If you could spend a day with one ancestor... (Indian, find, estate)
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I would want to spend the day with my great-great-great Cherokee Grandfather who came to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. I would ask him what his life was like in the Appalachians before the forced removal, how he managed to survive the move, and how his life had changed after relocating. I would ask him what his feelings were toward Andrew Jackson. I would also ask him how he would feel about having such a "watered-down" family over the last 150 years. I might even ask him to pass the peace-pipe if it was cool to share with a woman.
I would have to flip a coin to choose between my maternal great grandfather and my paternal great grandfather. My maternal ggf could not read or write but appears to have been a great business man owning hundreds of acres in these AR hills. I would like to know how he did that. My paternal ggf on the other hand had a "normal" education for the time but owned little real estate and seldom showed up on census records. During his lifetime he moved from KY to TX, to MO, to TX, to AR, so my first thought is that he happened to be moving during census time, but, after he finally settled in AR he still didn't show. Was he dodging the Census Taker, or did he live so far back in these AR hills that he was missed. I would like to ask him, "Why".
I have a something-great grandmother who I believe was an orphan train rider. She's my toughest "dead end" ancestor. I know when and where she was born (in Brooklyn), but can find no trace of her and her parents. Beyond the facts of her life, which are interesting enough ... I'd want to spend the day getting some answers about her parents!!!!!!
After re-reading Milleka, I realized I would really like to talk to my maternal great great great grandmother. I would ask her if her husband was Cherokee as family oral history states, or who was he and why can't we find out anything about him, and what happened to him.
There are so many of us with Indian ancestory who know next to nothing about our past b/c many did not sign up on the Dawes rolls. I understand why, but I really wish I knew more about my Cherokee side.
My maternal g-grandmother. She was my g-grandfather's 3rd wife and died in childbirth with my grandmother. I have items from her -- but know nothing about her. I was about 7 when my grandmother died, so she could tell me nothing either.
My family can't be traced before coming to the US (around the 1880s-90s), since we're Russian/Polish Jews - and they didn't keep records on us back then. So I'd just like to meet my paternal grandfather, who was murdered in 1967... I wasn't born until 1976, and therefore never got to meet him. I'd also like to know my paternal grandmother, who I technically did get to meet, but she died when I was only 3 years old. I look just like her, and always hear what a sweet person she was!
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I'd also like to know my paternal grandmother, who I technically did get to meet, but she died when I was only 3 years old. I look just like her, and always hear what a sweet person she was!
