Third and Fourth Generation Hulsey Wives

 Possible Cherokee Ancestry

Third and Fourth Generation Hulsey Wives

Cherokee and White Cultural Relations:
As the whites settled western North Carolina, many of the Cherokee moved further westward. In Burke Co., NC, the Cherokee boundary was Black Mountain at the western edge of Burke County. Some Cherokee remained in isolated homesteads east of the boundary. The Cherokees east of the boundary begin to take on the cultural traits of their white neighbors, including white names in addition to their Cherokee names. There was one major difference, however. The Cherokee men were skilled hunters, and as game disappeared, were slow to learn agricultural skills. Their white neighbors were much more skilled in agriculture. A young Cherokee woman found many more eligible white men in her community and the Whites were much wealthier (comparably) than the Cherokees. Thus, Cherokee women entered into unions with white men.

In SC in the 1790’s Greenville Dist., SC was bordered on the west by the Cherokees and in the early 1800’s the Cherokee boundary was the western boundary of Franklin and Jackson Counties in Georgia until 1820. The same issue applied.

The union of a white man and an Indian woman generally was not recognized as a legal marriage because a Minister or Judge would not marry a Christian to a non-Christian and an Indian was not, by GA law at that time, a Christian. This attitude did not begin to change until well into the 1830’s. In the case of the Hulsey families, these unions generally lasted a lifetime. A person of mixed blood was judged to be white biased on their cultural traits more so than their ancestry.

After the Louisiana Purchase was completed, the United States Government encouraged Cherokees in the eastern homeland to immigrate to Arkansas to join the Old Settlers that had emigrated after the end of the Revolutionary War. In the 1820’s and 1830’s many persons of Cherokee ancestry joined the Arkansas Cherokees before the Trail of Tears forced removal. If a person immigrated to western or northwestern Arkansas, it is likely that the emigrant had some measure of Cherokee ancestry.

In GA the Cherokee Nation attracted persons of Cherokee ancestry before the Cherokee Removal of 1837-1839. This area included (now) Paulding and Polk Counties. A person of some Cherokee ancestry or a Cherokee wife could settle vacant land. Some persons, including members of the Hulsey family, later moved to the Cherokee Nation.
Screening Standard:
1. Notation or Citation of Ancestry or
2. No Marriage License shown – Month, Year, Date., and
3. No First Name (NFN) and/or No Maiden Name (NMN), and/or
4. Parentage not found, and
5. Husband living in Western NC, Upstate SC or Northeastern GA in the period 1750 – 1837 at beginning of the relationship, and/or
6. Children emigrated to western GA, Alabama, Arkansas or Indian Territory.

 Summary:

One of the issues in conducting this study is that both the third and fourth generations were illiterate until 1840 or after. Very few family records, other than Marriage Licenses and Land Deeds, were kept until the fifth generation.
Of the five Hulsey brothers that came to GA in 1800-1809, all had first wives that may have been of Cherokee ancestry. One, Adler, married two wives that may have been of Cherokee ancestry. There was no issue from the second marriage.
The fourth generation contained 55 persons. At least eighteen (18) persons of this generation married persons that may have been of Cherokee ancestry.