If any of you are searching your Indian roots in NY the 1915 State Census has a lot of information. Hopefully they can be found on microfilm for that year. They are after all the towns for what ever county the reservation may be in. In my case the census for the Tonawanda Reservation is in the Genesee County Census book at the end (which is in our clerks office). They also have 1875 and 1925. Sometimes it is enumerated as the reservation as a whole. Sometimes it is broken down into what area of the reservation being Alabama (Genesee), Newstead (Erie) and Royalton (Niagara). I'm guessing Tonawanda is in the Genesee County Census since, geographically, the Alabama portion of the reservation has the most acreage. It is very interesting too. Since traditionally the lineage desends from the mother not the father, the woman is the head of household. Thus the children will be the same Tribe and clan as the mother. The man (which is the head of household normally) is listed as husband or father. I was quite surprised that when the State did this census they did it the right way. Just something to be aware of if you think you have Indian roots of some kind. You may have to think opposite of the way you normally do things to get the lineage correct. Below is an example. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1915 Census (June 1) Tonawanda Reservation, Genesee County NY Census Here is the order of the columns which is pretty cool.: Residence (Post Office) Name Name of Mother of Children under 21 Relationship to head of family (which is the woman) Date of Birth Sex Tribe Clan Occupation On or off (Reservation) Acres of land cultivated Where educated Degree of Indian Blood Speaks English Christian Pagan Spokane, GRIFFIN Ulyses, n/a, father, 20-Apr-1868, M, Cayuga, Wolf, Foreman Lumber Yard, off, n/a,Common School, 2/3, yes, Christian Spokane, GRIFFIN Nellie, n/a, head, 7-Apr.-1864, F, Seneca, Beaver, Housework, on, n/a, Ontario (unreadable word), 2/3, yes, Christian Edmonton Ca, GRIFFIN Arthur, Nellie Griffin, son, 29-Sept- 1881, M, Seneca, Beaver, Salesman, off, n/a, Akron High, 3/5, Yes, Christian Spokane, GRIFFIN Earl, Nellie Griffin, son, 1-June- 1897, Seneca, Beaver, n/a, n/a, n/a, Spokane, 3/5, yes, Christian Spokane, GRIFFIN Mae, Nellie Griffin, daughter, 17-May-1899, F, Seneca, Beaver, n/a, n/a, n/a, Spokane, 3/5, yes, Christian Spokane, GRIFFIN Lettie, Nellie Griffin, daughter, 30-Nov-1904, F, Seneca, Beaver, n/a, n/a, n/a, Spokane, 3/5, yes, Christian -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most of the residence was either Basom or Akron, so I'm guessing they were visiting? If you have Adobe Acrobat (which you can download free a lot of places) there is a booklet of 149 pages on all the federal census, questions asked, etc. Pretty interesting stuff. Doesn't seem they successfully did the reservations till 1890. The link is: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/pol02-ma.pdf -- Cindy Amrhein Town of Alabama Historian in Genesee Co., NY Experience the Town of Alabama in Genesee County, NY. http://www.rootsweb.com/~nycalaba/ APHNYS (Association of Public Historians of New York State) http://www.tier.net/~aphnys __________________________________________________________________ Try AOL and get 1045 hours FREE for 45 days! http://free.aol.com/tryaolfree/index.adp?375380 Get AOL Instant Messenger 5.1 free of charge. Download Now! http://aim.aol.com/aimnew/Aim/register.adp?promo=380455