Is Barack Obama Cherokee

I'm researching Cherokee quilts, 1780-1830.  In doing so, I ran across an article asking whether Barack Obama is Cherokee.  It seems there is a story in his family that he has some Cherokee ancestry.  So, I followed the link (above, if you click the title to today's blog) and found some likely surnames to research.

Payne is one surname, and I remembered the famous Andy Payne, who ran the Bunion Derby across America.  There's a documentary film about Andy Payne with historical footage.

I was most intrigued by Sarah Bunch, who shows up at age 77 in the 1870 Newton County AR census, and who claimed to be from Virginia.  Her age would tend to make her a Cherokee Old Settler from the period 1812-1817 in the original Old Settler domain stretching from Batesville to basically the AR River at Fort Smith (ish).  But I see a householder in the census who might be a son (if he was born when she was in her 30s) born in TN about 1830.  I suppose it is possible that she came West after 1830 (perhaps on the removal) and settled with relatives who were thereafter deceased by 1870, in the former Cherokee domain.  By 1830 most Cherokees had moved on to Indian Territory, or become assimilated into Arkansas which was I think by then a state.  Some Cherokees remained in AR and gave up their Cherokee affiliation by attrition and assimilation, in order to keep their land in Arkansas.  An earlier AR census shows that Sarah was probably married to Nathaniel Bunch.  In 1850 this family shows up with many more householders.  A characteristic Cherokee name is Larkin, and that is a name of one son in 1850 living with the family.

Creekmore is a prevalent Indian name, but I think they are Creeks or Chickasaws and this line of his family lived in the Chickasaw Nation at, if I recall, Ada..  Christopher Reeve, Mariel Hemmingway, and Lyndon Baines Johnson are among some of his far-remote relatives, albeit not necessarily Cherokees.

Merely clues for further speculation and research.  As for Justin Timberlake... read the enclosure link.

Ross & Kin, a Ross Genealogy Reprint by Vera Dean-Ross and Kathy Tibbits

Ross & Kin 

Ross & Kin is a compiled genealogy of the descendants of John Wesley Ross, who shows up in the Ozark Mountains having been born perhaps in the 1820s.  There are mysteries about where he was born, and there are stories about his possible origin.  Even today in Newton and Pope County Arkansas, many of the families are descended from this original settler family.   Granville James (Jim) Ross published this book in about 1982 and it is out of print.  Over the years his wife Vera Dean-Ross kept margin notes in her copy, which refine and enlighten the original... sometimes adding a new generation of information or correcting things or adding clues.  Recently, Kathy Tibbits sponsored the edition's reprint.  It is essentially a photocopy of the original with Vera's margin notes, albeit sometimes faint since these were in pencil.  Now today, it is an essential tool for the next generation of Ross Family genealogists because of Jim & Vera's meticulous work.  Some day it may be revised to add the generations which have been born since about 1980, more photos and the fascinating history of the Old Settler Cherokee ancestors as they came west by wagon to settle there, as well as missionaries to the Cherokees who intermarried.    $28.87  plus shipping, available only at Lulu.com.  

After costs are recovered, half of profits go to a scholarship fund for Ross heirs.  

Surnames:  (among others) Ross, Standridge, Blevins, Meek, Meeks, Martin, Phillips, Goates, Hull, Carter, Jones, and hundreds more.

Geography:  Carroll County, Missouri Territory; Treat; Jasper; Newton County; Pope County; Dover; Russelville; Clarksville; Arkansas Territory; State of Arkansas; Green County Missouri;  Clay County Missouri; Dardanelle; Summers; Box Oklahoma; Vian Oklahoma;  California, and many more places.