Michael John Neill's Genealogy Website
Tips & Quips for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Shown Mills arrived a while back and I’ve finally had some time to look at it. It’s a small volume that is easily portable and makes Evidence Explained look like monstrous tome . My unmanicured hand easily covers Tips & Quips which is the only reason my hand is not […]
Ebay is an occasional genealogical temptation. Today I made another discovery on Ebay and gave into temptation. The image used in this post is from a postcard postmarked 1909 in Tioga, Illinois. The note on the reverse side of the card indicated that the image is of what is now known as the Bethany United Church of Christ […]
I’m still playing with my results on AncestryDNA, so I’m still learning. However there is one thing I wish I could do there: filter my results by submitter. Manually searching trees and searching trees by specific surnames seems highly inefficient to me. And there’s no guarantee that a surname that matches is even the line on […]
Johann Luken Jurgens Ehmen Goldenstein was born in 1814 in Wrisse, Ostfriesland, Germany, where he died in 1891. He was married in that same location to Tjode Anna Focken (Tammen). Some things I learned about research and life from Johann: last names can change. Johann came to adulthood when patronyms were in a state of […]
There is still room to join me on my annual trip to the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, this coming August of 2017. Details are on our announcement page. We’d love to have you join us for three full days at the library.
Maria (Bruns) Fecht was born in Wiesens, Ostfriesland, Germany, and died probably in Hancock County, Illinois, before the fall of 1877. She married Hinrich Jacobs Fecht in Wiesens, Ostfriesland, Germany. Some things I’ve learned about research from Maria: people sometimes marry their in-laws. Maria married Hinrich Jacobs Fecht after his first wife Trientje Bruns died. Trientje […]
I have hundreds of cousin matches on AncestryDNA. I’m not yet certain how many I will eventually try and contact. The first six matches were particularly interesting for me as AncestryDNA grouped them as “second cousins.” The first five matches were indicated as being “first or second cousins” and the sixth was indicated as being a “second or […]
I spent a successful week in Salt Lake at the Family History Library with my group. We’ve almost set the dates for the 2018 trip, but wrapping up a few minor details before making an announcement. Some work was done on my Ohio, Virginia, New York, and Ontario families. We’ll have updates as I have […]
Hinrich Jacobs Fecht was born in 1823 in Wiesens, Ostfriesland, Germany, and died in 1912 in Elvaston, Hancock County, Illinois. He married Marie Bruns in Wiesens, Ostfriesland, and later married Antje (Jaspers) Habben in Hancock County, Illinois, in 1877. What I’ve learned about research from Hinrich: last names can be dropped. Hinrich is enumerated in […]
I was surprised just a little with my Ancestry.com DNA test results which came in over the weekend. Using my third great-grandparents as a point of reference (simply because I’m not going to use my 10th great-grandparents to create the percentages for this post), my genealogical ancestry is approximately: 50% Ostfriesen (my maternal side)–which qualifies as […]
