Esther "Gantanaga" Black and Nathan "Dutch" Thompson

I had always been told that some of my ancestors were Cherokee.  One of the possible sources of that story is Esther "Gantanaga" Black, my sixth great grandmother.  A number of online sources quote family stories to the effect that she was Cherokee, that she lied about her heritage to avoid being relocating during the "trail of tears," and that she was refused burial in a Christian cemetery on the grounds of her "heathen" ancestry.  The multitude of such stories leads me to believe that there is something to it, but I haven't seen any original sources myself.  Examples of stories along these lines can be found in the following thread: http://www.saponitown.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-3588.html

Captain Robert Messer

My family has one or two lines come from the south, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and elsewhere.  I know relatively little about these lines, but after just a few minutes of searching today I happened upon the story of my 7th great grandfather Captain Robert Messer.  He was part of a group of rebels against the British in 1771 called the regulators (click here for some context).  After being defeated by the British he was hung for treason.  There is a nice account of this story on this blog:   http://kingdomtobackwoods.wordpress.com/#

This story draws together two parts of my ancestry about which I know very little, my ancestors role in the revolutionary struggle and my southern roots.