Re: re:Samuel McCarty Hays/Mary Paulina Bates, Missouri
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In reply to:
re:Samuel McCarty Hays/Mary Paulina Bates, Missouri
Debra Clarke 4/16/07
I just found your post regarding finding Bible pages containing information about Samuel McCarty Hays & Mary Paulina Bates (and your next post listing other members of the Samuel McCarty Hays family).I am descended from Samuel McCarty Hays’ sister, Sophia S. Hays and her husband, James G. Shannon who were both born in Virginia, and moved to Missouri between 1839-1840, I believe. I would appreciate any information recorded in the Bible, as well as anything else you might have on the Hays, Hayes, McCarty family.Family tradition passed down through the generations in my family says that Sophia Hays (sister to Samuel McCarty Hays) was ½ Indian (either Cherokee or of the long-lost Pohowtan tribe), which would mean Samuel was ½ as well, if this is true. The tradition relates that the family moved from Virginia to Missouri because Sophia Hays Shannon (and her siblings) and at least one of her parents, were part Indian – to escape the forced removal. We think her parents, Jacob Hays and Rebecca McCarty Hays, moved at that time too, as they were on the 1850 census in Andrew County, MO next door to Sophia and James G. Shannon. In the winter of 1838/spring of 1839, the Indians were forced to leave VA and TN and sent beyond the 95th meridian (the “Trail of Tears”). Part of Andrew Co., MO lies beyond the 95th meridian.I have not been able to determine which one of Sophia Hays and Samuel McCarty Hays’ parents possibly could have been Indian (full blood?), although I suspect it would have been their Mother, Rebecca McCarty, since it’s more than likely that Jacob Hays’ ancestors were Scotch-Irish. I tried all the Indian rolls and have found nothing, which doesn’t surprise me, if it’s true that the Hays families were trying to avoid forced removal and probably wished to blend in.
Have you found anything to document the Indian heritage in this family?