Additional information
by Jeff Bowen (Transcribed by)
The Eastern Cherokee by Blood series Volumes I - XIII is the most complete series in pure transcribed form (from National Archival film, M-1104) of the Cherokee abstracts available and beyond, nothing added, nothing taken away. From the first application to the last (45,857) representing approximately 90,000 individuals and then in Volume XIII The Exceptions Filed to Guion Miller's Report of May 28, 1909, and submitted on January 5, 1910. The complete record of application decisions gives both those accepted and rejected. There are thousands of names and families involved in this finished series. Let it be known that if there are rejections it may not mean the applicant is not Cherokee, only due to the fact that they may not have been related to an Emigrant Cherokee during the time of removal. Their ancestor could have belonged to a different tribe or have been an Old Settler Cherokee, a Western-born Cherokee, or possibly even a Texas-born Cherokee that had family that left the east as early as 1818-1820.
The Miller Application numbers are totally different than a regular roll number, which contains an index of names that may lead to a person's family tribal enrollment card through that number. The enrollment card also has vital information such as name, family relations, age, sex, blood quantum, etc. But the Miller Applications can lead you to generations of family information and history along with, in many cases, testimony not just from family but neighbors, tribal members and acquaintances. The books not only can lead you to Cherokee blood as a descendant of an Emigrant Cherokee but also to thousands of other Cherokee bloodlines as well as possibly relations to other tribes during testimony. So these materials are a researcher's dream come true.
