<p>I’ve recently become interested in my family history. Are there any books/websites you would reccomend? I’m most interested in my native american great-grandmother (I’m 1/8 native american), but no one in my family seems to know which tribe she was enrolled in. I know this will likely take just about forever, but still I’d like to know more about my family history (I’ve been led to believe for most of my life I’m only black with a smothering of greek).</p>
<p>I went through something simular to this a few years ago…my cousin ended up going to africa and looking through the library archives to discover the truth about our family history (i’m 1/4 white, kind of obvious when you look at me to tell that i have some european in me, but it’s not so obvious in my mom…and nobody really wants to claim that side of their ancestry in africa)…</p>
<p>It will be especially hard for you, since you don’t know the tribe (so that can’t narrow down the search)…but do you know her full name, including her maiden name? There might be old marriage licenses that you can go through…and also do you know the state she was originally from?.. I just did a search, <a href=“http://www.ancestory.com%5B/url%5D”>www.ancestory.com</a> and <a href=“http://www.geneology.com%5B/url%5D”>www.geneology.com</a> seem to be pretty good. PM me if you want more help…</p>
<p>Thanks! I do have one relative who might know her tribe, but unfortenately my grandma, grandpa, and great-grandma are all dead (on that side of the family). I know her full name (including maiden), as well as where she was born and that information. Thanks for the help, this should get me started :)</p>
<p>It is a very long and drawn out process, unfortunately. My family’s been working at it for about six years now, and we’ve still got relatively little. You think it’d be easier with having odd last names, but then we of course have the extremely generic last name in there as well (Oh, how many Lakes do you think lived in England in the 1800s?).</p>
<p>It’s extremely rewarding, though. So far we’ve found a long-lost great uncle of a branch of the family that’s been feuding with the other branch for about 200 years, now reconciled, and traced our American ancestors back to the early 1600s (!). It’s exciting to know your history. :)</p>
<p>Good luck! I agree with the aforementioned websites. If you’re looking for American (and probably European, sorry) female relatives, try the Daughters of the American Revolution – they have a HUGE database, and the volunteers are very willing and able to help.</p>
<p>If you know what state she was from, then you might be able to narrow down what tribe she was in…best of luck to you…</p>
<p>The worst part is, I’m trying to find my great-grandma. Who has quite possibly the most common last name ever. The good news is that she spent her entire life here, so I know she was part of one of the Ohio tribes. My dad’s side of the family has already traced much of our roots (greek and african) but no one has ever really even attempted my mom’s side, which I am. :)</p>
<p>I’ve used this one before. <a href=“http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp[/url]”>http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp</a></p>
<p>Just checked to see if they had my father right (he died in 1978). Bang on, even the social security number was correct.</p>
<p>I will point out that this web site is maintained by the Church of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons).</p>
<p>Celebrian, the very best source of this kind of information is the Mormon church. They have geneological information on virtually everyone in this country who has a native US ancestor more than 2 generations back. Your great-grandmother fits.</p>
<p>It’s really quite astounding–it doesn’t matter if no one in your family was Mormon, and they are so helpful. You don’t really need to know the tribe, if you have some geographical idea of where she was when she married, chances are that will narrow it down quite a bit. (Tribal records are not really the best for this sort of thing anyway as they are rarely complete, systematic recordings. A majority of the tribal histories before 1900 or so were completely aural.) </p>
<p>You can find their site on the web, but the database is absolutely HUGE and incredibly complex. Really the best thing to do is to visit the LDS temple closest to you and ask them how to get started. If you’re lucky, there will be someone there who knows the system. But even if there isn’t, they’ll put you in touch with someone who does.</p>
<p>Most of the other sites on the web are based on surname, which can vanish pretty fast when you’re dealing with women.</p>
<p>PS. to both OP and Siren: you should gladly claim ALL of your varied and “colorful” ancestries. There’s really no such thing as a “pure” anything in America anymore, unless they just got off the boat, and even then probably not. You are the generation who needs to get rid of all this foolishness. Now my ancestors were “colorful” in the less complementary, euphamistic sense of the word, don’t you know!.</p>
<p>PS. to dmd–so what? you think celebrian can’t fight off those Mormons? I KNOW he’s got enough courage for that! :D</p>
<p>I claim my ancestory; I’m not ashamed of it, but it irritates me that whenever I tell a person I’m full African, they ask me whether I’m mixed, it’s as if people don’t think being African or just plain black is beautiful. </p>
<p>My mom, her brothers and sisters, and a lot of the people of her generation and earlier in West Africa (i’m first generation american) do not claim that side of them, because for many of them the blending between the european and african cultures happened as a result of rape. </p>
<p>They feel the injustice of it, so they try to keep it on the down low or to completely ignore it, until it is forgotten in the later generations or until it the european traits are completely recessive and rare within the lineage.</p>
<p>Well Siren, what do you think I meant by “colorful” (at least for my own ancestry!) 
Take my advice, don’t get mad at ignorance, it will sap you of all your energy. Save it for something important!
Best wishes, Wyogal</p>
<p>lol…I don’t get extremely mad like throwing chairs at people and etc…it’s more like rolling your eyes when they left the area kind of mad… but your advice is good and true, and I will apply it to my life… best of wishes to you,too…</p>
<p>I spend most of my spare time on genealogy, and have for the past 25 years or so. I have several lines back to the 1500s. One line back further. (Once you tap into European noble family, it’s already done for you! ) I started with my husband’s family, because his family has been in America much longer. My ancestors were all more recent immigrants. My family used to consider it a “hobby” but since moving to Europe, they’ve had so much fun meeting up with distant relatives I’ve found, they are as enthusiastic now as I am. I just spent a week visiting the archives in Switzerland – much fun. A week in Sweden a couple months ago…</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me with any questions, and I’ll help if I can.</p>
<p>Wow… I never really thought about this in detail until I started reading this thread.</p>
<p>I think about as far as anyone knows about our family (on my mothers side) traces only as far back to my great-grandmother… my grandmother doesnt even know who her real father is … so it’s like a dead-end. No one in my extended family has ever brought this topic up</p>
<p>And on my father’s side… he was adopted… never brought it up about his family either</p>
<p>Maybe I’ll bring it up at the Christmas party :)</p>
<p>thesiren72102:
I get the same thing… light eyes and loosely curled hair</p>
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<p>Actually, you need to visit a Family History Center nearest you. The LDS temples do not house the facilities to do genealogical research.</p>
<p>To find the Family History Center nearest you, use:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp[/url]”>http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp</a></p>
<p>ellemenope–I’m sure you’re correct. It was so many years ago that I found out about the LDS resources–I didn’t know they had Family History Centers. Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>There are tons of websites that people have mentioned that can help you. If you are willing to spend a little money on it, there are amateurs and professionals who can find out tons about your family history (more than you would be able to find out on your own and much more quickly). A family friend has found tons of fantastic information about my family.</p>
<p>I’ve been doing genealogy off and on for years. You mentioned the Indian tribe had been in Ohio. Many of them were “relocated” further west back then. You might try checking the county website for that area of Ohio through rootsweb on the web to see if anyone has documents from the area when the tribes were being relocated and land was being deeded. I had seen some of that for my county in Indiana, so it may exist somewhere, which would help to know what tribe. It’s really fasicinating to get into. Good luck.</p>
<p>celebrian - I agree with most of the advice you’ve received, but I would add a couple of points (which the other posters may be assuming, but thought I should mention). First, look at your own birth certificate, then get copies of your parent’s birth certificates, marriage certificates, and (if applicable) death certificates. In genealogy, we work backwards - you can’t assume any biological connection unless you have probative documentary evidence. (Remember - Bill Clinton wasn’t born Bill Clinton!!) Work backwards, one step at a time. Otherwise, you might find yourself researching someone else’s family, and never know it. You can’t assume even your own grandparents unless you have the documentary evidence. You may not believe this, but Luke Skywalker is not the only one to be surprised by his family !</p>
<p>The Family History Centers are extremely helpful. They maintain huge amounts of original and secondary source documents. They also have data bases of lineages, but it’s a good idea to treat these as guides, not proofs. [The Mormons devote time and energy to genealogy because they feel it is the obligation of the Mormon to baptize their ancestors retroactively into the church of the Latter Day Saints. Therefore, they can be fairly, shall we say, inclusive in who they decide to baptize. In other words, if they baptize too many, that’s better than baptizing too few. So be very, very careful in how you use the lineage data.] The documents and the local histories and compilations, however, are fantastic.</p>
<p>You actually have a lot going for you. Since the black side of the family goes back very far, you may be able to follow it for a good distance. Slaves are usually named in antebellum wills, since they were property that needed to be described in order to specify inheritance. If your ancestor escaped, there would often be a reward listed in the newspaper describing the escaped slave, so local newspapers can be helpful too. Census records are wonderful once you get to 1850, when full names were listed. </p>
<p>There are a lot of published materials to help people searching for black ancestors. And the same with native american ancestry. In fact the native americans are enumerated in many places, since the US gov’t wanted to identify them. Once you go past the last mention between the Europeans and the native americans, though, you’ll hit a brick wall. </p>
<p>The last thing to note is that many new genealogists focus on the ancestors who carry your own family name. We always have to remind ourselves that we descend from our mothers, too, so don’t forget that some of the most fascinating stories can come from the maternal side of the family!</p>
<p>Ancestry.com and genealogy.com have lots of material, but both require a subscription - in fact, one subscription per type of database. But if you use the message boards, you can get a lot of free help. Genealogists are the most helpful group of people you’ll ever run into, and very generous with their time. When using the message boards, you can look into different ones: state and county, family names, subjects (civil war, revolutionary war, etc.). So try a bunch of them.</p>
<p>I lied when I said the above point was the last one. This is the last one - most genealogists are not snobs about our ancestors. We don’t search for just the famous or rich. We just search for our families. Sure, it’s fun to unearth a connection to someone famous, but that’s not the reason for the search. There’s even a society that you can only join if you can prove one of your direct ancestors was convicted of a felony - I think it’s called the Black Sheep Society. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you. It’s an incredible journey. We are never finished until we documented all the way to Adam and Eve, so you can see we never really stop!</p>
<p>Hayden – Actually, I’m just trying to get to Noah. :)</p>