I am helping my husband research his family history and our biggest roadblock has been finding information on his relatives from McDowell County because of some Cherokee lineage that his Grandmother (who is part Cherokee - we think either 1/2 or 1/4) refuses to talk about. Somewhere along the way she was taught that is was bad to be part Cherokee or that she should be ashamed of that heritage. Unfortunately, it is like they just disowned that part of their family history. Whenever we ask, she always says "I don't know. We didn't have anything to do with those people". Her maiden name was Pearl Lena Godfrey. Her parents are James Whitney "Whit" Godfrey (whom we have alot of info on his ancestors) and Etta (Towee?) Dale. We know almost nothing about Etta's parents. Etta's mother's first name was Julia and all we know of her father is that his last name was Dale. Etta was born somewhere between 1885-1888 and died in 1943. Our info says that she was buried in Oak Grove Cemetary in Marion, NC but I haven't been able to confirm that. We also have that she and James were married in McDowell County on August 8, 1903 by WP Craig - Justice of the Peace. I am in the process of trying to obtain a copy of their marriage license. We also don't know if Towee was her middle name, a nickname, or a given Cherokee name. If anyone has any info at all, we would be extremely grateful. Even if its that we aren't even close.

Thanks so very much,

Tanya Smiley