I have been told that I am related to Ira Hayes-how do I figure that out?

Question

I look like my grandma who always told me we are Pima Indians. Her name was Alva Greenwalt.

Answer 1

All I could figure out was this:

Ira Hamilton Hayes--full blood Pima Indian, b. 1923; d. 1955; buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Father: Joe E (or Job E) Hayes --b. 1902; d. unknown

Mother: Nancy (Unknown) Hayes--

Grandparents:

Ralph Hayes--b. 1860 (uncle to BENJAMIN Hayes, age 19 for 1910 federal census Arizona, his  first marriage, married 1 years, b. Arizona, father b. Arizona, mother b. Arizona, occ: farmer - gen'l. farm; Benjamin married 2nd to ELVA HAYES, age 24, second marriage, has had two children, both survive--

Hiram, age 2 and Irene, age 1 month, both born in Arizona).

Cannot find a listing for an ALVA or ELVA Greenwalt.

Answer 2

Download Personal Ancestry File software from http://www.familysearch.org so that you can organize yourself. Then download the family history info sheets and fill one in for each generation, working from yourself backwards. Pull marriage, birth and death records, church records, census records and published biographies to figure out what can be proved. There is a lot of family folklore that supposedly links people to an Indian heritage. Very little of it is true and you'll often find your family has only been in the US  a few generations longer than the person making the Indian claim.

If your grandmother was the Alva Greenwalt born in California in 1896 and who died in 1962, the claim is dubious. Her father's family goes back to the Anabaptists who left Switzerland and settled in Pennsylvania (aka Pennsylvania Dutch) and her mother's family was French-Canadian. They were only in the American west for one generation before she was born and the links back to Pennsylvania and Quebec are well documented...sans Ira Hayes. Ira was a pure-blooded Pima and had no links to either the Pennsylvania Dutch or the Quebecois. So I guess it's remotely possible, but not highly probable.

Answer 3

The critical part is to have ALL the original documentation, or full image.  In going back to review the record from Jan.. the full image tells more of the story.

JOB Hayes is listed in the same home as found with Benjamin Hayes and wife Elva, as well as the mother to Benjamin Hayes. He is shown as age 10 in 1910.   Job is a son to Ralph (ie 1st cousin to Benjamin, and cousin by marriage to Benjamin's wife).

Ralph is Benjamin's uncle, and is widowed.  Lucy Hayes is identified as age 57, and mother to Benjamin. It seems that Benjamin's father and Ralph were brothers, but Benjamin's father is deceased.

In going ahead to 1930.. it would appear that the Job (age 10/ 1910) is the same who is later married to Nancy, and in 1930, lives in Phoenix.  Ira Hayes does in fact show as son of Job and Nancy (listed on the census in 1930 as J.E. Hayes).  A later record 1922 uses the name Joe E. Hayes.

I assume that Benjamin must have been your grandfather, then.  The combination of the 2 records does support what you have been told by your grandmother.

The unsolved question that remains is - your grandmother's name of Greenwalt.. you do not make it clear if this is your grandmother's maiden name, if it was the name of her first husband, or if Benjamin died, and she remarried prior to her death.  It would also need confirmation if the son Hiram is Benjamin's son with Elva.. or was Hiram a child from her first marriage, and mis-recorded as Hiram Hayes, on the 1910 census?

IF YOUR grandmother died with the name Elva Greenwalt.. she is listed in 1910 as being 24 yrs old.. or, born 1886. One of two things.. the death record found by Gen's mom is a different Elva Greenwalt.. or the date of 1896 as shown on that record, is not correct according to the age in 1910.

If you will send me your actual email address THROUGH my profile.. I can copy both images and send them back to you. Yahoo's email filter does not accept attachments.

Thus.. Benjamin Hayes (husband to Elva) was in fact a 1st cousin to Joe E Hayes..(father to Ira).