Finding Your Cherokee Heritage

• 1). Collect information about members of your family who would have been living from 1898 to 1906. If you are Cherokee, one of these ancestors will be listed in the Dawes Rolls.
  
  
• 2). Record the given first and last name of the ancestor (maiden, if your ancestor was a married woman). A birth certificate is usually the most desirable form of identification for your ancestor, but information from a family bible or other records may also be acceptable.
  
  
• 3). Visit the Research Center of the Oklahoma Historical Society's website. Under "Databases and Indexes", click on the "Dawes Final Rolls" link.
  
  
• 4). Enter the first and last name of your ancestor in the search engine. Under "Tribe", scroll down to "Cherokee", then select "Enter". The search also asks for a roll number, which is the number your ancestor received when he or she registered in the Dawes Rolls. If you found this number in your family records, you would already know you are Cherokee because you would have your ancestor's Cherokee enrollment number.
  
  
• 5). Find your ancestor's name in the search results. You will also find your ancestor's age at the time of enrollment, gender and your ancestor's fraction of Cherokee blood, from Full to 1/32. Your ancestor's enrollment number will be in the last column.
  
  
• 6). Record your ancestor's information, including the enrollment number. This is the number the Cherokee Nation government would need to verify your Cherokee ancestry. Congratulations, you've unearthed your Cherokee roots!