Stitching Together the Bowen Illinois High School Class of 1929

This is a scan of the graduating class from Bowen, Illinois, High School in 1929 made from an original in the possession of a daughter of one of the graduates. My grandfather's sister is on the far left in the third row from the top. The scan was done using my  Flip-Pal  scanner.

1929 High School graduating class, Bowen, Illinois.

A few comments about the original:

• There was a "spot" over the third guy in the second row down. I didn't try to clean it.
• The gray trim was missing from part of the picture.
• The black rectangles are because I inadvertently cut off part of the "white background." I didn't have time to go back and rescan.

There were originally 5 scans that were stitched together to create this image. I scanned one part "twice" because I was not certain the original scan had taken. The software was not confused by the repetitive nature of my scanning.

I only know the names of the two ladies who are identified in the picture. Additional comments about the identities of anyone else are welcome.

1915 Victory School Picture, District Boundaries, Ancestry.com Problems, and Do You Know Any of These People?

School pictures. Kids hate them--genealogists love them.

The picture below was taken in 1915 near the Victory Schoolhouse in rural Stillwell, Illinois (that's a redundant phrase if ever there was one...)

It is a neat picture and I was desirous to learn a little more about the school and where it was located. It is one of the few pictures I have of my grandfather when he was a child.

Students at Victory School, District 227, Section 27, St.Albans Township, Hancock County,Illinois, 1915. Student with two dots above his head is Cecil Neill. Student with one dot above his head is Ralph Neill. Original copy in private personal collection. Digital image made by Michael John Neill, July 2013. Please email Michael at mjnrootdig@gmail.com if you are able to identify any individuals in this photo.

I knew I had seen maps that showed the school district boundaries and I went and reviewed all maps I had for the time period until I found the one with the schools shown.

District 227 was in the southern portion of St. Albans Township, bordering the county line with Adams County and entirely containing the village of Stillwell. It is believed by the author that Charles Neill (father of Cecil and Ralph, shown above) was renting property somewhere within the confines of District 227.

portion of St. Albans Township, Hancock County, Illinois showing school district 227. Digital image made from apparent 1908 "Plat Book of Hancock County, Illinois by Townships" available on Ancestry.com.

More about the map

The map shown above was obtained on Ancestry.com. As mentioned in earlier posts, this map is (at the time of this writing) classified as being from Iroquois County. It is not despite what the image below indicates.

The University of Illinois bibliography of county plat maps and ownership maps indicates that there are three publications of this type for Hancock County during 1900-1920. If Ancestry.com's year is right for the map they have--the 1904 book would be the one shown in the images above. But since Ancestry.com has the county wrong, one must be additionally skeptical about the year in which they claim the atlas was published. However, it seems reasonable that the map showing district 227 is from one of these three publications indicated in the bibliography of county atlases obtained from the University of Illinois website.

Map of Hancock County, Illinois [map].	1904	See State Library Catalog
20th century atlas of Hancock County, Illinois [cartographic material] : containing maps of villages, cities and townships of the county.	1904	F. 912.77343 M58T	Link to Catalog	Illinois History & Lincoln Coll. [non-circulating]
Plat book of Hancock County by townships. [cartographic material]	1908?	F. 912.77343 H36P	Link to Catalog	Illinois History & Lincoln Coll. [non-circulating]

But which one?

As usual, it pays to look at the entire image. In the bottom right hand corner of map for St. Albans Township from the atlas above is the apparent year and month in which the map was drawn "06/08."

Also above the map is the phrase "Plat Book of Hancock County by Townships." This is the same phrase used to describe the item in the bibliography from the University of Illinois website. Using the date and the title as evidence, it seems reasonable to conclude that the map is from the 1908 plat book. The only way to know for certain will be to view an actual copy of the book since the images at Ancestry.com are currently linked incorrectly.

My Favorite New Picture-My Knowledge of Locations-And Travelling Photographers

Of all the pictures I scanned of various members of the Hancock County, Illinois, Neill and Rampley families over the past few days, this one is my favorite:

The picture shows the three oldest children of Charlie and Fannie (Rampley) Neill--Ralph, Nellie, and Cecil (my grandfather). Aunt Nellie was born in April of 1910, so I'm guessing that this picture was taken in 1911. My aunt Nellie in later years apparently chided her mother for how she and her older brothers were dressed in this picture. The picture likely was taken by a travelling photographer who simply showed up at the farm. Obviously this is not a studio portrait and I seriously doubt the Neills had their own camera back in 1911.

Where was it taken?

I'm not certain where Charlie was farming at this point in time, but I almost indicated the location of the picture was somewhere in St. Albans Township, Hancock County. After all, that's where Charlie's dad farmed at this point in time and where Charlie would later purchase a small farm. But stating locations when you have no evidence is never advised--and based upon the 1910 census it's probably good that I didn't.

1910 Census

The 1910 census indicated the family was living in Walker Township, due west of St. Albans and where Fannie Rampley's parents had owned a farm until 1907. The farm the Neills were living on was rented and other than Walker Township, no more precise location is known.

I'm probably safe in saying that the picture was taken in St. Albans or Walker Township.

Note that Nellie is "unnamed" in 1910. The census was taken on 11 May 1910 with questions to be answered as of 15 April. Charlie's brother Edward is living with the family listed as "Brother and partner."

There is always a little bit of story in every picture.

My Partially Identified Picture from West Point, Illinois

[updated on 27 July 2013 with names--see bottom of post]

Neill Sibling Portrait--taken before 1948. Charles T. Neill on far left. Sarah (Neill) Rampley in center. Others are siblings of Charlie and Sarah. Probably taken at park in West Point, Hancock County, Illinois.

I confess.I have pictures that are unidentified. This is one of them and one that I hope to figure out.

I've been playing with my  Flip-Pal and this is one of the photographs that I had in my office at work. I know I asked my great aunt, Nellie (Neill) Shanks to identify the people for me in this picture before she passed away in 2001. I'm hoping that somewhere I have another copy of this picture that contains the names because the copy I used to make this scan does not.

All I can remember specifically is that the man on far left is Charles (Charlie) Neill, my great-grandfather and that's because after I was told who he was I remember thinking that "I can see my dad (Charlie's grandson) in his face." The woman in the middle was Aunt Sarah. The only other detail I can remember from Aunt Nellie is that she was surprised that her Dad (Charlie) was seated to the man on his left as they didn't get along at all.

We mentioned this on Genealogy Tip of the Day, but it bears repeating here--if you have unidentified pictures and you can find out who those people are, do it and do it soon.

The only reason I know the picture was taken before 1948 is that Charlie Neill died in February of 1948 and this picture obviously was not taken in January or February of 1948 in Illinois.

[update 27 July 2013--My dad's first cousin had a copy of this same picture that was owned by a daughter of Charlie Neill. On the back of her copy was written: "Dad, Unc. Will, Aunt Sarah, Unc. Sam, Unc. Ed." This would mean that the people shown in the picture, from left to right, are Charles Neill, William Neill, Sarah (Neill) Rampley, Samuel Neill, and Edward Neill. All were children of Samuel and Annie (Murphy) Neill.]

A Sister for Samuel and Joseph Neill?

I have been stuck on my Neills for years. A thirty-second lookup a few days ago lead to the likely discovery of one sister of my Irish immigrant forebear, Samuel Neill. The family and the discovery are summarized here in a way that makes sense--instead of how I researched it. I'm hoping that a descendant of the likely sister makes their way across this post and contacts me.

I am lucky that one of my Irish immigrant relatives was born in Ireland in the early 1860s--my ancestor's niece was born a few years before the family left Ireland, so our story will begin with Sarah's baptismal entry in a church in Derramore, Ireland.

Sarah Ann Neil was born on 24 October 1862 and baptized on 7 December 1862 at the Derramore Presbyterian Church in County Derry Ireland. Her parents were Joseph Neil and Ann Bryce. The family was "of Derrybeg" at the time of her baptism. A transcription of this record was obtained on RootsIreland at http://www.rootsireland.ie.

On 16 January 1862 at the Derrymore Presbyterian Church, Joseph Neil and Ann Bryce were married by Wm. [Jamison?], with witnesses of Wm. Mc Intosh and John Archibald. Joseph was of full age and was a bachelor who lived in [Taques] Hill in the parish of Drumachose. Joseph was a servant, and was the son of John Neil who was a laborer. Ann was a spinster of full age and was a servant living in White [??] in the parish of Drumachose. Her father was James Bryce, a laborer. This information was taken from the "Quarterly returns of Marriages 1862 Ireland Vol. 9," Family History Library microfilm roll 0101440, page 375.

This Sarah, her parents, and her uncle Samuel Neill, Joseph's brother, immigrated to New Brunswick, Canada in the 1860s and finally settled in St. Albans Township, Hancock County, Illinois. As mentioned in another page on this site, the Neills indicated they were from Newtown Limavady at the time they immigrated. Information on Sarah and her parents in Ireland is consistent with information on Sarah and her parents in Hancock County, Illinois.

Off to Google

A Google search for the Derramore Presbyterian Church located a website for the page, which I had seen before. What was not there previously was a transcription of early (1825-1899) baptisms from the church. I located the reference to Sarah Ann Neil, but I also noted that there were two births to a Neil mother--both with a residence of Derrybeg:

• Maria, baptized on 26 September 1869
• Sarah, baptized on 18 June 1872

Both children's entries indicated their parents were John Scott and Rosanna Neil of Derrybeg. There were only twenty-five entries with Derrybeg as a residence between 1825 and 1899--and only three of those indicated a parent with a last name of Neil.

I went back to the http://www.rootsireland.ie. website and paid for one more marriage record. This one was from the Christ Church in the Drumachose Parish (Church of Ireland). There on 1 August 1850, John Scott and Rose Ann Neil, both of Ruskey, were married. John Scott was the son of Robert Scott, laborer, and Rose Anne Neil was the daughter of John Neil, laborer.

The case is pretty solid. The chance there were two different John Neils with children who were contemporaries in the Derrybeg area seems fairly slim.

Next on the agenda..looking for John and Roseanna (Neil) Scott on the FamilySearch site.

My Irish Origins

By ancestry, I am one-eighth Irish. It is the part of my ancestry about which I know the least. Maybe this blog post will "catch" someone who is also working on this family. This is all I have on the Irish origins of my Neill line.

The Irish Connection

My earliest NEILL ancestor is a John NEILL who was born ca. 1810 in Ireland and most likely lived in or around Newtown Limavady and environs in County Derry.  I only know of two of John's children with an unknown wife. Those two children are sons Joseph and Samuel. Samuel was my great-great-grandfather.  Family tradition has it that there were other siblings, but I have no information on those individuals. The Neills settled near West Point, Hancock County, Illinois, in the 1870s near where Joseph's wife already had family. 

My earliest information on the Neill family comes from two sources:

From  the "Quarterly returns of Marriages 1862 Ireland  Vol.  9," LDS microfilm roll 0101440, page 375.

What  follows is an abstract. My attempts to interpret  illegible handwriting are in brackets.

On  16 January 1862 at the Derrymore Presbyterian Church,  Joseph NEIL[sic] and Ann BRYCE[sic] were married by Wm. [JAMISON?], with witnesses  of  Wm. MC INTOSH and John ARCHIBALD.  Joseph  was  of full  age  and was a bachelor who lived in [Taques] Hill  in  the parish  of Drumachose.  Joseph was a servant, and was the son  of John NEIL[sic] who was a laborer.  Ann was a spinster of full age and  was  a servant living in White [??] in the parish of  Drumachose.  Her father was James BRYCE, a laborer. 

Irish Passenger Lists 1847-1871: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on Ships of the J. & J. COOKE Line and the McCORKELL  Line,  Brian MITCHELL,  Genealogical  Publishing  Co., Balto., MD.  1988.

p.  158    listing of passengers who sailed to St. John  in  1864 mentions  Samuel NEILL (aged 22 from Limavady) and the family  of Joseph  NEILL (aged 26), Ann NEILL (aged 30) and Sarah Ann  NEILL (aged 1).  They were also from Limavady as well. 

Samuel Neill and Annie Murphy obtained a marriage bond in New Brunswick in 1865.

I'd like to know more about the Neills in Ireland, but so far my attempts at locating additional information "across the pond" has not been successful. Both Joseph and Samuel moved to Hancock County, Illinois, where they are living in 1870 and where they live until their deaths in the early 1900s. Exhaustive searches in Hancock County, Illinois, have located no additional information on the Irish origins of the family--particularly Annie Murphy, Samuel's wife. 

My connection

Samuel Neill died on his farm near West Point, Hancock County, Illinois, in 1912. His son Charles Thomas Neill (1875-1948--both in St. Albans Township, Hancock County, Illinois) is my great-grandfather. Charles' son Cecil Neill (1903 near Stillwell, Hancock County, Illinois-1968 Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa) is my grandfather.

My email is mjnrootdig@gmail.com

Marriage Bond from New Brunswick

The number of leads on which I have not followed up just amazes me sometimes. This image is from a 1865 marriage bond in St. John, New Brunswick for my great-great-grandparents, Samuel and Annie Murphy Neill.

I made a digital copy of it a few years ago on an earlier trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake. While reviewing my files today I realized I never followed up on the record and located the actual church records. I am working on those and will post an update as soon as I have one. The bond was dated 8 Nov 1865 and the couple were married the next day. Both were living in Simonds Parish.

Typographical Errors When Searching OCR Databases

It almost hurts my finger to spell my last name the way it is on this headline from 1912: Niell.

But it makes a point about searching on sites that perform OCR searches and do not allow for soundex based searches. The headline here comes from The Quincy Daily Journal on 20 March 1912. The obituary spells the last name as "Niell" consistently throughout the obituary. A soundex search would have caught this spelling error, but the site does not support soundex based searches. However the site does support a number of other options, some of which are shown in an additional image on this post.

These papers from Quincy, Illinois, are digitized and available at no charge through the website of the Quincy Public Library at http://archive.quincylibrary.org/.

How did I find it? I didn't search for "Niell" (although now I will). My search was actually conducted for "Rampley" another of my surnames. One of Samuel's daughters married a Rampley and that name appeared in the obituary. This makes the point that it is always an excellent idea to search for collateral names. Three of Samuel's children married Rampleys, including his son Charles (Charlie).

Using the Census to Find my Irish Chains

Using the Census to Find my Irish Chains --from Ancestry's Website--29 Sept 2006

by Michael John Neill

Families rarely migrate in complete isolation. The ties of family and
friends are not always obvious to the researcher several lifetimes
later. The difficulty with most families lies in finding those
connections that led to migration. This week we see how the databases
at Ancestry, along with some detective work and analysis, can allow
us to begin discerning those connections.

A Little Background

Brothers Samuel and Joseph Neill were both born in County Derry,
Ireland, in the 1830s. They immigrated to New Brunswick, Canada, in
1864--Joseph, with his wife Anne Bryce (Brice), and Samuel, as a
single man.

Samuel married Anne Murphy in St. John in 1865 shortly after his
arrival and the marriage record is the earliest documented existence
I have of Samuel's wife, Anne. All later extant records on Anne
Murphy Neill only indicate that she was an Irish native.

In the late 1860s, both Neill families left Canada and moved to West
Point, Hancock County, Illinois. West Point was not an urban area
where jobs were plentiful. It was hoped that a better understanding
of the family's migration might lead to information on the origins of
Anne Murphy Neill.

Census Review

I began with a careful review of the 1870 through 1910 census entries
for both Samuel and Joseph Neill. My intention in reviewing entries
was to:

• determine if I had overlooked any clues in the enumerations,
• determine a timeline for migration from Canada to the United
  States,
• determine if there were neighbors who were also Irish immigrants
  (by reading at least three pages before and after the located
  entries)
  

My review of the census entries indicated the Neills likely came to
Illinois around 1867. There were a few other Irish families living
nearby, but they did not settle in a neighborhood that was heavily
Irish. These other families will be researched to determine if their
Irish origins are geographically close to the Neills or if these
families spent time in New Brunswick before settling in Illinois.

Searching the Census Index in Other Ways

The census indexes at Ancestry offer additional
search options that should be explored. Instead of searching for
names, I could search for other natives of Ireland living in the same
area as the Neill family. I could perform searches for individuals
with a birthplace in Ireland born within five years of 1835 in an
attempt to locate other individuals roughly the same as Samuel and
Joseph. All census indexes at Ancestry for censuses 1850 and later
provide this option. A search of the 1910 census could also include a
year of immigration in an attempt to find other Irish immigrants who
immigrated in the same time frame as Joseph and Samuel. The database
interface affords me search possibilities that never existed several
years ago unless I read the census one page at a time.

A Warning

There is one potential pitfall to such searches. A search of the 1910
census for natives of Ireland living in Hancock County, Illinois, who
immigrated in the 1860s (performed by searching for an immigration
year of 1865 plus or minus five years) does not locate Samuel Neill
even though he is enumerated in the 1910 Hancock County census. The
reason is simple: the year of immigration on Samuel's entry is left
blank.

Using the Ancestry search page to locate immigrants from the same
country as your ancestor who came over around the same time as your
forebear is an excellent way to generate additional research leads.
However, one must do it with the following things in mind:

• The year of immigration could be incorrect in the census entry,
  either for your ancestor or for the others who might have immigrated
  with him.
• The year of immigration could be omitted completely for some
  immigrants.
• Places of birth could be completely incorrect or vary slightly
  from what you think is correct, Prussia or Hanover for Germany, etc.
  

Searches of databases are frequently made under the assumption that
our ancestors gave the correct answers, that those answers were
written legibly and that the reading was transcribed correctly. This
assumption only causes a problem when the researcher fails to
acknowledge it.

Before madly entering search terms, think about what you are trying
to locate and the best way to go about finding it. Then keep a record
of the different ways in which you have searched so that searches are
not repeated and new searches can be developed if necessary. In the
case of Samuel Neill, the best search was simply to look for other
Irish natives born in the same decade who were living in the same
county. This did not result in an unmanageable number of hits for any
census year. Samuel's residence near the county line also warranted
performing a search in the neighboring county. Geography must always
be kept in mind.

A Connection

Similar searches were conducted in the 1870 and 1880 census in the
county where Samuel lived. The number of entries in both cases was
small enough that all the names could be manually scanned. Particular
attention was paid to any names in townships that neighbored the
township where Samuel lived from ca. 1868 until 1912. There were a
handful of other Irish immigrants living relatively close to Samuel.
However, the entry for one Irish native stood out: William Brice.

The connection was easily made. Samuel's brother's wife was Anne
Brice. William Brice and family lived in the township due east of the
Neills, most likely within five or six miles. Of course, it might
easily have been coincidence that a William and Anne Brice were
somewhat near neighbors of someone with whom they shared a last name
and a country of birth. One could not immediately conclude they were
related to Joseph's wife Anne Brice Neill. However, the entry was
worth following in other census years.

Back to the Census

Searches easily located William and Anne Brice in the following
census records:

• 1860 Ursa Township, Adams County, Illinois
  
• 1870 Chili Township, Hancock County, Illinois
  
• 1880 Butler County, Kansas
  
• 1900 Caldwell County, Missouri

How did I know it was them? I performed Soundex-based searches of the
Ancestry census database for a William Brice, born in Ireland within
five years of 1838. These were the only entries that were relatively
consistent with the family structure of William Brice in 1870 when he
was a neighbor to the Neill families. Further research on William
Brice needs to be conducted in order to determine if he is related to
Anne Brice Neill. If this William is related to Anne Brice Neill, it
looks like he was what brought the Neills to west-central Illinois.
(Ursa Township, Adams County, Illinois, is relatively close to West
Point, where the Neills settled.) Unfortunately at this juncture,
direct connections to Anne Murphy Neill have not been discovered.

Things Worth Remembering

• Census records can provide a tentative outline of a family that
  should be documented with additional records.
  
  
• Searches of census records without using names, focusing on
  places of birth, ages, etc., may result in the location of unknown
  extended family members.
  


• Tracking experimental search techniques is important so that the
  same searches are not conducted repeatedly.
  

In an upcoming article, we'll see how the migration trail and
extended family discovered thus far are only the beginning.

Rev. James Bennett--St. John, New Brunswick

I have a copy of it, but it's buried in my filing cabinet and admittedly never been computerized--the transcription of the marriage announcement of Samuel Neill and Anne Murphy


From the St. John Globe--17 November 1865, which indicates that Samuel Neill and Miss Anne Murphy were married on 9 November 1865 by the Rev. James Bennett and that they were both of Simonds Parish (St. John).

I found this on the New Brunswick Provincial Archives website. This database may have been on there a while, but I never noticed it until just right now. Pays to go back and look.

Now to find out if there are any church records.

Clipping Clues

"The bride, a pretty blonde, looked beautiful in her wedding costume of blue crepe with silver accessories." The 1936 description of my grandmother gives me an image I did not already have.

The Mendon [Illinois] Dispatch of 2 January 1936 contains a brief mention of my grandparents' 17 December 1935 wedding. Other than Grandma's attire, the clipping did not contain any new clues or leads. This week we will see how the information fits with other known facts...(continue reading the article posted on our site)

Just about any newspaper clipping can contain hidden clues---you just have to look. Of course this short notice has four spelling errors in it (Trautvetter twice, Keithsburg, and the wrong their). But one must remember, the editor did not have spellcheck in 1936.

Neill

My earliest NEILL ancestor is a John NEILL who was born ca. 1810 in Ireland and most likely lived in or around Newtown Limavady and environs in County Derry. John supposedly had more than twelve children. I only know of two, Joseph and Samuel. Samuel was my great-great-grandfather. Some information I have already obtained follows.

Additions, corrections, and comments are welcome. I'd love to hear from relatives still in Ireland. These areas are the only ones where I have information on the NEILL family. Please do not email me about NEILLs in Virginia in 1750--I don't have the information.

From the "Quarterly returns of Marriages 1862 Ireland Vol. 9," LDS microfilm roll 0101440, page 375.

What follows is an abstract. My attempts to interpret illegible handwriting are in brackets.

On 16 January 1862 at the Derrymore Presbyterian Church, Joseph NEIL[sic] and Ann BRYCE[sic] were married by Wm. [JAMISON?], with witnesses of Wm. MC INTOSH and John ARCHIBALD. Joseph was of full age and was a bachelor who lived in [Taques] Hill in the parish of Drumachose. Joseph was a servant, and was the son of John NEIL[sic] who was a laborer. Ann was a spinster of full age and was a servant living in White [??] in the parish of Drumachose. Her father was James BRYCE, a laborer.

Irish Passenger Lists 1847-1871: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on Ships of the J. & J. COOKE Line and the McCORKELL Line, Brian MITCHELL, Genealogical Publishing Co., Balto., MD. 1988.

p. 158 listing of passengers who sailed to St. John in 1864 mentions Samuel NEILL (aged 22 from Limavady) and the family of Joseph NEILL (aged 26), Ann NEILL (aged 30) and Sarah Ann NEILL (aged 1). They were also from Limavady as well.

Joseph and Samuel migrated to Hancock County, Illinois, settling near West Point. What brought them there is a story well post later to this blog.