sometimes family stories of Indian ancestry are totally wrong

[flyingfysh]

I had a grandmother who the rest of the family always said was part Indian. (she looked different from the rest of us, and was distinctly darker) My dad always told me that she was one quarter Cherokee. I wasn't very happy with that, and was wondering, if I am descended from Indians, which Indians? What were their names? Where did they live? So I went researching in the Dawes Rolls. I found a possbile match for my great-grandfather in the Choctaw list, but never had firm proof.

So I took a DNA test from Family Tree DNA, and my ancestry came back as: over 96% Scottish, and over 3%: North African! This could cover Bedouin, Berber, Palestinian, and Jewish! What would people with North African ancestry be doing in the middle of nowhere? (Arkansas). The only possibility that makes sense is Jewish, perhaps Sephardic Jewish (the Inquisition was after them); some were fleeing to North America. And back then, there were even Jewish pirates in the Caribbean, raiding Spanish ships, and using the gold to make deals with other European countries to protect Jews who fled there to get away from the Inquisition.

When my great-grandfather reappeared after being away over 30 years, he said he had just found out that he had been adopted, and had gone back to using his original family name (Pitman), and then he disappeared again. And Pitman can occur as a Sephardic surname. I suppose he could have been adopted by Choctaws as an infant.

How would I ever get proof for this scenario? I have no idea. If this is correct, there will be no records of any kind.