Earl and the Family Bible

My Dad was born in rural Missouri in 1907. Births there had not begun to be tracked and so he did  not receive a birth certificate. When he came to Michigan on one of his trips and tried to hire into General Motors, he found that he needed a birth certificate.

He traveled back to Missouri and taking his aunt and the family bible with him, visited the courthouse in Stoddard County. With her affidavit and the inscriptions in the bible he received a birth certificate.

Now our family has always claimed Cherokee heritage from the Roger’s side of the family. My grandmother Richard’s maiden name was Roger. According to many in the family, our part of the deal with the Federal Government included the land where Oklahoma City sits and that in the bible was the proof of our ownership.

That bible has disappeared and a certain few in the family have always accused my Dad of keeping the bible so that he could eventually claim the city, or the land where it sits as his own. Those making the accusations are all dead now, like Dad, but while they all lived the feud continued. 

So to sit the record straight, I am not currently suing to receive the land in our name (HA). I do not have that family bible and Dad always stated that his Aunt took it back home with her.

Besides, what would I do with Oklahoma City?

Roy Richard
June 2023