My Mickle ancestors were a litiguous lot, at least when it came to the federal government. Harmon Mickle’s Southern Claims Commission disallowed file contains 912 pages of testimony, letters, claims and counter-claims concerning his losses during “the late unpleasantness.” [American Civil War to you non-southerners.]

His widow, Johanna McSweeney Mickle, a first-generation Irish woman, and her adult children, filed claims for Choctaw citizenship, based on Harmon’s intermarriage with a Choctaw woman, Susanna Morris, his first wife.  Johanna couldn’t prove Harmon’s Choctaw citizenship by intermarriage to Susanna Morris/Murris, and was therefore denied an allotment. By combining the files of her children–the kinship group–I managed to document several dates and events I have not been able to find otherwise.

I also learned that Footnote.com has only the allowed Southern Claims Commission files online. You have to read the fine print!