Addendum: Re: Hannah [mother of Abednego Baze/John Baize]
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In reply to:
Hannah
Douglas Baize 2/24/08
Another researcher rightly pointed out that I failed to mention in my first reply the 1910 Indian census of Doctor P. Baze (son of Joseph L. Baze who was the son of Abednego Baze and Mary Shults).On that census, Doctor claims to be 1/16 Cherokee through his father Joseph, thereby theoretically making Joseph 1/8 Cherokee, and thus theoretically making one of Abednego or Mary Shults 1/4 Cherokee (or each of them 1/8).
I've never given much weight to this census because of the potential fraud aspect (claims of meeting the minimum 1/16 Native American threshhold were/are sometimes made in order to receive government grant money or to obtain other benefits) and because I've not seen any other descendants of Abednego making this claim.But assuming it's true, one is still left not knowing which of Abednego's or Mary's parents might be the 1/2 Cherokee (a 1/4 plus 1/4 possibility also exists, of course).We can at least rule out Mary's father, David Shults (b.ca1764/5, NC), but we don't know the ethnicity of her mother, Nancy Unknown (b.ca1765).
So, if the claim is true, it could have been Abednego's unknown father who was 1/2 Cherokee, OR his mother Hannah, OR Mary's mother Nancy.It's not a great deal of help, in any event.
This issue could potentially be resolved if a direct female descendant of either Hannah and/or Nancy could be found, in which case mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing could be done to potentially reveal a Native American ancestry (the mother of Hannah and/or Nancy would have to be Native American herself).[In the case of Hannah, the direct female descendant might be through either of her proven daughters, Catherine or Rebecca, i.e., a sister of Abednego's.In the case of Nancy, the direct female descendant might be through her daughter Mary Shults, i.e., a daughter of Abednego's.]
Mark