Our Native American Ancestor (?)

People may know that within the Clark family for many years it has been said that we had a native American ancestor. I have heard it was Mama's mother, then I heard it was Papa's father. I have never found any real evidence of it though, and put that question on a back burner.

Last week I was contacted by a man (Michael Moody) from Wichita Falls, Texas. Mike was responding to a bulletin board note I had posted a long time ago trying to find info about Henry Clark, Papa Clarks paternal grandfather.

Mike and I quickly identified we were talking about the same Clark. Mike sent me a terrific piece of work he had done defining all of Henry Clark's descendents and on our branch down to William Richard Clark (Papa's father).

I noticed that Henry's wife, Elizabeth Peak, had a comment alongside her name: "said to be Cherokee".

I traced through his 12 pages and six generations to find there is a living female ggggrandaughter of Elizabeth Peak living in Garland Texas. her name is Lisa Wier. I contacted her and she agreed to a mitochondrial dna test. I heard from Lisa last night and she has submitted the kit. When her mtdna is evaluated and her haplogroup known, we will know if Elizabeth Peak was Native American. We would expect to see Q3 as a haplogroup for Native American. Western European Ancestry, which Connie and I are, would be R1B.

I have since found these other clues:

1. The 1835 Alabama Rolls of Cherokees East of Mississippi has an "Elizabeth Peck". ( She is listed on the same page as "Man Killer","Mink Widow","Money Cryer", "Nick Skin", "Sour Mush". "Stinking Fish", but also with more common names (to us) like John Pelone, John Riley, Andrew Ross, and Rising Fawn (Rising Fawn?). There are also some cool Tsalagi names such as Ooh la neah tah, and Naw ea luke.

2. Per the 1850 Federal Census, she could neither read nor write. I find this unusual as her neighbors could read and write. Is it because she grew up speaking Tsalagi?

3. I already had the name "Elizabeth" from somewhere else.

4. In the early 1800's, it was common for white men to marry Cherokees in North Georgia because there were lots of single men who came to mine gold. Northern Alabama was a part of North Georgia immediately before 1819.


5. When the Trail of Tears migration commenced in 1835, Cherokees who were married to white men could remain legally with their families. In 1835, 31 year old Elizabeth would have had a 6 year old (Josiah) and a 4 year old (William Richard Clark, my great greatgrandfather)

6. I now have her daughter Martha's Texas Death Certificate and see Martha's Mother (Elizabeth) was referred to as "Betsey".

I find this very exciting!

Mike