Why, it is most admirable to research and follow all and every line wherever it leads.

The problem for RESEARCH (especially among other people who reserach) lies in the undocumented claims to any of the above. the claims,
"my _____ was Cherokee" or
"my _____ was Irish" or
"my _____ was German" or
"my _____ was a slave on the xxx plantation "

etc etc irritate when the claimant can offer NO documentation. And many people make the claims freely when they cannot even document their grandparents, much less the ancestor in question. On most ethnic research boards you are expected to be researching in that ethnicity with verifiable leads and data to follow, or you are soon asked "Why do you think they were xxxxx?"

If your families has oral traditions, family stories, everyone encourages you to use them as a basis for research -- just report the family traditions as such, and report the verifying research.