Michael John Neill's Genealogy Website
I think I have found Bernard Dirks in the 1865 Illinois State Census. “Think” is the operative word. The handwriting looks like “Ben Henricks” and could easily be Ben Hinrichs or a similar name. However, Bernard Dirks is in Honey Creek Township in 1860 and in 1870. While it’s possible he moved from Honey Creek […]
There are times when it is worth considering how much time a specific task is worth and whether it is simply time to research elsewhere. That’s where I am with the location of Bernard Dirks in the 1855 Illinois State Census. What’s “known” about Bernard around the time period of 1855 census: Bernard Dirks (or […]
If I had a list of phrases I expect to rarely hear, “friendly partition suit” would certainly be one of those phrases. Partition suits generally result from real estate that heirs cannot decide how to “partition” fairly after the death of the owner. Death and money tend to not bring out the best in people. […]
Fortunately when I was at the Gray Cemetery in Coatsburg, Adams County, Illinois, I took a lot of pictures. My real intent was to photograph the gravestone of Bernard and Heipke (Mueller) Dirks who lived near Coatsburg, Adams County, Illinois, until their deaths in 1912 and 1924. The June day was hot and the sun […]
The hints at Ancestry.com should be used as hints and not as facts. Matching names do not mean matching people. Sometimes it is relatively easy to see that a “match” is not really a “match.” The image in this post is one that Ancestry.com suggests for my Bernard Dirks. My Bernard Dirks is in the United States […]
[re-posted with some additions from 22 April 2014 as we migrate old content to the new blog] I’ve searched for my mother’s immigrant ancestors in passenger manifests for over thirty years. All of her families immigrated to the United States from Ostfriesland, Germany between the 1850s and 1883. Most of them have been found on […]
