|
News
History
The Cherokees
Virtual
Tour
Genealogy
Nature
Park
Events Calendar
Hours & Visitor Information
Education
Friends
of the Murrell Home
Links
|
Genealogy
A
note from the Murrell Home Site Manager:
The Murrell Home is a historic house museum with very limited staff. We
cannot do genealogical research for you. We suggest you contact one of several
research libraries listed below. These libraries have genealogical
staff or volunteers who usually charge a flat fee to do research for you, or
if you are in the area, their staff will assist you in doing your own
research. You might also search some of the Cherokee websites for an
independent genealogist who specializes in Cherokee research.
Cherokee Heritage Center
Indian Territory Historical and Genealogical
Society
Muskogee Public Library
Oklahoma Historical Society
We do have genealogical information collected over the years on the family of
George Michael Murrell and of the various Ross families connected to Chief
John Ross. These family charts will be shown on this web site in the
future. This information is not cast in concrete. It comes from
a variety of sources (family information, cemeteries, census rolls,
publications, etc.) and is subject to error and should only be used as a
guide. As with genealogical information found on the Internet, it
should always be verified by your own research.
The Murrell Family
George Michael Murrell was born in Lynchburg, Va. and appears to have been the
only person by this name in the Cherokee Nation prior to the Civil War.
None of his descendants were to return to live in the Cherokee Nation or
later, Oklahoma.
George Murrell ancestors are believed to have emigrated from England to Long Island, N.Y. in the mid-1600s. By
the Revolution, they were in Mt. Holly, N.J., finally moving down to Lynchburg in the late
1790s. There was another Murrell family that apparently
immigrated directly to Virginia during the mid-1600s.
If these families were related it was probably back in England. By the mid-1800s there
are descendants of both families living in Lynchburg as well as other areas in Virginia and Tennessee.
George Michael Murrell left the Cherokee Nation in 1862. After the
Civil War he developed two other properties, his sugar plantation, ”Tally Ho”
at Bayou Goula, Louisiana, and his farm, “Tate Springs” outside of
Lynchburg. There were no children from his first marriage to Minerva
Ross. However, they did raise and educate two of her cousins, Joshua
and Jennie Pocahontas Ross. Jennie later married John Dobbins Murrell,
one of George’s nephew’s, and they also lived at Bayou Goula at “Glenmore,” a
sugar plantation they developed. Joshua Ross remained in Indian Territory, married a Creek (Muskogee) woman and became a merchant
in Muskogee in 1872.
George and Amanda (Ross) Murrell had six children, four that would survive to
marry and have children of their own. The first child died as an infant
in Louisiana in 1859. The second, George Ross
Murrell, was born in 1861 in Park Hill. The other children were to be
born in Virginia or Louisiana either during or after the
Civil War. The boys, George and Lewis Edward Murrell, would marry and
settle in Louisiana, where most of their
descendants would also remain. The girls, Frances and Rosanna, would
marry and remain in the East. Rosanna had one son but no
grandchildren. Fanny’s two children would remain in Lynchburg. Two of George’s brothers (David and O.G.)
married and had children. David had two children and numerous
grandchildren who continued to carry the Murrell name. This line can be
accessed through the LDS Church records. However, only
one of O.G.’s daughters, Kate Ash, was to see her children marry and continue
his line.
The Ross Family
Many people doing genealogy with Ross ancestors have heard that they are
somehow related to the Chief of the Cherokees. There are undoubtedly
thousands of descendants and lateral connections to this very prolific family
but researchers should also be aware that by the time the Cherokee Nation was
allotted to individuals in 1907 (the reason for the Dawes Rolls), there were
also several other unrelated Ross families listed in the Cherokee
Nation. Check the Cherokee genealogy links for the descendants of
Templin and David Ross, both believed to be white men who married Cherokee
women. There may also be an additional two or three other families who
carried the family name of Ross at that time.
The Cherokee/Scottish family that Chief John Ross was part of, was prominent
in the Cherokee Nation during much of the 19th century and, as a result, many
of its members have been well documented (Emmet Starr’s History of the
Cherokee Indians, various Cherokee census rolls and family histories).
Ghi-goo-ie, was the first Cherokee to marry a Scotsman, William Shorey.
Their daughter, Annie Shorey, married another Scottish immigrant, John
McDonald. And their daughter, Mollie McDonald, was to marry Daniel Ross
another Scotsman who immigrated to America shortly before the Revolutionary
War. Like his father-in-law, Daniel Ross became a prominent merchant
and was a strong advocate of education. All of his children were either
tutored or attended mission or private schools. Subsequently, their
knowledge of both white and Cherokee culture was to place them and their
families in leadership roles in the Cherokee Nation.
Daniel and Mollie were the parents of the following nine children:
Jennie (Jane) Ross (Mrs. Joseph Coodey), Elizabeth (Eliza) Ross (who married
another unrelated Scotsman named John Golden Ross), John Ross, who became the
Principal Chief from 1828 to 1866, Susannah Ross (Mrs. Henry Nave), Lewis
Ross, often the Treasurer of the Nation and father of the two Mrs. Murrells,
Annie Ross (Mrs. William Nave), Andrew Ross, Margaret Ross (Mrs. Elijah
Hicks) and Maria Ross (Mrs. Jonathan Mulkey). All nine of these
siblings or their family members immigrated to the new Cherokee Nation between
1834 and 1839, some voluntarily, most under duress. There were no
members of this family that remained in the old Nation or “hid out in the
hills” as some researchers seem to believe.
The Joseph Coodey family and the family of Annie Nave (she died in 1826)
immigrated in 1834. Andrew Ross, one of the signers of the Treaty of
New Echota, immigrated about 1837. The remaining six families
immigrated during the forced removal (Trail of Tears) in 1838-39.
Elijah Hicks led one of the thirteen detachments. Jonathan Mulkey
assisted with another. The remaining four families (Eliza Ross, Chief
John Ross, Susannah Nave and Lewis Ross) came with the last detachment led by
John Drew. During the 1838-39 removal, family members who
died were Quatie Ross (Elizabeth Brown Henley), the first wife of Chief John
Ross, his granddaughter, Victoria Ross and his youngest sister, Maria
Mulkey. A son of Annie Nave (Louis) and a daughter of Jennie Coodey
(Rosa) died in-route during the 1834 removal.
|