According to family tradition, I have two Hignite lines in my family tree, but I believe that one of them is not a real Hignite.
My greatgreatgrandmother was Coosey or Kusy Hignite, married to Hiram Gray in Knox County KY. I have found no possible Hignite on the Knox County 1860 census, or on the gedcoms on Rootsweb that could be her. On the 1900 census she is listed as Lucretia, and on the 1910 census she is listed as Lucy. She was 60 in 1900 and 71 in 1910. She and Hiram were married about 1865, and she died about 1920. Although I have been able to find marriage and death records in the Knox County Kentucky records on line for others in the family, I find no record of her, except in the two censuses. Family members of my grandfathers generation, who knew her, said that she was Indian or part Indian. Since she was born about the time of the Cherokee removal, I suspect that her family may have taken the name Hignite to conceal their identity as Indians. There is a gedcom on rootsweb that lists her name as Cooney, but has no other information about her.
Does anybody have any information about her? Were there any Hignite Indians, or any Indians that changed their name to Hignite? I would really like to find out more about her background.