My great, great grandmother was Jane Garner. My grandfather (William C Pittman aka William Micajah Pittman) always said that she was a full-blood Cherokee. Looking for any Cherokee connection and names of her parents. She was born sometime before 1827 in Tennessee, and married Samuel Denny in Kentucky in 1835. They had numerous children, one of which was my great grandmother Angeline Denny. Others included Elizabeth, Melvina, Martha Ann, John, William, Mary, Louisa, Louella, Benjamin and Sarah.
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You can find Jane’s maiden name, Garner, listed on the birth certificates of Angenline’s siblings. However, this couple (Jane and Samuel) is listed as White in records, and was living in Kentucky from at least the latter half of the 1830s, onward. Angelines older siblings were all born in Kentucky. So, that at least illustrates a family unit that was not living in Cherokee communities at a very crucial time period. It means she would not be living in the Cherokee Nation (east) in 1835, during the Henderson Roll enumeration.
For further context, there are no full blood Cherokee Garner families to be found in the Cherokee tribe at all (in any band). There were none with this surname on Henderson. One application made on Baker Roll in 1924 included this name, but this individual was 1/4 degree and married to a White man with this name.
It’s also not commonly found in the western bands. It only shows up for a handful of enrollees (all related to each other, and they were not fullbloods) See:
https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/media/images/35/21/35-2070a.gif
Unfortunately, the 1840 census doesn’t have much personal information listed beyond the head of household, and tally marks representing the number in household, age ranges, gender, etc. But, we can at least see they were in Wayne County, KY at that time. They are there in 1850 as well. By 1860, they show up in Clinton County, Kentucky.
A potential lead that you might explore a little further: potential connection to the Garners listed in that 1860 enumeration. Listed just below the Denny (in this case spelled: Deney) family unit, you’ll see some Garners listed. There is an elderly Polly Garner living with her adult daughter who is listed as a head of household. This is not a confirmed link, of course. But, based on the distribution of the name in Kentucky, and age of the elder Polly Garner and the close proximity (reflected by adjacent enumeration entries), it could possibly be an avenue to at least explore.
I can’t find documents that directly confirm Jane’s parents at this point. However, what is extant in the records is a woman that was listed as White in records, living in White society, and from the late 1830s onward was having children in southern Kentucky, and area that was not even close to Cherokee settlements. Additionally, you can find photographs of Jane’s children and they appear to be of typical northern European extraction. Of course, photographs and physical features are different than ancestry and genealogical research, so that doesn’t mean too much on its own. But, taken as a whole, there is nothing to support the claim that Jane was a full blood Cherokee woman in the records that are listed above. More research is need, however. So, just keep digging!