Were They Cherokee?

My dad was part Indian. Just what tribe and how much has been a matter of debate as long as I can remember. It seems as though there are a dozen different stories floating around my extended family.

At some point I figured out the stories about Indian ancestry are concentrated around Rachel (Roberson) Horn, my grandmother’s grandmother.

Rachel herself does not seem to have been Indian. The majority belief among her descendants is that she was Cherokee. Many descendants believe her family came West on the Trail of Tears in 1838. Close, but not quite. They came from the Cumberland Gap area of Virginia to northwestern Missouri between about 1835 and 1839, then later settled in Oklahoma.

I return to this topic time and again, trying to get a handle on it. There is enough uncertainty about Rachel’s ancestry to leave room for any number of Cherokee or other Indian connections.

The Robersons are said to have been a Cherokee family, If so, the connection must have been in the period immediately before the Civil War. James Roberson’s parents were not Cherokee, nor was his wife Catherine Helvey (although she had been mistress of Cherokee trader Nathaniel Barron prior to their marriage), although, like the Cherokee, they were Confederate sympathizers. Tradition says that James’ widow and children came west on the Trail of Tears in 1838, but again, I find no record of them between 1835 and 1839. The Cherokee connection was apparently through Rufus Roberson’s wife Elizabeth Lomax, whose mother seems to have been Cherokee. The Trail of Tears tradition must belong to the Lomax family, not to the Robersons.

1. Rachel’s grandfather James Roberson (c1780-1835) might have been Cherokee or part Cherokee. His parents are unknown. The first undoubted record of him is in Lee County, Virginia.
2. Rachel’s grandmother Catharina (Helvey) Roberson (1781-1851) might have been part Indian. Catharina could not have been full Indian. Her father Henry Helvey (1744-1792) was a German immigrant, but her mother Susanna (Gale) Helvey‘s parents are unknown. Susanna was sister of William Nathaniel Gale (c1740-?), an innkeeper in Carter County, Tennessee. Susanna is not documented with the surname Gale, so she might have been a half-sister, either paternal or maternal. If her unknown father was Anglo, it’s possible her unknown mother was Indian. It’s unlikely she was Cherokee. Susanna first appears in a 1777 land conveyance in Shenandoah County, Virginia. Some sources say Henry and Susanna Gale’s older children were born in Pennsylvania. If so, the case for Indian ancestry might be weaker than if Susanna were from the frontier area of Virginia and Tennessee.
3. Rachel’s (probable) grandfather Asahel Lomax (1787-bef 1870) came from a Quaker family in North Carolina and eastern Tennesee. One family tradition claims he was 1/4 Cherokee (or maybe Creek) through his grandmother Rachel Hare. I regard the identifcation of Rachel as Indian as unlikely.
4. Rachel’s grandmother Betty Jane (…) Lomax (c1790-aft 1830) could have been Cherokee. I have tentatively identified her an an Allen, based on DNA, but strictly speaking her parents are unknown. If she married Asahel Lomax in Wilson County, Tennessee, as seems likely, she is from the right area to have been Cherokee.

Instead of Cherokee, or in addition to being Cherokee, members of this family might have been Melungeon, but enough for now.