How do I trace my Native American Ancestry and help my grandma trace her possibl

Question:

How do I trace my Native American Ancestry and help my grandma trace her possible rights to estate property?

I am trying to prove my Native American ancestry.My fathers side of the family is untraceable it appears as he is deceased and he was put up for adoption.I do not even know how to reach the adopted family.But on my mothers side,my grandfather is Mexican and Navajo.I have spoke with Lineages, and the cost is very high.I am curious how to trace my ancestry.My grandpas mother is supposedly 100% Navajo.Also,my grandmother recently heard she may have rights to a property her mother may have had.Her mother is deceased and lived in Puerto Rico.Does anyone know of any resources?I asked Net Detective,and they do not assist in these areas.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You have a lot of different parts to this and there's not a single answer.

Let's start with the easy one. Did your grandmother leave a will? And if she did, did anyone file it with the probate court? If that happened already, then you've got to look at what the court ordered and hire an attorney to assert your mother's rights. If there was no probate, then she may need to file for her mother, then follow the process out. It's not expensive for your mother, but it will involve getting organized and providing the evidence to the court because they won't go on a fishing expedition to find things for you.

The Navajo ancestry won't be so hard once you find birth, marriage and death records. If there are baptismal or other church records involved, even better. You'll quickly find addresses, parents' names, godparents' names, etc that will help you identify your tribal affiliations. Eventually you may be able to get the tribe to give you information on recent generations. The caveat is that if the tribe has a casino, they're very unfriendly towards potential "golddiggers" who show up wanting to be part of the tribe and get part of the profits. I've known one tribe that refused to give information to anyone period. They got gready and that was the end of their information sharing.

Eventually you'll make your way back to the Dawes Rolls. It's an enumeration of various tribes and is very thorough. There are also tribe-specific resources that you can find at the National Archives site. It's not difficult once you're back in the 19th century. The only tedious part is getting back that far.