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Looking for family and information

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Looking for family and information on relatives. My great great great grandmother is Charity Ladd born in South Carolina birth date unknown died in 1865. She was the wife to Louis Ladd. She was almost full blooded Cherokee and a direct descendant of the sister of John Ross.

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  1. If you are saying you already know this Charity Ladd is a Ross family descendant, what sister are you referencing specifically? Also, what is the line of descent?

    This will potentially be new information on a Ross sister staying in the east, or who had children that stayed behind and moved east to South Carolina.. All of his sisters are known or thought to have moved west to Indian Territory and all died in that location (and one even died on the Trail of Tears).

    Who stayed behind and had descendants of near-full blood in SC from Removal Era – 1865?

    The only community in the east with a full blood or near-full blood families was in western NC, near what is now called Qualla Boundary and a handful of families in extreme southeastern Tennessee (and they subsequently moved to I. T. or Qualla Boundary).

    There is a Lois “Lula/Lulu” Dena Ladd who had married a George W. Gilstrap, and was from SC roots. However, she was born about 1866. They show up in 1910, living in Cook County, IL, and in Montana by 1916. George was also from SC, born in Pickens County about 1861.

    The interesting thing is that in the 1910 enumeration, Lois (“Lula/Lulu”) and the kids were marked as “Mu.” This meant mulattto. But, it was scratched out and changed to “In,” or Indian. It lists her place of birth, and that of her parents as SC.

    A Charity Ladd does show up in SC, living in Greenville County in 1880 Census. She was born about 1840, listed as head of household, and “mulatto.” She has a daughter named Dena, age 14. Going back earlier Charity Ladd, was living as a domestic servant in 1870, in Pickens County, and is listed as mulatto.
    These are the only Charity Ladds in South Carolina, using a simple name search query. Pickens County, is also where George Gilstrap was from.

    I’m not sure if this is another family unit, but he Gilstrap surname tag along with a Ladd query makes it a possibility. In that case, I think this may be a situation of a mulatto family passing, and claiming Cherokee blood for this purpose, rather than representing actual heavy Cherokee blood or ancestry. There were no known heavy blooded communities or clusters of families living in South Carolina, especially in those areas at at those time period. It would be aberrational. However, passing and claiming Cherokee or Indian blood was quite common in that time and location. But, this is all conjecture too without verifying parentage and actual lines of descent.

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