RootDig.com

Michael John Neill's genealogy website. Things that cross my path, general research suggestions, and whatever else ...with a little bit of attitude. I don't post "news" just to post it, never post a press release (edited or otherwise), don't feign excitement, and pretty much say what I think.

25 February 2008

The Baby was Thick and Fat--Clues in 1880s Letters to Nebraska

Regular blog readers know that I recently was given digital copies of letters written by my ancestor, Lina Ufkes. Juliana Smith over at Ance...

22 February 2008

Links for DuPage Conference

I'll be speaking at the DuPage County Illinois Genealogy Conference this Saturday and thought this would be a good place to post some li...

19 February 2008

More on Searching the Family Histories at BYU

Full text searches of all the family histories at the Family History Archive at Brigham Young University can also be conducted (in addition ...

BYU's Family History Archives

The Family History Archive at Brigham Young University has digitzed a number of family histories and placed them on their website. I found o...

18 February 2008

Butte, Montana Seminar 19 and 20 Sept. 2008

I will be lecturing at the Montana State Genealogical Society Conference in Butte, Montana, on 19 and 20 September 2008. Topics have not yet...

Bureau County, Illinois Genealogical Society Presentation 27 March 2008

I will be presenting the evening lecture "How to use Ancestry and a few Other Web Sites" for the Bureau County (Illinois) Genealog...

Why You Should Really Track Your Research

I have three people I cannot find in the 1870 census. One I think must have simply been overlooked. She should have been living in southwest...

Really Tracking Your Research

In the old days of genealogy, we were told to fill out "research logs" where we tracked the sources we used, what names or familie...

Lina Ufkes Letter from 20 Sept 1887

Thanks to all who submitted suggestions on the name mentioned at the bottom of this letter written by Lina Ufkes on 20 September 1887 with ...

15 February 2008

Phillip Troutfetter Acquitted

While it's not news anymore, it is news to me. I've been writing about and researching my relative Philip Troutfetter who was involv...

Vigo County, Indiana, Records disposal?

This just came across my email: VIGO COUNTY, Ind- A building in downtown Terre Haute is storing more than a century's worth of Vigo Coun...

1887-Shooting of Dirk (Frid?) in Enne Hoffman's barn?

This is part of a letter Lina Ufkes wrote to family in Nebraska in 1887, when she was living near Basco, in Hancock County, Illinois. Start...

Finding Noentje's Passenger List

Noentje Lena Grass had been one of those immigrant ancestors I could never find on a manifest. Virtually all of my Ostfriesen ancestors have...

14 February 2008

Google Pulls Up Ancestry.com Search

This was discovered totally by accident--which is how most things are discovered. A search on google just now for "bernard geissler...

Minnesota Death Index

In working on an article for the Ancestry.com blog, I needed to do some neglected followup work on a cousin who died in Minnesota. It had b...

12 February 2008

Family Search Labs adds some WW2 draft cards

Family Search Record Search has added some of the WW2 draft cards for the "Old Men's Draft" for those men born between 28 Apri...

11 February 2008

Genealogy A to Z

Ancestry has published my " Genealogy from A to Z " on their blog. Check it out and feel free to leave comments or additional sugg...

08 February 2008

Lina Ufkes Letter 1880s

An Ufkes cousin has sent me digital copies of two or three letters written by my great-great-grandmother, Noentjelina (Lina) Ufkes in the 1...

01 February 2008

Not quite genealogy...but a tombstone is involved

This picture was taken at a genealogy conference in Oshawa, Ontario, a few years ago. I could not resist taking a picture as it had a math r...

California Voter's Registrations at Ancestry.com

Ancestry recently released a database of California Voter's Registration lists 1900-1968 . This is a good thing. But, I'm not thrill...

Researching Your European Origins Online

This page (which I don't link to anywhere) gets quite a bit of traffic, so I thought I'd mention it here. Researching Your European ...

31 January 2008

Searching 1870 Census

We've posted two articles on our site on searching the 1870 census. The discussion is applicable to other years as well and focuses on a...

30 January 2008

Was Grandma Really Right?

Grandma Neill always told me she could remember being baptized as a child. I never argued with her about it, but I was pretty certain she wa...

Sourcing When Scanning

This is a lovely scan of an obituary from the Chicago, Illinois, area. Only one problem--when I scanned it, I included no source information...

29 January 2008

We Have Room

Spring is a busy time in "genealogyland" as we sometimes call it and we are still accepting participants in several of our upcomin...

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