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So They Said You Were a Cherokee? DNA and Truth  

4/1/2016

8 Comments

 
Dempsey Tyner memorial
Descendants visit the memorial to Dempsey Tyner in Greenville, Georgia. (Robert S. Davis)
In 1996, at a national meeting of genealogists, I met Dr. Thomas H. Roderick, eminent genealogist and geneticist. He introduced me to the potential of DNA as a tool for family history. Roderick told me he was seeking a person willing to undergo DNA testing who believed he or she was descended from indigenous Native American people, but who lacked documentation to back up the claim. He wanted to test specifically for genetic markers in Mitochondrial Deoxyribonucleic acid (mtDNA), genetic material only women pass to their children. 
As it turned out, I happened to know a potential guinea pig for his experiment. I remembered a family story told to me by my father’s maternal uncle, Lee Martin, who said that his maternal great-grandmother, Moeme McGuire, was a full-blood Cherokee he had known personally. He had told me that she had married a Samuel Burton in Hall County, Georgia, and that the couple had to leave home because Burton’s father would not accept a Native American for a daughter-in-law. Uncle Lee was already deceased and therefore not a candidate for testing, but my father was also a direct descendant of Moeme McGuire from the same maternal line. My father agreed to be tested, and a sample of his blood was sent to Roderick.
 
While we waited for the results, I tried to find records about these ancestors. I discovered that, contrary to family lore, Burton’s parents could not have disapproved of his marriage because they had died when he was still a child. Moeme’s real name turned out to be Obedience H. Magwier, and I also found out that Uncle Lee could not have known Obedience personally because both she and Burton were dead by the time he was three years old in 1897.
 
I found considerable circumstantial evidence, however, that Obedience’s grandfather was Dempsey Tiner, whose children and relations claimed Cherokee, Choctaw, or Creek descent, depending upon whose records you read. He was possibly named for an African American freedman, Thomas Dempsey. Dempsey Tiner’s ethnicity, however, would not appear in any mtDNA test, because that genetic material comes only from a female ancestor.
 
When the results of my father’s mtDNA test finally arrived, we found out that he had three of the four markers for northern European ancestry and none for any race but Caucasian. Other DNA tests taken since then show his ancestry to include people from British, Catalan, Celtic, Gallic, Tuscan, and Viking descent. The results of the original mtDNA test, however, do support that if I have Indian heritage, it does not come through my father’s female (mtDNA) line. Dempsey Tiner, however, who was sometimes spy, patriot, and Tory of the American Revolution, may yet prove to be our link to Native American ancestry.
 
As DNA testing is refined and improved, currently hidden ethnicity markers in our DNA may be discovered. For more information about DNA testing for genealogical purposes, please see the article “Hiring a DNA Testing Company” at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Hiring_a_ DNA_Testing_Company. For another great genealogy story about DNA testing, see “Adventures in Genealogy” editor Yvonne Crumpler’s post on our website at alabamaheritage. com/adventures-in-genealogy.
 
A MESSAGE FROM DEPARTMENT SPONSOR HUDSONALPHA:
Two basic questions lead consumers to DNA testing for ancestry: Where do I come from? Who is in my family?
 
A variety of DNA ancestry test programs on the market offer to answer both of those questions; however, there are still limitations based on privacy, uptake (the number of people who decide to test), and the tests themselves. On the plus side, some are now bundling information about health risks for genetic disease.

  • Where do I come from? To answer that question, ancestry DNA tests compare your DNA markers to those of people living in different places around the world right now. So an answer of “45% Italian” means you are like people living in Italy now and not necessarily the ancient Romans. The information is meaningful to many, but will not answer a true origination query. Both Ancestry.com and 23andMe offer a composition breakdown by percentage.

  • Who else is in my family? Once you have DNA results and a number of “matches,” the natural next step is to reach out to those long-undiscovered family members and attempt to forge relationships—or, at the very least, introduce yourself and make your newfound cousin aware of the rest of you. While this is possible through various DNA ancestry programs, the information will not complete or fully build out a family tree for two simple reasons. First, not everyone is DNA-savvy or interested in genealogy; entire portions of the tree may still be undiscovered. Second, many participants prefer to keep their individual family trees hidden on programs such as ancestry.com, so even if you know how many matches you have, you may not be able to access them.
 
Ancestry.com recently added a new feature that does provide some additional information for users. When you click the “i” that appears next to a match, it will pop up the number of centiMorgans you share with that match. A centiMorgan is a unit used to measure genetic distance. The more centiMorgans you share, the closer the common ancestor.
 
Genealogy fans who have painstakingly created family histories through research will ultimately find that DNA testing can help fill in some holes. Additionally, some companies are bundling health risk analysis with ancestry information. 23andMe offers carrier status information for specific genetic diseases, including cystic fibrosis, hereditary hearing loss, sickle cell anemia, and others.
 
Particularly after the holidays, the amount of data available to family match-seekers is likely to see a surge as new tests are purchased and given as gifts within families. As for being able to answer the question “Who am I?”—that ability will continue to evolve. 
Robert S. Davis has more than one thousand publications in genealogy, history, and records, primarily related to the southeastern United States. A popular speaker on such topics, he manages a genealogy program with continuing education classes and a library at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama. Department editor Elizabeth Crabtree Wells is retired from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where she was an archivist and librarian. Department editor Yvonne Shelton Crumpler retired in 2008 from the Tutwiler Collection of Southern History and Literature, where she worked as a research librarian in special collections for thirty-four years. Department sponsor HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a global leader in DNA research.
​
8 Comments
John McLaughlin link
5/12/2017 05:08:32 am

Really interesting post ! Kept me glued to my seat till the end .This is an extremely useful methodoly for those who want to know more about their ancestry .

Reply
heather allen
9/20/2021 06:01:56 pm

Y’all just jealous you couldn’t get on the rolls because you didn’t live in the county… I’m a female direct line I’ll do a test…

Reply
Kandie Wood
10/16/2021 05:27:33 pm

So, I came across this site while reaching my family. I just wanted to say that I am the 5/6th Great Granddaughter of Dempsey Tyner depending on what side of the family your looking at.

Reply
Justine Staton
11/10/2021 07:56:45 pm

I am a descendant of Dempsey Tyner and Obedience through John Sevier Tyner and Rachel Ryder, their daughter Emaline B Tyner and Isaac Burkhart. I have read where they are supposed to be part Cherokee but I have also read they were not. I have taken two DNA tests and there is nothing that suggests they were Native American. I understand that they are on the Dawes Rolls but I also researched that they took a case to court to get some of the Cherokee land. They were denied because they couldn’t prove they were Cherokee. Does anyone know who were the parents of Obedience Sevier? Any other info would be appreciated. This family is confusing!

Reply
Kandie Wood
11/21/2021 02:54:21 pm

I have all the family records for the Tyner side witch is where the Tribal comes from. As my research has so far proven that the only name with Tribal is in fact Tyner. If you are so lucky enough, being sarcastic, you might just discover that you have Tyners on multiple sides of the family, and they in fact are the same person.. LOL..
I have Biddy's parents as Adam H Sevier & Rebecca Hillard

Reply
Alana
4/15/2022 02:03:04 pm

To Kandie who has the Tyner family information. I have been research Dempsey and Obedience for years. My research shows me a descendent of John Sevier, then his daughter Susannah who married James G. Simpson and so on... If you are willing to share information, I would love to connect with you. Thank you.

Heather
11/13/2021 01:05:04 pm

I would look up David Cornsilk On Facebook he has some really great information. CNO

Reply
Miya Blythe
11/18/2021 12:30:18 am

Hi we are related!! My 6th great-grandfather is Dempsey Tyner and his granddaughter Obedience is my 4th great-grandaunt. I am happy to come across your article in search for more information about my ancestors! I am not sure if I would qualify for DNA testing but I would love to see if I could give any useful genetic information. From my understanding, if the Tyners are on my father’s side would my DNA not show any genetic information about Obedience or Dempsey?

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    Editor's Note

    “Adventures in Genealogy” is a regular department in Alabama Heritage magazine that spotlights the many ways people are uncovering their roots in Alabama. 

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