Michael John Neill's Genealogy Website
Our responsibility in research is to report what we find and leave the judgements about the personal actions of individuals to others. Records often only tell a part of the story and it can be difficult when we are left with few records to know the “entire” or the “real” story. Even when we think […]
Sometimes the confirmation of an identity hinges on the comparison of signatures. That’s a good analytical tool, but one doesn’t necessarily want to use different signatures to conclude that two people are different. Even the same person can sign their name in slightly different ways even on the same document. Edward Neill signed an […]
Straw deeds are not chattel deeds selling straw from one farmer to another. There’s a little more to documents of this type than that. And…the phrase “straw deed” does not usually appear on a straw deed either. Thomas Johnson Rampley had not completely paid for his federal purchase of land in Coshocton County, Ohio, when […]
Contrary to popular belief, it’s permissible to admit that one does not know something and there’s something about the images in this post that I either do not know or am overlooking. Barbara Haase died in Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois, in 1903. She left a will that was later admitted to probate in Hancock County […]
The United States probate materials on Ancestry.com are, like any other online source, prone to errors and omissions. It’s when the omissions are intermittent that it is frustrating. As an illustration for another blog post, I wanted an image from the 1903 era probate of Barbara Haase of Hancock County, Illinois. I’ve been through the actual case file […]
[I originally wrote this in 2000 so some of you might have already seen it-this originally ran on 28 Nov 2000 in the Ancestry Daily News….] The 2000 election “dilemma” in Florida brings to mind a situation in Orange County, Virginia in 1742. At that time, though, there was no recount, and “chads” were not pivotal to […]
As mentioned in an earlier post, I purchased a reprint of the 1859 Hancock County, Illinois landowners’ atlas on Ebay. The image from this post is from section 3 in Rocky Run Township, located in the southwestern portion of Hancock County. It’s where John George and Sophia Elizabeth Trautvetter, along with their children, settled in the […]
We are excited to announce three new recorded webinars. Download is immediate–handout and media file included. Determining if Your Soldier with Pre-1866 Military Service Received a Pension or Benefit This hour-long session will discusses sources and methods for determining if your ancestor who served in the US military in the Civil War or before qualified for […]
