AMERICAN INDIAN GENEALOGY HELP CENTER
Researching American Indian Families
(where no organized tribes are evident)
Copyright 2001 by Kathie Donahue, A.G
The fastest, cheapest way to obtain copies of original records about your family, outside of actually visiting the places where they lived, is by having access to the largest genealogical collecton in the world: the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City. There are two ways to access their immense collection: online and through their satellite centers.
If you will use the LDS site at http://www.familysearch.org you will get a good overview of records available in the various areas where your family lived. On the main page click on Search for Ancestors; click on Family History Library Catalog (FHLC); choose Place Search; input the names of the towns, counties, provinces, states or countries pertinent to your search; look for topics of interest to you; Native Races is the topic in this collection which denotes American Indian. The FHLC provides descriptions of records available to you through your local LDS Family History Center. You can find the address of your local LDS FHC on the home page of the site in the right-hand column: "Find a Family History Center near you......" (or something like that)
In areas where Indian tribes have no organized historical records or rolls, as in many of the states east of the Mississippi (with the exception of the Great Lakes), we must often rely on "regular" genealogical records. Our Indian ancestors in those places would have, most likely, been living among white or other colored persons but not necessarily in organized tribes as we now have in the country under the auspices of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. If you are not familiar with genealogical research, there is a very good tutorial at http://www.ancestry.com. There are also many good helps at http://www.familysearch.org.
The idea, in using "regular" public records, is to see the ancestor(s) in as many records as possible where race and color are mentioned. These kinds of records would include the U.S. Census and the various types of vital records such as birth, marriage and death. Additionally, use military, funeral home, voting and land records.
The U.S. Census is especially revealing, in general, although Indian people living among whites, were often shown as "white" because they were trying to blend in. Being Indian or part Indian in white society was not easy and the blood was often hidden. Consequently, even though we may know that our ancestors were Indian, even records where race was recorded often do not show the correct information because of fear; both on the part of the Indian families, themselves, but also on the part of the census takers who may have been friends or acquaintenances of the various native families and who did not want to set them apart by race.
Nevertheless, these records must be searched in the absence of tribal census rolls, allottment, annuity and probate records. Historical records may also be a valid resort, particularly in earlier years. It is very important to understand WHERE your ancestors lived through the years and generations as well as WHAT TRIBES were indigenous to those areas. Location is as important in genealogy as it is in real estate.
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