Michael John Neill's Genealogy Website
The image illustrating this post is part of the “cover” that wraps the original probate papers for Michael Trautfetter’s 1869-1881 era probate in Hancock County, Illinois. The writing is that of the clerks. It’s clearly written in two different hands as the script at the bottom is distinct from the writing on the top. It […]
In some families the spelling of the name generates much gnashing of teeth. It is that way in the Trautvetter family. Generally speaking, my personal “how do I spell their name” when referring to them in writing decision is based upon: how the person signed the name how the person’s name appeared on their tombstone […]
There were two references to the death of Joseph Neill in a November 1906 issue of the Quincy Daily Herald, published in Quincy, Illinois. One item referenced the accident in which he was killed and the second reference was to his wife’s parents going to the town where Joseph and his wife were living. I did […]
New technology frequently causes problems as it did for Samuel Neill in 1920. An airplane flying near West Point, Illinois, spooked the two horses who were pulling his cultivator. The horses ran off, pulling the cultivator behind them and destroying it in the process. In an apparent separate incident, two horses belonging to Virgil Neill […]
Like many genealogists with Irish immigrants, I don’t have a great deal of information on my Irish family in Ireland. Samuel Neill immigrated as a single man in 1864, arriving in Canada’s New Brunswick Province with his married brother Joseph and Joseph’s young family. The Neills were living in Limavady when they left Ireland for […]
I may be focusing on the wrong part of the chain in my attempts to find family information on my Irish ancestor, Anne (Murphy) Neill. Anne was born around 1840 in Ireland. No record on Anne in the United States provides any more specific information regarding her place of birth. She died near West Point, […]
The greater the distance, the easier it is to get places mixed up. The 1913 obituary of Agnes Harper indicated she was survived by her two sisters in Boston, Massachusetts. The names of the sisters were known from other sources and, like any reasonable genealogist, I began trying to search for them in Boston. After […]
We are excited to announce the release of the recording of this recent webinar. Setting Research Goals and Organizing Your Research Process Gathering information can be fun and challenging, but after a point most genealogists realize that some structure to the research process is necessary–if only so that one avoids going in circles. In […]
Using Unindexed Records at FamilySearch FamilySearch has a significant collection of online images that are not indexed–pretty much where the microfilm has been put online as is. This hour-long session will discuss search strategies for searching unindexed records of digital images that are online for free at FamilySearch. Included will be a discussion of navigating the image […]
