[Genealogy] Men's Forward, My Three Cousins, AI Consultations on Genealogy
Michael John Neill
mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Sun Oct 4 22:15:50 CDT 2026
Genealogy Update 2 October 2026
** The Men's Forward Movement
** Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant Released--intro price!
** BLM, Newspapers, and Females
** My Three Cousins
** More Land Platting with AI and Getting the Most From the Census
** Recorded Webinars
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The Men's Forward Movement
----------------------------
My knowledge of early twentieth century “movements” and causes is not what
it should be. Consequently I’m not exactly certain what the “Men’s Forward
Movement” actually was.
But they were meeting in the Hall of the Evangelical Church on 7 January
1912 at 2:30 in the afternoon in Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois and they
were going to discuss “Progress and Stagnation in the Development of Modern
Society.” The opening of the discussion would be in German, but attendees
would be welcome to speak in German or English.
Everyone was welcome to attend, including:
- socialists
- freethinkers
- Christians
- orthodox
- liberals
[image: mens-forward-george-trautvetter]
<https://rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/mens-forward-george-trautvetter.jpg>
The Daily Gate City [Keokuk, Iowa], January 05, 1912, page 6
The only reason I located the document was that G. Trautvetter was a member
of the committee. This G. Trautvetter is likely George Trautvetter (born in
1842 in Wohlmuthausen, Thuringen, Germany) who is known to have resided in
Warsaw during the time this notice appeared in the newspaper. It’s possible
that G. Trautvetter refers one of George’s two nephews of the same name,
but they were not living in Warsaw during the time this event took place.
More research needs to be done. Searches of other newspapers for mention of
the movement are in order as other mentions of the group may provide more
detail.
This item was an advertisement for the event. It is possible that the
Warsaw newspaper has an actual article about the event. That would be the
best place to learn more about this specific debate. Searches of
*GoogleBooks* and other print historical materials, journals, or studies
may include additional background information on the “Men’s Forward
Movement.”
Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant--released for viewing
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.
Includes the full presentation, a detailed handout, and a ready-to-use set
of prompts you can adapt to your own research problems.
*==============*
Announcement
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.
----------------
My Three Cousins
----------------
For those who don’t understand how cousins are counted…it’s easy. My uncle
has three sons: the oldest one was my first cousin, the middle one was my
second cousin, and the youngest one was my third cousin.
------------------------------
Of course that’s not how first, second, and third cousins are determined.
First cousins share a set of grandparents. Second cousins share a set of
great-grandparents, and third cousins share a set of
great-great-grandparents. The pattern continues on successively. There
are charts
that attempt to show the relationship graphically for those who are visual
learners. <https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/cousin-chart>
Then there are the removed when the two individuals are not the same
generation of descent from the common ancestor. Your first cousin’s child
and you are first cousins once removed–because that child is one more
generation removed from the original ancestor than you are. Your cousin’s
grandchild and you would be first cousins twice removed–because that
grandchild is two generations further from the original ancestor than you.
Your child and your first cousin’s child would be second cousins. Your
child and your first cousins child share a set of great-grandparents–the
people who are you and your cousins’s grandparents.
And of course, there several nuances:
- half cousins–would only share one grandparent or one
great-grandparent. This could easily happen if a person had multiple spouses
- double cousins–people who are related in more than one way. This most
often happens when brothers marry sisters, a brother and sister marry a
sister and a brother, etc.
Instead of stating the specific relationship between two individuals, I
prefer to clearly state the common ancestor.
Edward and Curtis Habben were both grandsons of John M. and Anke H. (Fecht)
Habben.
Cecil Neill and Edna (Rampley) Dion were second cousins, being
great-grandchildren of James and Elizabeth (Chaney) Rampley. Their son
Riley was Cecil’s grandfather and their son James was Edna’s grandfather.
Your mileage may vary.
------------------------------------
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.
--------------------
Webinars
--------------------
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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