When embarking on genealogical research, it is important to employ a fundamentally sound research methodology, especially if you want to use this information to gain tribal membership or confirm beliefs about your ethnic identity. Think of geneology as a social science, similar to history, anthropology, or scoiology—the same rules of evidence and interpretation apply. The main difference between geneology and other social sciences is that the researcher’s main source of information is often blurry (“Aunt Eulalie can’t be remembering right”), unverifiable (“well, great-great grandmother looks Indian in this daguerrotype”), and generally suspicious (“this land deed says great-grandpa was from Canada! That can’t be right”). Very few pieces of evidence can be considered “fact,” and while many social scientists are turned off by this uncertainty, it’s exciting for geneologists. The murky areas of American history are where geneologists thrive, and often where the most “true” information about our country’s past can be found.
First, any and all family sources should be consulted for information about your ancestors. This includes all living relatives, as well as family papers (birth, marriage and death records, family bibles, scrapbooks, photograph albums, diaries, and gravestones). Often, geneologists are on their quests because their families won’t discuss their pasts. If you can get one of your elders comfortable, try asking indirect questions like, “What did you do for fun when you were a child?” “Did you like school? Who helped you with your homework?” “What made you decide to join the army?” “Did you ever travel when you were young? Where did you go?” These types of questions can generate names, dates, or places which might be helpful to you, and absolutely everything should be written down, even if it seems irrelevant or implausible at the time. For relatives that will talk openly, ask as many specifics as you can, but also be sure to ask more general questions, such as “Do you remember if your hometown (or church or backyard creek) was ever called something other than its current name?” and “Who were your great aunts and uncles? What were their children’s names? Who did they marry?” and “What was the house you grew up in like?”
After gleaning as much information as you can from your relatives, investigate documents that are in the public record, always chronologically backward from the present, not forward from the known existence of an ancestor. In other words, you want to start by tracing your parents and grandparents, not start by tracing the descendents of your great-great-great grandmother. Proving data from an earlier to a later period is not only more difficult, it effectively limits your opportunity to access and investigate the widest range of material in the public record, because it biases your investigation. For example, if you know that your great-grandfather’s name was William, you’re naturally going to be looking for references to him as “William” in the public record, and perhaps not Billy or Will or Spider or whatever his nickname might have been. Also, if you think William was Indian, you’re going to be looking for references to him as an Indian, not as “mulatto” or “free person of color” or “Black” or “White.” Consequently, you may miss a number of references to him or his family. However, if you understand William’s children and gradchildren first, before you understand William, then you are much more likely to understand all the different ways in which William was seen by others and how those interpretations changed through time, based on societal norms and circumstances.
Family memories and public documents are not going to give you the whole story, however. It is also important to thoroughly investigate the geographical area(s) where your ancestry centers, questioning supposedly fixed boundaries, like state and county lines if necessary. For example, if you have an Lumbee ancestor prior to 1800 that a land deed says lives in North Carolina, he or she may acutally have lived in South Carolina, because of the fluctuation of the dividing line. You’ll want to look in the archives of both places and know the history of the area to find more references to them. The identities, histories, and cultural attributes of any community or individual are often geographic, and for native peoples, tribal specific. However, the notion of “tribe” as often used by observers and historians did not always accurately reflect the composition or political structure of Indian or Indian-descent groups. Lumbees, for example, did not refer to themselves as a “tribe” before the 20th century; they may have referred to their family or clan group or area of the county they lived in, when identifying themselves. Once you’ve identified your ancestor’s community affiliation, however, you should identify and gather the greatest number of research documents and data on that community (whether it’s a tribe, a village or a town) to obtain the fullest understanding of that community’s particular history, and its specific group of records.
Perhaps the most important element of geneological research is visiting the places your ancestors lived and worked, visiting their graves, their fishing holes, talking to people who may be descendents of your ancestors’ neighbors, or may be distant relatives themselves. It is our belief that you can gain the greatest respect for your ancestors and their communities if you understand how those communities function today, what they look like and feel like, and their meaning for the people that still live there.