[Genealogy] He's Not James, Using FindAGrave, When You are Gone, and Presentations
Michael John Neill
mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Sat Oct 10 09:43:59 CDT 2026
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Genealogy Update 10 October 2026
*** *He's Not James for Very Long
*** *What Do You Use FindAGrave For?
** When You are Gone?
*-----------------------------*
He's Not James for Very Long
*-----------------------------*
[image: image.png]
There’s no family Bible and there’s no birth certificate for James William
Rampley who was born in Hancock County, Illinois, on 5 August 1868. It’s
too early for a civil record of an Illinois birth and he apparently never
had a need for a delayed birth certificate. If there was a family Bible in
which his birth is recorded, I have never been able to find it.
In the 1870 census he’s listed as James Rampley and in the 1880 he’s listed
as William J. Rampley (both times with his parents in Hancock County’s
Walker Township). There may be the occasional later record where he’s
listed as William J. Rampley, but for the most part he’s just William
Rampley–without the “J.” He’s never referred to as James Rampley after the
1870 census.
James William Rampley was likely named for his grandfathers: James Rampley
and William Rampley.
I’m not certain why James William Rampley started using the name of William
Rampley, but I’m reasonably certain: there were too many other James
Rampleys. While his grandfather James Rampley died when James William
Rampley was in his early teens, there were others of the same name living
in the same area: his uncle, James Rampley, and a first cousin of
approximately the same age named James Edward Rampley.
A 1902 affidavit in Nancy Rampley’s Civil War widow’s pension file is the
best reference that indicates the name of her oldest son was actually James
William. His name is included in a list of all of Nancy’s children that
also includes their date of birth. Nancy would have had first hand
knowledge of the names of her children and the special examiner appointed
to take her testimony indicated he was a reliable witness in his summary of
evidence he heard. The affidavit does not mention it, but it is possible
that Nancy read the names and dates of birth for her children from a family
bible or a list someone had created for that very purpose–as a memory aid.
The other children have names that are all well documented in other
records. The others went by their first name as given.
Except for Frances–who signed every document “Fannie.”
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Using AI to Maximize Your Full-Text Searching
-----------------------------------
Enhance your Full-Text Searching with AI!
*Using AI to Maximize Your Full-Text Searching at FamilySearch*
Are you getting the most from full-text search? Are you considering all the
options? Are you feeling overwhelmed even though you know what the purposes
of all the boxes are?
AI can help organize and structure your full-text searches at FamilySearch.
It can be used to create a customized research log to track all the various
searches you perform at the site and all you need to do is indicate the
search was performed and what the results were.
It is still important for you to know how full-text search at FamilySearch
works–you cannot effectively problem solve if you don’t–but AI can make
your full-text searches more efficient. The best use of full-text search is
using it to find as much as possible–not just the low hanging fruit that
one often finds when simply typing in a name. Could there be more that you
could find with full-text search?
We will see in this presentation how to use AI to take your use of
full-text search to the next level.
You will get the most out of this presentation if you are already familiar
with how to use full-text search.
Order a copy of the AI presentation only–release date of 18 October
2026–for $16.99
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QUZM9TS8GBEVQ>
(introductory rate).
Order a copy of our other full-text search presentations:
-
Full-Text Search at FamilySearch
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2026/08/05/updated-familysearch-full-text-search-webinar/>–download
immediate
-
Full-Text Search at FamilySearch with Common Names
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2025/11/04/common-names-at-familysearch-full-text-webinar/>–download
immediate
-----------------------------------
What Do You Use FindAGrave for?
-----------------------------------
I’ve used *FindAGrave <http://www.findagrave.com/> *memorials for hundreds
of relatives throughout my research (generally only for tombstone image). I
don’t contact every submitter for every photograph or every memorial
creator. There simply isn’t time. While *I do appreciate the work of those
who have taken pictures* (and I’ve taken some myself), it does not seem
like a good use of time (mine or theirs) to communicate with every person
who has taken a picture of the stone of a relative. I don’t communicate
with everyone who may have indexed a record on *FamilySearch* either.
However…
There are times when I do reach out to the memorial administrator or to
someone who has submitted a photograph or information on *FindAGrave*:
- when I want to use the photograph on my blog or in some other way
besides being buried in my digital files
- when an actual family photograph has been submitted to the
memorial–many times these are submitted by relatives and this can be a
great way to reach out to potential relatives
- when I’m “really stuck” on the relative whose memorial I have found
and I’m hoping that the submitter may know something more about the
cemetery, the cemetery’s records, the area in general, etc.–I’ve received
more information (including newspaper clippings) that way.
My initial email–particularly if I think the person is a relative–is
usually short and intended to find out if the address is still valid and to
gauge the person’s interest. I don’t send a 5,000 word email listing all
the family’s information and exploits. That can wait until later.
Even if you think you “know everything” about a certain ancestor, consider
looking at their page on *FindAGrave*. You may be surprised at what you
find.
------------------------------------
BLM Tract Books and 2026 Search Site Update
-----------------------------------
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>
------------------------------------
When You are Gone
------------------------------------
[image: image.png]
I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating:
Work to preserve your genealogical information while you are alive–do not
expect your descendants to do it for you.
You can tell them what to do with it when you are dead. But when you are
dead, dead is what you are and they will do as they wish.
You can have a clause in your will as to what is to happen to your
“genealogy papers,” but remember:
- Executors can exercise some discretion and probate judges and other
heirs are more likely to focus on bills being paid, property being
maintained, and items of value being dealt with properly. If they all agree
to look the other way while the executor dumps your papers in the garbage
on trash day, it could happen.
- You can bequeath your papers to a library, but they generally do not
want file folders of material that are unorganized and difficult to follow,
stacks of photocopies of pages from books that are easy to obtain
elsewhere, compiled material that is unconnected to any local family, etc.
They may not have the money to maintain your material and they may be not
able to take it. Just because your will says to give it to them does not
mean they have to accept it and preserve it forever. That’s not the way it
works.
- Garbage day is Friday. Your funeral was on Wednesday.
When you are dead…you are dead.
Plan for what’s to happen to your material when you still have the ability
to see that it happens.
------------------------------------
US Local Land Records
-----------------------------------
*Land records have you confused? We have the answer.*
Reading the Deed Books: US Local Land Records for Genealogists
There are a lot of records your ancestor may have avoided being listed in.
But if he bought or sold land, there was a record created to document that
transfer and a copy of that record was probably made at the local court
house. Even if your ancestor never bought or sold the land he owned, he may
appear in local land records. Deeds are some of the most reliable records
we have, and genealogists overlook them all the time.
This presentation covers the land records kept at the county and town level
in the United States and the general structure and form of a deed itself
along with land record terminology. We'll talk about how the records are
usually organized, how to use grantor and grantee indexes (and what to do
when they fail you), and why the record you need might be sitting in a
parent county formed fifty years earlier. Local land records are not just
deeds, we'll look at mortgages, releases, powers of attorney, and the land
divisions that followed a death.
We'll also spend time on what a deed can tell you beyond the sale itself.
The legal phrasing often hides useful clues, and the details people skim
past, like witnesses, neighbors, or a wife releasing her dower, can point
to relatives and connections you didn't know about. We will look at
examples from a variety of US locations.
Searching these records can always be done onsite, but we will also talk
about accessing them where possible via FamilySearch (including manual
browsing and using full-text search where applicable).
You should be comfortable with basic research before signing up.
Presentation and handout included.
Receive recording only by 19 October 2026 for $15.99
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3M24AP7JGYQG2>
Purchase recording for delivery by 19 October 2026 and participate in a
one-time question and answers session regarding land deeds on 26 October
starting at 7:30 pm central time via zoom
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3M24AP7JGYQG2>
.
Michael John Neill has actively researched his genealogy forever forty
years, descends from generations of land-owning farmers, and has utilized
land records in his own research extensively during that time. He is a
former community college math instructor with a master’s degree in
mathematics.
------------------------------------
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:
-
AI as a Genealogy Consultant
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/using-ai-as-a-genealogy-consultant/>
--New!
-
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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