[Genealogy] How Literate, Not Everything's Online

Mon Dec 29 18:19:21 CST 2025

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29 December 2025

** Just How Literate Was Your Ancestor?

** Consultations

** It's Not Just Everything's Not Online

** Full Text Searching at FamilySearch

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Just How Literate Was Your Ancestor?

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[image: image.png]

The clipping indicates that my ancestor did not learn to read English until
he was 60 years of age. By this point in time, he had

   - become a citizen
   - married
   - bought and sold a mill
   - bought and sold several pieces of real estate

All without being able to read English. I know John could easily read
German, so literacy wasn’t a problem. And there is also a very good chance
that others in his neighborhood here in the United States could read
English if he needed it and there probably was at least one local lawyer,
bank clerk, etc. who could speak and read German.

But it makes the point. Even if your ancestors were literate, what
documents did they sign that they could not read? And what if they had no
one nearby to help them translate?

Just a little food for thought.

And a reminder that when John naturalized in the 1870s, there was no
language requirement. Just stating a fact–we try to avoid getting political
here. Although readers of the newspaper clipping will note that it
indicates John indicates he was a Republican, but does not express himself
against Woodrow Wilson or the present administration. Maybe John was just a
little bit of a politician, like two of his grandsons.

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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/

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It's Not Just "Everything's Not Online"

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You can tell people that everything’s “not online.” You can type it in
uppercase letters to visually shout. But, for some, until you show them
something interesting that was “not online,” or you tell them that you
solved a problem with sources that were only in their original paper
format, they won’t get the importance of utilizing those sources.

It’s not really about whether sources are “online” or “not online.”

What it *is *about is being aware of all the records that were created at
all jurisdictional levels that might have mentioned your ancestor. That’s
the “prime directive.” Then one needs to determine how to get at those
records. Accessing records has always been a concern. One can easily use
their computer and the internet to facilitate learning about and accessing
those records.

Good genealogy methodology indicates that we access all records that could
directly or indirectly answer our problem. Access may be a problem–but an
awareness of all those records is what is key.

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Revised Full-Text Searching Webinar for 2026

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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>.

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-- 
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Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day
http://www.genealogytipoftheday.com
PO Box 17
Henderson, IL 61439
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