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Hi, My name is Jerry Wright Jordan, and I am the compiler of the books that are called:
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I started researching a Cherokee family in 1976. I had begun genealogical research eleven years prior to that but this was something new for me and I made mistakes along the way. These mistakes were made because I did not know how to research Indian heritage and overlooked some very important information.
In my search I discovered the Guion Miller Roll of Eastern Cherokees that was created from 1906 to 1910. I found the family I was looking for but even then I made mistakes because I did not know the name of other family members. There were also other records and things that I had not been aware of.
But I did learn something very IMPORTANT and that was the Guion Miller Applications were an absolute goldmine of information. They were filled with family data that would take years and years for today's descendants to gather. There were pages and pages of testimony given by the applicants and people who knew them.
Even more exciting was the discovery that this vital information was available even for those people who were not able to prove their Cherokee connections.
There were 46,000+ applications and these were recorded on 348 rolls of microfilm in Washington, DC. I realized that it would be difficult to impossible for the average person to ever view these applications. (At that time they were not available outside of Washington, DC).
That's when I decided that I would publish the books Cherokee by Blood. That is what I have been doing for the past eleven years, and I'm not finished yet.
One of the benefits I have gained from transcribing the summaries of these applications is that I have learned the mistakes that those rejected applicants made. I learned how to search for those ancestors, what the rolls were, why some people were on them and some were not. I learned about Indian names, migration patterns, and the reluctance of many proven Cherokees to apply to the Dawes Commission.
There is a new generation of people searching for their Native American roots today. With the advent of the Internet more and more records are becoming readily available. I have read queries from people who think that everything is already online and if they can't find it "online" than it must not exist.
So I am prompted to begin another project in the hopes of helping more people. I want to show you how to begin your journey.
There are certain steps that you MUST follow if you want to avoid pitfalls and disappointments. By following these steps I guarantee that you will learn about your ancestors. I won't guarantee that you will find that elusive "princess" or "chief" but you will have a better chance than just by stumbling along.
Jerry
This page created by Jerry Wright Jordan.