Burtonshaw's batting 3 out of 4

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Even with a growing library of documents, Metis genealogist Geoff Burtonshaw says he can help only about three out of every four people who contact him.

The problem, he explains, is knowing where to begin to begin the search.

"You have to have a date to know where to look," he says. (Microfilmed demographic information in the Manitoba Script, for instance, fills a drawer in a file cabinet.)

Without some reference point, a researcher faces reading through shelves of books, microfilm and microfiche. But an ancestor's birth date and birth location, for example, is enough to start the search.

The key documents in Metis genealogy research are the Manitoba Script, the Northwest Script, the 1900 Script and the Charles Denny papers.

"If someone comes in and has a fair knowledge of their family, you can find them in those books," said Burtonshaw.