There have been rumors of some Native American heritage in my family through the Brown line for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories of my grandmother (born Brown) are of her telling me and my cousin that we were part Cherokee Indian. She and her sister applied to the Echota Cherokee tribe and received membership; however I have several records of her sister’s application being denied. Grandma carried her membership card everywhere.

I can easily be classified as “ginger” complected. I’ve always looked at this as an ironic amusement. I’ll get a sunburn thinking about going outside. So I’ve always had some reservation to the validity of these Native American roots.

I have been doing research on Zealous Brown, my 5th Great Grandfather. He seems to be the link in this family to the Cherokee ancestry…

… I have pretty solid evidence of the Brown family being European in origin, immigrating to Virginia in the early 1700s. Census records list all family members as “white.”  All the wives also seem to have “white” names and families. The only mention of Native American connection beyond my grandmother’s membership card is found in an application for tribe membership by the son of Zeal’s first daughter. It mentions that Zeal lived with the Cherokee for 5 years.  The application gives the Bird family as the primary Native American link and was denied.

Zeal was born in 1819, in Georgia. He was in Georgia until the 1870s when he relocated the family to Cleburne, Alabama. This means he was young to be involved in the start of the “Trail of Tears” in 1830, but was possibly involved later as a translater. Zeal appears on every census in Georgia from 1820 to 1870, except the 1860 census. I can’t find any record of a Zealous Brown in Georgia in the 1860 census. My speculation is that he may have been a translator or something for the Cherokee during this period, and lived with them during this era. I have no evidence supporting this theory.  I have searched Tribe rolls and Census records for evidence, but no Zealous Browns emerge.

I’m at quite a loss.  My grandmother and her family were adamant about having Cherokee blood.  They seemed pretty obsessed with the idea.  I cannot find any definite Native American link in the family tree though.