Michael John Neill's Genealogy Website
Effective use of any database requires an understanding of the workings of that database. It also requires the user to understand that no database is perfect, every database (and “helpful features”) has limitations, and that trial and error is necessary to make the most effective use of that database. Ancestry.com‘s drop-down list of locations when […]
There are a myriad of genealogy lessons and reminders in this photograph. My discussion may be somewhat rambling…so bear with me. There were several documents my daughter signed as one of the witnesses after her sister was married. While other documents may have sentimental value (which I’m not faulting), this is the one that really […]
I could not resist taking a picture of my daughter signing her sister’s marriage license as a witness to their wedding. Really the maid (or matron) of honor and the best man do not need to be the two individuals who sign the document as a witness. Anyone who actually witnessed the wedding (and has no […]
While DNA analysis for genealogy is based on science, probability, and statistics; there is something of an art to that analysis. Art in this case is not creative in the sense of creating things that do not exist, but art in the sense of efficiently being able to discern how a person is related or […]
We don’t always know which of our assumptions are false until we see something that outright contradicts them. Even then we might not realize that we are staring at something that flies in the face of something we believed without any knowledge, first hand or otherwise. I always just figured my landowning ancestors always went […]
The 1918 Prairie Farmer’s “Reliable Directory of Farmers and Breeders: Hancock County, Illinois,” which I recently purchased on on Ebay has arrived. I searched it for numerous family members. Most were found, but there were a few exceptions. Instead of discussing them all, we’ll just look at my direct line ancestors who should have been in the directory: Charlie […]
When people are only able to remember part of the story it can be difficult to locate additional information. That’s how it was with Grandma’s memory of the people “who took her mother in.” All Grandma could tell me was that her mother, Ida (Sargent) Trautvetter Miller (1874-1939) was “raised by the Mulches.” There was […]
Ida May Sargent was born in 1874 the daughter of William Ira and Florence Ellen (Butler) Sargent. She married George Trautvetter in 1898 in Hancock County, Illinois, and later married William Miller after George died. She died in 1939 in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois. Some things I’ve learned about research from Ida: you may never […]
