was a good feeling, and I don't know why, except to say that a Cherokee woman tried to explain something about this being a spiritual vortex? I can't recall.

[rugratref]

My Great Grandfather came to America from Switzerland. I know he was in NY for a time, but soon came to Oklahoma for the Land Rush. On the way to Oklahoma, his wife died (not sure why/how) He met my Great Grandmother on the way and they married. I assume he recieved land as he lived in Oklahoma after that. He's buried in OK, but I don't know where. My Dad only knows bits and pieces about his Grandfather, as his father passed when Dad was only 10. Great Grandfather was known about town as "Old Dutch Pete" as his German accent was so very thick, (guess the locals came up with that nickname). I've been doing some research, but it is a slow process. Especially since the orginal surname was changed upon his arrival to America...it was shortened.
I was born in Ft Smith Ark...but my family moved back to Oklahoma when I was only two months old. I lived in Oklahoma until I was 29 yrs old. I still have family that lives there, all across the state.

Yeah, I'd say I have roots in Oklahoma.

[flintysooner]

My families came in the 1890's. We still own a couple of farms they settled well before statehood. My wife's family home was built about 1900.

[LadyRobyn]

What great answers! Thank-you all, it's nice to know I'm not alone.

Redbird, I would have thought you to be knee-deep at least!

flintysooner, that is so great! I have faint memories of the place my Dad calls the "Old Homestead" even though I was only 3 when we visited. (can't remember stuff from last week, but I can still recall my Grandma's out house and her cats in 1963! Go figure. ) It isn't far from where we are now and Dad has taken me back to the site... nothing but a big tree on top of a hill now.

I wasn't born here, but I got here as quick as I could, as the saying goes.

Well Peggy you still got here SOONER than we did!! My Dad did try to get my Mom back here many times but she was from NW Arkansas and wanted nothing to do with OK.

Nameless, I always felt that way in CA too. I was born there, and I DO have a lot of happy memories but somehow I never felt like it was MY home even growing up in a house my Mother's family had owned for 50 years.

Synopsis, Yours is the kind of history I wish I could put together! My Dad was the youngest of 5 children (like me) which meant all of my "elders" had passed on by the time I reached adulthood, so information is hard to come by. Because of a few old family stories, I spent ALOT of time researching several of the old "Gangs" from that era.

jessaka and rugratref, Our situations sound VERY similar. I've been doing genealogy work off and on for 7-8 years now... I managed to find (and reunite) my siblings with their Father's family, and thought I had my Mother's side well established all the way back to England, only to have DNA testing lop my Gr-gr-gr-gr-Grandfather completely off THAT tree! (They were Spurlocks, Ledbetters and Rogers) *sigh*

My Dad's side is quite the mystery, I grew up hearing that I had Cherokee blood, then heard from distant cousins that they thought it might be Chickasaw. We have documented everything back to my Gr-gr- Grandfather, and have plotted his movements with Census forms back to the mid 1880's here in Ok... But that's where it gets odd.

Can't seem to find ANY evidence of where he was born or who his parents really were, the names and locations that DID get passed down don't match anything at all. I've connected with quite a few distant cousins over the years and we all hit the same brick wall.

There are a few old stories that make it seem like something happened back then, and we are afraid that good old "Perry Ransom" changed his name altogether! He and his wife moved all over Indian Territory and down into Northern Texas from the 1880's to nearly 1920... On EVERY census form we located he gave HIS parent's birthplace as a different location, everything else was fairly accurate.

I've considered DNA testing as well, but I am my Father's only child and the Paternal DNA link is only passed down in the "Y" chromosome. All of my male cousins have scattered like seeds on the Oklahoma wind.

I wish my Father's tree was as simple as my Husband's!! He is Choctaw/German on his Father's side and Chukchansi/English on his Mother's side. His Mom's people were some of the first California settlers.

I'm just hoping to leave enough evidence that some of the younger genealogists can make the connection someday...

[Goodpasture]

I was born in Enid, my dad was born in Enid, his mom and dad were born in Missouri and came to OK with the land rush. My mom's mom was descended from the Old Settler Roles of the Cherokee, but never proved up their blood. During the turn of the last century being Indian was somewhat lower than being black, so a lot of families denied their heritage. My mom's father was born on the Island of Maui. His last name was MacKenzie, as was his older brother's. I visited with some decendents of my great grandmother a while back, though, and it seems my grandfather was born two years after my great grandfather died. As my great grandmother WAS Hawaiian, and I know of at least 7 of her children with different last names, it could have been anyone. So I presume, as does his nephews and nieces, my great grandfather was an unknown Hawaiian from Maui......either that or someone else entirely.

But my roots are from the days of the land rush.......Sooner born and Sooner bred......when I go I'll be Sooner dead........