[Genealogy] Saving Genealogy Money, Unpaid Fines and Jail, AI as a Consultant Sale Ending
Michael John Neill
mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Sat Oct 3 10:03:32 CDT 2026
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Genealogy Update 3 October 2026
** Some Ways to Save Genealogy Money
** Using AI as Genealogy Research Consultant Released--save today
** Unpaid Fines, Alcohol Sales, and the County Jail
** New presentations-More Metes and Bounds, BLM Tract Books, Females
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Some Ways to Save Genealogy Money
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This list is not by any means comprehensive, but here are some ways to save
money on genealogical expenses:
- utilize local genealogical societies–through the mail, their website,
their Facebook page, etc.
- utilize local libraries where your ancestor lived
- use *FamilySearch* <http://www.familysearch.org/> to access the record
images they have on their site
- use your local Family History Center to access records at *FamilySearc*
*h *that cannot be accessed at home
- determine what your local public library has access to
- don’t buy overnight copies of documents
- coordinate research with others
- consider having someone consult on your research instead of actually
hiring them
- organize your research before hiring a professional
- consider asking for genealogy presents at holidays instead of things
you might not really ever use
- use trial periods for sites when you’ll actually have time to use them
- improve your research skills and your knowledge of methodology
Remember that genealogy cannot be done completely for free–particularly if
people are helping you, getting records for you, etc. Some people are able
to help for free–if not all the time, at least some of the time. But
remember the other people. They have to eat.
Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant--save $6.99 by ordering today
Our approach is to always use AI responsibly and practically as your own
genealogy consultant.
Maybe you can’t afford a consultant for your own research or you have too
many genealogy problems to hire help with every one. AI can serve as your
own genealogy research consultant.
As with a human consultant, you’ll need to do the initial work on your
ancestor, gather what you have, and familiarize yourself with basic sources
in the area. There is no guarantee that AI will solve your problem.
But using AI as your personal research consultant can help. Not by doing
the research for you, or inventing ancestors that never existed, but by
doing what a good consultant actually does: looking at what you have,
summarizing it, discussing it, and giving you ideas on where to look next
or to help you see things in a different way. It may even tell you where
you need to go to improve your research skills.
After using AI, you still may decide to use a human consultant. The work
you did with AI will help you prepare to get the most from that advice from
a real person and to make the best use of your time and money should that
be necessary. We acknowledge in this presentation and approach that AI does
not know everything, is not perfect, and cannot solve every problem. It’s
just another tool.
You'll see how to frame a research problem so AI gives you something useful
instead of something vague. You'll learn to recognize when it's guessing,
because it will, and how to catch hallucinations and how to use AI in a
discerning fashion.
The goal isn't to replace your judgment. It's to give you a thinking
partner available at two in the morning when you finally realize you need
to get outside your own mind on a certain ancestral problem.
Order now for immediate download-$20
<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=251529&method_id=274685>--regular
price is $26.99. Save $6.99 by ordering now. Intro price ends 3 October.
Includes the full presentation, a detailed handout, and a ready-to-use set
of prompts you can adapt to your own research problems.
*==============*
*----------------------------*
Unpaid Fines, Alcohol Sales, and the County Jail
-------------------------------------------
[image: image.png]
There are more entries in the Warsaw, Illinois, newspapers for the name of
Trautvetter than I will ever be able to read through.
Fortunately this is one that I did not miss.
January of 1900 apparently found John M. Trautvetter in the Hancock County,
Illinois, jail for failing to pay nearly $300 in fines related to illegal
sale of alcohol. These fines may have stemmed from a criminal case
discovered for him in the late 1890s. The newspaper article does not
indicated when the original sale of alcohol took place.
I need to take a more detailed look at the local newspapers during the time
period in question. The Warsaw, Illinois, newspapers are available online
in searchable format, but the images in some cases are hard to read and it
is very possible that the OCR process used to index the images has missed
references to this last name.
It is also possible that one of the county seat newspapers (in Carthage)
make a reference to this case as well. Those newspapers are unindexed and
not available digitally. A search of those newspapers will wait until the
court materials have been more thoroughly searched and newspaper searches
can focus on dates of various court actions. A manual search of the Warsaw
newspapers will wait as well. While I’m interested in the case, I’m not
certain I am interested enough to read through three years of newspapers to
learn more about it.
Newspaper references may give details or opinions that do not appear as a
part of the court record. That’s always the upside in finding newspaper
references to court actions. The drawback is that newspapers are not always
unbiased and Trautvetter could be viewed as another German who liked his
beer.
The *Warsaw* *Bulletin* indicated that Trautvetter’s time in the county
lockup might prevent sales of alcohol to minors and drunkards. I’m not
certain if that was a reference to the Trautvetter incident or a separate
one. Newspapers don’t always make some things as clear as we would like.
And I’m going to have to look at the county court records in late 1899 to
see what reference there is to Trautvetter failing to pay his fines.
Now I’m wondering if he was *really *home when the census enumerator came
around to answer questions in the spring of 1900.
-----------------------------
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tract Books and the 2026 BLM Land Patent
Search site update
This presentation will discuss what the BLM tract books are (they keep
track of complete and incomplete federal land transactions), how to search
them on FamilySearch–there are multiple ways (focusing on manual searches
for when the indexed do not work), what clues can be gathered from these
records, accessing additional records suggested in the tract books,
documenting your searches of these books. Also included will be a
discussion of the current iteration of the Bureau of Land Management
Federal Land Patent search site.
Presentation to be released on 18 October–$17.99
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UQKGYQSX63Z3Y>
Researching Female Ancestors
This presentation discusses approaches and techniques for determining an
ancestor’s maiden name and locating “missing” females. Geared towards the
advanced beginner or intermediate researcher, it focuses on American
records and sources before World War I. The content is not specific to any
one time period and many of the approaches can be refined for different
locations or types of records. Concepts discussed will include:
-
overview of women’s legal rights;
-
property ownership;
-
inheritance;
-
citizenship;
-
and strategies for making the most from what you can find.
If you are stymied on your female ancestors–and half your ancestors are
female–this presentation may give you the insight you need.
-
Order for immediate download. $19.99
<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=32846&method_id=32794>--after
29 Sept price is $24.
Researching US Newspapers
This presentation will discuss finding copies of newspapers (digital and
microfilm), searching newspapers (digital and manual searches), saving
images, organizing images and your search process, and creating citations.
-
Order for immediate download–$18
<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=243621&method_id=266115>--after
29 Sept price is $22.
Michael John Neill has over forty years of genealogical research experience
and has utilized records in a variety of states in the Midwest, New
England, and the Southern United States.
--------------------------------
*==============*
*Join us on a research trip:*
-
- Midwest Genealogy Center–October 2026.
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/mid-continent-genealogy-library-october-2025-research-trip/>
- Library of Virginia–March 2027
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2025-library-of-virginia-research-trip-richmond-virginia/>
- FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City–May 2027
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2022-family-history-library-salt-lake-city-trip/>
- Allen County Public Library–June 2027
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/allen-county-library-2027-research-trip/>
------------------------------------
More Land Platting with AI
-----------------------------------
This session will expand on the “Metes and Bounds with AI” presentation. It
will include additional and more convoluted examples of metes and bounds
properties, discuss platting out properties in federal land states
involving sections and townships, and include an example of a metes and
bounds description in a federal land state. This session presupposes that
the listener has a basic understanding of land record terminology and knows
how to locate land deed records as those topics are not a part of this
presentation.
Release date: 15 October 2025.
Early order price: $18.99
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=C4JG43VE263BW>
Order includes audiovisual file and handout.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Getting the Most from US Census Records
----------------------------------------------------------
This session will help you to get the most from United States census
records–covering from 1790 through 1950. We will start with what you should
do when you find any census enumeration–which is not to transcribe it. We
will highlight the questions asked, talk about using enumerator
instructions, see how to get as much from a census enumeration as possible,
determine when a census suggests other records be searched, and more.
We will cover typical errors and how those arose, concerns about
reliability of the informant (did they just guess at information?), reasons
why people lie, and more.
We will talk about research strategies for people who are difficult to
find, ways names get written and transcribed and how to formulate a census
search plan those individuals who are difficult to locate.
The presentation will last approximately ninety minutes. Purchase includes
media file and handout.
Pre-release order price is $15.99.
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=H4MQXGKGGXM9U>
Release date: 16 October 2026.
*==============*
Want to get tips in print form? Check out the *Genealogy of the Tip of the
Day
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/genealogy-tip-of-the-day-book/>*
book.
Ready-to-Go Webinars from Michael–download immediate:
-
Creating Children’s Stories from Genealogy Events
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/creating-childrens-stories-from-genealogy-information/>
-
Creating Families from pre-1850 Census Records
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/creating-families-from-pre-1850-census-records/>
-
DeedMapper webinars
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/deedmapper-intro-and-more-deedmapper-webinars/>
-
FamilySearch Catalog
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2026/02/19/using-the-familysearch-catalog-webinar/>
-
Farming Ancestor webinars–landowner and non-landowner versions
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/rooting-around-for-farmers-and-tenants-and-laborers/>
-
Full-Text Search at FamilySearch
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2026/08/05/updated-familysearch-full-text-search-webinar/>
-
Full-Text Search at FamilySearch with Common Names
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2025/11/04/common-names-at-familysearch-full-text-webinar/>
-
How Errors Get in Records
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/how-errors-get-in-records-webinar/>
-
Illinois Genealogy Research
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2026/03/10/genealogy-research-in-illinois-webinar/>
-
Metes and Bounds With AI–platting and analysis
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/using-ai-for-metes-and-bounds-deed-analysis/>
-
Unburying Funeral Home Records
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/unburying-funeral-home-records/>
----------------------------------------
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Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day
PO Box 17
Henderson, IL 61439
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