Ga-ho-ga ‘Nancy’ Adair

Nancy was A Cherokee woman

Biography

Ga-ho-ga/Nancy was a Cherokee woman of the Deer Clan probably born 1755-1760 in the Cherokee Nation. Although some websites and books give her name as "Nancy Lightfoot," there is no evidence that she had a white father. Emmet Starr stated "John Adair, a Scotchman, married Mrs. Ge ho ga Foster, a full blood Cherokee of the Deer Clan. She was a sister of Mrs. Dorcas Duncan...." [1] She may have also had brothers named William and George Lightfoot. [2] She had two husbands, white men named James Foster and John Adair, and at least seven children. Her children by Foster were James Foster, Jr. and Jennie Foster. [3] Researchers James Hicks and John Strange also list a son named John. [4]

Grandson John Thompson Adair testified in June, 1887 “My grandfather John Adair had two families. His first wife was a Cherokee woman named Nancy Forster, the children of this marriage were Samuel Adair, Walter Adair, Charlotte Adair, Edward Adair, and John Adair, Jr., their children were all Cherokee. After the death of his first wife he went back to South Carolina and married a white woman named Jane Kilgore.” [5] Nancy had died by 1790 since John Adair and wife Jane appear on deeds in South Carolina in 1791. [6]

Sources

1. ↑ Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians. Oklahoma Yesterday Publications edition, Tulsa, OK. 1979. p. 447, Note A47. Digitized edition at Starr
2. ↑ National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 75, E232, Spoilation Decisions, 1838, pg 60~61;” Improvement issued to James Foster, nephew of George…”
3. ↑ Crews & Starbuck, eds. Records of the Moravians Among the Cherokees. Cherokee Heritage Press, Tahlequah, OK. 2012 Vol. 4, pp. 1798, 1799, 1867-68
4. ↑ Shadburn, Don & Strange, John. Upon Our Ruins, Cottonpatch Press, Cumings, GA. 2012. p. 4
5. ↑ Testimony of John Thompson Adair, Oklahoma Historical Society, Cherokee Citizenship Records. Roll CHN 51, Vol. 466: 81, image #833
6. ↑ Laurens County, South Carolina: Register of Mesne Conveyance: Vol. D: 1791-1793, Roll 4. South Carolina State Archives

Source: The WikiTree Native American Project @ https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cherokee-92
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Curator Note: the following regarding Nancy MAY be correct but the is NO (zero) evidence of a person named John Lightfoot! It’s probable that there there were NO records of her in her lifetime. See below: Research Notes by Curators…

NANCY GA-HO-GA LIGHTFOOT (JOHN1) was born Abt. 1760.
She married (1) JAMES FOSTER, SR Bef. 1776. He was born Abt. 1750.
She married (2) JOHN ADAIR, SR May 15, 1804, son of JAMES ADAIR and ESTER MCBRIDE. He was born 1753.

• Blood: Full Blood Cherokee
• Burial: Rome, Floyd Co, GA
• Clan: Ani'-Kawi' = Deer Clan (Ga-ho-ga)
• Notes for JOHN ADAIR, SR:
• Starr lists John as being Scot/Cherokee but in the 1906 application of his grand-son, James Bell, he is listed as being born in Ireland.
• Abstracts of Old Ninrty-Six and Abbeville Dist Wills and Bonds, As on file in the Abbeville, South Carolina, Courthouse; Will of John Adair - pp 176-179:

Wife Jean to have negro man Friday and woman Old Jenny.Land at Flat Shoal Little River below Fish Trap called Walters Trap, joins Kye's line.Son Samuel. Son Walter to have one third of debts due me in the Cherokee Nation which he is about to collect.Walter to make title to Thomas B. for plantation where I now live.To daughter Charlotte.To son John 224 acres on Conneross purchased of James Baird.Son Edward owes me considerable sum.I also purchased note from James Head paid $42.00 for relapsing and carrying through some lands.This I request him to make title to my son Thomas B.I also give to my daughter (did not name her) a negro woman Peggy.To son James land where I now live, joining Cane Creek, John Moore and Sloan.To daughter Jane (?) a negro woman Jenny.To son William Henry land on Rusk's Still House Branch.To son Charles D. To son Washington, a negro girl Susan.Son Benjamin Franklin. Son John Alexander to have negro boy Peter and land in fork between Cane Creek and Little River.I owe debt to Adam Tunneau. My still and property to be sold for money sufficient to release negro Harry from Thomas Reid from the present embarrassment.Furniture and stock kept together and plantation cultivated for support of children until they marry or come of age.

Dated 4 Nov. 1815.
Wit.: Samuel Boystun(Signed) Jno. Adair, Thomas Lanier
N. B. I appoint Joseph Reid, Esq., and Samuel Boydston and Capt. David Sloan my executors.
Proven 4 Dec. 1815

More About JOHN ADAIR, SR:

• Blood: Scot
• Burial: Rome, Floyd Co, GA
• Starr's Notes: B990

Children of NANCY LIGHTFOOT and JAMES FOSTER are:
5. i. JAMES3 FOSTER, JR, CAP, b. Abt. 1776; d. 1843, Flint Dist, CNW.
6. ii. JENNIE DOUBLEHEAD FOSTER, b. Abt. 1778; d. Abt. 1812.

	iii.	 	JOHN FOSTER, b. Abt. 1780.

Children of NANCY LIGHTFOOT and JOHN ADAIR are:
7. iv. SAMUEL3 ADAIR I, b. 1781, Adairsville, Bartow Co, GA; d. Abt. 1836.
8. v. WALTER BLACK WATT ADAIR, b. December 11, 1783, Adairsville, Bartow Co, GA; d. January 20, 1835, CNW.
9. vi. CHARLOTTE (LIGHTFOOT) ADAIR, b. Abt. 1785, Adairsville, Bartow Co, GA; d. September 1838, CNE.
10. vii. EDWARD ADAIR, b. February 07, 1789, CNE [GA]; d. December 21, 1864, Adairsville, Bartow Co, GA.

	viii.	 	JOHN ADAIR, JR, b. Abt. 1790, Adairsville, Bartow Co, GA; d. Bef. 1838.

	Notes for JOHN ADAIR, JR:

• John never married.After becoming a grown man he enlisted in the United States Army during the War of 1812 and after the great battle of New Orleans he was honorably discharged but he disappeared and was never heard of again.
• In Starr's unpublished notes, there is a notation next to John that states: "K at Battle of New Orleans"
• Note: It's possable that Starr has this John Adair confused with his cousin, James Adair, son of Betsy Scott and Edward Adair Sr. James Adair died of the effects of wounds he got at the battle of Horseshoe Bend.
• Blood: 3/4 Cherokee
• Clan: Ani'-Kawi' = Deer Clan (Ga-ho-ga)

Research Notes by Curators:
Q (dvb): To your knowledge did Ga-ho-ga ‘Nancy’ Adair ever use the name LIGHTFOOT?
A (kpf): No. In fact I don't think there are any records of her from her lifetime; she died about 1790. I did a lot of research for her Wikitree profile https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cherokee-92 and I was never able to find anything to connect her to anyone named Lightfoot. There was a Lightfoot family in Virginia, very prominent and well-documented and none of the men who could have been in the Cherokee Nation at the right time were there. It's possible that "Lightfoot" was a Cherokee name and people have just assumed they were looking for a white person. Starr said that Nancy/Gahoga Foster Adair and Dorcas Duncan were sisters, but didn't name any parents. He also said they were fullbloods of the Deer Clan. Gahoga died about 1790 and her Cherokee children were brought up by their white father and his second wife, also white. Most of what we know about her came from her grandson, John Thompson Adair who gave her name as "Nancy Forster."

• Late in her life Dorcas Duncan was described by the person who assessed her property as "a half-blood old woman."
• James Foster appears in a few records as the nephew of a man named George Lightfoot
• John Strange claimed that John T Adair said his grandmother was named 'Lightfoot" but he did not. (quoted correctly on Gahoga's Wikitree profile)
• James Hicks has Dorcas and Gahoga as daughters of someone named "John Lightfoot" a person for whom there is zero evidence.
• A few of Nancy's grandchildren lived long enough to file Eastern apps, but none knew more than her name of "Nancy."
• Some of those "Old Cheraw" people claim descent from her but her children are all well-documented.

…

Source: j Hicks, James R. “Cherokee Lineages: Register Report of John Lightfoot, Cap” Genealogy.com, Sites.Rootsweb.com, 2023, https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/h/i/c/James-R-Hicks-VA/BOOK-0001/0019...

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Ga-ho-ga ‘Nancy’ Adair

Nancy “Ga Ho Ga”

Emmett Starr recorded Nancy and Dorcas as full-blood women of the Deer Clan.

• daughter of Ga Ho Ga
• father unknown
• sister of Dorcas Duncan, sister of Ga Ho Ga
• married 1) James Foster, Sr. 2) John Adair, Sr.
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kdYSSi-4bovFX0Zt-QBcxO54JK7jbZW... for study
• https://www.geni.com/discussions/179495?msg=1209169 to discuss
• not a known child of Capt John Lightfoot, "Younger" of Antiqua & Eutaw, AL & Mary Ruffin

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The Cherokee Adair family begins with two white men who were brothers, John and Edward Adair and their Cherokee wives. Starr listed no parents for brothers John and Edward Adair,. Later records said that John was born in Scotland or Ireland. Nancy may have been the daughter of a woman named Ga ho ga. It's unclear from the few records that exist whether mother and daughter had the same name. Testimony by grandson John Thompson Adair many years after Nancy's death refer to her only as Nancy, the widow of a man named "Forster." This family is NOT related to the James Adair who wrote the "History of the American Indians" book.

John Adair had at least five children by Gahoga/Nannie Foster (Foster was her first husband) and ten more by a white woman, Jane Kilgore. He left property to both sets of children in his will, and three of Jane's children married Cherokee.

Nancy Foster-Adair / Gahoga was married twice: first to James Foster and then to John Adair. She had two children, James and Jennie Foster by her first husband and five, Samuel, Walter, Charlotte, Edward, and John by Adair. Nancy died about 1790 when her oldest child was only eight or nine years old. She may have died in childbirth. John quickly remarried (to a white woman) and joined his Cherokee and white families.

Sources: Title: Starr Author: Emmet Starr Repository: Call Number: Media: Book Page: 403, 556 Title: shook.FTW Repository: Call Number: Media: Other Text: Date of Import: Mar 24, 2001 More About NANCY LIGHTFOOT: Blood: Full Blood Cherokee Burial: Rome, Floyd Co, GA Clan: Ani'-Kawi' = Deer Clan (Ga-ho-ga)