Friday, June 15, 2012

Aha or eureka!

Good thing not much changes in the world of research, genealogical or otherwise, as it has been a while since I've posted on this particular blog.  Mostly, because I've been experimenting with different items on my other blog with an eye to maybe using those techniques on this one.  So far, have no plans to change this blog.

I started my family research at the beginning, of course.  Luckily for me, we have elders here in the village who remember some of the people mentioned on the various census reports.  That is the first place you start, as your journey along the genealogical path will not always be what you expect.  Particularly with the difficulty of Anishinbeg/English, upon occasion, Scot, Irish, French names.  Those seem to be the predominant ones I've found in my search along the tree branches.

Of interest is the knowledge you gain just from entering your living family members into your tree.  There is a need to observe the privacy and confidentiality laws when doing this part of the search.  Some family are fine with it and others are iffy.  A n d then, there are those who absolutely refuse, for one reason or another to be listed anywhere.  

You will gain a greater respect for the history you were forced to study in school.  Because you will need this knowledge.  Did you know that the first Census reports of the Anishinabeg were taken by a Lt. in the Army at LaPointe Agency?  Do you know where the LaPointe Agency was?  And did you realize the Tomah Indian School was important to you also? Do you know that the Tomah Indian School is now a Veteran's Hospital?  Why do I mention these two places?

The LaPointe Agency is where the start of most of the records you will be looking at began.  And Tomah Indian School is where many of your grandparents and great grandparents went.  These are located in Wisconsin.  So, the Wisconsin Territory is another place you will need to know a little about in order to get hold of records.  And don't forget the years that Minnesota and Wisconsin became territories/states.  And the further back, you will need to know which country was in control of our homeland as there are more records you can find.  And the fur traders.

Why, you ask, are fur traders important? Because of the Hudson's Bay records.  They have records of payments to Indians. {http://pam.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/45830/1/5/17711?RECORD} And where are these records located?  Why, they are located in Canada.  And how do you gain access to these records if you are American?  http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/research.html is the webpage containing the information needed to continue research.  Now, some of the Indian payment records might not be pertinent to your research.  That was an example.  And I just checked at the Manitoba holdings website.  The archival site has indexed some biographical information.  

Now, my point is...if you are searching for ancestry earlier than 1860 or thereabouts, you may need these records as US records, as such, aren't available.  Maybe military or in private holdings.  How will you know?  Doing the research.  In the long run, we, as Anishinabeg, may not be able to get the documentation required by genealogists for years earlier than 1860 or thereabouts.  We have a rich oral tradition.  This does not satisfy the genealogical requirements per se.

And why did I title this Aha or eureka?  Because many of you have only just started to realize the importance of those boring, dull, history courses.  

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