[Genealogy] How Literate was Your Ancestor...and More
Michael John Neill
mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Wed Sep 16 15:08:09 CDT 2026
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Genealogy Update 16 Sept 2026
** How Literate was Your Ancestor?
** Intro Price on Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant--Consult Yourself
** Intro Price Ending on Metes and Bounds with AI
** Recorded Webinars
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How Literate was Your Ancestor?
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The clipping in this blog indicates that my ancestor did not learn to read
English until he was 60 years of age. By this point in time, he had
- become a citizen
- married
- bought and sold a mill
- bought and sold several pieces of real estate
All without being able to read English. I know John could easily read
German, so literacy wasn’t a problem. And there is also a very good chance
that others in his neighborhood here in the United States could read
English if he needed it and there probably was at least one local lawyer,
bank clerk, etc. who could speak and read German.
But it makes the point. Even if your ancestors were literate, what
documents did they sign that they could not read? And what if they had no
one nearby to help them translate?
Just a little food for thought.
And a reminder that when John naturalized in the 1870s, there was no
language requirement. Just stating a fact–we try to avoid getting political
here. Although readers of the newspaper clipping will note that it
indicates John indicates he was a Republican, but does not express himself
against Woodrow Wilson or the present administration. Maybe John was just a
little bit of a politician, like two of his grandsons.
Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant
*Our approach is to always use AI responsibly and practically a**s 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.
Pre-order the presentation now.
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3SJCPREXK5EUC>
Release date: 25 September
Price: $15.99
Includes the full presentation, a detailed handout, and a ready-to-use set
of prompts you can adapt to your own research problems.
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When is a Tax List a Census?
--------------------
Genealogists who have some length in their genealogical teeth talk about
the importance of knowing the purpose of a record.
It’s true–any researcher who wants to use and interpret something as
correctly as possible needs to know (among other things) the purpose for
which the record was originally created. This may not be the same thing as
the purpose for which the record is now used.
Tax lists are a great example. In some states, particularly in the late
18th and early 19th century, census lists may be missing or not extant, if
they were even taken at all. And that’s just the way it is. If there are no
census records, then there are no census records. The purpose of a census
is usually to count everyone in a specific geographic region–or at least
those individuals that meet the parameters set down by the governmental
entity taking the census.
Tax lists–both of real and personal property–serve a different purpose.
They are created as a way for the government to tax citizens, those who own
real property and those who own sufficient personal property (or property
of a specific kind) to be able to pay a tax.
When census records are unavailable for a certain area and time period, tax
lists may be used to obtain the names of individuals who were residing in
that area. But tax lists are not censuses and censuses are not tax lists.
There’s never a guarantee that a real estate landowner actually lived on
the property on which he was taxed. He probably was, but it’s possible that
he was not. So you could find a person on a real estate property tax list
in County A who never lived in County A.
And a person of extremely limited financial means (without real property
and without any significant personal property) may not appear on a tax list
for County A when he would have appeared on the census for County A because
he lived there.
Tax lists should be used when they are extant for a location. But don’t
call them census records and don’t call them “substitute” census records
either. Call them what they are not leads to confusion and misunderstanding.
It’s actually pretty easy–call them what they are: tax lists.
Oh, and the answer to the question that’s the title of this post is “never"
(unless the tax list was to include everyone whether or not they owed any
tax). Any list that only includes people owing a tax is going to leave out
those who do not.
*Metes and Bounds have you confused?*
*If you missed the early-bird price there's still time.*
-------------------------------------
Using AI for Metes and Bounds Deed Analysis--to be released 18 September
-------------------------------------
A completely new presentation!
and there's still time to get it at the introductory price
*Using AI for Metes and Bounds Deed Analysis*
[image: image.png]
Do deeds with metes and bounds descriptions give you headaches? You are not
alone. We will see how to use AI to help with drawing properties, analyzing
deed transactions, noticing patterns, and more. Our presentation is
easy-to-follow, down-to-earth, and practical. This presentation is not
about how to find land records. We will assume you already know how to do
that.
[image: image.png]
Topics covered will include:
-
Using AI to work with metes and bounds descriptions.
-
Manual versus AI transcriptions
-
Fitting parcels together
-
Viewing acquisitions and sales over time
-
Creating ownership chronologies
Participants are encouraged to send Michael a limited number of questions
after they have viewed the presentation.
Revised release date is 18 September 2026. Pre-order price $21
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZ7W2VTNUFRM6>.
Post-release price $27.00. Handout included which will include commentary
and prompts that were used. The presentation is approximately an hour long
and can be viewed more than once.. Order yours today
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZ7W2VTNUFRM6>.
Don’t wait as we tend to forget.
About Michael:
Michael John Neill has actively researched his genealogy since the early
1980s. He has given genealogy lectures at a variety of national and small
conferences since the 1990s. Michael has a master’s degree in mathematics
and taught mathematics at a community college for thirty years. He has led
research trips to the FamilySearch Library for over twenty years.
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--------------------
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/>
-
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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