I just ran into another post you made, I searched your other posts, and that led me here. Your Lorena is my aunt. :) I think I met her at grandma's funeral in 1963 (I was 10 years old) and I met her daughters then as well. But we lived in Oklahoma and yall were in Indiana, a long way off. I know momma talked to Aunt Lorena on the phone and they wrote each other because she was always happy to hear from her, and spoke fondly of those conversations and shared the letters, which I too read.

I have tried and tried to connect with Sequoyah and there juts are no records. But I did ake an autosomal DNA test and it did show we are mostly Caucasian, but also we have American Indian DNA as well -- so we are mixed race. Also I have a tin-type of Hariet sent to me by a descendant of great Aunt Ettie -- she definitely looks Indian. Our Indina lod might come through another source, though -- the Wayland's. Jeff Richey's parents were Joseph Richey and Sarah Ann Wayland.

Sarah was daughter of William Wayland, and they came from the first known Melungeon community, Russell/Scott Co.,in SW Va. Melungeons were known to have been of mixed race. I have an old photo taken from "History of Methodism in Arkansas" of Rev. Jonathan Wayland, and he is dark complected, and could easily be part Indian as well. He was first cousin to Sarah Ann, our ancestor. A photo of Sarah's son, Jeff Richey (1851-1926), my great grandpa, also is dark complected. I suspect we get Indian blood from both sources, but more recently from the Brown/Guess'es.

Also a great uncle of mine (Oscar Taylor Richey) wrote about when our family moved to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and the hardships we faced. It was published in "Indian Pioneer Papers", a 1930s publication to get old timers to tell what life was like in Indian Territory in the early days.

I have more information than I could possible mention here. Please email me at vhawkins1952@msn.com.

your cousin,

Vance Hawkins