My mother, Millie Hale Shows, began the Hale search in the late 1950's and into the early 1960's. Her, along with Chief Calvin McGhee, and five station wagon loads of people made several trips to Washington D. C. They were determined to establish their Creek Indian Ancestry. She also spent many hours in several Alabama County court houses. At that time she was married to a hateful and spiteful man, and he burned much of her research. However, some did survive.
I became disabled in 1985 and had a lot of time on my hands. I have always enjoyed reading adventure stories, and my job was filled with it. While at her house I became interested with what she had saved. She always said we were descended from Samuel Hale, son of Hannah and Hopia. These particular documents did not survive.
The story was so interesting I took what she had and began my adventure into the Creek Indian world. I read many books about these Indians searching for anything concerning Hannah. None was to be found, other that what she had copied from Hawkins and the other books. So I began to order microfilm from the Library of Congress that these books had cited from. They did not give up one single tidbit about Hannah. I researched the soldiers in the American Revolution who were from the area of Rogers Fort. I found a few names and ordered their Revolutionary Pention Statements. Still nothing.
I suddenly realized that what I was reading from the microfilm had a tremendous amount of information that had been overlooked by past history writers. I thought, I can write a book with fresh, unknown, information. I could not keep the microfilm on loan long enough to extract all the information so I began to buy it, a few reels at a time, until I had it all. I bought 4 microfilm readers so I could cross reference each set at the same time with the same dates of a particular incident that happened. The Creeks Indians were the greatest tribe ever. WOW, what a story.
I wrote two books, and a small coffee table production. The first book is complete, and the second was never finished. I have never had these books published for reasons I want go into. However, I did send the first one to the University of Alabama Press for review so I could get a general idea of how good it was. They were pleased and offered to work with me. I declined. I only wanted to know how good it was.
In 1999 I finely made connections with some family members I did not know I had. Through their genealogy research I found I was not descended from Hannah. No matter. Her story is so interesting I will never stop researching her life. Now that I have found more genealogy I will build the Hannah Hale Web Site with correct information. This is something that just needs to be done.
I thank you all.