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AncestryDNA has increased my “circles” to 19. The new one is for Clark Sargent. A few things to remember about how one gets in the circle: you have an online tree at AncestryDNA that is tied to your DNA results you are a match to at least one other person in the circle you and the other […]

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I’ve tried to be very careful in my writing about Benjamin Butler (born about 1820, probably in New York) to put the word “children” in quotes when referring to individuals living with him who were of an age to have been his children. It would probably be best to refer to these individuals as members […]

[originally posted to our old blog in 2015] George Trautvetter, his wife and children immigrated to the United States in July of 1853. The family apparently made a relatively direct route to Hancock County, Illinois, where George appears to have paid cash for a farm in the northern part of that county’s Rocky Run Township. […]

Does this qualify as evidence that Anna Goldenstein was living in Palmyra, Missouri, in 1914? After all, it did appear in the newspaper and was (supposedly) taken from court records. Does that alone make it evidence that Anna Goldenstein was actually living in Palmyra in 1914? Should I add that as a residence for her […]

John C. Rampley died in Hancock County, Illinois, in 1907. He owed real estate, had a widow, no children, and left no will. That’s a problem for his wife and a research opportunity for the genealogist. John’s widow, Anne E. D. Rampley, had to file a partition suit against her in-laws in a Hancock Count […]

Ancestry.com recently indicated that they had updated their database which used to be titled “U.S., Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [ELCA] Church Records, 1826-1945”. It now appears to be titled  “U.S., Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [ELCA] Church Records, 1826-1969.” While researchers are always appreciative of additional records being added to a database, it’s frustrating when there is […]

What is the difference between indirect evidence and direct evidence? One good example is a voter’s list. Since a person has to be a citizen to vote, your ancestor’s name appearing on a voter’s list is indirect evidence that your foreign-born ancestor naturalized (assuming that the guy on the voter’s list really is your ancestor and not another […]

When Barbara Haase made out her last will and testament in 1902 in Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois, she only made three marks as her signature on the document. She would have been in her seventies at the time and the marks look slightly labored. Barbara would be dead less than a year later when her […]