Race

CarpenterDaniel

I have a Race question. If I find a great grandmother on a line, I'm working on was Native American do I change her race from white to Native American? She married a white. Would I also change her descendants to something?

Gail Swihart Watson

Your question is a bit confused. In the Other Information section you can add a fact that her race was Native American, with any other details you want to make public. So where are you talking about a change? That part is confusing.

If she is in a census record listed with the race field blank (which implies white), that is part of the official record and cannot be changed even if it is wrong. Census records are notorious for having wrong information, but we cannot change them. However if a transcription of the hand written census data has an error, THAT we can change, sometimes. Some records do not allow you to edit the transcription. Plus there is a bug right now when editing transcribed information in FamilySearch.

Regarding descendants, again, I don't know what you are talking about when you say change.

As an aside, most people in the US have a pretty big swath of ethnicities. You are not touching on the subject of registering with a tribe, but if the children were registered when born, that is information that they might be proud of. However, if they are alive, it is a mute point since their FS information is private. Your grandmother is the one who may have been registered with a tribe and that document, if public, could be added as a source. I do not know what information is public and what is private.

CarpenterDaniel

Thank you for your quick response. This is my cousin's husband line. He only knew his parents with very sketchy details about his ancestors. I have been able to add several generations back.

Race is a new feature on family search, and I want to make sure to get it right. I have no intentions of changing records but want to be prepared if the family asks me to change it. Should Race be Native American instead of White? If I'm able to locate more information I can put it under memories. I wanted to ask someone with more experience.

Once again, Thank You.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

@CarpenterDaniel The Race field on US censuses may not be accurate, depending on who gave the information and what the enumerator did with that information. Take the information as a guideline but not as definitive.

CarpenterDaniel

Thank you.