Despite being labeled “marriages,” these records do not always give an exact marriage date or even the maiden name of the bride. Sometimes two wedding dates for the same couple are found in an application. This simply implies that the couple had married before their arrival and needed an official record of their union in the Cherokee Nation.

Applicants were required to testify about their marital history. The Commissioner asked the applicant about any previous spouses, whether an earlier marriage ended in death or separation, and the Cherokee Nation citizenship status of any previous spouse. Friends and relatives were often called to testify to substantiate the applicant’s claims.

Before the 1870s, many Cherokee-white unions were informal or common law. Though an Act of Cherokee Council passed on 15 October 1855 required a marriage license, 3 some couples continued the earlier practice of having a so-called Indian style marriage. Nancy Cordrey‘s application for enrollment was accepted, though it was indeterminate whether or not she and her half-Cherokee husband had legally wed. Her stepson stated that, in 1862, Nancy and Wilson M. Cordrey “commenced living together like people did in them times. I never asked no questions; it was a general rule that people lived together.” And a minister named Joe Fox recanted his earlier testimony about James Wright and Hattie Hall‘s marital history, clarifying that they “took up and lived together” and had “two, or three, or four” children before marrying.

Some divorces were informal, too. In Mary J. Catron‘s application, Martin A. Wallace testified:

When I came to this country in ’71, there were no divorce law among the Indians, nor no marriage law. They just courted the woman and if she agreed they lived together, and when they got tired they quit.

Contrary to Wallace’s claim, the district courts of the Cherokee Nation had jurisdiction over divorce suits. A legislative act approved at Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, in 1859, stated that, “divorces shall not be granted for any other cause than adultery, or willful neglect of the duties of the married state, by either husband or wife.” 4

The type of data found in applications varies greatly. Actual birth dates are rarely given, but ages were always recorded. Applicants were required to state their address, marital status, whether or not he or she was a citizen by blood or intermarriage, the spouse’s citizenship status, and the names of others included in the application for enrollment. In most cases, only children under the age of twenty-one needed to be named. Otherwise, adult children had to file their own papers for membership status. Other inquiries might be tailored to the case. In these instances, the Commissioner might ask for the names of the applicant’s parents or in-laws. For example, the application of Joseph H. Alexander (born ca. 1841) states that his parents were Silas Alexander and the former Mary Kennedy or Kannady. Joseph H.’s wife, the former Sophronia E. Duncan, is identified as the daughter of a Cherokee named John Duncan and Besty, whose maiden name was not given.

The data provided in these applications—verbatim testimony—is a genealogical treasure trove.

Available as Applications for Enrollment of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914, National Archives micropublication M1301, rolls 305, 306 and 307, this genealogical data was abstracted as an eleven-part series in American Genealogy Magazine, Volumes 10, No. 1 thru Vol. 13, No. 3, now freely available as scanned images in a PDF viewer, as found on the links below:

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