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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Hefley sir name and the Cherokee Indians
Well, here I went again. Researching for more connections to the Indians Nations. Which I must tell you, is not easy, to say the least.
I was researching the Heffley family of Lancaster County, Pa. and was told by them, that they were 1/16th Cherokee Indian. I knew that somewhere there had to be records saying this fact. You cannot just claim yourself to be Cherokee. So I started searching. First of course I went into the Indian census, and didn't find any Heffley's there on Indian Territory. Then I went on several web sites for Choctaw, and found a woman by the name of Dorcus E. Casteel. She had a daughter Mary Jane ( Mollie ) Casteel Heffley. Dorcus was trying to get reconized as a Choctaw, so she filled out the Dawes Packet, which is an application for membership to the Choctaw Nation. I went on Footnote.com and found her application and copied it. I read the whole thing. And it seems that she was turned down for not having enough proof of her ancestors being in the Mississippi area during the Treaty of the Choctaw in 1830. So she wasn't reconnized to the tribe. Yet her ( Dorcus's ) Great-Grand Mother was full blooded Cherokee and her name was Mary Cloud. Now the further I researched this family, the more I found Indian Blood. Not just with Dorcus, but also with her husband John Morgan Casteel. His Great GrandFather married Princess Nokalackey, a full blooded Cherokee Indian. So both sides of Mary Jane parents had Choctaw and Cherokee Indian Blood in them.
Now I found two really good web sites for information on these two tribes. One is:
MyChoctawFamily.com, That is a web site by Chuck Hudson. I very nice and informative man. He helped me out alot on this research, and Bob Blankenship. If you just Goggle his name, his web site will come up. He is on the Council in Cherokee Nation in North Carolina. You can get alot of information from him also. I got the application of Jennie Y. Hefley who I found on the Guion Miller Index, which is an application to the Cherokee Nation. She and her children were excepted as Cherokee.
With these Hefleys / Heffleys that I found, both were Indian Blooded women who married Hefley / Heffley men. So I almost came to a conclusion that the Heffleys that I am researching are NOT Cherokee Blood in any way.
That's where Joseph W. Heffley comes in. Joseph was born on June 30th 1857-1858 ( 1858 was on his tombstone ) he died on December 24th 1904. He married a woman named Elizabeth ( Lizzie ) C. Enck, she was born June 12th 1866, and died January 31 1928. They had one baby that lived for two days and passed on November 22nd. 1900, One daughter Kate, and one Sallie Enck Heffley . It's Sallie who is the one who told her children that they were 1/16th Cherokee.
Now that's where the hard part comes in. I cannot, for the life of me, find Joseph's parents anywhere. There is no obituary of him, his death record has no parents mentioned, his marriage License Docket does not mention his parents because he was of age, the census has his parents as Donmoyers in 1880 and after Joseph passed away, his wife and baby Sallie went to live with a Peter Heffley, but if you compare dates there, Peter is only 10-11 years apart from Joseph. I looked for Peters parents and there are alot of Peter Heffley's out there, so I'm not sure. I thought maybe, Peter was Joseph's brother.
So what really started out as a search for Heffley Cherokee Blood, ( Which by the way, if I don't find Joseph's parents, I may never find any Cherokee ), Ended up to be a mad search for Joseph W. Heffley....................
And we're off......................................
I was researching the Heffley family of Lancaster County, Pa. and was told by them, that they were 1/16th Cherokee Indian. I knew that somewhere there had to be records saying this fact. You cannot just claim yourself to be Cherokee. So I started searching. First of course I went into the Indian census, and didn't find any Heffley's there on Indian Territory. Then I went on several web sites for Choctaw, and found a woman by the name of Dorcus E. Casteel. She had a daughter Mary Jane ( Mollie ) Casteel Heffley. Dorcus was trying to get reconized as a Choctaw, so she filled out the Dawes Packet, which is an application for membership to the Choctaw Nation. I went on Footnote.com and found her application and copied it. I read the whole thing. And it seems that she was turned down for not having enough proof of her ancestors being in the Mississippi area during the Treaty of the Choctaw in 1830. So she wasn't reconnized to the tribe. Yet her ( Dorcus's ) Great-Grand Mother was full blooded Cherokee and her name was Mary Cloud. Now the further I researched this family, the more I found Indian Blood. Not just with Dorcus, but also with her husband John Morgan Casteel. His Great GrandFather married Princess Nokalackey, a full blooded Cherokee Indian. So both sides of Mary Jane parents had Choctaw and Cherokee Indian Blood in them.
Now I found two really good web sites for information on these two tribes. One is:
MyChoctawFamily.com, That is a web site by Chuck Hudson. I very nice and informative man. He helped me out alot on this research, and Bob Blankenship. If you just Goggle his name, his web site will come up. He is on the Council in Cherokee Nation in North Carolina. You can get alot of information from him also. I got the application of Jennie Y. Hefley who I found on the Guion Miller Index, which is an application to the Cherokee Nation. She and her children were excepted as Cherokee.
With these Hefleys / Heffleys that I found, both were Indian Blooded women who married Hefley / Heffley men. So I almost came to a conclusion that the Heffleys that I am researching are NOT Cherokee Blood in any way.
That's where Joseph W. Heffley comes in. Joseph was born on June 30th 1857-1858 ( 1858 was on his tombstone ) he died on December 24th 1904. He married a woman named Elizabeth ( Lizzie ) C. Enck, she was born June 12th 1866, and died January 31 1928. They had one baby that lived for two days and passed on November 22nd. 1900, One daughter Kate, and one Sallie Enck Heffley . It's Sallie who is the one who told her children that they were 1/16th Cherokee.
Now that's where the hard part comes in. I cannot, for the life of me, find Joseph's parents anywhere. There is no obituary of him, his death record has no parents mentioned, his marriage License Docket does not mention his parents because he was of age, the census has his parents as Donmoyers in 1880 and after Joseph passed away, his wife and baby Sallie went to live with a Peter Heffley, but if you compare dates there, Peter is only 10-11 years apart from Joseph. I looked for Peters parents and there are alot of Peter Heffley's out there, so I'm not sure. I thought maybe, Peter was Joseph's brother.
So what really started out as a search for Heffley Cherokee Blood, ( Which by the way, if I don't find Joseph's parents, I may never find any Cherokee ), Ended up to be a mad search for Joseph W. Heffley....................
And we're off......................................
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