Fred B. Moody born 1902 to William M. Moody who was born 1866 and died 1936. He married Lula Belle Childress (who was 1/2) Cherokee and born 1875 and died 1942. Lula’s father was full Cherokee and is the main reason for my search for lineage.
I am related to living relatives of Mary Luella Moody(my great aunt), who has a roll number. Any help is appreciated. We are trying to prove the lineage now.
If you have a roll number for a great aunt, you could pull up her Dawes application and verify her lineages, or at least confirm by which lineage/s she gained citizenship. However, just glancing at the rolls, there are no individuals on the Dawes Roll with the name Mary Luella Moody. There is one Chickasaw Newborn with that first name combination, and there are a few Freedmen Descendants with the surname Moody. However, there are no By Blood members with this surname.
There are only three Cherokees enumerated on Dawes with the name Childress. This was a Lucy Allen who married a White man named Childress and her two daughters. There were no known full blood families with the surname Childress.
However, there are records that show this family living outside of Cherokee Nation, in White society, moving through Tennessee, Missouri, and into Texas…receiving standard American land grants. Lula Belle Childress can be found living with her father in the 1880 census. Her mother had died a few years prior to this enumeration. They were living in San Saba, Texas, at that time.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=MOOD&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=38&GScntry=4&GSsr=481&GRid=68461783&
1880 Census:
Name: Lula B. Childress
Age: 5
Birth Year: abt 1875
Birthplace: Texas
Home in 1880: Precinct 4, San Saba, Texas
Father’s Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother’s Birthplace: Missouri
James Childress 47
Lula B. Childress 5
Matta V. Childress 2
Cela Childress 67 (mother)
1870 Census was a bit trickier to track down because they were enumerated as “Childs” rather than Childress. Also, James was going by his middle initials G. W. (for George Washington), and Paulina was incorrectly transcribed as “Reolina.” Celia, James’ mother, was listed as Suley. James was literate, with a substantial amount of real estate. Family found in Freestone, Texas.
I would recommend including info about the great aunt and her enrollment number as definitive starting point.
My fathers mother was Lela Childress-Holloway from Oklahoma. I too am trying to find my fathers side of the family. My great grandmother was Ella We hunt Holloway from Pawnee. Its all a mystery for me.
Now you’ve got both maternal and paternal lines mentioned in this query and another Childress surname, along with three given female names that are very similar: Lula, Luella and Lela. It can get a little confusing. But, have you built a tree starting with yourself on both mother and father’s line and just worked back methodically? It would be less mysterious if you go generation by generation and verify the connections via extant records. Start with yourself and just move back through the tree, step by step. Then it is just a matter of looking at the larger picture. Where did each ancestor live? What society were they a part of? How did they show up in records? What political affiliations did they have in their own lifetimes?
For example, from the lineages that you’ve mentioned already, you’d have Fred B. Moody who married a Lara Evens Harrell. He was the son of William M. Moody and Lula Belle Childress. Lula’s father was James George Washington Childress (1832 – 1943). The lines can be traced back even further. There does not appear to be any Cherokee connection there. Although, you would descend from a Revolutionary War veteran and an early Scottish immigrant along that particular lineage (Childress). Also, it can be shown that there was no Mary Luella enumerated on the Dawes with the surname Moody. And again, if you get the number you are referring to here, you can pull up the application directly and find out how she was enrolled, meaning, by what proven ancestry did she gain citizenship rights.
On the other side, a basic tree for for Lela (Childress) Holloway would be as follows: she went by Maggie or “Lilla” but her birth name is also given as Luella. She married Johnson “Joe” Potter Holloway. She was the daughter of Harris Edward Childress (1864 – 1929) and Julia Wehunt (1866 – 1950). These Childress and Wehunt family lines can be traced back quite a ways as well. But, since you mentioned Julia specifically, I’ll just mention these family lines a bit further. Julia’s grave and parents info can be found here:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=CHI&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=46&GScntry=4&GSsr=2921&GRid=66748896&
If you click on Julia’s mother, Rosanna Martin, you’ll notice that the following notation has been included by the memorial/page admin:
“Rosanna Martin married Frederick Wehunt in Lumpkin County, Georgia. There is nothing in this marriage bond or any census record that states that she is Native American (as has been stated on-line).”
So, it appears there is some lore circulating that this individual was said to be Native American. But, there is no evidence for that claim at this time. The couple was married in Lumpkin County, GA in 1847, about 11-12 years after the end of the Removal of Cherokees. They were living in an area that was never part of Cherokee territory. More research would be needed to verify her parents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpkin,_Georgia