Michael John Neill's Genealogy Website
Note: This article originally appeared in the Ancestry Daily News on 20 March 2002. The Reality of Sarah’s Realty The 1760 Orange County, Virginia, will of Sarah Turbervile has probably generated more discussion in 2002 than it ever did when it was probated in 1761. For the past two weeks, I’ve discussed in this column various […]
Note: This article originally appeared in the Ancestry Daily News on 13 October 2004. Links to the articles referenced will be posted here in future blog entries. ——————————— Female ancestors present special research problems for two main reasons. A significant part of the difficulty stems from the fact that at the time of their marriage most American […]
I’ve used this photograph as an illustration for blog posts before, but I’ve altered my caption and hopefully improved it. While I understand metadata and how that can be incorporated into a digital image, I’m a firm believer in including that information on the actual photograph itself. Images get “copied and pasted” into other graphics […]
This session has been recorded and is now available for download If you’ve enjoyed our “Brick Wall” series, this one will revisit some of our more popular approaches along with new examples and a few new tricks thrown in the mix. Sometimes it never hurts to hear something again, if only for the reminder. This […]
Why can’t they all do it this way? When users download images of local Maryland land records from the MDLANDREC website, a red citation is included on the far left hand edge of the image. It’s clearly in the margin of the actual document image, but it is a helpful feature that more sites should incorporate. […]
A “Search Wish for Ancestry.com” got me to thinking about databases where one can take advantage of the family structure at Ancestry.com. The US census is one database where one can do that, but there are limitations. 1790-1840 Family-structured based searches are a moot point during this time period. These census records are head of household […]
Literal interpretations can create confusion. At the sale of his father in 1823 in Tuscarawas Township, Coshocton County, Ohio, James Rampley purchased a “flower tub.” Literally it’s called a “flower tub” and James purchased it for $.25. We won’t even compare that to a modern value as that’s really difficult to do for something purchased […]
My great-grandmother Trientje Maria (Janssen) Ufkes was born 111 years ago today, on 17 April 1895. That’s the date I was always told she was born. Fortunately that’s the date of birth given for her in the records of the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Basco, Hancock County, Illinois, where she was baptized. Her baptismal entry […]
Some days I wish Ancestry.com would add more functionality to their search. I don’t need slicker trees and auto-generated historical timelines for my ancestor. I don’t need to be told that someone who was born in 1895 and died in the 1950s lived through the Great Depression. If I need a computer to tell me […]
I almost forgot I had this little gem. This postcard was written by Foche Jansen Goldenstein to B. Dirks (Bernard Dirks, father of Foche’s wife Anna) of Coatsburg, Illinois. At the time of this writing, the Goldensteins were living in Golden, Adams County, Illinois, but Foche was on a trip to Ostfriesland visiting relatives. Sometimes […]
