A few people throughout the years have expressed an interest in locating a Benjamin Choat(e) on these message boards, and I'm going to add to that list!
According to the 1900 census, Benjamin provides May 1860 as his birth date, and that his parents were born in Georgia and Tennessee.
He married Zorah (Zora) Phillips, and died about just before 1910. By this year's census report, Zorah is listed as a widow, with 6 young boys. Anything more than this, is quite a mystery. It's unclear who his parents are, and I'm looking for actual documentation on anything tangible.
The name appears with the following spellings: Choat, Choate, Shoate, Shoat - There may be more variations that I'm not aware of.
These people are my direct relatives (2nd great-grandfather), and I would greatly appreciate any information that isn't already floating around on Ancestry. My great-aunt Shirley has also been researching this side of our family, and has contributed what she has to the databases. Shirley's father was William Choate of Oklahoma, who is Ben and Zorah's son. I am very familiar with the family line from William, onward.
There are a few things which throw off the research process on this Choat (Choate) line, however. For some reason, Benjamin suddenly shows up in records conducted after his death, with a Canadian birth, apparently out of the clear blue! He never claimed this on any existing records, so it's a mystery to me. It's of course possible that Benjamin worked in Canada, but that's about all I can make of the very odd claim.
It's also not true from any resource or piece of documentation that I can find anywhere, that this direct family line was part of any tribal nation, although they can be found living on Choctaw Nation land records after the government turned these lands into "Indian Territory" and proceeded to move white families in. These land records do NOT support any false claim that Benjamin, nor any of his direct relatives (parents, wife, nor children), were of native blood.
There are Choat (Choate) branches out there who are indeed of documented native blood, but not this particular line. Thanks for your help, in advance!