Oklahoma Freedmen Ancestry to be Featured on Blog Talk Radio Show

Many who are active in the genealogy community are quite familiar with the weekly program hosted by genealogist and author Bernice Alexander Bennett. On August 31, her show will feature 4 genealogists who will speak on their genealogical experience as descendants of Oklahoma Freedmen. The Freedmen were those men, women and children once enslaved by citizens of the Five Civilized Tribes. The panelists will share the genealogical process and the documents they used to uncover their family history.

Nicka Sewell-Smith, will speak about her experience documenting her ancestors from the Cherokee Nation. Terry Ligon, will speak about documenting his ancestors who were Chickasaw Freedmen. Ron Graham will share his experiences documenting his family history from the Creek Nation, and yours truly-Angela Walton-Raji will speak about documenting the Walton and Perry ancestors from the Choctaw Nation.

Ms. Smith is a direct descendant of Ike Rogers, the well known US Deputy Marshall who served Indian Territory under Judge Isaac C. Parker. Her family from Vinita, Fort Gibson and other places in the Cherokee Nation is well documented. She shares much of her research on her website Who is Nicka Smith Nicka Smith is also the host of Black Pro Gen, a bi-weekly Google hangout where professional genealogists discuss methods and strategies in a live on camera gathering. She is also a professional photo journalist and documentarian, and serves as a member of the faculty of MAAGI, the Midwest African-American Genealogy Institute.

Terry Ligon's story is fascinating when he shares the amazing genealogical data that he uncovered and learned about his ancestor Bettie Ligon, who was chief litigant in a complex legal case involving over 2000 freedmen. He hosts the blog The Black and Red Journal and also a group on Facebook, called The Indian Territory Reader. He has taught numerous genealogy classes, and was a major instructor in the Choctaw-Chickasaw Freedmen conference several years ago in Oklahoma City. Mr. Ligon has also produced a number of videos on YouTube reflecting not only his history, but many aspects of the complex history of  Oklahoma Freedmen.

Ron Graham is active in many aspects of genealogy of Oklahoma Freedmen. With strong family ties to the Muskogee Creek Nation, Mr. Graham served for several years as president of the Muscogee Creek Freedman Band, a group whose mission is to preserve, and teach history and genealogy of Creek Freedmen. He has conducted genealogy classes and worked with clients seeking assistance with the enrollment process. He continues to be active with the Descendants of Freedmen Association of Oklahoma. He continues to teach throughout Oklahoma and most recently taught a class at the Cherokee Ancestry conference in Talequah Oklahoma.

Angela Walton-Raji hosts the African-Native American Genealogy Blog, the African-Native American genealogy website, and  she hosts the longest running message board focusing on researching Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, on AfriGeneas. Author of Black Indian Genealogy Research, the first and only book devoted to researching the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, Ms. Walton-Raji continues to devote time and energy to teaching and writing in many arenas. She has the longest ongoing genealogy podcast devoted to African American genealogy, with over 400 episodes available free online. Ms. Walton-Raji is also a founding member and faculty member of MAAGI and coordinates the Writer's Track at the Institute. She has spoken nationally at AAHGS, FGS, Roots Tech, SCGS, and the International Black Genealogy Summit.

Bernice Bennett, host of the weekly program "Research at the National Archives & Beyond" on Blog Talk Radio, is well known for her efforts to feature genealogists, writers and scholars who share a compassion for telling the African American family story. Next week's show will be the first program of its kind featuring the topic of genealogical resources for descendants of the Oklahoma Freedmen.

The show will air at 9pm (eastern time) on Blog Talk Radio. To hear the program simply go to: www.blogtalkradio.com/bernicebennett. Click on the episode's name to hear the live broadcast. To join the live online chat room, log in by creating a free account, or log in through Facebook or Twitter.

Exploring the Cherokee 1890 Census

The recent partnership between the Oklahoma Historical Society and Ancestry has brought about more than 3 million records to the public. For Oklahoma researchers this is more than a gold mine, the data contains everything from census records to full color scans of  Dawes Cards, to marriage records, wills, unique tribal records and so much more. One special feature for Oklahoma researchers is the fact that while most US based researchers lament the tragic loss of the 1890 census, but Oklahoma researchers do have data from that year available. Many of the records from the Twin Territories (Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory) were never lost! And now, one does not have to travel to Oklahoma to see them, because one can easily research them online.

Oklahoma Historical Society Description: CHN 04 1890 Census of Cooweescoowee District A - TData from: Indian Marriage and Other Records, 1850–1920. Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Ancestry Source: Oklahoma and Indian Territory, Marriage, Citizenship and Census Records, 1841-1927 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA

I have written articles already about some of these records on my other two blogs. (Choctaw Freedmen Legacy, and African-Native American) However, because of the diversity of the data found within the Cherokee Nation 1890 census, I decided to post this article on my primary genealogy blog, because so many people can benefit from looking at this record set.

The records from the Cherokee Nation in 1890 focused on the four primary groups that lived within its borders. There were 1) native Cherokees, 2) adopted citizens,which included Cherokee Freedmen and Inter-married whites, 3) Delawares and 4) Shawnees. 

It should be pointed out that the qualtity of the scanned images is excellent, and generally load quickly on the site, and navigation is not complicated. The records are divided geographically by the various districts of the Cherokee Nation that existed at that time---Canadian, Coowescoowee, Delaware, Going Snake, Flint, Ilinois, Saline, Sequoyah, and Tahlequah Districts. I am showing images from the Cooweescoowee District below.

It its very clear to see how the citizens were described in the "Note to Census Takers" provided at the very front of the ledger.

Source: Same as above.

The design of the census schedule was different from the standard design of the US Federal Census. Personal information about the citizens was provided such as name, age, gender, race, and occupation.

The census schedule from 1890 census
Source: Same as above

This close up view provides a more detailed look at data collected.

Source: Same as Above.

It is also noted that this particular census schedule focused upon details of the land, and the personal property owned by each citizen, including crops, livestock as well as improvements made.

Additional Agricultural Data Collected

Source: Same as Above

At the end of each district is also a population summary. And one can see that data collected included native Cherokees, Delawares, Shawnees, Whites and Negroes. With the last two categories Intermarried white citizens were simply classified as "whites" and Cherokee Freedmen were simply classified as  "Negroes".

Summary of District's Data

Also it is important to keep in mind that this 1890 Cherokee Nation Census was made of persons who were citizens of the Cherokee Nation and this is not a census of persons considered to be "intruders". However note that there are Intruder census records that were collected in a separate group.

Hopefully many will see the value of one of the critical record sets reflecting the 1890 census year.

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