Life History

Notes

• Some sources seem to confuse this Joel Mackey Keith with Martin, sometimes having his name as Joel Martin Keith.  See Notes for Martin Keith.  Genealogies report the birth date of Joel Mackey Keith as 11 Feb 1799.  The Martin Keith who married Mary Jane Roper was born in 1792.  These two Keith lines are likely kin a couple of generations back in Virginia.
  
  A complicating factor is a marriage record in a collection reporting that Joel M Keith is the husband of Mary Roper, known from other sources to be the wife of Martin Keith.
  
  U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
  Joel M. Keith
  Gender: Male
  Birth Year: 1799
  Spouse Name: Mary Roper
  
  This could indicate that her husband's name was Joel Martin Keith.  But then we have the discrepancy in birth years.  Martin Keith is born in 1792, according to consistent sources, including censuses.  This Joel M Keith is reported born in 1799.  This matches Joel Mackey Keith in genealogies.  It could also be that the compiling system mixed records or made an error.  Only the transcription is reported.
  
  Assuming this is a valid record, this seems to support the idea that Martin and Joel M are the same person.  Then what about the difference in middle names?  Joel Martin or Joel Mackey Keith?  Martin's mother was named Mackey, so that supports the likelihood that Mother son was named Mackey.  That leaves a 7-year difference in birth dates!
  
  Could it be that the same person received one middle name at birth (probably Mackey) and then began to use a different middle name Martin?  Birth dates do vary in this era.  Isn't genealogy fun?
  
  Some genealogies report that Joel Martin Keith had a son named Joel Mackey.  Virginia birth records record a later Joel Mackey, born 8 May 1847.  This may be Joel Martin's son, whose birth date is reported in some sources as 9 May 1842.  I also find a Joel M Keith with wife Susan in Walker Georgia, in 1880.  This Joel M is 40 years old, meaning he was born about 1839-40.  One of his sons is Freeman W (in 1880 listed as Freeman R) Keith.
  
  Freeman moves to Oklahoma, where in 1900 he is married to a white woman named Alma, but reports himself as an Indian, and all his children are Indians.  They are living in Cherokee Nation in 1900.  In 1920 they are still in the same general area, in Muskogee County, Oklahoma.  Freeman is then reported as White, with white children, then again in 1930, he is Indian, with a white wife and Indian children.  In this census, the birth place of his parents reports them as Father Mix Blood and his mother as Cherokee.
  
  We know this is the same Freeman Keith, since Joel M, age 60, matching birth in 1940, is reported in the household of Freeman and his family.  Susan has died by this time; Joel is a widow.  So this Joel M Keith is half Cherokee, and his wife Susan is full blood Cherokee.  This matches stories of other Keiths that they have Cherokee ancestors.
  
  John B Keith and his wife Frances Jane Terry are both reported in family tradition to have Cherokee ancestors.  Documents of descendants' application to the Dawes Commission for recognition as Cherokees are in the possession of family, but their applications were denied.  But we find some of their descendants living in Indian Territory, mostly Cherokee Nation.  The relationship of Joel Mackey and Joel Martin Keith to the others clearly kin to the Terrys is still [August 2008] unclear.
  
  Joel M Keith is reported in the 1850 census Forsyth County, Georgia, whose wife is named Mary, while the other Keith branch, including Martin Keith, were reported in Murray County, Georgia.
  
  1850 Federal Census, Forsyth County, Georgia, 22 August, District 31, page 332-3 (166-7), Hse/Fam #308
  Joel M Keith 51 Male Carpenter $200 Real Estate  born South Carolina [b abt 1799]
  Mary Keith 45 Female born South Carolina [b abt 1805]
  
  This may be a different family from the Joel M Keith who was married to a Susan and had a son named Freeman Lafayette.  Details of the various Keith lines are still being analyzed.  There were several Keiths named Freeman, reported with middle initials of W, R or L.  Sometimes the same individual is reported with different middle initials from one census to another, as we often find in the censuses.  We can sometimes tell from the other family members, like when the aging parent is living with the person in question, which family of Freeman Keith we are looking at.
  
  By 1900, Joel M Keith's son Freeman Lafayette had married and moved to Indian Territory, he reports himself as a Indian, his father as White and his mother as Indian.  The 1900 census in Indian Territory reported additional information on Indian background, and reports Freeman and his mother as Cherokee and his father, Joel M as White.  Freeman is married to a White woman named Alma.  His children are reported as Cherokee.
  

Sources

• 1. 1850 Federal Census, Forsyth County, Georgia
  • 22 August, District 31, page 332 (166), Hse/Fam #308
• 2. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
• 3. Family Data Collection - Births
• 4. Family Data Collection - Individual Records