Whitesides Family & Cherokee Connection
Cora Whitesides
- Born: April 1883 in Boone County, Missouri.
- Married: Ervin Ernest Murray on December 30, 1898 in Woodville, Boone County, MO.
- Parents: John W. Whiteside and Ann (Crow) Whiteside.
Cherokee Connection
- Cora’s marriage is listed in the book Cherokee Nation Marriages 1884–1901 by Dixie Bogle and Dorothy Nix.
- This book abstracted marriage records from the Indian Chieftain newspapers, suggesting that Cora may have had Cherokee ties, or that her marriage was recognized within the Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory.
Important Notes
- There is no direct documentation proving Cora was Cherokee.
- The inclusion in the Cherokee marriage records may indicate:
- She was adopted into the Nation.
- Her husband Ervin E. Murray may have had Cherokee ancestry.
- Or the marriage occurred in a region with Cherokee jurisdiction or recognition.
Whitesides family had some indirect and speculative associations with the Cherokee Nation, primarily through intermarriage and migration patterns involving individuals of mixed Catawba, Cherokee, and Whitesides heritage. Here’s what the document reveals:
1. Martha Jane White Harris – Whitesides and Cherokee Connection
- Martha Jane White, daughter of George and Peggy QuashMursh White, married Absalom (“Epp”) Harris, a Catawba.
- Her surname “White” is sometimes associated with the Whitesides family, and she may have had Cherokee ancestry through her maternal line.
- Their daughter, Margaret Elizabeth Harris, married James Thomas Harris Jr., whose first wife was Fannie Whitesides, daughter of Thomas Whitesides and Eliza Scott, a Catawba woman.
2. Migration and Mixed Identity
- Some members of the extended Whitesides family (e.g., John Ayers, Polly Ayers, John Marsh) appear in Cherokee-associated communities in North Florida and Georgia during the mid-1800s.
- These individuals were part of a Cheraw-Catawba-Cherokee mixed community, and some of their descendants (e.g., Mary E. Whitesides, born 1848 in Georgia) may have married into Whitesides lines.
3. Census and Land Records
- Whitesides individuals appear in Cherokee census rolls and Indian land records in Mecklenburg County, NC, and York County, SC, areas with overlapping Catawba and Cherokee populations.
- Some Whitesides descendants were listed as “Indian” in census records, suggesting cultural or tribal affiliation beyond Catawba.
Summary of Associations
- Direct tribal affiliation with the Cherokee Nation is not explicitly documented for the Whitesides.
- However, intermarriage, shared geography, and mixed ancestry link the Whitesides to Cherokee families, especially through the White, George, and Mursh lines.