Gail Beth Hart Rando

ALL of Gail’s maternal great-grandparents were born in Poland.  Obviously definitively zero American ancestry on that side of the family. 

Her paternal ancestry goes back to Missouri and Kentucky, places where the Cherokee never lived.  

This was an extremely simple case. None of Gail’s family are listed on any Cherokee rolls or anywhere else as “Cherokee” or “American Indian”.   

We often uncover the mistakes made in someone’s genealogy, and it is rare that anyone ever “lied”. Usually, these mistakes that spark family myths of having American Indian ancestry happen in very innocent and often fascinating ways. But in this instance, we cannot even find that tiny mistaken spark. There is just nothing there. Gail has zero American Indian ancestry. 

There are hundreds of documents supporting this case. Those that prove this case are available in a GEDcom file that you would have to upload through an ancestry.com account.  We did go back 8 generations on Gail’s father’s side. If she would like a copy of her genealogy file, there will be a fee.  But it only took going back 4 generations to clearly see that there is no American Indian ancestry.  

The Dawes Rolls were created by the United States Dawes Commission. The commission was authorized by United States Congress in 1893 to execute the General Allotment Act of 1887.

The Baker Roll of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was created by the Eastern Cherokee Enrolling Commission after it was commissioned by the United States Congress on June 4, 1924. The purpose of the Baker Roll was to collect and compile data from older Eastern Cherokee censuses and determine tribal affiliation.

In 1902, Congress authorized the U.S. Court of Claims to hear claims arising from Cherokee treaties (32 Stat. 726). Three claims were filed under this act as the Guion Miller Roll (1906-1911) by the Eastern Cherokee and their descendants, alleging that the U.S. government had violated the Cherokee treaties of 1835 and 1846. The Court consolidated the cases and ultimately ruled in favor of the Eastern Cherokee on May 18, 1905.

This resulted in the appropriation of more than $1 million for the Tribe’s eligible individuals and families. Interior Department Special Commissioner Guion Miller created a list using several rolls and applications to verify tribal enrollment for the distribution of funds. A lot of non-Indians applied for this money and were rejected. The same is true for the other rolls.

So finding one’s name associated with any of these rolls does not automatically mean those people were Cherokee. Also, oftentimes people find someone on a roll with the same name as their ancestor, and they assume, without verifying, that it’s the same person and thus, that they are Cherokee. That “same name” error happens daily.  

But if your family were not living with the Cherokee when these rolls were created, if they were not on the Trail of Tears, the chances of your family being Cherokee are astronomically slight. And on that note, the Cherokee did not live in a vacuum and they are all very well documented. So if someone’s ancestor did leave the Trail, or their documents ‘burned in a fire’, they would have had plenty of other Cherokee relatives who would have been well documented and to whom we could easily connect them today.  

It is not incumbent upon Indian people to prove a negative. It is incumbent upon people who claim to be Indian what they are basing that claim upon. Being an American Indian person is a protected legal political status in the United States, not a race. It is not about who you claim to be. It is about who claims you.  

We welcome feedback from Gail if she is able to show us where we made an error.

The Genealogy

Subject:  Gail Beth Hart   Born 1-4-45   Weymouth, Massachusetts

Gail’s mom: Pauleen (Pauline) Willametta Kabatt (b. PA: 10-12-21; d. 11-16-2004 Delaware) 

Gail’s dad:  Jacob Morrell Hart, Sr. (b. Missouri:  3-8-20; d.  9-8-47 Arkansas) 

Note:  Jacob’s middle name appears with different spellings in various documents but is obviously corroborated as the same person.  Other spellings include:  Murrell and probably misspelled as “Movell” in some records) 

Maternal side:

Pauleen / Pauline Willametta Kabatt

Mom:  Mary Kozlowska  (b. 11-23-02  Poland; d. 1984)

Mary’s mom:    Pauline Slominski  (b. 1878  Poland)

Mary’s dad:  Joseph Kozlowski (b. 1870  Poland)

Note:  In some Eastern European countries, the surname ending for the woman, -ska, is different than the surname ending for the man, -ski.  Here we see this in the names above between Mary and her dad’s last names.  It’s not an error. 

Dad:  Joseph Kabacinski  1901-1965  Born in Pennsylvania

Joseph’s mom:  Sefamija “Stefanie” Przysiecska   (b. 12-1-1875 Poland; 

d. 2-19-1908)

Joseph’s dad:  Wladyslaw “William” Kabacinski Kabatt  (b. 10-12-1866 Poland; d. 9-7-1941)    (It appears that the name changed from Kabacinski to Kabbat with “William”)

Paternal side: 

Jacob Morrell (“Movell”) Hart Sr.

Mom:  Nellie Vera  Hughes (Robey?)   (b. 1-17-1885 Kentucky; d. 12-28-1978) 

Nellie’s mom:  Hayden M. Murrell   (b. 10-1-1875 Kentucky; d. 5-7-1932)

Nellie’s dad:  Joseph J. Hughes  (b. 5-28-1869 Kentucky; d. 1-26-46)

Dad:  Albert Wylie Hart  (b. 1-22-1882 Missouri;  d. 4-13-1930)

Alberts mom:   Elizabeth Brazeale (b. 5-8-1855 Missouri; d. 6-4-32)

Albert’s dad:   Matthew Pickney Hart, Jr.  (b. c. 1849 Missouri; d. c. 1884)