This tree, created in 2002, and revised 2004-2006, is based on information parents and grandmother obtained from letters and research, and on some on-line research I did. I have been to date unsuccessful in tracing this ancestry back to anyone but persons who appear to be--or even are of--European ancestry. But there is a paucity of records of non-Europeans in the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Check out also the War and Military Records Page!

Samuel Elbert. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia (http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-672), Samuel Elbert was the son of William Elbert, a Baptist minister, and his wife Sarah (see also Samuel_Elbert (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Elbert) in Wikipedia). Though born in Georgia, Elbert spent his early years in South Carolina. Elbert's father died when he was a boy, and Elbert went to work with John Rae, an Irish-born merchant, in the Indian trade in Georgia, ultimately becoming, according to New Georgia Encyclopedia a prosperous Savannah merchant. Under Rae, Elbert traded among the Cherokee and Creek. He became an Anglican, perhaps when he married Rae's daughter Elizabeth.
Elbert's early boss and later father-in-law, John Rae, and two brothers, had immigrated from Ireland.
John Rae, his wife Catherine, and a second daughter, Jean Sommerville, are named in the 1767 Proof Will of Scottish trader, Lachlan McGillivray--you will note that Elbert's soon-to-be wife Elizabeth is omitted from the Will, I think because the McGillivray's, including McGillivray's son the mixed blood Creek Chief Alexander, were Tories. (The McGillivray's estate was ultimately confiscated by Georgia, and Elbert, when he became governor, had it and other confiscated estates sold to pay Georgia debts; see The Order Book of Samuel Elbert [text version].)
Elbert who had learned to some degree some of the Indian languages, had a prominent role in the American Revolution. At one point, he was supposedly rescued by Indians from a British trap.
Based on the documents in The Order Book of Samuel Elbert, Elbert seems to have a well-disciplined soldier who followed rules, respecting the hierarchy and seeing that one man got a proper trial.
Elbert helped to negotiate a May 31, 1783 Indian Land Cession in which the Cherokee ceded a tract between the Tugaloo and Oconee Rivers in Georgia. He may have been involved as well in a second November 1783 cession in which two Creek village headmen ceded a tract just downstream of the first, including a joint Cherokee-Creek hunting ground (for which the Creek headmen were later harassed by another Creek headman, Alexander McGillivray, mentioned above). See U.S. Gen Net's Indian Land Cessions in the Southeast: Cherokee. See also North Georgia: 1783-1828 (second paragraph).
Elbert had traded among the Creeks as well as among the Cherokee, and as governor of Georgia, tried, right after the American Revolution, to arrange a meeting between Georgia and the Creek, apparently partly in an attempt to regain Creek trade and perhaps also in an attempt to seal an alliance and circumvent alliances with the British (again see The Order Book of Samuel Elbert. This seems to have been a major preoccupation of his during his governorship.
The University of Georgia was chartered at almost the outset of his term, largely it seems the result of lobbying on the part of Abraham Baldwin, who later became its first president. The University of Georgia was the first state land-grant university established in the United States (see http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/archives/exhibit/charter/index.html).
I am still trying to learn more about a Creek named Michael Elhert or Elbert or Elliot (I would need to see the original document to decide; I have only seen a transcribed version), who fought for the U.S. in the First Creek War, to determine whether or not our Samuel Elbert had any connection with him.
(To see the transcribed document, check out Depositions for Michael Ehlert, part of Middleton's "Among the Creeks" at rootsweb; one note on the depositions; Ehlert [?] claims that after his wife died, he never returned to his land to improve it further; I note that the Creek women traditionally did the farming, not the men; however, according to Angie Debo, 1941, The Road to Disappearance [a bit of which is available online as a Google Book at http://books.google.com/books?id=FP-9B2XLawgC&dq=Debo+The+Road+to+Disappearance&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=gMHuXzkiV9&sig=Q_weoF86bCWnlfJAACresw1-k-M&hl=en&ei=29k7S5DxJoeXtgfN0-mOCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false]. However, since the Creek men were not considered to be so militarily skilled as the Chickasaw were, the men sometimes were called on to help with this banal but absolutely necessary work; however the main work for Native American men in the East by this date was soldiering and slave catching as the East was quite depleted of game; likewise it was almost depleted of runaway slaves, and many of the subtribes were no longer even cooperating with the colonies on the latter matter.)
Slavery had been legalized in Georgia in 1751 (and no doubt traders had always had a few 'servants' when they travelled I think). Elbert had slaves as did his descendant, Samuel Elbert Muse.
Elbert is buried in Savannah.
For more on Samuel Elbert's role in the Revolutionary War, see R. E. Whitehead's article, Florida's Narrow Escape; alternately, much of this story is told at the "Life" of Samuel Elbert--largely by R. E. Whitehead as well--at Wikipedia. See also My attempts to Edit the Biography at Wikipedia -- all my edits have been removed (they are not pertinent? I am not qualified? I am not the proper Elbert descendant to make notes at Wikipedia? Interesting because my father had me edit and correct his original article.

Catherine Elbert married John Burke, and had a daughter, Eliza, who married a Lewis Smith Muse and lived in Virginia according to a Revolutionary War land claim archived at the U.S. Gen Web (http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/richmond/deeds/elbert.txt) ("Revolutionary War Bounty Land Scrip Application of the Heirs of Samuel Elbert", Scrip Application # 1436, Lewis Muse and Eliza Muse claim of October 1835; a Burke County land plot is in the Georgia archives at: http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/compoundobject/collection/looseplats/id/5766/rec/9; according to http://archive.org/stream/georgiasrosterrev00knigrich/georgiasrosterrev00knigrich_djvu.txt, Elbert requested the land at the end of service, "ELBERT BRIG. GEN. SAMUEL. Of Georgia. Certificate of Gov. Houstoun, of his service in Continental Line as per his commission, dated November 4, 1783. Petitioner prays land in the reserve. Warrant No. 12." Elbert's bounty land is also listed in a war of 1812 bounty land claim, also archived at Roots Web's U.S. Gen Web).
Eliza Muse is listed in the May, 1836 and the July 6, 1867 entries! (These entries were archived at rootsweb and are now archived at the U.S. Genweb project; these are: [1], http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/richmond/military/revwar/pensions/mt95ucontinen.txt [4.4476]: Richmond County GaArchives Military Records.....Samuel Elbert February 1827 Revwar - Pension Continental Army - Georgia Line; [2], http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/richmond/deeds/elbert.txt : RICHMOND COUNTY, GA - DEEDS Bounty Land Samuel Elbert Copyright (this file is linked to above; this file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Candace Gravelle, of Georgia); [3], http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/richmond/military/revwar/pensions/elbert-sam.txt [4.44152]: REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION APPLICATION SAMUEL ELBERT Contributed originally by, again: Candace Gravelle [she gave her email address as: tealtree@comcast.net].) This Eliza Malvina Burke Muse was the wife of a Mr. Lewis S. Muse; see: married in 1810 in Camden County, Georgia, and the daughter of Catherine Elbert Burke. The latter was the wife of John Burke.
Lewis Smith Muse's father was apparently Samuel Muse, according to the Westmoreland County, Virginia 1794 will.
S. Elbert Muse was the son of Lewis Smith Muse and Eliza Burke Muse according to Elbert biographer Gordon Burns Smith (S. E. Muse died before his father so is not mentioned in his father's will). S. E. Muse is listed on page 231b, entry 745, of the 1850 Chatham County, Georgia census as a clerk, and seems to be a widower living with his son, A. E. Muse. He had eight slaves, indexed on the 1850 Chatham County slave schedule. Jane Stiles Muse was his second wife; she married S. E. Muse after 1850!
For more sources on S. E. Muse, see Notes on Samuel Elbert Muse

Elizabeth Rae. Elizabeth Rae was the daughter of John and Catherine Rae. Nothing is known about Catherine. According to R. E. Whitehead, a letter from a Mrs. Osborne, who is a descendant of Elizabeth's paternal grandfather David Rae of Ireland, John Rae was born in Magheraknack, New Ballynahinch, Co. Down, Northern Ireland to David Rae, who was himself born in Ireland in the 1600s. John Rae's elder brother Mathew Rae preceded him to Georgia acting as a land agent for John, who arrived in 1730, followed by half-brother, Robert. The name was spelled Rea however. Gary Rea (garyrea@cox.net) provides similar information at WorldConnect at rootsweb.

Jane Julia Stiles. Much of the information about Jane Julia Stiles, who first married Samuel Elbert Muse and then remarried a sea captain named Hernandez (according to descendant REW) comes from the 1880 Chatham County Census. That census lists in a Savannah household:
Thomas Hernandez, wife Jane Hernandez, age 46, birthplace, Georgia, and Mr. Hernandez's stepson Edward Muse, age 28 (an age of 46 gives Jane a different birth date than a previous census). Jane Hernandez's parents' are listed as born in Georgia as well. (The census also lists a servant -- Victoria Stafford age 21 and a 9-year-old boy. Jane's son Edward Stiles Muse says he works for the United States government.)
The 1880 census entry suggests that Jane Stiles Hernandez's birth date was around 1835-36 then (but her age here may not be correct; it conflicts slightly with the information given in another census) and her son Edward Stiles Muse's birth date was in 1851-52.
On the 1850 Chatham County census, S. E. Muse as noted appears to be a widower living with just his son and no wife, and thus Jane Stiles and S. E. Muse must have married between the 1850 census date and the 1851-52 birth of son Edward Stiles Muse. According to descendant REW, "[c]ounty records show that Miss Jane Julia Stiles married Mr. S.E. Muse, Jan. 8, 1852 in Chatham County (Savannah) Georgia," in the Presbyterian Church. REW says further that prior to marrying Jane, "Dec. 30, 1841, 1st. Lt. Samuel Elbert Muse, U.S.A., married a Margaret Clark."
Because Jane's son was named Edward, and because of the funeral announcement for her first husband, Samuel Elbert Muse, her father's name likely had "Edward" in it.
In 1850, Jane Stiles, age 19 (thus born around 1830-31) is listed on page 106 of the Chatham County census as living with a Sarah A. Pierce, age 61 (born 1788-89? see below for more on Mrs. Pierce!). An Edward Stiles is also listed on the 1850 Chatham County census (see below) If he is Jane's father, for some reason Jane has opted to live with -- or has been placed with -- Mrs. Sarah Pierce instead of with him in 1850.
A Benjamin E. Stiles is listed in the 1840 Chatham County census but the census lists no one as living there, just the land. Slightly up the Savannah River, in Screven County, Georgia, a Benjamin E. Stiles is listed as living with his family. There is one girl who could be about Jane's age -- she is aged under five. This Benjamin E. Stiles was also known as Benjamin Edward Stiles according to online family tree information. (He's listed in the 1830 census for Chatham County as just B. E. Stiles. He married a Mary Ann Mackay.)
The nearest Edward Stiles listed in 1840 is in Laurens County, Georgia (west of Savannah, like Bryan County), and he has a girl aged ten-to-fifteen (probably about ten based since there is an 1830 Bryan County census listing for perhaps the same Edward Stiles, aged under 30, just west of Savannah, living with his wife and a teenaged/young adult male, and with no children born yet). He has no wife living with him I believeon the 1840 Laurens County census? Thus his wife (Maria Pierce?) may be dead.
The 1840 age ten matches the age 19 Jane Stiles gives on the 1850 Chatham County census, and the age she gives on the 1860 Duval County, Florida census, discussed below!).
This Laurens, Ga Edward Stiles may be the same Edward Stiles who eventually appears on the 1850 Chatham County (Savannah)census, as his age matches. This Edward Stiles's wife is not living with him in 1850. This Edward Stiles, born in 1801-1802, is listed living with two older slave women on the Chatham County census. This elder Edward Stiles does not appear on earlier Chatham County censuses -- further evidence that he may well be the Laurens and/or Bryan County, Georgia Edward Stiles's listed above! (There's also a younger Edward Stiles, age two, free, mulatto, listed as living with his free mulatto mother of a different last name, Young, elsewhere in Chatham County -- note that this same mulatto mother Sarah Ann Young appears again on page 190 of the Savannah, Chatham County 1870 census, living with Edward Stiles, now 21, who works as a laborer; and a younger girl!; Edward may again appear in 1900 but his name is Edward [Stiles?] Young.)
Since, The Savannah Newspaper Digest says that:
"The friends and acquaintances of Mr. Sam'l Elbert Muse and Mr. Edward Stiles are respectfully invited to attend the funeral of the former", it's likely that Edward Stiles is Jane's father and not Benjamin Edward Stiles, unless the latter went by the name of Edward. It's worth noting here that, when Jane Stiles's first husband, S. E. Muse, was buried, the funeral reception was held at the house of "Mrs. Pierce" not Mrs. MacKay (Benjamin Edward married into the MacKays) and that in 1850 she lived with "Sarah Pierce". According to descendant REW, the following item was listed in the "marriages" book of the Georgia Historical Society: [#1302 Stiles, Edward married Miss Maria Peirce 3 Jun 1829].
In around 1840 the Pierces manumitted their slaves (8 or 10; I have to relocate the document).
It's possible that Jane Stiles's ancestors lived in Savannah and the surrounding area for several generations. Stiles listed in earlier Chatham County censuses (1830-40) include a William, a Joseph, and a B. E. or Benjamin Edward. (According to descendants, a Joseph Stiles had sons Benjamin, William, and Joseph, and these may be these three brothers who are listed here! The elder Joseph Stiles -- along with his own various brothers, including a Samuel, a Benjamin, and an Edward -- may have been the descendant of a Benjamin Stiles and his cousin Jane Stiles; I have not verified this.)
An apparently older Joseph (perhaps the Joseph who is the father of the three brothers), is apparently brother of a Samuel, a Benjamin, and an Edward. He is is listed on the 1820 Chatham County census; a Samuel Stiles is listed in a nearby county.
A probably still older Benjamin Est.? Stiles is listed on the 1793 Georgia tax rolls for Chatham County; a Benjamin is also listed on the 1796 Georgia tax rolls for Hancock County, Georgia (way up the river from Savannah), while Samuel Stiles is listed on the 1793 and 1798 Chatham County tax rolls and Joseph Stiles is listed on the 1793 Chatham County tax roll. On other years, a Joseph Stiles is listed up the river in Richmond County (near present-day Augusta).
A Richard H. Stiles is one of the Stiles to receive land in an early land lottery (according to roots web files; the remaining information is from ancestry.com).
An Edward B. Stiles of Habersham County, GA served the confederacy as a captain and was killed in the Civil War. I understand from Benjamin E. Stiles's descendants that this is not Benjamin E. Stiles though it may be his son B. Edward. (There is some possible connection between the Habersham's and the Stiles's, again according to online family trees.)
My parents located the marriage information for Benjamin Stiles and Mary McKay and suspected B. E. Stiles and McKay were possible ancestors. However it seems more worthwhile at this point to investigate the Edward Stiles who was in Laurens County in 1840 as a possible ancestor: (1), the age of this Edward Stiles' daughter, as given on the 1840 census, actually matches the age Jane gives on the 1850 and 1860 censuses when she is living with Sarah Pierce and then with Barber/Barbee in Jacksonville (see below); Jane named her son Edward; and (3), finally it seems that Jane Julia Stiles maternal grandmother was Sarah Pierce -- not Mrs. McKay.
There's a bit more census data on Jane! It seems that Jane Stiles married twice after the death of first husband S. E. Muse.
According to descendant REW who cites records in Saint Augustine, Jane married John Barbee in 1857 and moved to the Jacksonville area where in 1858 at Fernandina Beach she converted to Catholicism. Mr. Thoms Hernandez, who had also lived in Chatham County, may have visited at about that point. Jane appears with Mr. Barbee on the 1860 Duval County, Fl census; the latter says on that census that he was born in Florida. This same Barbee had apparently been living in Chatham County (with a relative according to the census) on the 1850 census, so the couple must have moved to Duval County just before 1858.
On that 1860 Duval County census, Jane and Barbee are listed together with Jane's son, "Edw. Stiles Muse," as living in Jacksonville, Florida. They are living with several other families on a single piece of property with its value listed as between $0 and $800.
This is just before the Civil War!
Jane is listed as born in 1831-2 on that census, just a few years older than she appears to be on the 1880 Chatham County census, where she is listed as wife of Thomas Hernandez!
Barbee's occupation is listed as "B Housekeeper" (is there a mistake on that census? or is he both a bookkeeper and a housekeeper for some sort of inn?). But his occupation is listed as a bookkeeper only when he is listed again as living in Chatham County alone in 1870. Jane and Thomas Hernandez are listed as living elsewhere in Chatham County, in a single unit, on the 1870? 1880? census, together again with Jane's son Edward Stiles Muse.
Other 1860 Barber/Barbee household members list themselves variously as "gunsmith," "laborer," and "engineer."
I never located on the 1860 census A. E. Muse (who would have been fourteen then), the first son of S. E. Muse by his first wife (A.E. was the half-brother to my own ancestor, Edward Stiles Muse), nor on any other census (I suspect thus that he, like Jane's second son by Mr. Muse, S. E. Muse, jr, may have died of illness) -- but I do locate an E. A. Muse living with his wife, Annie, as a border, in Durham, NC, a few decades later.
E. A.'s age on the Durham census is just a tad young for the A. E. who was born around 1846, but the age in the later census may be in error. However, according to my father, both A. E. and his father and his half-brother S.E. Muse (my ancestor Edward Stiles Muse's younger brother) died of a fever.
Census entries for Thomas Hernandez suggest that Hernandez had lived Chatham County previously -- in 1850 and 1860. Jane Stiles herself is listed as living with her grandmother (Sarah Pierce) in Savannah in 1850. Thus the three may have all known each other prior even to Jane Stiles's first marriage to S. E. Muse (S. E. himself was well-known, a veteran and a descendant of an early governor and Revolutionary Hero).
Interestingly, according to Ms. Kathy Marsh, a descendant of Hernandez, Hernandez, a Catholic, was born Thomas Louis del Socorro Hernandez in 1822 in Fernandina, FL, where Jane and Barbee may have managed a lodging house in 1860. According to Ms. Marsh, Hernandez was still locked into a marriage with his second wife Isabella in 1860 (with whom is he listed on the 1860 census) and 1870 (when he finally moved in with Jane anyway apparently; neither Hernandez nor Jane Stiles nor Jane Stiles Barbee appears on the 1870 census as far as I can tell).
Mr. Barbee does not appear listed on any census after 1870.
For more on Jane Stiles, see Jane Stiles Muse Hernandez. According to my father both Thomas Hernandez and Jane Julia Stiles were buried as paupers; I am not sure if that is true.