Heritage Album

Family Genealogy Help Please?

My grandma is definitely Native American. Her father's name was John (Johnie) Henry Crowe and Im pretty sure he was born in 1915 or 1916...he married her mom Blondie/Blondy Pauline Hobdy. His father's name was also John (Robert) Crowe and he was born AROUND 1888 but I don't know the exact year..he married a woman named Olivia Simpson or Odie Singleton (same person but listed as 2 different names..?) Here's the tricky part...my grandma is at least 1/5 or 1/6 Native American...if not more...she always assumed they were Crow indian because of the last name but she was never positive.. The only information I could find of John Crowe Sr. and John Crowe Jr. were on census records (which were unreliable because it wasn't an official census website)...and they were both listed as "White" not Indian...so I'm trying to find something that proves they were indian...I don't know John Crowe Sr's fathers name so I can't research it any farther...on the census John Robert Crowe didn't give his parents names...he just put "United States" as where they were from... If you can find anything about the Crowe family (with proof they were related to John(s) and their indian heritage or documentation that shows they are indian or if you can research their ancestry back any farther I would be EXTREMELY grateful! Thank you!!!!! I figured someone would ask how I know my grandma was Indian...for one she told me lol...and you can tell just by looking at her that she is...dark skin...thick coarse long black hair...high cheekbones...pointy nose...and she showed me an old photo of her father (John Henry Crowe) and he looked like he had just walked off of a reservation! So you can definitely tell they both have a good amount of Native American in them.

Public Comments

1. Below is what anyone should do in researching someone in their family. Call it the basics, call it genealogy 101. You should order your grandfathers birth certificate. Most states required them in 1915 and 1916. If he is Indian it will say so. It also wouldn't hurt to order his death certificate. It may also state that he was an Indian. And then there's his social security papers (which is the most expensive of the three at about $38.00) which should tell you if if he was Indian and all of these, birth certificate,death certificate, social security, will tell you who his parents were.
2. In answer to your confused question, I will start with the surname. I already knew of the surname Crowe form history, but here is a link that explains the origin of it, from Olde English & Irish Gaelic: http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name=Crow In other words, having the surname Crowe has nothing to do with possible Indian ancestry. Which brings up another point: American schools continuously spread wrong info. E.g., we do not grow corn in Nebraska & Iowa, but maize (mais). Those large animals living out on the plains with a huge hump are not buffalo, but bison. The Jews did not call God Jehovah, but Jwhw, and a preacher mistakenly translated the word (Not name: the name of God is sacred, not to be spoken). And the Indians called Crows by white men is another such error: they referred to themselves by their favorite bird, which just happened to be the magpie, a cousin of the crow, but black & white. You might not have know this, but if your gramdma was an Indian, she would have known this. So, if the name was to refer to an Indian tribe, they would have picked magpie! (Another error in naming is the Sioux, meaning cutthroat, which, in sign language is what they call themselves, but in spoken language they use Lakota.) I have met Indians from New England to the Southwest; Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, and many other places, including the Ozarks. Some of them were quite dark-skinned; some had round faces, some oval faces. Many had high cheekbones, but I have never ever seen even one with a pointy nose! Those TV shows & movies about the Indians are based on prejudices, not actual lives. Just like if you are Irish, you are supposed to have red hair & green eyes! Oh, yeah! I do have Indian ancestry; Red Cloud was my Uncle. By DNA tests, I have various tribes, including Innuit & Eskimo ancestry. I do have high cheek bones, but never coarse, black hair. My Mom did, before it started turning white, but her hair, much the same as mine, started out as brown. If you read actual histories of famous Americans, you will find many of so-called full-blooded Indian ancestry; most you would not be able to distinguish from any other American of white ancestry! (Read up on WWII history, especially those 13 that the movie "The Dirty Dozen" was based on. A number of pilots came off reservations to serve America and were whiter than I am! So, sorry, your descriptions do not mean anything. (Come out West and attend a few PowWows and see for yourself. Better yet, go to the Coushatta Reservation in Alabama, the Creeks, the Allegheny, the Otoe, Ontonagon, Narragansett, Oneida, etc., and see what they look like, or the Quoulettes.) I can recommend some sites for you to start, such as www.cyndislist.com, www.askmyrtle.com, www.everythingcheyenne.com, etc. I would recommend that you check the local museums, genealogical/historical societies, the libraries with archives & genealogial records. And, to be certain if you are or are not part Indian, go for DNA testing. There is no way to fool it. I used www.familytreedna.com, and have been finding cousins right & left...so far, all of English or Welsh extractions, but a person has to be tested to be matched!
3. Where were they born? There are several John Crowes in the 1920 census with fathers named John. What unofficial census are you referring to?
4. Hi Lilah, Places would help. States, counties, towns. Complete strangers will help you, but they will appreciate all the clues you can give them. A word on your math - most people have 4 grandparents, eight great grandparents, and so on. They might not know them, they might not have ever seen them, but they had them. Ummmm - actually, ALL of us vertebrates are the result of 2 parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, and so on. Unless someone was sent her from a different planet by their parents, all three fathers and two mothers, who were scientists who knew the home planet was going to explode, he won't be 1/5th of something. He/she will be some number of 4ths, 8ths, 16ths or 32nds of each of his heritages, not 1/5th or 1/6th. It pretty much has to be a power of 2.