Michael John Neill's Genealogy Website
Sound genealogical practice tells researchers to always look at the original. The list of reasons is long and littered with specific examples, but it boils down to one thing: ya ain’t never know what ya gonna find til you look at it This 1857 manifest of the Hansa, which arrived in New York City in May […]
The February 1938 death certificate for “Juergan Albers” indicated that he was buried in Nashville’s Woodlawn Cemetery on 26 February–just two days after he died. No mention is made to Nashville’s veteran’s cemetery where he has a military headstone. The 67-year old Spanish American War veteran was employed as a civil engineer for the Tennessee […]
This card for Juergen Albers appears in Ancestry.com’s “U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962“. The card is full of information about Jurgen, his military career, his burial, and–interestingly–his son. The card appears to have been written on by several people: a typist–John P. Sasser or probably a clerk a red pencil writer a pencil writer–apparently […]
This article originally appeared in the Ancestry Daily News on 11 May 2007. Last year we looked at Brick Walls from A to Z (reprinted at https://rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com/?p=6053). Unfortunately most of us still have brick walls. In recognition of the many attempts we make to break them down, this week we include an additional list. A is for […]
Now I’m up to fourteen circles at AncestryDNA, Two circles are new and the numbers for several circles have changed since I last reviewed them. The circles are still in beta and I’m assuming that the changes are due to either altered matching techniques or new testees (my initial circle post can be read on this […]
I use FindAGrave quite a bit in my research. It can be a great way to get pictures of tombstones that I otherwise would not be able to. Transcriptions of stones (when they are actual transcriptions and not borderline biographies) are great as well. The rest of it I can take or leave as sometimes […]
This is the first time I have ever found a relative’s photograph in an archival collection in any library. And a wonderful picture it is. It can be very easy to overlook special collections at regional, college, and university libraries in our ancestral search. Any archival collection has the potential to contain material on a […]
We’ve just released this recording–break your brick walls in 2018 Order download below or email me if you registered/pre-ordered and have not received download. Content: This presentation is geared at advanced beginning and intermediate level researchers. Our focus will be on getting past those impasses in your research. We will look at some common research […]
This article originally appeared in the Ancestry Daily News on 11 Jan 2006. It is copyrighted and requests for reprint/redistribution can be directed to me at mjnrootdig@gmail.com. This week we discuss the alphabet looking for clues to ancestral brick walls. The list is meant to get you thinking about your own genealogy problems. A […]
Updates are great, but some detail would be nice. The “Recently Added and Updated Collections” page on Ancestry.com indicated that the 1870 and 1860 census collection on their site had been “updated.” There’s only one question: how? The details may be buried on the Ancestry.com blog. As of 11:55 am central time on 9 January 2018, there was […]
