[Genealogy] Is It Worth It and More

Thu Feb 5 17:33:57 CST 2026

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** Is It Worth It?
** Research Trips
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Is It Worth It?
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Curiosity killed the cat, as they say. Genealogical curiosity can kill your
budget and bank account.

An earlier post discussed Soundex cards to Baltimore passenger lists in the
19th century. The cards located were for several members of my family. I’ve
seen the actual passenger lists for this family so locating the cards for
me was an academic exercise.

As mentioned in the blog post, the cards referenced the back of the card in
the location where “other family members” were to be listed. The back of
the cards were not filmed. Because of how the  cards were created, I
decided it wasn’t going to be worth it to obtain a copy of the back of the
card.

And then I got emails saying that I should see the back of the cards.

I’ll be honest, I don’t know what it would cost to get the copy of the back
of the card. And while I realize curiosity is a good thing for the
genealogist, curiosity must be balanced with practicality and reality. As
mentioned in the blog post, the cards were a finding aid to the actual
manifest. Information on the card was simply taken from the manifest
decades later in the creation of the index.

Here is where thinking about how the records were created and why they were
created is important. The cards were a finding aid for someone who needed
to locate his date and place of entry into the United States. The names of
others who were travelling with the person on the manifest were added to
assist the searcher in locating the desired name. This way if the “right
name” could not be found by searching for it directly (because it was
written incorrectly on the actual manifest and hence indexed in the same
way), a searcher could search for others that the immigrant remembered
traveled with and if their name was located on an index card, the name of
the person of interest should show up as someone in the “traveling with”
section of the card. It’s worth remembering that these cards were created
before computerized database searches and searching for other family
members was a good technique. The cards were not created as a genealogical
source.

While it may be desirable to obtain a copy of every record created on your
relative, there are some things to consider:

   - What is the cost of obtaining the record?
   - Was this “record” really a new record or was it created from
   information on another record (ie. an abstract)?
   - Is the probable informant on this record an informant whose “opinion”
   or “information” I don’t already have?
   - What information is typically on this record?
   - How reliable do I perceive the information to be on this record?
   - How was this record created and what was its purpose?
   - Do I already have this information from reliable sources?
   - Is this record likely to provide really new information?

Of course, sometimes it is interesting to have any record on an ancestor
and any record can contain new information. But sometimes some thinking and
reflection may make you decide if obtaining the record is actually worth
it–especially if the cost is significant.

Because we can’t always afford everything.
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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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Farmers Without Their Own Land
------------------------------------

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.

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.

The presentation will be given with the premise that the person being
researched did not own any real estate.

Concepts covered include:

   - Determining the residence as precisely as possible.
   - Documenting others with whom the ancestor interacted.
   - Documenting moves and migrations where possible.
   - Determining if the same person has been located.
   - Strategies to locate as many references to the ancestral name as
   possible.

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.

Purchase includes video of presentation and handout. Immediate download for
$24
<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=247703&method_id=270569>
.

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Tip of the Day Books?

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--  ------------------------------------
Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day

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