I have memories of Grandma Neill’s 3-legged milk stool. The seat was always a little tilted and it looked like anyone sitting on it would slide right off. That might have been the result of an unlevel barn floor or uneven legs on the stool. I’m still not certain which. What I am certain of […]

FamilySearch recently updated their “Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878-1994.” That database serves as a good reminder that there may be searchable fields in the database that are not apparent on the initial screen. The first search screen has the typical fields upon which one can search. However, when viewing the actual search results, a different […]

I’ve just finished my first webinar on Using GedMatch.com to analyze your DNA results Discussion included: overview of GedMatch why you should use GedMatch basic GedMatch DNA analysis tools-free ones only one-to-many matches one-to-one compare matching 1 or 2 tests downloading reports matrix comparisons segment matrix Basic DNA terminology is not a part of this presentation. Focus […]

Yesterday’s Genealogy Tip of the Day was about the location of my great-grandfather’s death in 1934. I first looked for it back in the 1980’s when online indexes were not available, state-wide indexes were not always readily available, and I was much younger and less experienced. When asked, Grandma Neill had told me her father died […]

Ancestry.com recently updated its “U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-2017.” This is a database of information harvested from online obituaries throughout the United States. It is also a database whose title changes as time moves on and it is updated. Because the data is read by computers and the database entries are automatically created, there are issues. […]

Federal, state, and local government reports can contain a wide variety of information, particularly through the early 20th century. Often these published reports include information that would be considered too private to be published today.  A 19th century report from Illinois is one of those books. The 1892 Reports to the Illinois General Assembly (available […]

We have a wide variety of how-to genealogy topics-including AncestryDNA, land records, court records, organizing information, and more. Presentations are: down-to-earth easy to understand practical methodologically sound based on thirty years of research experience See our AncestryDNA webinar list–sessions already recorded-ready for download. See our other genealogical topic list–over twenty topics! Download immediate. View as often as you […]

Nothing frustrates like an unexplained notation. Sometimes small marks and symbols contain significant information and sometimes they do not. The problem is that when one does not know what they stand for it’s impossible to know whether the notation is meaningful or not. The enumerator for the 1870 Adams County, Illinois, agricultural census used an […]