> > I live in the farthest southwest tip of the Australian continent. > > In terms of the globe we are diametrically opposite some point in > > the North Atlantic, somewhere north of Bermuda. > > > > That places us as far as it is possible to get from New York, for > > example, and still be on land. We are as far removed from American > > Indian blood. > > > > Guess what. > > > > We have European families here too with high cheek bones, dark > > almond eyes and long black hair, except that people here insist > > "they must be gypsies" . . . . > > > > Gil Hardwick <gruagach@highway1.com.au> > > One of my maternal GrGrandparents was said to be an American Indian. > When I decided to compile a genealogy on that lineage, I found to > our utter astonishment we are descended from Roma, who are known as > Gypsies. We descend from the Roma of Europe, in our case, German > Roma. At present some of our kin folks won't even talk to me they > are so perturbed by this information. Apparently, many folks wish > to be Native American, but few wish to be a Gypsy!! > > On my Dad's side of the family we descend from Hilibi Creek. I have > been told by a Creek tribal genealogist, there exist two ways to be > recognized as a Native American: 1) to descend from a person on the > Native rolls and/or 2) to locate a record, often a land record, that > identifies the ancestor as a Native American. [Possibly there exist > other means of proof, but I only know of those means told me by that > genealogist.] > > Fran fpowellsr@starpower.net See for example Menno Boldt (1993), Surviving as Indians, appendix three. I think it is normal that group membership definitions are legal issues dealing with access to resources/rights of some kind. Definitions in censuses thus have normative and control functions which must be taken into account when using information taken from them. I don't have references here to late 19th and early 20th century activities in the International Statistics Institute, but they had recommendations for how to treat ethnic groups and other minorities in census taking. -- Regnor : PGP Key ID 2B36C9DE (ruoktu/home) Regnor Jernsletten <rjernsle@eunet.no>