We’ve mentioned “exhaustive search” several times in various posts on this blog. Generally it’s the idea that you search all records that would reasonably expect to provide information to assist in answering a specific research question. Genealogy professionals and academics espouse the “exhaustive search” as a part of the Genealogical Research Standard. Exhaustive search does […]

I have 393 pages of DNA matches at AncestryDNA. I will never get through all of them. I have no intention of getting through all of them. I have 475 matches at the 4th cousin level or closer. I’ll never get through all of those either–at least it doesn’t seem like it. I had 12 matches that […]

Anna Katherina Tammen was confirmed on 4 April 1909 at the Immanuel Lutheran Church south of Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois. This image was obtained from digital images of the church records at Ancestry.com made from microfilmed materials from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). There is a notation that her confirmation entry was copied in March […]

A researcher sent a copy of a death certificate that had the letter “P” stamped on it. This post is not about that letter “P.” It’s about why it is important to know what you are looking at and to create a citation that clearly indicates what you actually have. Just calling it a “death […]

Real estate is often about one thing: location…at least on the surface. Genealogical research is never about one source. The value in location was apparently true about the Riley Rampley farm in Hancock County, Illinois. At least that’s what the newspaper seems to be implying. The Warsaw Bulletin mentioned the partition sale of the sale of […]

The dates have been set for my 2018 group trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The dates of the trip are 30 May through 6 June. More details are on our announcement page.

Ancestry.com has again that their database of microfilmed materials from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) has been updated. The title of the database is now “U.S., Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Records, 1826-1945.” I’m not exactly certain how the database has changed (their blog is silent on the issue), but I suspect that there are […]

James Rampley had a letter waiting for him in the Warsaw, Illinois, post office in July of 1859. Whether these references are significant clues really depends upon the individual situation. James is reasonably well-documented in Hancock County–I know about when he arrived, when he bought and sold land, where he is in every census, where […]

I wanted something personal to give my daughter when she recently got married, so I came up with an idea that had a slight genealogy bent. She and the fiance received two individually wrapped bottles of pop and candy bars along with a note that I wrote about my paternal grandparents and how they split […]

We are excited to announce our first GedMatch DNA utility webinar. More details are on our announcement page.