Looking for anyone who knew my family Robert F. Payne from vian ok. or Minnie Ann Payne from shadypoint ok.?

Question

they were cherokee indian some of our family said they did have an indian roll number .

Answer 1

Which do you want - roll number or former friends? Most people don't remember friends' roll numbers they way the remember friends' phone numbers.

Go to www.cherokee.org and poke around. If you send the tribe your parents' names, birth dates and death dates they should be able to look them up for you.

As to people who knew them - look up their obituaries. Those usually tell what organizations they belogned to, where they worked, what church they went to. Then visit or write to same to see if anyone remembers them.

This board gets visitors from the English-speaking world. The questions stay "Up" for 3 - 5 days. Basically no one ever reads the resolved questions. I can tell because everyone asks the same four questions 8 - 47 times a day. The chance of someone who know your parents reading your question in the next week is small.

Answer 2

Dear A,

It is always exciting finding someone who is interested in learning more about their family history.

As was mentioned, it is a little unclear exactly what you are looking for.  Are you really looking for people who knew them?  Or, are you looking for information about them?

I have located both Robert and Minnie in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census as children with their parents.  They are all listed as white.  Minnie is listed as being born in "Indian Territory."  However, this was simply the name for the area we now know as Oklahoma.

Of course, none of this means that they are not Native American.  What it does mean is that you will likely want to look into doing some additional research (or hiring a professional genealogist) to discover more about your heritage.

If you are interested in copies of the 1900 census records I was able to locate, please feel free to contact me directly.

Best Regards,

Crista Cowan

Professional Genealogist