[Genealogy] Corrected: Known to Unknown, Webinar Sale, and Captioning Photos

Tue Jul 28 10:29:42 CDT 2026

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28 July 2026

Genealogy Update

** Known to Unknown
** Webinar 40% Sale
** Consultations

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Working from the Known to the Unknown
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“Working from the known to the unknown” is advice often given to beginning
genealogists. The premise is that it is best to begin family history
research with the individuals about whom you know something, using what is
known about those individuals to connect them to earlier people in their
family. It’s a valid piece of advise and generally is a successful approach.

But there’s another way in which that phrase is applicable to genealogical
research as well.

If you are trying to read script in a foreign language, don’t start with
something in 1600. Use records in that language in a much later time
period. The script will be easier to read. The records may have column
headings to help you become familiar with the words and the handwriting. As
your skill level increases, work your way back in time–researching earlier
families. The handwriting will become more difficult to read, the column
headings won’t be in the records, and you’ll have to up your skill level.
But having a grounding in the basics, by using those later records, will
make it easier to transition to earlier records. Of course the handwriting
will change, the words may be different, and the structure of the records
may be a little less organized. But you’ll be better equipped to handle.

The same can be send for those who want to read 17th century Virginia land
patents. Transcribe later records, even if this involves records on
families you “already know have been done.” Reading 17th Virginia land
patents is difficult if you’ve never read a deed from the 18th century or
even the early 19th century. Build your skill level.

The same is true for understanding the basics of DNA. If you have matches
from families that are well documented, review those matches. See who they
share and who they don’t. Review those matches and the shared segments of
DNA they have. Try and map the chromosomes as best you can–on those
families that you “already know.” You may discover that you don’t know
everything you think you do, but at the very least your understanding of
DNA analysis and research will be improved. And *that* will help you to
analyze those matches where you don’t know any of the underlying family
structure from paper records.

Working from the known to the unknown doesn’t just apply to the people you
research.

It also applies to how you research.

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Genealogy Webinar Sale

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Today we are offering a 40% off sale on recorded presentations. Details are
on our website <https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/recent-webinars/>
.
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Consultation Sale
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What is a consultation?

It’s a chance to discuss your specific problem with a professional
genealogist, one who can look at your problem family with a fresh set of
eyes. It can help you get started if you are just getting started with your
research or continue if you’ve reached a point where you do not know what
to do. It’s like having a problem-solving class devoted to your family.
We’ll look at see if there any additional clues or leads in the records you
have already located and discuss what the next steps are in your genealogy
journey on your family of interest. It’s also a time for you to ask
specific questions about the materials you have found.

More details on our consultations page
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/consultations-with-michael/>.

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Captioning Photographs So They Don’t Appear to Come From Heaven

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[image: image.png]

I’ve used this photograph as an illustration for blog posts before, but
I’ve altered my caption and hopefully improved it.

While I understand metadata and how that can be incorporated into a digital
image, I’m a firm believer in including that information on the actual
photograph itself. Images get “copied and pasted” into other graphics
programs, file transfers don’t work correctly; and some people have no idea
what metadata is, let alone how to find it. Putting identifying information
on the actual image itself facilitates use of the photograph by others who
may come across it.

In this undated picture, I’ve identified the individuals from personal
knowledge, included the approximate date of the photograph, mentioned where
it was taken, indicated when the digital image was made, and mentioned who
has the original photograph. In this version, I have left out the name of
the current owner of the photograph. Well it really hasn’t been left out.
Anyone familiar with the family would know that in 2015 Ralph Neill only
had one living niece, so the person has essentially been identified.

There’s no discussion of “how” I know who is in the picture or where it was
taken. Identifying my mother and myself should be self-explanatory. How I
know it was my Uncle Ralph’s home is probably too long to include in the
photograph, but the fact that we celebrated family Christmases there until
I was about five or six years old would certainly be something worth
writing up in my research notes.

If the identification was made by someone else or handwriting on the back,
then I should include that. The image of the handwriting would be something
good to include along with the text that I have added.
Dropped from Heaven?

It is frustrating to see a digital image of a photograph on a website or in
an online tree with nary an iota of a clue as to how the “publisher” of the
photo came to find it. I don’t expect a detailed chronology of where the
picture has been every year since it has been taken. But it would be nice
to know if the photograph was found in a collection of family photos owned
by a descendant of the individuals pictured, was found in a scrapbook
purchased at an auction, etc. If the person in the picture is someone of
whom I already have pictures, then I have a comparison.

But if I have no other pictures of the person identified and then one
“appears” online in digital format sans provenance, I am left wondering:

how do they know it is who they say it is?

There’s a tree at *Ancestry.com* that has a picture of an ancestor of mine
who died about ten years after the Civil War. Several of us have been
researching this ancestor since the mid-1980s. None of us had ever located
a picture of this ancestor. None of us were even aware a picture of this
ancestor existed. That does not mean a picture does not exist. My cousins
and I are human and could have easily failed to locate such a picture.

Then, as if by magic, a picture of this ancestor appeared in an online tree
at *Ancestry.com*. The picture would have had to have been taken by the
early 1870s. Could it be my ancestor? Yes. Do I want it to be my ancestor?
Yes.  Do I believe it is my ancestor?

No.

The original submitter did not answer my inquiry about the picture. I made
it clear that I didn’t want the original. I simply wondered (in a tactful
and polite email) where the picture came from because I had never seen one
before and I was very glad that the submitter had shared it. I was just
curious where she had located it. I offered to share with her additional
information I had on the family that was not in her online tree.

No answer.

Not a peep.

The submitter is not dead and not inactive as she had logged in to her
*Ancestry.com *tree acount a few days before I contacted her and had also
logged in to her account after I contacted her. I only checked once just to
make certain she was still actively online. I was not trying to be a
stalker.

My concern is that the lack of a response is telling.

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Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day
PO Box 17
Henderson, IL 61439
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