Michael John Neill's Genealogy Website
It exists. I’ve been there. But you can’t search your matches AncestryDNA for individuals born in Tioga, Hancock County, Illinois. Sometimes the error is not with the user, it is with the system. There are probably other missing locations as well, but I only know of ones useful to my own research.
To facilitate my own use of my results on AncestryDNA, I posted my tree which I had not done before. This was done to allow me to more effectively utilize my results. My personal opinion is that on AncestryDNA displays results and connections in such a way that using the online tree is more effective, especially if […]
I maintain the following blogs. Each has a separate mailing list. Each has subscribe/unsubscribe links on the top of each page: Genealogy Tip of the Day—short daily research tips Rootdig—longer research and methodology discussions Genealogy Search Tip of the Day—websites of genealogy use
I know where “Chili” is in Hancock County, Illinois, but apparently there’s a part of it that has been hidden from me for years and which has been discovered by Ancestry.com. I’ve been playing with Ancestry.com‘s “U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947.” Experimenting with a database is a great way to learn about it, understand it, and […]
Ancestry.com is indicating that it’s “U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947” is updated as of today. The card of my grandfather’s first cousin was one of my new discoveries. It’s a great card as it provides his place of birth (West Point, Illinois), father’s name and residence (Harry L. Sparks, Truman, Martin County, Minnesota), […]
The Allen County Public Library is one of the largest genealogical libraries in the United States. This August, I’ll be leading a group trip there for three days of research and learning. The days of our trip are 6-9 August. The first Sunday we have an evening meeting/introductory session–research starts on 7 August when the […]
“Years After Leaving–An Estate Settlement” did not really discuss where to go next based upon the 1832 will book entry for Thomas J. Rampley in Harford County, Maryland. The page that was located was solely an inventory of the estate filed by James Rampley, the administrator. There’s no notation as to how James was related […]
Federal land records from the United States Bureau of Land Management are one of those types of records that researchers sometimes overlook. BLM records utilized by genealogists usually were created during the process of transferring real estate from federal to private ownership. These claims, warrant applications, and the like are currently housed at the National Archives. […]
Typically one does not look for estate settlement information on someone who has not lived in an area for six years. Typically one does not expect an estate inventory to be filed ten years after someone has died in a county that he left nearly fifteen years ago. And typically not looking everywhere is why […]
Hinrich Sartorius was born Ostfriesland, Germany, in 1837 and died in Adams County, Illinois, in 1912. He married Trientje Behrens in Golden, Adams County, Illinois, in the 1860s. Some things about research that I’ve learned from Hinrich: your beneficiaries can alter your will. Hinrich’s will gave one farm to one set of children and another […]
