Melody K. Porter

Melody K. Porter has been researching her genealogy for over 20 years. Escaping to Thomasville, Georgia, she is pursuing genealogy as a researcher, lecturer, teacher and genealogy writer. Melody specializes in Florida, Georgia and Native American research. Proud to be a both Cherokee and Choctaw, Melody is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

Melody has held offices in the Florida State Genealogical Society (FSGS) and FSGS Pioneer Committee, the Florida Genealogical Society of Tampa (FGS) and the Tallahassee Genealogical Society (TGS). She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), Genealogical Speakers Guild and the National Genealogical Society. She is now the Registrar of the Thomasville, Georgia Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR).

Melody has written for Archives.com and several genealogical journals. Teaching genealogy classes at the Southwest Georgia Technical College, Nova University and the Thomasville Genealogical Library and lecturing around the Southeast is a most rewarding way to pass on her passion for all things genealogy.

Articles by this author

• Fear Of Citing
• Source Citation: A Genealogist's Best Friend

Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.

Because of my family background, I am particularly interested in Native American genealogy, but being from the south, I am fascinated by the genealogy related to southerners and the Civil War. This includes African American genealogy, but also English, Irish and Scottish families that came to this country and settled.

My husband is a techy and in the mid 1980s, he had a video camera and we used it to interview my grandparents. This is a wonderful thing for me to have to this day, but it was the first time that I had documentation on the stories that they told about being Cherokee and Choctaw. They are gone now, but I have been able to prove my Indian blood and join the Western Cherokee Tribe in Oklahoma. After that I was hooked and still love it.

Recently I was doing some research on my husband's family and found something very surprising and exciting. My family is from Oklahoma and Texas, but my husband's is from the east. However, his great grandfather went to Texas, married there and brought his wife back to North Carolina. Through his great grandmother's ancestors, it appears that my husband may be eligible for the Sons of Texas. This has been a great source of pride to him and to tease my family about his illustrious Texas ancestors!

I am also very interested in English/French royal history and would love to know more about Isabella of France who married Edward II and then deposed him and his lover with the help of her lover so her son could take the throne. What an interesting story and a fascinating woman...