Today's prompt once again comes from Amy Johnson Crow and her #52Ancestors challenge for the year 2021. For the week of March 1-7 the prompt is: Multiples
I'm still working on filling out the Native American branches of my half siblings tree. I last blogged about their line a few weeks ago making it back to their 2nd great grandfather Mose HOLT.
This time I'm going to use the applications of multiple people to piece together more branches in this line.
The first thing to notice is the cover image for each of the HOLT sisters applications. Information given on these pages is:
Application number
Action
Name
Residence
Reason
Below I will post images of each of the sisters' cover images. These applications can be found on Fold3.
The HOLT sisters' applications all contain the same information and even appear to have been filled out by the same person. They're almost exact duplicates in certain sections. If you notice on their cover pages, they also all mention being a 1st cousin of applicant # 10278 which belongs to Minerva WOOLEY.
Now, this has the potential to get confusing so try to keep up 😏 (wink-y face). On page two of Minerva's application file it mentions the following application numbers as "grouped herewith"
These applications belong to:
William HOLT (10280) - Brother of Minerva WOOLEY
Minerva WOOLLY (16787) duplicate file (different spelling) of the above Minerva WOOLEY #10278
Mary E. HOLT (12904) appears to be a grouped application of siblings Mary, Theodora, & Jacob HOLT - nieces and nephew of Minerva WOOLEY
Mary KING (18060) duplicate (10279) sister of Minerva WOOLEY
From the above applications, I know that William HOLT, Minerva WOOLEY and Mary KING are siblings and 1st cousins of my siblings' ancestor Sarah HOLT SMITH. Therefore they will share grandparents.
William, Minerva and Mary all list their parents as William HOLT and Nelly FOOL with the exception of Mary who says Nelly was her step-mother and she doesn't know her mother's name. So we know their father William HOLT was the brother of Sarah HOLT SMITH's father Mose HOLT.
The "grouped" application (#12904) of Mary, Theodora & Jaccob - nieces and nephew of Minerva WOOLEY, state their father's name was Daniel HOLT. So now we have siblings William, Mose and Daniel HOLT.
Then we get to the application of Frances HOLT and things get a little tricky -- and maybe tie into the prompt of multiple in a different way and it's something I picked up on briefly while researching this line last time.
Frances says her parents are: Mose HOLT and Annie MOLE. And gives the death date for Mose as 1895. Frances was born about a year after my siblings' ancestor Sarah HOLT SMITH.
Did Mose divorce Sarah's mother Polly and marry Annie. Did the Cherokee have divorces? Or does their culture allow for multiple partners without official separation?
I have a couple different census records for Mose with each of these family units so they obviously didn't cohabitate in the same household with multiple spouses.
In 1886 Mose and Polly are found with their two children born at that time, Lizzie (Eliza) and Jennie in Sequoyah District.
But in 1893 in Sequoyah District Mose is with Annie and Francis and two other children, most likely Annie's with a previous spouse.
And in that same census year (1893) Polly is alone with the following children: Lizzie, Jennie, Nancy & Sarah
Later on in Frances HOLT's application she gives the names of her siblings as: Sarah HOLT, Jennie HOLT and Lizzie HOLT, so obviously the Mose HOLT listed is the same and these are her half siblings. Not sure why Nancy was left out.
So going through the information given in all these applications I know that Mose had the following brothers: William (married to Nelly FOOL) and Daniel (married to Sarah YOUNGBLOOD) as well as two sisters Lizzie (not married no children) and Sarah (Dawes #8303 who marries a WOLFE and possibly a GUINEAHEAD)
According to the application of William HOLT (10280) his father's parents were: "Duxie" Holt -- Also given as "Tuxie" Holt -- also given at times as William HOLT and Sarah HOLT.
In the application of William Holt's sister, Minerva, we find a translated typed letter on behalf of her mother Nelly FOOL HOLT that again gives her husband William HOLT's father as "Tuxie" HOLT and even gives us the maiden name of his mother Sarah as FIVEKILLER as well as a lot of other information so I'm including an image of the letter:
I will also include a page from William and Minerva's older half-sister Mary that gives the same information:
This has been a lot to take in. But it has let me add a few more names to my tree and now I can research these names more in depth.
As a recap:
Mose HOLT was the son of "Tuxie" HOLT and Sarah FIVEKILLER
Tuxie HOLT was the son of William HOLT and Jennie LNU (Last name unknown) at this time.
The 1851 Drennen Rolls shows the family of "Tuxie" as entry 548 -- Notice here his name is Tarripin HOLT.
I'm going to end this right here for now. I hope you've been able to follow along as I use the Eastern Cherokee applications of multiple HOLT descendants to piece together a few more generations.
Until next time,
Becky
P.S. If anyone can translate the last name "Lah-Wah-Nah" for me, that's the only maiden name given for Mose's wife Polly. I would be very grateful.
P.S.S. One more thing I forgot to mention. In the applications of Minerva and William - they list the birthplace of their father William Holt (born abt 1849) as "Skinbayou, IT". According to AccessGenealogy The name was changed from Skin Bayou District to Sequoyah District by an act of National Council on November 4, 1851. See page 227, Cherokee Laws of 1852.
P.S.S.S A little more research lead me to the application #281 belonging to Josephine BOYNTON, the daughter of Polly FIVEKILLER. In her application she says her mother's father lived on Johns Creek in Georgia in 1835. Which is probably where our Sarah FIVEKILLER HOLT was born.