Lost child

In the recent few years there has been an increasing trend to trace one's Native American genealogy. As the interest has grown so have the avenues that one could use to research the genealogy. However, to get the best results out of the effort you put into the search, you must use all the various modes in which the genealogy data has been recorded. You must never bank on a single source. We will discuss here the various options you have to research genealogy records.

Electronic Records

Today there are hundreds of millions of records available in digital format much of which is available commercially on CDs. Bundled with family tree software; these CDs can save you a lot of time in your research. But for that you need to be really lucky, as not more than 2% of the total genealogy records available today have been digitized. If you are unsuccessful with the digital records, don't lose heart cause there are plenty of other sources that you can look into.

Microfilmed Records

Beyond the digital records, there are huge data banks of Native American genealogy available as microfilms in the various local Family History centers. These records will include literally millions of births, deaths, census records, marriages, land transfers, military records, etc. and the best thing about it is that these records are available either for free or at a very low cost. So you need not spend a fortune in research. Other places of help might be the bigger libraries, many of which have huge collections of microfilm genealogy data and also the U.S. National Archives Regional Libraries.

Books

There are also various books on Native American Genealogy available in the libraries and the local genealogy centers. These books can be used as supplements to the digital records and the microfilms in your research. Although it might be a bit unwieldy to be using the books compared to a CD, but they might contain information that you would not find in any CD. So it is always worth a try, especially if your earlier searches did not yield any desirable result.

As the interest in Native American Genealogy grows, it is expected that more of the records will be digitized in the next few years. While that would make research easier, it would also make it much too simple. Till then you have the opportunity to do a real research as you scrutinize the microfilms and delve into the books, spending hours in the local library. That would be fun, and rewarding.