How can I find out who my Grandfather's Father was?

Question

My grandfather doesn't have a birth certificate. And we always went by my great-grandmothers maiden name. I'm really needing to know this because I'm trying to find out how much Native American we have in our family.

Answer 1

Native American family history is often hard to prove. Many people who had native American blood denied their native american ancestry for fear of persecution and it hasn't been until the last few decades that people have thought it was "vogue" to be of Native american ancestry.

There are several Native American records available, but first you have to trace the ancestry you do know as far back as possible. If you can trace them back to a known area of Native American occupation, you are off to a good start in identifying which tribe, etc.

I agree with grannytoad... The death certificate is a good place to start. However, a word of caution... the death certificate is only as good as its informant. I have ordered many a death certificate where the parents information is missing or wrong.

If you get a certificate and it is missing, you might want to try to get the death certificates of his brothers and sisters if applicable. Sometimes researching siblings will yield additional information on your direct ancestor. You can try to order obituaries as well. A word on obituaries... if you are dealing with a huge city like Chicago the best you will probably find is a death notice which generally doesn't include any kind of biography....i have found that the best obituaries generally come from smaller localities where everyone knew everyone.

If your grandfather was born before 1930 you can try to locate him in as many censuses as possible. The census will show the members of his family and their ages and generally lists where they were born as well as the birthplaces of both parents. If you need a census lookup, please feel free to E-mail me via my profile. I'll be happy to help.

Answer 2

It sounds like your grandfather may have been illegitimate. If so, you might be out of luck - sometimes the identity of the father was known and acknowledged in the records, but more other than not, it was covered up. If he never lived with your great-grandmother, never was a part of your grandfather's life, and no old papers of your great-grandmother reveal the name, you may never find it.

However, if your grandfather left direct male descendants (if you have an uncle, for instance); a X-chromosome DNA test on these descendants will show the line (and can be analyzed to give you a general picture of your grandfather's father's ancestry). It's possible this might match with one of the genealogical DNA databases as well - which could give you an ancestral family.

Answer 3

Native ancestry is very difficult. Because of the history of oppression many Native records were burned or not recorded at all. Many Natives will never be able to prove their heritage. When this is the case it is best to just get involved in Native culture, it is very rewarding.

The best thing to do is start with as much information as you have. Call the tribe (or tribes in the area he was born if you don't know his tribe) give them as many last names as you can and ask if they are on the rolls. If not then you can submit an article to the tribal newspaper. Someone may recognize your lineage.

Information on how to become enrolled is listed below:

To become enrolled in one's tribe is often a difficult process. Once one is enrolled one will have certain rights as a Native person. It is true that no one needs to prove their ethnic identity but to have full access to rights for Native people one must be enrolled.

To become enrolled one must first should call one's tribe and find out the enrollment requirements. They are different per tribe.
For most tribes you have to prove descendency and have a certain blood quantum. To prove descendency one needs to have some record of her belonging to a member of the tribe that was recognized by the tribe at some point, hopefully an individual that was enrolled at some point. The average blood quantum standard is 1/4. Unless you are Cherokee, their blood quantum standards are much less.

If you don't have contact with your tribal member then you can ask the tribe to look for his last name. They can look this up and see if his family line is registered. If so then your in luck. If they don't immediately find it then you can use the tribal newspaper and submit an article asking if anyone has lineage to your tribal member .

Many Native people can never become enrolled because standards of enrollment are high and were set up by the White government to oppress Native people and Native people have yet to change them.

To become more involved in one'sculture one might want to look up local Native organizations or local tribes. Try going to Pow-wow's (because they are easy to find) and talk to community members there. Many colleges/universities have a Native student union where one can get involved or get more information.

Please remember ancestry is very difficult for many Native people.

By the way, I am Native, so I have some knowledge pertaining to this.

Answer 4

Go onto either www.rootsweb.com or familysearch.org . Both are free sites where you can insert the name of someone who has passed away and find out more about them. You can use your grandmother's name or your grandfather's to search. Specifially, you will see when and where he/she died (at least if it was within the US). Then you can use that information to get a hold of the county clerk in the state where he passed away. Also, there are folks on andestry.com who will go to a local library and search for the obituary of someone who died if you have an idea of what the date it. These people volunteer so there is no cost to do that either. I actually do that to help people with their genealogical search. Good lcuk

Answer 5

My Grandfather never talked about his school days... But... all my friends fathers and grandfathers did, they all walked to school bare foot in the snow up hills, with a load of books and no jackets either! Had to break ice to get fresh drinking water, had their fannies stuck to the boards in the out house. Not to mention having to milk the cows, feed the hens, bring in the eggs and all that other stuff, all before having to walk to school mind you!!

Answer 6

Look for his birth record.

Answer 7

I suggest you begin with his death certificate. It should show where he died and was born, and his parents' names.