<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Need to unsubscribe? <a href="https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/tip-of-the-day_genealogytipoftheday.com" target="_blank">Do so here</a>. </font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">20 January 2026</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Genealogy Update</font></div></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">** Air People</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">** Farmers Without Their Own Land Webinar</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">** Full Text Searching Webinar</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">** Common Names Webinar</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">---------------------</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Air People</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">---------------------</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><br></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">It is difficult when one knows little about a couple other than their names. Sometimes it feels like they literally appeared out of thin air. Depending upon how much one knows about the couple\u2019s children, it can seem as if they never really existed at all.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">It can be equally frustrating when locating something on a couple is not as easy as typing names into a search box. No one else has probably researched them either so they don\u2019t appear in other databases of compiled record. Or these people are \u201cloose ends\u201d in someone else\u2019s genealogy and that person has failed to find them and also feels like these people simply evaporated.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">That\u2019s the problem with Frederick and Maria Barbara [\u2014] Siefert.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">What I know is minimal:</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">They had a daughter named Barbara who was born abound 1825 in Germany, possibly in or near Darmstadt. That daughter first appears on an actual record when she married Peter Bieger in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1849. Other children are unknown. Whether the Sieferts immigrated or remained in Germany is also unknown. The only reference to their names is on an 1880-era marriage license for daughter Barbara.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Barbara and her family with Peter Bieger have been exhaustively researched in Hancock County, Illinois, where they settled in November of 1850. That\u2019s when Peter Bieger purchased a lot and house in Warsaw, Illinois. Exactly what or who brought the Biegers to Warsaw from Cincinnati is unknown. Extensive research was conducted because Peter origins are just as elusive as those of his wife.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">It\u2019s really hard to pinpoint when the Sieferts were born\u2013Maria Barbara was most likely between the age of approximately sixteen and her early forties when Barbara was born. Barbara\u2019s father Frederick could have easily been older than that. Not knowing where Barbara fits into the list of her parents\u2019 children broadens my time frame for them.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Brainstorming here is not a bad idea and I\u2019m going to stick to that word. I won\u2019t use the words \u201chypothesis\u201d or \u201ctheory\u201d as those concepts (at least in my lexicon) require a few more details on which they can be hinged. Brainstorming frees me from most details. I should also be clear to anyone with whom I communicate my brainstormed ideas that they are 90% conjecture, 9% evidence-based, and 1% dreaming.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">My brainstorm should be realistic. Either Barbara immigrated with her parents, immigrated with another family member, or immigrated to where she had a family connection. While there are other more unusual situations, those three possibilities cover the most likely scenarios. I need to start with realism.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">All of these brainstorms suggest that I perform more research in Cincinnati, where she married in 1849. While I should track Barbara after 1849, it\u2019s always possible that actions she undertook after that time were based upon where her husband had relatives. Relatives of Peter Bieger (her first husband) could have brought her to Illinois. After his death, relatives of her later husband Conrad Haase could have caused been the connection for a move or a migration. And the longer she lived in Illinois, the longer she is to form new ties and associations with people who have no connection to her parents at all. Associate research is great, but one needs to be aware of the fact that associates can be added to a person\u2019s circle at any point in their life and those associates added later in life may have no bearing on the early history of the person we are researching.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">That does not mean that we should not research associates acquired later in a person\u2019s life. We should. It is just that what they tell us about the person of interest may not stretch as far back into their life as we might like.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(37,41,42);text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">As for Frederick and Maria Barbara, my plan of attack is two-fold:</font></p><ul style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:auto 1.5em 1em;padding:0px;outline:0px;text-align:initial;max-width:100%;color:rgb(23,37,42)"><li style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;outline:0px;text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">research a Philip Pipher who is enumerated with Barbara and her family in their 1860 census enumeration in Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois.</font></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;outline:0px;text-align:initial;max-width:100%"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">review my materials on Barbara to determine if there are any references to individuals that have not been followed.</font></li></ul><div><font color="#17252a" face="georgia, serif" size="4">------------------------------------</font></div><div><font color="#17252a" face="georgia, serif" size="4">Farmers Without Their Own Land</font></div><div><font color="#17252a" face="georgia, serif" size="4">------------------------------------</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(70,112,127)"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Those who worked in American agriculture but did not own their own farm are more difficult to research than those who owned real estate. In this presentation, we focus on farmers and farm families, but concentrate on those who did not own farms of their own.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(70,112,127)"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Tenant farmers and farm laborers comprise a significant proportion of those involved in American agriculture. The challenge is that they tended to leave fewer records than did landowning farmers. In this presentation we will look at specific challenges involving these families and what records, sources, and methods should be utilized in order to research them as completely and effectively as possible. While there are never any guarantees in genealogy research, there are ways that we can maximize the chance we find as much about our non-landowning farm ancestors as possible.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(70,112,127)"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">The presentation will be given with the premise that the person being researched did not own any real estate.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(70,112,127)"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Concepts covered include:</font></p><ul style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:auto 1.5em 1em;padding:0px;outline:0px;color:rgb(70,112,127)"><li style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;outline:0px"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Determining the residence as precisely as possible.</font></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;outline:0px"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Documenting others with whom the ancestor interacted.</font></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;outline:0px"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Documenting moves and migrations where possible.</font></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;outline:0px"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Determining if the same person has been located.</font></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;outline:0px"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Strategies to locate as many references to the ancestral name as possible.</font></li></ul><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(70,112,127)"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">This is not a live presentation although those who purchase the presentation before its release are encouraged to submit questions for possible inclusion in the presentation. This presentation focuses on research in the United States.</font></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 16px;padding:0px;outline:0px;line-height:1.6;color:rgb(70,112,127)"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Purchase includes video of presentation and handout. I<a href="https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=247703&method_id=270569" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;outline:0px;text-decoration-line:none;line-height:1.5;color:rgb(3,169,244)" target="_blank">mmediate download for $24</a>.</font></p></div><div><div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix"><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><p>-----------------------------</p><p>January 2026 Full-Text Search at FamilySearch Webinar</p><p>Intro price ENDING--regularly $37.50--save $30</p><p>-----------------------------</p><div><p>We\u2019re excited to offer this revised presentation on the full-text searching at <em>FamilySearch</em>--reflecting changes made to the site since this was recorded in August 2025. We\u2019ve redesigned our presentation as this functionality continues to change. And\u2026we have an extensive handout complete with forms to help you find more people. </p><p>If you have purchased an earlier version of this presentation--email me at <a href="mailto:mjnrootdig@gmail.com" target="_blank">mjnrootdig@gmail.com</a> for the code to order this revision for $10.</p><h2>Fully Utilizing Full-Text Search: Revised for January 2026</h2><p>Your purchase includes:</p><ul><li style="margin-left:15px"><strong>A 90 minute (or more presentation)</strong> you can view as often as you want.</li><li style="margin-left:15px"><strong>Detailed handout</strong> with charts and forms to help organize your searches. Charts and forms sent as separate files you can edit and customize and not as a locked PDF you have to re-create yourself as a new document.</li></ul><p>We\u2019ll be including and discussing:</p><p><strong>Determining what is in Full-Text Search\u2014</strong>what you can access at home and what you will have to be in a FamilySearch facility or affiliate to access.</p><p><strong>Seeing How AI Transcriptions are different</strong>\u2014they aren\u2019t like the transcriptions made by humans. That can change your approach.</p><p><strong>Remembering that Full-Text means every word</strong>\u2014approaches need to differ as we aren\u2019t looking up a name in an index any more.</p><p><strong>Asking Who</strong> is in the record? We aren\u2019t just searching for the main person like we did with traditional indexes. We\u2019ll discuss how to determine who could be mentioned in a record.</p><p><strong>Determining How to search?</strong> There are a variety of ways to search and filter results. We\u2019ll see how each one works to help determine the best strategy.</p><p><strong>Creating search strategies</strong>\u2014how full-text search changes your approach and why just dumping terms in search boxes is not always effective.</p><p><strong>Determining what you found</strong> The interface does not always make this clear. We will show you how to get beyond the confusion and help you get enough detail for a citation.</p><p><strong>Creating effective problem-solving approaches</strong>\u2014what to do when you cannot find something you want.</p><p><strong>Demonstrating practical examples</strong>\u2014completely new people and families from our previous presentations.</p><p><a href="https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=246272&method_id=268990" target="_blank">Available for immediate download for $30</a>. Complete handout included and additional forms. </p><p>-------------------</p><p>Common Names When Using Full-Text Search?</p><p>-------------------</p><p>Having difficulties with common names when using the full-text search at FamilySearch? Take a look at our presentation on this very topic. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:15.6933px">Common Name webinar:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:15.6933px"><a href="https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2025/11/04/common-names-at-familysearch-full-text-webinar/" target="_blank">https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2025/11/04/common-names-at-familysearch-full-text-webinar/</a></p><br></div></font></div></span></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">---------------</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Manage Your Subscription</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">---------------</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Unsubscribe and other options can be accessed here:</font></div><div><a href="https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/tip-of-the-day_genealogytipoftheday.com" target="_blank"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/tip-of-the-day_genealogytipoftheday.com</font></a></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Email me at <a href="mailto:mjnrootdig@gmail.com" target="_blank">mjnrootdig@gmail.com</a> with unsubscription issues</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Genealogy Tip of the Day, PO Box 17, Henderson, IL 61439</font></div></div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><font color="#888888"><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">--</span></font> ------------------------------------<br>Michael John Neill<br>Genealogy Tip of the Day</font></div><div><a href="http://www.genealogytipoftheday.com/" target="_blank"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">http://www.genealogytipoftheday.com</font></a></div></div></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">----------------</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">Genealogy Tip of the Day Books on Kindle Unlimited</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">---------------</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">You can read "<a href="https://amzn.to/4jNtCya" target="_blank">Genealogy Tip of the Day</a>" and "<a href="https://amzn.to/4qSTsD5" target="_blank">More Genealogy Tip of the Day</a>" on your kindle--free if you have Kindle Unlimited. </font></div><font color="#888888" face="georgia, serif" size="4"><div><br></div></font></div><div></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><br></font></div></div></div><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><br></font></div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4"><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br></font><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">------------------------------------<br>Michael John Neill<br>Genealogy Tip of the Day</font></div><div><a href="http://www.genealogytipoftheday.com" target="_blank"><font face="georgia, serif" size="4">http://www.genealogytipoftheday.com</font></a></div></div></div></div>
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