Q: My DNA Test came back and I'm 1/4th Native American. My grandfather was Native American. So how do I join the Seneca Nation?
Marilynn
Pennsylvania
A: SENECA NATION ORG
EXCERPT: Please be aware that the tribal census records of the Seneca Nation of Indians do not date prior to 1858. Therefore, we are unable to assist you with searches prior to that year. Also, enrollment/membership in the Seneca Nation of Indians is based on MATRILINEAL descent. In other words, the mother must be an enrolled member in order for the children to be enrolled. Keep in mind that our census records list ONLY members. If an enrolled Seneca man married a non-Seneca woman, the names of the wife and the resulting non-enrolled children DO NOT APPEAR in our records. As an additional point of information, too often we receive inquiries from individuals who erroneously believe they descent from the "Iroquois Nation." Please note that "Iroquois" is a non-native term which is used collectively to represent six aboriginal nations which united to form a confederacy, a.kl.a "The Iroquois Confederacy." These six aboriginal nations are" The Seneca, Cayuga, Onandaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora. Each is a separate political and geographical entity with its own government, land base, and membership. ...
COMMENTARY: Since it's MATRILINEAL (the mother's side) that counts with the Seneca, I don't think you have a chance, However, you still might find the genealogy department at the tribe able to help you go further back in documenting your connection to the tribe.
23 March 2019
19 March 2019
SAINT PATRICK'S DAY - A DINNER WITH ONE ONE HALF IRISH PERSON : IRISH GENEALOGY
Since American genealogy often includes Irish ancestry, because we supposedly all have "a wee bit" of Irish in us, I asked at the Saint Patty's dinner I attended who actually had some Irish.
As it turned out, only one person in 25 there had some. He was half Irish and Catholic and half English Protestant. We elected the one "Irishman" there to do a jig for us. He camped it but said actually he was first an American and second an Angeleno (from Los Angeles).
Still, everyone enthusiastically ate their corned beef and cabbage, which included some perfectly uniformly round potatoes and perfectly uniformly sized baby carrots; I suspect these days big potatoes and carrots are put into machines to create these shapes and sizes.
How attached to ethnicity any American is is up to debate but I generally see that immigrant Americans define themselves by the country or ethnicity they left behind, first generation refers to this also, but by the second or third generation memories of old country and old ways have diminished significantly. Recipes and eating habits are brought forward.
As for Irish-American genealogy, the practice follows the usual paths until one can jump across the ocean and deal with the archives of Europe, in particular church records. Common surnames confound as usual.
I was able to tell one Native American person at the dinner about the "grass eaters," the Irish starving because of the Potato famine who ate grass until their mouth area was tinted green. I told about the exploitation Irish immigrants experienced on the ships where conditions could be filthy. The immigrants were expected to scrub the ship and clean up before coming into port. Many of the "grass eaters" were skeletal when they boarded and some died before they got to America. From the potato famine immigration generation, came the ancestors of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
If you're doing Irish-American genealogy, you may go back before steamships. I feel that finding Naturalization papers should come before finding ship information as it should mention the name of the ship and possibly place of birth or place left in Ireland. This sometimes helps when dealing with common surnames. Be aware that some Irish left their homes and first found work closer to ports in order to buy their tickets - or eat enough to be healthy when they boarded. The place they lived temporarily may not be their place of origin but is listed on the ship manifest. Sometimes a World War I draft registration can be a better informational source for villages of birth or origin.
C 2019 Ancestry Worship Genealogy
This post has been edited with more information given July 2019.
As it turned out, only one person in 25 there had some. He was half Irish and Catholic and half English Protestant. We elected the one "Irishman" there to do a jig for us. He camped it but said actually he was first an American and second an Angeleno (from Los Angeles).
Still, everyone enthusiastically ate their corned beef and cabbage, which included some perfectly uniformly round potatoes and perfectly uniformly sized baby carrots; I suspect these days big potatoes and carrots are put into machines to create these shapes and sizes.
How attached to ethnicity any American is is up to debate but I generally see that immigrant Americans define themselves by the country or ethnicity they left behind, first generation refers to this also, but by the second or third generation memories of old country and old ways have diminished significantly. Recipes and eating habits are brought forward.
As for Irish-American genealogy, the practice follows the usual paths until one can jump across the ocean and deal with the archives of Europe, in particular church records. Common surnames confound as usual.
I was able to tell one Native American person at the dinner about the "grass eaters," the Irish starving because of the Potato famine who ate grass until their mouth area was tinted green. I told about the exploitation Irish immigrants experienced on the ships where conditions could be filthy. The immigrants were expected to scrub the ship and clean up before coming into port. Many of the "grass eaters" were skeletal when they boarded and some died before they got to America. From the potato famine immigration generation, came the ancestors of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
If you're doing Irish-American genealogy, you may go back before steamships. I feel that finding Naturalization papers should come before finding ship information as it should mention the name of the ship and possibly place of birth or place left in Ireland. This sometimes helps when dealing with common surnames. Be aware that some Irish left their homes and first found work closer to ports in order to buy their tickets - or eat enough to be healthy when they boarded. The place they lived temporarily may not be their place of origin but is listed on the ship manifest. Sometimes a World War I draft registration can be a better informational source for villages of birth or origin.
C 2019 Ancestry Worship Genealogy
This post has been edited with more information given July 2019.
13 March 2019
THINGS THAT CAN BE USEFUL TO GENEALOGY THAT ARE NOT EXACTLY DOCUMENTS
The following list of things that can be useful are not exactly genealogy documents though they can be found in archives, attics, and shoe boxes in closets.
1) Family Bible. Inscriptions in handwriting of births and deaths in the family helpful to locating other documents or verifying oral histories. Helpful also if person who did handwriting can be verified. Be aware in the past PENMANSHIP was key, not handwriting. What's the difference? Penmanship emphasized neatness, readability, and conformity of lettering and slant, often practiced. It wasn't as individualistic as handwriting.
2) Report Cards. Can verify schools and imply person's age and location. (But a private boarding school would attract students from many places, so affordability is implied.)
3) Funeral Home Prayer Cards: Helps verify age, date of birth and death, implies religion of person or family, may mention funeral home name, church, or cemetery; just be aware that like business cards people can pay to have anything printed.
4) Diplomas and certificates of classes and education. (Caution due to ease of printing or calligraphic.)
5) Letters: Oh how we love to read old letters, note the stamps (how inexpensive postage was), wax seals, choice of stationary, handwriting, and so on. All this now replaced by texting, email, chats, social networking. You may already know what is expressed but save them for future generations. Be aware that person writing may not be honest or simply be ignorant or wrong. (A letter sent to me by an old relative got me started on a line of genealogy and proved to have both wonderful leads and horrible errors.) Identify the writer and who they were to the receiver.
6) Newspaper articles. It helps if they actually spelled the names right. If the surnames are common, be sure the people mentioned in the article are the family you're trying to locate.
7) Town Books. Something like a yearbook with photos and stories, usually printed with contributions and with local pride. (One provided black and white photos of a client's grandparents and great-grandparents never seen before.) Surprisingly found at times in big city library collections far away from origins. Just judge that pride may have resulted in the printing of some untruths, which makes them a lot like yearbooks.)
8) Yearbooks: How do you really know someone graduated just because they showed up for the yearbook picture in their junior year? (Some of us wish we had not shown up, since the copyright of yearbooks is rarely renewed and yearbooks have become exploited by certain web sites. I cringe.) I caught hell from someone because I found their yearbook photo on Ancestry genealogy database and that implied their age. The person actually had been in a hospital for polio and lost 2 years of school and was 20 when they graduated.)
9) Shower and Wedding invitations are also helpful but don't prove the wedding took place or was legal.
C 2019 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved
1) Family Bible. Inscriptions in handwriting of births and deaths in the family helpful to locating other documents or verifying oral histories. Helpful also if person who did handwriting can be verified. Be aware in the past PENMANSHIP was key, not handwriting. What's the difference? Penmanship emphasized neatness, readability, and conformity of lettering and slant, often practiced. It wasn't as individualistic as handwriting.
2) Report Cards. Can verify schools and imply person's age and location. (But a private boarding school would attract students from many places, so affordability is implied.)
3) Funeral Home Prayer Cards: Helps verify age, date of birth and death, implies religion of person or family, may mention funeral home name, church, or cemetery; just be aware that like business cards people can pay to have anything printed.
4) Diplomas and certificates of classes and education. (Caution due to ease of printing or calligraphic.)
5) Letters: Oh how we love to read old letters, note the stamps (how inexpensive postage was), wax seals, choice of stationary, handwriting, and so on. All this now replaced by texting, email, chats, social networking. You may already know what is expressed but save them for future generations. Be aware that person writing may not be honest or simply be ignorant or wrong. (A letter sent to me by an old relative got me started on a line of genealogy and proved to have both wonderful leads and horrible errors.) Identify the writer and who they were to the receiver.
6) Newspaper articles. It helps if they actually spelled the names right. If the surnames are common, be sure the people mentioned in the article are the family you're trying to locate.
7) Town Books. Something like a yearbook with photos and stories, usually printed with contributions and with local pride. (One provided black and white photos of a client's grandparents and great-grandparents never seen before.) Surprisingly found at times in big city library collections far away from origins. Just judge that pride may have resulted in the printing of some untruths, which makes them a lot like yearbooks.)
8) Yearbooks: How do you really know someone graduated just because they showed up for the yearbook picture in their junior year? (Some of us wish we had not shown up, since the copyright of yearbooks is rarely renewed and yearbooks have become exploited by certain web sites. I cringe.) I caught hell from someone because I found their yearbook photo on Ancestry genealogy database and that implied their age. The person actually had been in a hospital for polio and lost 2 years of school and was 20 when they graduated.)
9) Shower and Wedding invitations are also helpful but don't prove the wedding took place or was legal.
C 2019 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot All Rights Reserved
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