Month: September 2017

Advertisement for Lost Money

The “classified” section of a newspaper can contain a variety of items. This one is a little different. Ads for “Money lost” are not what one typically expects to find in a newspaper. “Lost” money tends to stay lost. Apparently in 1782, Montgomery County resident William Holmes was travelling between the ferry at Elk Ridge […]

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Sifting Through AncestryDNA Matches Webinar and a Repeat

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.

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We Were Close In Age, So We Quibbled

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 […]

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Bubba, Tommy, and Me

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 […]

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Ancestral Clues and Lessons: Hinrich Jacobs Fecht

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 […]

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Contacting the DNA Matches to My Irish Forebears

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 […]

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