[Genealogy] Genealogy Magic, Personal Ad, Why There, And More

[Michael John Neill]

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Genealogy Update 14 April 2026


** Genealogy Magic

** Personals Ads Documents Drugstore Purchase

** Why There?

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Genealogy Magic

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Sometimes researchers want one approach that will answer their question.
One method that will allow them to “know” that they’ve got same person and
not another with the same name.
[image: magic-pot]

You just can’t wave a magic wand over a pot of magic stew and expect the
answer to rise to the top.

The problem is that there’s not a magic genealogical approach that works in
all situations. What might work best depends upon the location, the time
period, and the socioeconomic standing of the people being researched. It’s
not wise to say “this approach always works.” There are always exceptions
to any rule.

We’ve written in some detail about research process and procedure and I
won’t reproduce those writings here. Generally speaking, one should:

   - locate every record on the person
   - search at all bureaucratic levels
   - search for private and public records
   - learn about what caused people to settle where your person did
   - learn what caused people to leave were your ancestor left from
   - learn about the contemporary history of the area
   - learn about local, regional, state and national records and how those
   records were organized
   - learn about the laws that would have impacted your ancestors
   - read similar problems that have been solved by others.

That’s a tall order. But there is no magic source that will always contain
the information you need. There is no magic approach that will answer your
question quickly and easily. Sometimes research is tedious and boring.
That’s the way it is

Sometimes it is exciting and rewarding as well. That’s also the way it is.

Prepare yourself by focusing on the bulleted items. That will help you
increase your chances of success and help you get through those times when
you are not finding something.

But you can’t just put your genealogical problem in a pot, bring it to a
boil, and recite an incantation in order to get your answer.

That’s not the way it works.

Unless your distant ancestor was a witch who has passed their spellmaking
abilities down to your generation. And that’s a little doubtful.

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Research Trip-Midwest Genealogy Center

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We still have room in our May 2026 to the Midwest Genealogy Center in
Independence, Missouri. Find out more and consider joining us.
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/mid-continent-genealogy-library-october-2025-research-trip/>

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Introduction to Artificial Intelligence for Genealogy

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Been curious about using artificial intelligence for your genealogy
research? In this hour-long session, we will provide an overview of
responsible and simple ways to use artificial intelligence to assist with
your genealogy research. Our focus will be practical, easy-to-follow
techniques to use artificial intelligence to jumpstart your research in a
responsible manner. We won’t talk about ways to create images or fiction
but will show you how to incorporate AI into your research in down-to-earth
ways that don’t waste your time. We will see how to use AI to get research
ideas, focus your research, transcribe handwriting, organize and extract
information—and how to create your own research prompts.

AI can be used as a research assistant that’s always available. See how to
take advantage of it without the hype.

Presentation is available on 18 April. Pre-order price is $22
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—order yours today
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2DJMKLMETRABQ>.
Price after 18 April is $30.

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Personal Ad Documents Drugstore Purchase
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Add this to the list of things one can discover in the personals column:

evidence that someone purchased a drugstore



The 9 August 1923 issue of the *Chicago Tribune* contained a personal
announcement that Wm. G. Trautvetter had purchased the drug store at 300 E.
79th Avenue in Chicago and would not be responsible for any d[image:
trautvetter-buys-store]ebts contracted by the business before to 3 August.

Whether Trautvetter purchased the building on the location is not known.
It’s possible he only purchased the business and rented the property.

Time probably won’t allow me to follow up on those details of Trautvetter’s
ownership, but this advertisement does help provide additional framework
for Trautvetter’s drugstore operations in Chicago during the early
twentieth century.

Not what I was expecting to find in the personals column. But it goes to
show that one never knows what may end up in the classified advertisements
of a newspaper.
------------------------------------------------
Brick Wall Busters 2026--New!
-----------------------------------------------

This hour-long presentation is geared towards advanced beginning or
intermediate genealogists. Our focus will be on problems in the United
States between roughly 1700 and 1900. Brick wall ideas will be pulled from
consultations with clients and personal research experience. Approaches
will be practical and down-to-earth. Presentation approach will be through
a series of examples from a variety of time periods, locations, and social
classes. Handout included. Presentation made by Michael John Neill.

Presentation (video/audio) and handout will be released for viewing on 21
April 2026. Pre-order price is $22–order today
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=E26EPTPJ3C7AU>.
Price after 21 April 2026 will be $30.

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Full Text Webinars

*Check out our offerings on full-text search at FamilySearch. Get the most
of it!*

*download immediate*

FamilySearch Full-Text Webinar

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.

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 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 for immediate download for $30
<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=246272&method_id=268990>.
Complete handout included and additional forms.

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Why There?

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When a record is located for a relative, one should always ask “why there?
Why was that record in that place?”

Many times the reasons are mundane and have obvious, instant answers. The
land deed was recorded in the jurisdiction in which the property was
located. The relative died at home and the death certificate was filed in
the local records office.

The answer may be known and that answer may still be a clue. A relative may
die in the nearest hospital in a different county or a different state. A
couple may travel to a neighboring county because that county seat is
easier to get to or no one at that courthouse knows the father of the
bride. A relative may naturalize a few counties from home because his
nearest relative (and witness) lives in that other county.

Or the location itself may be a clue. Many relatives of my own from Hancock
County, Illinois, married in Kahoka, Missouri, in the 1941-1945 era.
Generally speaking the groom was home on a short leave and at that time a
couple could go to Kahoka and get married the same day. They could not do
that in Illinois. In this case, a marriage of a couple in that place may
cause me to wonder if the groom was in the military.

There are many other examples. But the point here is that researchers
should ask themselves “why is this record here?” Just thinking through that
question can help our research and give us some insight.

Sometimes there is a reason, but we will never know what it is. Some
mysteries are destined to remain mysteries.

And sometimes, particularly in the case of elopements, the location may
really have no connection to the couple or the marriage. It may have just
been the first stop on a trip where a license could be had.

And then if the marriage is relatively recent, they might have eloped to
Las Vegas.

But that’s a whole other story.

Common Names at FamilySearch Full-Text Webinar

*Overwhelmed by common names like Smith or Jones in your family tree? This
presentation offers advanced strategies and techniques to help you
effectively use FamilySearch’s full-text search and find those elusive
ancestors.*

Download immediately for
<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=247700&method_id=270565>
$40–use
code common26 and save 30%.

*Full-Texting the Smiths and Jones:*

*Strategies for Common Names*

Using FamilySearch’s Full-Text search is easier when the name is relatively
uncommon. It’s more of a challenge when the last name is Smith, Jones,
Brown, or something similarly common. In this presentation, we will look at
approaches to maximize the chance you find that common-named person. No
approach is full-proof and we will not be so brazen to guarantee success.
No genealogist should ever do that.

What we will do is help give you some ideas and techniques to give you a
better shot at finding your commonly named person. We can lead you through
some examples and give you some ideas to modify to search for your own
people. *We will assume you’ve got an understanding of how full-text search
works*. This presentation will not cover the basics of using the full-text
search functionality of FamilySearch (you can watch our first presentation
for that—nearly two hours and an extensive handout
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2025/09/05/fully-utilizing-full-text-search/>
).

The Smith-Jones presentation will cover:

*Identifying all the key elements* that distinguish your ancestor from
others. Your ancestor is more than a name. Crafting as detailed an
ancestral profile as possible facilitates the construction of effective
searches and we will see how to elicit as many of those details as possible
from records you already have.

*Organizing a search strategy.* Making certain all relevant search
combinations have been searched is key to maximizing the chance you find
your commonly named ancestor. We will see how to create your own forms and
outlines to do just that.

*Tracking Results to Problem-Solve.* Searching for common names requires
the researcher to be as methodological as possible to make certain all
options have been considered. It is impossible to determine if all
effective means of search were used if negative results tracking is not
done.

*The Name’s the Thing.* Last names such as Bird, Lake, and Farmer have
their own issues as well. We will see some approaches that can help locate
these names.

*Case Studies*. We will look at sample case studies common-named persons.

*Please note*: *We can’t guarantee success*. What we can do is help to give
you tools to increase your chances of success with common names.

 Order for immediate download at our regular price of $40
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=HQM8799ZLWSQS>
.
FamilySearch Full-Text Problem Solving Webinar

This presentation assumes that you have a working knowledge of how to use
the full-text search at FamilySearch (order that presentation for $30
<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=246272&method_id=268990>—download
immediate).

We will look at examples (ones not discussed in the original presentation)
and follow a consistent process and methodology to maximize the chance that
we find what’s available for the individuals in question. It’s important to
leverage all you know about an ancestor combined with the power of
full-text search—we will focus on: family members, migrations, and known
events and relationships. Our approach is systematic—we avoid the rabbit
hole approach that can make full-text searches inefficient.

Released. Pre-orders have been sent. Regular price $28
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Using the FamilySearch Catalog Webinar

Media file and handout released--nearly 60 minutes!



Order for immediate download (no streaming) for $24.00
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<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=248898&method_id=271851>Normal
price is $28.00

Confused about what is on FamilySearch? Having difficulty knowing what is
online there and how to access it? This presentation will lead you out of
the confusion.

Contents will include:

Various ways the catalog can be searched–the six verbal ways (location,
title, keyword, surname, author, subject) and the two more numeric ways
(call number and film/image group number). We will see how to:

   -

   effectively navigate the catalog search results,
   -

   determine how catalog materials can be accessed,
   -

   be aware of all geographic levels for a specific location,
   -

   determine what indexes and finding aids are available
   -

   see how common record types are frequently cataloged


Presentation made by Michael John Neill

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