"(I'd love to do dna analysis of my family to see if we could determine 'what' my GGrandfather was, exactly. We know 'Indian' but have no tribe! :(. )"
Have you ever done any genealogy on your family? If they are, in fact, Indian, the Mormon church is supposed to have very elaborate genealogical files on Indians. I don't know this for sure, but I have been told this by Mormons.
Yes. Didn't know the Mormon aspect. Our problem is this. In the 1800's a lot of Indians had 'white' names and 'Indian' names. Lots of 'Indian' related documents contained the Indian name. If you don't have a direct link between the two names or just don't know the Indian name it's very difficult to find out who the heck you really are. Compounded is the fact that due to the political atmosphere in Reconstruction south this particular branch weren't 'registered' Indians. (Knowing how the Union felt about Indians, just look at their treatment of the Indian in general, would you, as an Indian, in reconstruction south, presented yourself at a US government office to 'register' yourself? I certainly wouldn't have! They'd have had to find my brown a@@ in the woods or bayou!) So, we have this particular ancestor's name, but not his mother or fathers name. *sigh*...
I will check with the Mormons though to see if someone else doing genealogy on a related branch copied down something relevant to mine. Thanks for the info!