[Genealogy] How Precise, Consulations, Full-Text Search, Trips

Michael John Neill mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Sun Dec 28 11:22:22 CST 2025 

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28 December 2025

**How Precise?
**Consultations
**Full Text Search Webinar
**Research Trips


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How Precise?
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I am thinking out loud here.

I’m typing up my ahnentafel chart for presentation on my website. One of
the issues I have is the precision of the location of an event.

Many of my families are clustered in several rural areas, locations are not
always overly specific. Genealogists like specifics, but sometimes we have
to make do with ranges and not precise points.

As I put the entries on my ahnentafel chart, I realized I was repeating
myself without repeating myself. All those references to Walker Township,
Hancock County, were *not really* to the same place. To look at my
ahnentafel chart, I have the following individuals who were either born,
married, or died in Hancock County’s Walker Township:

   - Charles and Fannie (Rampley) Neill were married there in 1903
   - Fannie Rampley was born there in 1883
   - George Trautvetter was born there in 1869
   - George and Ida (Sargent) Trautvetter were married there in 1898
   - Riley and Nancy (Newman) Rampley, married there in 1867
   - John and Franciska (Bieger) Trautvetter, married there in 1868
   - Franciska Trautvetter died there in 1888
   - Sophia Trautvetter died there in 1877
   - James Rampley died there in 1884
   - Elizabeth Rampley died there in 1883

And that’s just the vital events for my direct-line ancestors.
I want my records to reflect the accuracy of the documents, but I also want
my records to reflect the reality of the situation as well. For the 1903
and 1867 marriages, I have sources providing locations more specific than
the township.
But for the other events I do not.

*How Precise to be? *
If I list them all as taking place in Walker Township, it seems to indicate
all these events took place in the same place  On one level they did. I
could solve the problem and just indicate that every event took place on
planet Earth–that’s correct, but a little too broad.

Walker Township is a fairly large place–thirty-six square miles. I’m not
yet entirely certain how I’m going to handle the vague nature of the
location listed for these events. And while a township is not that large of
a location, I prefer to narrow down the location as much as possible.
And it is one reason that I am not always fond of genealogical software:
many times genealogical conclusions are not precise. They are not clean.
And, they often come with conditions.

In the events listed above there are basically two families: the Rampleys
and the Trauvetters. They lived in different parts of the township and most
likely were not in the same circles during the time period referenced by
the events listed above. The Rampleys lived in the eastern part of Walker
Township and the Trautvetters lived in the southwestern part. Knowledge of
this is based upon where the families’ farms were located and the
assumption that they lived on their farms and that ,for the most part,
those farms are where births and deaths took place–or relatively near to
those farms.

*Narrowing the Trautvetters*

For the Trautvetters, I would be reasonably safe (I’m hoping) in narrowing
their places of birth or death as “probably near Tioga in Walker Township,
Hancock County, Illinois.” My “place of birth” for George Trautvetter is
not just Walker Township–that’s too large and I’m not comfortable with that
size of a location if there is anyway that I can pinpoint it more
precisely. Precision does not imply that I have an exact “spot, but
refining the location beyond the township is possible in this case. George
was very likely born on his father’s farm, which is known to have been a
short distance from the village of Tioga. Of course, it is always possible
that George was born somewhere else than his father’s farm but still within
the confines of the Township. However, I would be comfortable saying that
George was born in Walker Township, Hancock County, Illinois, probably near
the village of Tioga. My evidence for that statement would be George’s
christening record, other materials which indicate his place of birth and
land, census and other records that imply George’s father was living in
Walker Township in 1869. I realize that the father does not have to be
present at the birth for that birth to take place.

*Near?*

One problem is that I have not defined “near.” At this point, I’m not going
to. Given the imprecise nature of the location within the township, I’ll
leave “near” somewhat vague. Genealogical conclusions are like
that–sometimes not everything can be pinpointed.

My statement regarding George’s place of birth should include all this
analysis and discussion along with sources, adequately cited.

That’s a tall order for most genealogical software packages and why I
prefer to perform most analysis using text, along with some images and
transcriptions.

*Didn’t These Families Intermarry?*

For those reading carefully, you will conclude that the Trautvetters and
the Rampleys eventually intermarried. They did once, when my grandparents
married in 1935. But that was after both of their families had left Walker
Township.

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Consultations

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Our genealogy consultation sale is absolutely ending--save $40. Details at
<http://goog_1025800198/>
https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/consultations-with-michael/

-----------------------------

Revised Full-Text Searching Webinar for 2026

-----------------------------

We’re excited to offer this revised presentation on the full-text searching
at *FamilySearch*--reflecting changes made to the site since this was
recorded in August 2025. We’ve redesigned our presentation as this
functionality continues to change. And…we have an extensive handout
complete with forms to help you find more people. Available for download by
5 January 2026. Order now for $25
<https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/67D7Z5H4ZQHJA>.

If you have purchased an earlier version of this presentation--email me at
mjnrootdig at gmail.com for the code to order this revision for $10.
Fully Utilizing Full-Text Search: Revised for January 2026

Your purchase includes:

   - *A 90 minute (or more presentation)* you can view as often as you want.
   - *Detailed handout* 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.

We’ll be including and discussing:

*Determining what is in Full-Text Search—*what you can access at home and
what you will have to be in a FamilySearch facility or affiliate to access.

*Seeing How AI Transcriptions are different*—they aren’t like the
transcriptions made by humans. That can change your approach.

*Remembering that Full-Text means every word*—approaches need to differ as
we aren’t looking up a name in an index any more.

*Asking Who* is in the record? We aren’t just searching for the main person
like we did with traditional indexes. We’ll discuss how to determine who
could be mentioned in a record.

*Determining How to search?* There are a variety of ways to search and
filter results. We’ll see how each one works to help determine the best
strategy.

*Creating search strategies*—how full-text search changes your approach and
why just dumping terms in search boxes is not always effective.

*Determining what you found* 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.

*Creating effective problem-solving approaches*—what to do when you cannot
find something you want.

*Demonstrating practical examples*—completely new people and families from
our previous presentations.

Available 5 January 2026. Order now for $25
<https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/67D7Z5H4ZQHJA>.
----------------------------
Join me on a Research Trip
----------------------------

   - Midwest Genealogy Center-Independence, Missouri, May 2026
   <https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/mid-continent-genealogy-library-october-2025-research-trip/>
   - Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, March 2026
   <https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2025-library-of-virginia-research-trip-richmond-virginia/>
   - FamilySearch Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, 12-19 August 2026–details
   just announced
   <https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2022-family-history-library-salt-lake-city-trip/>
   - Allen County Public Library, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, September 2026
   <https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/acpl2022/>


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Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day
http://www.genealogytipoftheday.com
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