american indian ancestry?

Question

how can i find out what tribe my great grandmother belonged to if all i have is her first name and the name of my great grandfather? they were from west virginia. i dont have any family left to ask.

Answer 1

Probably the best you can do is to find out where she is from, exactly, then find a good history book naming the tribe(s) from that location, and just hope that is the correct tribe. You said great-grandmother; mine were born in the 1820's, but what about yours?
Another option is DNA testing; but I don't know if they can pin down a tribe...after all, Indians married women from a different tribe and moved into that tribe. Their lineage was traced through the women, not the men, as is the case with many Europeans.
Good luck!

Answer 2

Since you know your great-grandfather's name, I would suggest you go to www.cyndislist.com and check out her Native American pages. Being from West Virginia, chances are good that they were of the Cherokee tribe (one of several different tribes in West Virginia at the time of the English colonization). Anyway, at cyndislist.com you can find a link to the DAWES ROLLS, a government program between 1893 and 1907 intended to take an accounting of the 5 Civilized Tribes who were moved to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears, and try to convince them to change from the reservation system to an allotment plan. If your great-grandfather was alive then, he could possibly be listed here.

Answer 3

In all honesty THAT is gonna be hard to pull off. Since most 'last names' are adopted or given out. Way back when, we didn't have 'last names' That's a recent concept.

Best bet would be to hit up the Mormon church, and see what records they have about your family. They're known for keeping excellent records. For some reason they especially keep track of Indian families. They had my family tree back to 1850 all I had to do was ASK, They charged me a copy fee, didn't even try to convert me.