Wintu families with documents

Date: 14 Jan 2023 [unknown]
Location: Northern California
Surnames/tags: WINTU, WINTOON TRIBE Ft. Bidwell Agency, Roseburg Agency, Greenville Agency, Portland Field Office, Sacramento Field Office

The goal of this project is to trace family lines through a more provable method. Native census records are a good resource but there are still many census records that are either not searchable or have limited information and have to be gone through on the National Archives to get more accurate information.

Right now this project just has one member, Melodie Burns-Hamilton.

Here are some of the tasks that I think need to be done. I'll be working on them, and could use your help.

I am going into the National Archives Probate files looking for all the Wintu people. Pulling up testimony and family trees done in the probate records to put on here to help others track down their family members. Then transfer to Wikitree a tree of the family with the documentation from the files to help people actually get their correct family members. I have noticed that many of the sites have erroneous information of family and no documentation to show how they arrived at their conclusions. I only want information that can actually show the family connections. Tracking back the lines through these records is very time consuming and tedious. The records are not searchable but are on microfische, pulling the pages out that show the history and the sworn testimony of the people involved will give a trail that will be at least somewhat proven and correct.

I spent many years trying to piece my family together on my Wintu side. I had very limited information to begin with only knowing that Kate Lucky was my great great grandmother and my great grandfather was Thomas Burns - sometimes called Thomas Lucky Burns (James Lucky's step son). By going through National Archive records I now have much more information, dates and facts that put their lives together.

My reason for doing this project: I have found family I did not know existed, and am still looking for my great grandmother Eliza Mae - no known last name. She has been put on hundreds of genealogy sites as being Eliza Raglin married to Thomas Casper Raglin (whom according to all these family trees is also her brother being from the same father/mother Isaac and Barbara Raglin) and a John McBride, he was single and she was a boarder in his home according to records- so the facts show that none of it is true. Findagrave has a bunch of nonsense information on it also. I have yet to track down her actual tribe but do know she claimed to have been born in Jackson County, Oregon and shows as 1/2 Digger Indian on the 1900 rolls. My DNA shows Canadian Indian - not sure why. My father believed we had Nez Pearce and possibly some relation to Captain Jack (Modoc) - I don't know at this point if that is true or where it came from.

It has been very frustrating that people will just put someone on their tree and not do any research to prove it - that is why I thought this would be a good project to be able to give that proof and make all of our trees more accurate, and mean something.

Will you join me? Please post a comment here on this page, in G2G using the project tag, or send me a private message. Thanks!