You've gathered little bits of information from your family tradition, your own research and from other people.

Let's try putting the pieces together to see how the puzzle is coming along.

On this page I will take some typical queries and work through the information that can be gathered from them.  Many times you can answer your own question by rearranging what you have.

Lets's see:

Linda M wrote:

"Several years ago my sister sent me copies of several pages from Cherokee by Blood, while researching our great-grandmother.

I don't know what volume this is from, but listed on Page 406-407, under 1347. Virginia Powell, is Misc. Test. P.2370 No 42759 (42706) Eliza C. Rowden. Eliza was claiming her Indian blood through her mother and grandmother, Eliza Harguss. This was apparently an exception case which was rejected.

I just received from another individual info on the 1860 census listing our Hargis with his wife and children. One daughter was Eliza, his wife's name was Eliza J. (born where? unknown). The dates and names are close enough to those in the Cherokee by Blood record to be relevant."

First, I want to point out that this was a very well worded query. Also, Linda had gleamed information from two sources and saw a possible connection.

Now we will pick the query to pieces and put it back together again.

Linda had received the first bit of information from her sister but did not know the source of the information.

RULE #1: Whenever you receive something of this nature from someone else, ALWAYS ask for the SOURCE of the information. You will need it and if you ever pass it on to someone else, they will need it.

Piece #1:

"Page 406-407, under 1347. Virginia Powell, is Misc. Test. P.2370 No 42759 (42706) Eliza C. Rowden. Eliza was claiming her Indian blood through her mother and grandmother, Eliza Harguss. This was apparently an exception case which was rejected."

I was able to give Linda the name of the source, it was Cherokee by Blood, vol. 1.
Eliza C Rowden was Miller Applicant 42759, from MO, and as stated was rejected BUT related in some way to the Virginia Powell of App #1347 - that's why her testimony was linked to App #1347 and when anyone looks up Eliza's application #42759, it will probably state what that relationship was.

For the benefit of the others who are reading this here is basically what Eliza Rowden's testimony stated.

It does not state whether she was married or not but that she was born in 1874 in Jasper Co, MO, so we can assume that a 34 year old woman was married in 1908 which is when the testimony was given. She said her mother was born in Johnson Co, ARK. She does not give her mother's name or date of birth. She stated that Eliza Harguss was the MAIDEN name of her grandmother who was born about 1816, place unknown.

Piece #2:

"I just received from another individual info on the 1860 census listing our Hargis with his wife and children. One daughter was Eliza, his wife's name was Eliza J. (born where? unknown). The dates and names are close enough to those in the Cherokee by Blood record to be relevant."

There are no ages for the parents or the daughter, but that's OK. We know that a male Hargis and his wife Eliza J were married and had a daughter named Eliza in the 1860 census.

For demonstration purposes we are going to add assumed ages for this family.  You can generally assume that a male was at least 20 years old when he married. A woman could be anywhere from 13 and up, but for this illustration we will assume age 17 for her.  In 1860 this family had AT LEAST two children.  

Let's put down some census data:

BACK TO PIECE #1 NOW:

Eliza Rowden wasn't born until 1874, so we will eliminate her.

Eliza Rowden's mother - we will have to estimate her birthdate as somewhere between 1816 (the grandmother's dob) and 1874 (Eliza's date of birth).  This could have been anytime between about 1830 and 1866. Keep in mind a woman's childbearing ages. The grandmother COULD have had a child as late as 50 years old, not probable but possible.

Now, let's see what we might have had in 1860.

unknown male        m    ??    ? [birthplace]
Eliza (Harguss)      f     44     ?
daughter                 f       ?     ARK [Johnson Co]

It looks POSSIBLE, but wait - HARGUSS was Eliza's MAIDEN NAME. We DON'T know her married name, but it probably was NOT HARGUSS.

NOW LOOK AT THOSE TWO PIECES TOGETHER -

   They look like they'll fit, but NOT QUITE.  They just fit in that one little spot.  So, it's back to the puzzle box. That 1st piece may fit in somewhere because we have another family claiming Cherokee ancestry through the name HARGUS - so we're not going to throw it away, just put it back in the box.

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This page was created 1 October 1998 by Jerry Wright Jordan.