You’ve found a recently published book that contains a lovely five page write up on your family. Here’s some ways to responsibly use it: Make a copy for yourself for your own personal use. This does not mean posting images of these pages to your Ancestry.com tree (public or private), your blog, website, or Facebook page. Make certain those personal pages […]

I’ve decided to focus more on genealogy research, writing, and blogging. To that end, I’m closing out my webinar sales effective 6 April. Downloads are immediate, items can be viewed multiple times once they’ve been downloaded, and replacements can be sent if necessary.  Coupon code 50PERCENT will reduce your order charge by 50% at checkout. […]

Regular readers know I have families with whom I have multiple relationships. Another one of my triple cousins has completed a DNA test at AncestryDNA. Fortunately he passed the test and fortunately this is one of my “multiple-relationship” families where no one else has tested. We are related in the following ways: Samuel and Annie […]

I’ve written about Volke’s court case against her father before. I was hoping to find details of this case in the Adams County, Illinois, court records. It was not to be. Volke Sartorius sued her father’s estate in 1892 for money her former beau gave to her father, Ulfert Behrens, to pay for the care […]

I’ve been thinking about what “reasonably close” means in terms of genealogical research. I have been working on a relative of my wife’s in central Missouri: William Rhodus, born around 1830 in Kentucky. He has been located in 1870, 1880, and 1900 census records. I think I have him in the 1860 census as well […]

This image comes from the 1930 Western Illinois University Sequel, page 132. This is the volleyball team. In the back, 4th from the left is “M. Habben.” I’m reasonably certain it’s Margaret (Habben) Hutchison (1910 Prairie Township, Hancock County, Illinois–1990 Quincy, Adams County, Illinois). Margaret (actually Anna Margaret) was a daughter of Mimke and Tjode […]

I noticed something in a 1907 partition suit petition for Hancock County, Illinois. Court was not being held at the courthouse–it was held at the Opera House in Carthage. I wondered about this, then I remembered that the October 1907 term of court was being held when the current courthouse was being constructed on the […]