Native American Records at the National Archives

Records include but are far from limited to:

# Selected Documents from the Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1793 - 1989
# Records of Controversies, 1867 - 1879
# Kern-Clifton Roll of Cherokee Freedmen, January 16, 1867
# Alexander Gardner Portraits of Tribal Delegations to the Federal Government, 1872 and Southeastern Idaho Reservations, 1897
# Wallace Roll of Cherokee Freedmen in Indian Territory, 1890
# Applications for Enrollment in the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898 - 1914
# Index to the Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 1898 - 1914
# Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory, 1898 - 1914
# Correspondence of Pine Ridge Day School Inspector J. J. Duncan, February 9, 1910 - September 6, 1916
# American Indians, 1881 - 1885
# General Correspondence File of the Albuquerque Indian School, 1881 - 1936
# Index to Applications Submitted for the Eastern Cherokee Roll of 1909 (Guion Miller Roll)
# Records of the U.S. Court of Claims, Completed Guion Miller Roll

For more on these and many, many other Native American records on file at the National Archives: Click Here.

Wantabes and Outalucks

Searching for Indian Ancestors in Federal Records

By Kent Carter

Director, National Archives, Fort Worth Branch

Every year, the staff of the Fort Worth Branch of the National Archives gets thousands of letters from people all over the United States who are trying to prove that an ancestor was an Indian. These researchers comprise what must be one of the largest "tribes" in North America, the Wantabes. People wantabe an Indian for a variety of reasons but most are not successful in their efforts to find proof and thus join the ranks of another very large "tribe", the Outalucks. Many people fail in their genealogical research because they are not familiar with the records of the Federal government which relate to the American Indian. Hopefully, the following information will help researchers avoid becoming an Outaluck.

As with most genealogical research, the best results are obtained by beginning with yourself and working your way backward in time. It is virtually impossible to begin with Pocahontas and Captain John Smith and work your way forward. With the exception of Emmett Starr's Old Cherokee Families and a few similar works, there are very few published genealogies of famous Indians. There is no computer that will provide you with a list of all Geronimo's descendants.

Interviewing family members, especially at picnics and reunions when they may be in a good mood and willing to talk, often provides enough basic information about names, places of residence, and approximate dates of birth and death to allow you to begin the search.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Morgan's Christmas Raid

After the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky on October 8, 1862, Union General Don Carlos Buell was relieved of command and replaced with William S. Rosecrans. Rosecrans renamed the Army of the Ohio and changed the name to the Army of the Cumberland. With his new Army, Rosecrans pushed into Southern territory. In order to keep his army feed and well supplied, he needed to keep the Louisville & Nashville Railroad operating at full capacity. Rosecrans made sure that the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was heavily defended with stockades at the tunnels and bridges.

Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, the “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy”, was a Kentucky native and knew the Louisville & Nashville Railroad well. He decided that the best place to disrupt Rosecrans supply line was at a pair of one hundred foot high trestles that ran for about five hundred feet. They were located below Louisville, Kentucky, just north of Elizabethtown, and ran through Muldraugh’s Hill. After consulting with Confederate General Braxton Bragg, commander of the Army of Tennessee, Bragg gave Morgan permission for his raid.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Guerilla Warfare in Kentucky

In 1863, 1864, and 1865 guerilla warfare plagued Kentucky. Some of the most notorious, bloody thirsty men roamed Kentucky pillaging, looting, and killing. Men like Sue Mundy, Champ Ferguson, Henry Magruder, William Quantrell, and Sam “One Arm” Berry, committed atrocious crimes on not only Union forces but also the general population. Who were these men and how did Kentucky become the center stage for guerilla warfare? This article will focus on the causes behind guerilla warfare, on some of the most notorious guerillas in Kentucky, and their demise.

To continue reading: Click Here.

Note: Tomorrow a raid into Kentucky by the famous Confederate cavalryman John Hunt Morgan will be described in detail.

Big Changes at Archives.gov

By Dick Eastman

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

The Archives.gov web site has received a major facelift. This site is operated by the National Archives and Records Administration. Now the information is easier to search than ever before.

The Archives.gov website is the public face of a year-long series of changes: from an enhanced social media presence, a revamped Federal Register website and a new Archives researcher wiki space:

* A new homepage selected by user feedback
* Interactive map of Archives locations nationwide
* Streamlined access to historical documents and military service records, which 81 percent of Archives website visitors said they were looking for
* Sections organized by topic, which focused on the needs of both everyday browsers and experienced researchers
* Links to social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Archives blogs

The No. 1 goal, according to Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero, was making the site more usable.

To continue reading: Click Here.

To visit the revamped National Archives web site: Click Here.

Appalachian Region Maps

University of Kentucky Appalachian Center

Maps that cover the Appalachian Region, as designated by the Appalachian Regional Commission. The maps were compiled at the UK Appalachian Center using various data sources. Clicking on the JPG link will open a low quality version of the map in your browser window. Clicking on the PDF link will open a high quality map in Acrobat Reader, if that is installed.

To see the maps: Click Here.

Historic Map Works Switches to Digital

By Dick Eastman

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Charles Carpenter Sr., owner of Historic Map Works, says the company has now digitized millions of maps, atlases and images that previously took up too much space in the company's old location. The project cost $5 million and took five years to complete. The company is hoping to capitalize on the rising interest of genealogy, a multi-billion dollar industry.

Now that Historic Map Works has digitized its entire collection and holds the licenses to those products, Carpenter says the firm is ready to increase paid website subscriptions and will soon launch a Facebook application that will incorporate its search engine, Historic Earth. Carpenter expects both to be available by the end of this year.

The company has more than 2 million images of documents, fine prints, maps and other records online and more than 226,000 images that are geocoded, which means a user can drag an older map of a city or town over a current map to see how various communities have evolved over time. "We have the largest digital collection and online collection in the world," he says. In a room adjacent to Carpenter's office five servers run 240 to 250 terabytes of data, he says. A terabyte is equal to 1,024 gigabytes.

The Historic Earth application, launched last year, allows users to enter a location by city or town in the United States and a few other countries and learn about its evolution from the early 1400s to 2002. The company's website has 15,000 to 20,000 registered users and sees 2,000 site visits per day.

For more information: Click Here.

To visit Historic Map Works: Click Here.