CENSUS OF THE BLACKFEET MONTANA and ELECTRONIC DATABASES

Recently someone asked me for some advice on researching their BLACKFEET Native American roots. At the Los Angeles Public Library genealogy section - downtown- I checked to see if any books were available on this subject.

I found CENSUS OF THE BLACKFEET - MONTANA 1897-1898
The book was put out by Jeff Bower C 2004 and it leans on the original census taking by
George B. McLaughlin and Thomas P Fuller who were "Indian agents" and also on NATIONAL ARCHIVES FILM COLLECTION ROLL M595-4

I learned that there were four reservations and that this census is one of them. (One of the four reservations is in Canada.) Looking over the census, I saw that the names were translated into English. There was also a great number of family groups that included two wives, which makes knowing which wife is a child's mother a question. As usual, I greatly enjoyed the names such as Morning Plume (a husband), a family group headed by husband Shoots At Another and his wife Martha Shoots at Another and their children Martha and Josephine Weather Wax, Longtime Sleeping, and so on.

I learned that the Blackfeet name comes from the look of ashes on their moccasins. (But as I understand it, there were other not-related tribes called Blackfoot or Blackfeet so be sure you want this Algonquian speaking group found in Montana!)

I decided to see if I could bring up the 1900 census with some of these names using Heritage Quest and Ancestry Genealogy Databases. After all this census was just a couple years after these special counts.

THE PROBLEM WAS, if you have a name such as "Shoots At Another", is your given name "Shoots" or "Shoots At" or is" Another" a surname or is "At Another" a surname?

I was completely unsuccessful using my short list on Heritage Quest and almost completely unsuccessful using Ancestry. But I was able to bring up SOME OF THE NAMES IN THIS AREA OF MONTANA by using the word BLACKFEET!

So here is my advice should you wish to proceed electronically! Just get to THE Enumeration District (ED) THAT CONTAINS SOME OF THE NAMES that do come up through standard given and surname searches (non-native names) so that you are in the neighborhood and then read the census page by page - just as you would if you used GOOD OLD MICROFILM!

OLD AMERICAN FLAG

Our genetic and spiritual ancestors help us with our research quests and, while we follow a linear research path, amazing dreams and synronicities abound.

We explore multicultural ancestry worship and the use of genealogy for past-life verification, as well as practical ways and means to achieve your research goals.

TOMBSTONE PROJECTS - ARE THEY DONE WITH HONOR?

Do you remember visiting a cemetery and being careful not to step on a grave?

When I first found out that the cemetery that some of my ancestors are buried in - privacy seeking individuals one and all - had been tramped over and the personal information on tombstones put up on the Internet, I was seething. We had just recently buried a family member in this cemetery, a person who loved their privacy in life, and there was their name and location of burial for the world to see, to me too an invasion of privacy. And then I called the same cemetery where we had paid for perpetual care and asked for the burial records for other ancestors buried there and was given attitude and a demand for research fees. Now I was seething plus! How could they have lead us to believe this was a private, religious, place and then allowed these people to post all that information about burials on the net? OR HAD THEY EVEN BEEN APPROACHED FOR PERMISSION?

Of course the posters had been trampling through a lot of cemeteries and thought what they were posting was of great help to the family history and genealogy researchers. They posted that if you discovered your family member on this list and did not want them on it, to contact them and they would remove the name right away. Why not ask us first, I thought! And besides, information once put on the net has a way of being there for years - cached!

At the same time I've benefited from a couple different tombstone sites. In particular I've benefited from tombstone sites that reveal burials of the 19th century, the Civil War.

I am still torn about this subject.

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FROM LIFE BETWEEN LIFE by JOEL L. WHITTON and JOE FISHER

Life Between Life Scientific Explorations Into the Void Separating One Incarnation From the Next! C authors A Dolphin Book (Doubleday) 

 page 64-65 "Hemendra Banerjee, who founded the Indian Institute of Parapsychology in 1957, and has been living in the United States since 1970, became convinced of the reality of reincarnation by observing children's spontaneous emotional recognition of past-life relatives and friends. In this context, children are credible witnesses; the testimony of these youngsters - usually aged between two and five - has yet to be contaminated by cultural prejudices or overwhelmed by the pressing demands of worldly experience. ... Toddlers who remember past lives will mutter such phrases as "When I was big" and will perhaps complain about not being the same sex as before. They might yearn for the lost companionship of a relative or friend and hanker for the food, clothing, and lifestyle - even the alcohol, drugs, or tobacco - of a former existence."

CIVIL WAR ON LINE EXHIBIT THROUGH NATIONAL ARCHIVES

And here is the ONLINE version of the CIVIL WAR exhibit!

NATIONAL ARCHIVES TRAVELING EXHIBIT ON THE CIVIL WAR MARKS 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR THAT DIVIDED (and THEN UNITED) THE STATES

It's been 150 years since the start of the CIVIL WAR and that will be commemorated in magazines, book selections, and much else over the next year or two. The National Archives are probably our most valuable resource in genealogy research. So many of our nation's records are used by other libraries and databases.

I'm linking to the article by the National Archives about the show above...

CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPH

CASTLE GARDEN Searchable Database has ended... BUT OTHER DATABASES HAVE THE INFORMATION NEEDED

Before there was Ellis Island there was CASTLE GARDEN and while there was Ellis there was Castle Garden too. Ellis Island was the checking point for steerage only passengers. A better ticket? Castle Garden, the first stop a ship made to let off passengers. Now, a searchable database!

***

Just a note Nov 2022.  My understanding is that this web site has ended but the passenger lists are searchable now via FamilySearch and Ancestry TM genealogy databases.

February 2023 ....  Yes,  the site is no longer.

Just a note to remember that there were other ports in operation.

TWIN FRIARS DIE SAME DAY : AGE 92 : ADRIAN and JULIAN RIESTER

Talk about twins... ! Link now to the breaking Yahoo news story about Adrian and Julian Riester who were born the same day and then died the same day. Two lives given to vocation.

(Genealogy seems to sometimes ignore the never married and childless.)

Anyone in your family given over to religious vocation?

NATIONAL ARCHIVES ON WOMEN BECOMING INSTANT CITIZENS OR NOT!

"In general, immigrant women have always had the right to become U.S. citizens, but not every court honored that right. Since the mid-nineteenth century a succession of laws worked to keep certain women out of naturalization records, either by granting them derivative citizenship or barring their naturalization altogether."


THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES IS THE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY when it comes to using their records, and naturalization papers may be nonexistent for your female immigrant ancestor.

Link to a good read about this issue now!

Our genetic and spiritual ancestors help us with our research quests and, while we follow a linear research path, amazing dreams and synronicities abound. We explore multicultural ancestry worship and the use of genealogy for past-life verification, as well as practical ways and means to achieve your research goals.