The Dawes Rolls
(Final Rolls of the
Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes
in Indian Territory)
Step 4: Look up the Person in the Final Rolls online
In the Final Rolls for Indians by blood, you will find the person's name, age, sex, blood degree, and census card number. For Freedmen, you'll find the person's name, age, sex, and census card number (no blood degree).
- Step 1: Dawes Rolls Introduction
- Step 2: Check to see if the person's Census Card is described online
- Step 3: Use the Index to the Final Rolls online
- Step 4: Look up the Person in the Final Rolls online
- Step 5: What You Can Do Next
- Print all 5 steps out (PDF format)
Step 4: Look up the Person in the Final Rolls online
The Final Rolls are available through NARA's Archival Research Catalog (ARC).In order to find the person in the Final Rolls, you will be searching in (ARC).
- Go to the ARC main page
http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/ - Click the yellow Search button.
- On the next screen, fill in the boxes as follows:
- In the Keyword box, enter "Final Rolls" (without quotes).
- Select 1000 where it says "Limit Results to".
- Check the box "Descriptions of Archival Materials linked to digital copies."
-
Click the "Go" button. The first result will be the Final Rolls.
- Beneath the image and ARC identifier information, click on the "All Images" link.
You will then get a result that says there are "634 hits" (pages).
-
Scroll to the pages for the respective tribe you are looking for by either clicking on
the "Next Page" button or by
filling in the "Jump to Page" box and clicking on "Go".
(Note: This may require patience and some trial and error to find it!)
After you browse through the pages to find the tribe you are looking for, you can find the person listed in numerical order, using the Roll Number you obtained from the Index.
Getting back to the previous example where we were looking for Napoleon Ainsworth of the Choctaws, we will browse through the images to find the Choctaw tribe, and then click through those images until we find number 8938 listed on image 54 (page 9).
Click on the "Large image" link below the image. This is what you will see:
Napoleon is listed as number 8938, just as expected from the index, along with his age, sex, blood degree, and census card number.
- Write down everything that is listed on the line of the person you are looking for.
You will especially want to write down the Census Card No. so you can
continue research with records held in NARA's Fort Worth facility.
You will find the Census Card number in the sixth column,
after the person's age,
sex, and blood degree.
In this case, we write down Census Card No. 3055 for Napoleon Ainsworth.
Next Step:
- Now that you have obtained the Census Card number from the Final Rolls, and have already checked to see if the Enrollment or Census card has been described in ARC (in Step 2), you can proceed to Step 5: What You Can Do Next.
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