Michael John Neill's Genealogy Website
Response to the AncestryDNA webinars has been overwhelming. As a result, we are: offering another live session of “Beginning Working with Your AncestryDNA Matches” on 24 September. adding a new session “Sifting Through Your AncestryDNA Matches” on 1 October 2017. Details are on our AncestryDNA webinar page. Thanks for your support of our offerings.
John DeMoss was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, in the 1710s and died in Harford County, Maryland, around 1806. Things I’ve learned from researching John DeMoss: some families are small–there is no evidence thus far that John DeMoss had any children other than his son, John DeMoss. marks can be unique–John signed his “mark” on […]
Lillie’s tombstone in the New Loraine Cemetery, Loraine, Adams County, Illinois, indicates that she was born on 13 December 1909. That date is consistent with the story told by her younger sister (my grandmother) involving their dates of birth. Grandma said that the reason she and Lillie did not always see eye-to-eye on things is […]
Shared DNA matches can be confusing if one does not stop and think. Another descendant of my Samuel and Anne (Murphy) Neill, referred to in this post as Bubba, also performed a DNA test at AncestryDNA. That’s helpful to me because then I can see with whom we share matches. Most of the shared matches […]
I’m contacting my AncestryDNA matches Here’s what I ended up saying: You and I are DNA matches here on AncestryDNA. I’m trying to determine if possible how we are related and I am wondering if you could help me. Based on our shared matches, I think you and I are connected through Samuel and Anne (Murphy) […]
Hinrich was born in Wiesens, Ostfriesland, Germany, in 1823. He died in Elvaston, Hancock County, Illinois, in 1912. Some things about research that I have learned from Hinrich: those who are poor leave fewer records. Hinrich never purchased real property, does not appear on any tax lists, and has no probate record. immigrants get their […]
I originally had the AncestryDNA test performed in an attempt to learn something about my Irish immigrant ancestors, Samuel and Ann (Murphy) Neill. The Neills were my great-great-grandparents–not all that far removed from me. They were born in Ireland in the 1830s/1840s, probably in different locations as they married (and apparently met) in New Brunswick […]
We have released the recording of my latest webinar: “Working with Your AncestryDNA Matches.” We focused on the matches–analyzing, understanding, and organizing. I even made some headway on a few of mine while creating the PowerPoint slides for the presentation. Our presentation is laid back. There’s not a lot of chit-chat and we focus on […]
Ida (Trautvetter) Neill was born in Wythe Township, Hancock County, Illinois, in 1910 and died near Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois, in 1994. Some things I’ve learned about research from her: people give the information they believe to be accurate. Grandma thought she was born in Tioga, Illinois, and put that on every record throughout her […]
In “Details the Estate Settlement Does Not Care About,” we saw an 1871 era estate document from Illinois that seemed to suggest that an Ernestine (Trautvetter) Hess had three children: Valentine Hess, William Hess, and Wilhelmina (married to an unnamed man with the last name Rothweiler). All that is said about Ernestine is that she […]
