Subject: Diane Fulmore aka “Martha Redbone”
Born: February 6, 1966, New York
Claims: Choctaw, “Eastern Cherokee”, Shawnee
Date of report: 9/22/2023
Determination: No American Indian ancestry or tribal belonging exist.
Summary findings:
Diane Fulmore claims that her American Indian heritage comes from her mother’s side of the family, Patricia Jeanette Edwards.
The maternal lines of Ms. Fulmore were established as being of Black and white ancestry over a span of 5 generations. The analysis includes the Edwards, Mason, Whitaker, Short, Bozeman, Mitchell, Cole, and Barbour lines. The above listed families were not found on any Indian censuses or rolls as citizens or descendants of any of the above-mentioned sovereign and federally recognized nations.
The error made in this family’s attempt to do their genealogy with regard to looking for American Indian ancestors was found on the 1896 Cherokee Roll. The vast majority of the applicants to this particular roll, looking for benefits, were rejected and this roll was actually overturned (thrown out) and replaced by the final Dawes roll. Included among the applications were an application for an Eliza Cole and separately for an Almeda Cole, neither of which were related in any way to Diane Fulmore, who happens to have 2 relatives with the same names. This “same name” error is a daily occurrence in genealogy.
In order to properly connect oneself with one’s relatives genealogically, a person must show, using proper documentation, that they can corroborate their findings with the proper siblings, spouses, and other family members; where they lived; when they were born and when they died; when and where they married, etc. In this instance it is clear from the records that these 2 women were not related to Diane Fulmore.
So we can assert that the two women on the overturned 1896 Cherokee Roll were not the same persons found in Ms. Fulmore’s lineal ancestry, since one must have been residing in Indian Territory or modern-day Kansas and Oklahoma, demonstrate that parents, siblings and grandparents were recognized Cherokee, Choctaw and/or Shawnee, be present on older Cherokee Rolls and other supporting documentation when necessary, in order to obtain citizenship, which no one in Ms. Fulmore’s family can show.
We must also remember that we do not live in a vacuum and we are talking about some of the best documented tribes in the country.
If anyone in Ms. Fulmore’s family was somehow disconnected from any of the several tribes she claims, they would have had many relatives from each of those tribes who would have been documented, and to whom Ms. Fulmore could easily be reconnected today. Yet there is not a single one.
It was verified through documentation that Ms. Fulmore’s ancestors in fact were born, resided consistently, and died, not in Indian Territory, Oklahoma, but in Virginia and Kentucky instead. In addition, the Cole and Bowman families for generations are proven to have resided in Kentucky and Virginia, which were not residential territories of the Shawnee, Cherokee or Choctaw Tribes.
Historical context:
The Shawnee settlements in particular, were originally located in northeastern parts of the United States such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Kentucky before being permanently and forcibly removed under the Indian Act of 1830, to Indian Territory, Kansas and Oklahoma. Throughout the 17th century, the Shawnee were eventually pushed out of Kentucky and only small numbers remained but there were no longer any large villages or settlements.
The Choctaw Tribe never settled in Virginia or Kentucky, nor did the Cherokee Tribe, who used those States only as hunting grounds prior to 1800’s.
The Cherokee Tribe established settlements in north Georgia, northeast Alabama, western North Carolina prior to forced removal. After forced removal they are found in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and some in Kansas. The territory of western North Carolina was not permanently interrupted and there, we find a continued settlement, the original homelands of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
All of these tribes are extremely well documented by their nations, who are legally the sole arbiters of who is one of their people and who is not. We have verbal confirmation from the genealogists of these tribes’ enrollment offices that letters from all of them informing us that Ms. Fulmore has zero connection to any of them through her family are forthcoming.
Conclusion:There is no evidence that Ms. Diane Fulmore has any American Indian ancestry or valid claim to citizenship or descendancy to the Shawnee, Cherokee or Choctaw Tribes. Even though TAAF has effectively done so, it is not incumbent upon those she is claiming to be to prove a negative. It is incumbent upon her to show some evidence that what she is claiming is true.
Genealogy: Fulmore maternal line
Mother: Patricia Jeanette Edwards b. 1943 Kentucky, d. 2011 Georgia 1950 census race Black, U.S. birth Index lists mother’s name proving parentage
Grandparents: Eliza Jeanette Mason b. 1919 Kentucky, d. 1999 Kentucky race 1920 census Mulatto, 1930 census, Black, 1940 census Black, 1950 census Black U.S. Social Security Application lists her parents proving parentage
Spouse: Jerry Edwards b. 1915 Kentucky, d 1977 Kentucky 1950 census race Black
Great grandparents: parents of grandmother Eliza Jeanette Mason: Joseph “Joe” Mason b. 1857 Kentucky, d. 1927 Kentucky 1870 census race Mulatto, 1920 census Black, U.S. Kentucky Death Record race Black his parents were Susan Mason b. 1830 d. unk. Census 1870 race Black and George Mason b. 1827 Census 1870 race white Spouse: Easter Beatrice Whitaker b. 1898 Virginia, d. 1958 Kentucky 1900 census race Black, 1920 census Mulatto, 1930 census Mulatto, 1940 census Black U.S. Kentucky Death Record race Colored. 2nd spouse: no blood relation to Ms. Fulmore Hayes or Haze Clark b. 1875 Louisiana, d 1950 Kentucky 1880 census race Black, 1930 census Black, 1940 census Black
2nd great grandparents: William “Willie” Whitaker b. 1875 Virginia, d 1950 Virginia 1880 census race Mulatto, 1900 census Black, 1920 census white, 1930 census Black U.S. Death record of adult child reads Black, spouses death record lists race Colored His parents:
3rd great grandparents: John Whitaker b. 1854 Virginia, d. 1920 Virginia 1880 census race Mulatto, 1900 census Mulatto, 1900 census Mulatto, 1910 census Mulatto, U.S. Birth record for child written on the Colored birth section of births that day. Spouse: Elizabeth Betsey “Bettie” Mitchell b. 1856 Virginia, d. 1920 Virginia 1880 census race Mulatto, 1900 census Black, 1910 census Mulatto
Spouse (William “Willie” Whitaker): Eliza Jane Short b. 1880 Virginia, d. 1968 Virginia 1880 census race Mulatto, 1900 census Black, 1920 census white, 1930 census Black Her parents:
3rd great grandparents: Almeda Elizabeth “Lizzie” Cole b. 1859 Virginia, d. 1943 West Virginia 1910 census race Mulatto, 1920 census Mulatto, 1930 census white. U.S. West Virginia Death record race white
Almeda Cole Her spouse: Green Short b. 1820 Kentucky, d. aft. 1880 Virginia 1880 census race Mulatto, U.S. Virginia Death record of child race Colored U.S. Freedman’s Slave record, listed as “property” 22 december 1866
4th great grandparents: (parents of Almeda Elizabeth Cole) Elizabeth “Eliza” Bowman b. 1836 Virginia, d 1925 Virginia. 1850 census race Mulatto, 1910 census Mulatto, 1920 census Mulatto. U.S. Kentucky Death record of child race white Spouse: John Jack Cole b. abt. 1835 Virginia, d. 1920 Virginia. Her parents (Elizabeth Eliza Bowman)
5th great grandparents: (parents of Elizabeth Eliza Bowman ) Hawkins Bowman b. 1795 Virginia, d. 1887 Kentucky 1850 census race Mulatto, 1860 census race white Spouse: Nancy Barbour b. 185 Virginia, d. 1887 Kentucky 1850 census race white, 1860 census white 1880 census Black
NOTE:
It should be noted that we always research the genealogy of both parents for the sake of being thorough. We provide the genealogy of the parent involved in the claims being made. If the other parent is then claimed later on as the source of American Indian ancestry, their genealogy will be provided at that time. But we will state here that no American Indian ancestry was found in Ms. Fulmore’s father’s family either.
Documentary evidence:
The most relevant documents have been forwarded and may be shared freely.
If Ms. Fulmore should choose to continue to claim to be American Indian after being made aware of the fact that she is not, and if she is unable to prove otherwise, that documentation will be made public as this would literally become fraud at that point and will be exposed as such by the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds.
There are a great many more documents involved. That additional documentation is available upon request, for a fee, to be paid by the individual being researched.
While we are all volunteers and TAAF is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing the truth for free, we are not in the business of providing any further genealogical labor than that required to prove the truth, therefore any further labor should be compensated.
