What’s all this about?

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It’s a story that’s repeated throughout the south. It seems that every family has it and the details don’t vary much.

It’s the story of the Native American member of your family tree.

My goal in this blog is to take the mystery out of Native research and give you the facts that can, hopefully, lead you to solid conclusions. I’ve spent the last 20 or so years immersed in research of the Native people in my family tree.

As it does with many people, my journey started with oral tradition and what I was told, but it became real quickly when it came time to document what I had always known to be true.

Here’s to a good journey and thanks for coming along.

The three Ws in Native research

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When I was to journalism school, one of the first courses we took was Elementary Newswriting. In that course, we were taught how writing for a news publication differed from creative writing. We were taught that every good news story contained a lead, (or a first paragraph) that gave the reader a summary of the essence of the article and that each story should answer the five Ws — who, what, where, when and why.

As family historians, we learn right away that our search for ancestors will be considerably easier if we know three of those five Ws I learned in journalism school — who, where and when.

Not surprisingly, when you are approaching the search for a Native ancestor in the family tree, having the answer to these same three Ws will make a huge difference in the speed and accuracy of your search.

So, let’s break it down.

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