Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
Hello,
My name is Kenneth Burton, and I am doing genealogy research in the Chambers & Tallapoosa Co. Alabama area, and also the West Point Georgia.
My great-great aunt was a lady named America Hughley. the Earliest document I have of her (that I am sure about is a marriage record Jan. 1870 from the Chambers County courthouse of her marriage to a man named Sheppard Gilmer. The are both listed as colored.
On the 1870 Chambers County Alabama Census, America and Shepard Gilmer are listed as black. I do have subsequent Census records;i.e 1900, 1910, 1920 where she is using her maiden name.
She died Mar 12, 1931 at the age of 80 years. Our oral family history is that she was Native American, but I cannot find any other documents with this sir name. One of her nephews, a man name Zeke Hughley was living in the Nash Township, Muscogee County Oklahoma during the 1920's.
The sir name Miller might be associated with Hughley
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Re: Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
Ken, it is very possible they were Creek. The area you are researching there in AL and the area of Coweta County, GA were very much Creek areas, and many of the early information is about the Creeks. My ancestors were Creek in the same area, and some of them were listed as black or colored on some of the census records. Back then you were either white or black, and black covered everything else besides white. Our problem has been that even though we can prove they were Creek, their descendants didn't bother with rolls or whatever, so the tribe doesn't recognize these people - they may have gotten land grants during the treaties, as mine did, yet they aren't accepted as Creek simply because their kids didn't enlist. Very hard to deal with and very hard to research.
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Re: Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
I apologize for the delay in the reply. I have queries for several surnames floating on various sites.
So....what is your work-around to find out information?
I obtained the death certificate of my g g aunt (who died in 1931), but the informant had no knowledge of her parents or place of birth. Also the funeral home that handled the burial, had no records going back that far.
The certificate indicated she was buried in Opelika Alabama. I found an old cemetery (called the Ross Cemetery), where she could have been buried, but there are mostly field stones as grave markers. I do have a picture of her though.
My g g aunt America Hughley is the sister of my g g grandmother who died possibly from complications in labor. I started researching her because she raised my g grandmother.
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Re: Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
There's not really a work around - you can get paperwork and prove lineage all day, and the tribe still won't accept you unless you can prove lineage back to someone on the Dawes Rolls - that fact alone is the only way to get in. We have a copy of a land grant where my ggrandfather was given a land grant as part of the treaty, and it even shows his wife's name in Creek, and I can prove lineage to him, but the tribe says that's not good enough - if your ancestor did not enroll, you can't get in, period. So I'm proving lineage and not worrying so much about the blood thing - it appears I'm 1/4 Creek and 1/8 Cherokee, but none of my direct ancestors were on the rolls, just aunts and uncles and cousins, so I'm excluded from ever joining the tribe. Since that is the rule, I'm not going to continue to bang my head on this wall - I know in my heart what is true, and that's what is important to me. And this is what I will teach my children.
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Re: Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
I always thought Mulatto(sp) was half white and half black. Am I mistaken?
Barbara
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Re: Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
I had always heard the same thing, but it appears that's not always the case. Some of the mulattoes I've found are Creek Indian, not mixed at all.
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Re: Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
I believe that because they were Indian, a lot of those were listed as Mulatto claimed this to avoid being sent to OK or being killed. There was a movie called "True Women" made for Hallmark and in it one of the families was a white man married to a dark complexioned woman who claimed to be Mulatto because they were killing or imprisoning those with ANY Indian blood. I don't know how historically correct this was but I believe it may be somewhat true. I have a gg-grandmother that was supposedly full blood Indian, but she was never listed as such on any census or elsewhere that I can find. She was born abt 1850 in that area of GA/AL and they moved to TX around 1875. I believe that her parents were some of those listed as Mulatto since our earliest picture of her shows her in an outfit very similiar to the native costumes of the Creek Indians.
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Re: Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
I agree with this message. Some of my ancestors were listed as ' Black Dutch '....for the same reason.
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Re: Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
Additional census information on g-g-g aunt America Hughley (My native american ancestor).
I had much anticipated the release of the 1930 census, in hopes that I could obtain additional information on this individual. She died 1931 in Atlanta Georgia. To my horror and disappointment, the enumerator did not right very legibly and had a bad ink pen/pencil. Also this area of Atlanta where the colored people lived was micro-filmed poorly. For the US census 1870 - 1920 Chambers Co. Alabama: Her color is listed as follows: 1870 - Gilmer , America 19 F Black BEAT NO. 11 PAGE 131 1880 - * I cannot locate census record* 1900 - Hughley America 50 F Black E.D 11 PAGE 11 1910 - Hughley, Americus 52 Mulatto E.D.27 SHEET 4B 1920 - Hughley American 68 Mulatto E.D. 28 SHEET 25
*perhaps that 1880 census is a key!*
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Re: Mulattoes in Alabama, were they Creek Indians ?
It's my understanding that some of the 1880 census was lost in a courthouse fire.
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