[Genealogy] Under My Nose, A Good Farm in the Sticks, Self-Consultations, Metes and Bounds
Michael John Neill
mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Fri Sep 18 08:13:34 CDT 2026
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Genealogy Update 18 Sept 2026
** Under My Nose
** Intro Price on Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant--Consult Yourself
** “A Good Farm Out In the Sticks” and What’s Not In the Paper
** Intro Price Ending on Metes and Bounds with AI
** Recorded Webinars
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Under My Nose
----------------------------
*this article originally appeared on the *Ancestry.com* blog on 25 November
2007*
Sometimes those disappearing ancestors did not disappear the way we thought
they did. Rather they are right there in front of us waiting to be found.
This week we look at such a situation. Our search reminds us of several
research techniques that any family historian needs to have in their
repertoire when the ancestor seems to vanish without a trace.
Sarah Wickiser Calvert’s only known record of existence was an 1862
Delaware County, Ohio, deed where she sold property apparently inherited
from her parents. After that, I had concluded she simply evaporated. The
question was where she departed as she apparently could not be found in
other records. Based upon census enumerations and more detailed information
on her known siblings, it was estimated Sarah was born between 1802 and
1810, probably in Pennsylvania. Any other details of her life were unknown,
including the name of her husband or her date of marriage (other than the
fact that she was married by 1862).
When a relative is “lost,” one place to start looking is near other
relatives, former neighbors, and associates, particularly ones who have
moved. It is often helpful to have a “family map” handy to assist in
keeping the various names straight.
*A Little Background*
Abraham and Katherine Blaine Wickiser were married in Pennsylvania in 1802
and were the parents of the following children:
- George
- Sarah Calvert (the missing Sarah)
- Ellen Green
- Lucinda Kile
- William
Abraham was the son of Conrad and Rosina Wickiser and Katherine Blaine was
the daughter of Elam and Katherine Blaine.
In the interest of space, we have omitted names of Abraham and Katherine’s
grandchildren and the other children of Abraham and Katherine’s parents.
However, these names are important as they may provide clues as to naming
patterns and names that might have been repeated extensively in the family.
Some genealogists prefer to use a printed descendant listing from their
software package to keep family straight. I prefer to create crude
“charts.” The key is to keep the relationships in your mind or readily
available as you search.
*Off to Find Sarah*Sarah’s brother George Wickiser in 1850 had an
interesting enumeration right next door.
1850 Federal Census, Ohio, Delaware County, Harlem Township,
- Elisha Talbot, aged 41 born Virginia
- Sarah Talbot, aged 39, born Ohio
- Silas Talbot, aged 15, born Ohio
- Lucinda Talbot, aged 11, born Ohio
- Catharine Talbot, aged 9, born Ohio
- Hannah A. Talbot, aged 3, born Ohio
Could Talbot be an alternate interpretation of Calvert? Very possible.
There are two additional clues here: the names Lucinda and Catharine. Sarah
Wickiser Calvert had a sister Lucinda Wickiser and Sarah Wickiser,
Calvert’s mother, was named Katherine. Both names were used extensively in
the family. The names are a coincidence to be certain, but make the entry
worth investigating.
*Who Is That in the Cemetery?*
There is an Elisha Calvert buried in the Hunt Cemetery in Harlem Township,
with a tombstone inscription indicating a date of birth of 10 March 1808
and a death date of 17 August 1850. This age is consistent with the Elisha
Talbot census entry. Does this mean I have the right guy? No. It means I
have a potential match.
The 1850 census at Ancestry was searched again, for a person with the first
name of Elisha, living in Delaware County, Ohio, with a year of birth of
ca. 1808. None had a last name even reasonably close to Calvert or Talbot,
except for the entry already noted. After reviewing my map of Ohio counties
and townships, I performed similar searches for Elishas living in Franklin
or Licking counties. No matches. This was done to make certain there were
not multiple Elisha Talbots/Calverts living in the same general area. Just
because a match is found does not mean the correct person has been located.
There now seems a reasonable chance that this entry is for the desired
Sarah, but more work needs to be done. We follow the Sarah in 1860 and
1870. Here’s what I found:
1860 Federal Census, Ohio, Licking County, Monroe Township
- Sarah Colbert, aged 50, born Ohio
- Hannah A., aged 13, born Ohio
These ages are consistent with the purported 1850 enumeration for Sarah and
the death of Elisha in 1850. Licking County is adjacent to Delaware County
where Sarah was in 1850.
1870 required a little more work. It appears that the family left Ohio, and
they were living in Crittenden Township, Champaign County, Illinois. Sarah
Calvert was aged 60, born in Ohio, and keeping house in the household of
John Barkus, aged 24, with his apparent children (Silas, aged 9, and Laura
E., aged 5). Also listed on the same page is Silas Calvert, aged 35 born
Ohio. This Silas Calvert is of a consistent age to be the Silas in the 1850
enumeration with Sarah Talbot.
A search of Ancestry World Tree located a reference to a John Barcus
marrying a Lucinda Calvert on 20 October 1859. Unfortunately no location is
given. This reference most definitely needs to be confirmed with local
records if possible. All it really tells me is that someone else at least
believed that a John Barcus married a Lucinda Calvert. The date fits our
time frame, but that does not prove anything either. It is a good clue
though.
*Where Next?*
Armed with the death date of Elisha Calvert, courthouse records in Ohio
should be checked, particularly estate and court documents. His 1850 census
enumeration lists him as a laborer with no real estate, so there’s a chance
that little was left to settle after his death, but it’s still a good idea
to look. The marriage of John Barcus and Lucinda Calvert should also be
obtained, looking in Licking and Delaware counties initially and broadening
the circle out from there.
Death records in Champaign County, Illinois, should also be checked for
Sarah Calvert, as it appears she died before the 1880 census enumeration.
It is possible that she or other family members are buried there. Our work
continues, but there are a few things to keep in mind as far as the
methodologies that were employed in locating Sarah:
- The importance of neighbors and family
- The importance of being constantly aware of the family structure
- The necessity of having relevant contemporary maps
- Being aware of alternate name spellings and pronunciations
Keep in mind, so far my case is circumstantial. It looks reasonable and may
very well be correct, but additional work needs to be done. The nice thing
is most of the census searching could easily be done on Ancestry and now we
can take our framework and head off to additional records, both on- and
offline.
The author acknowledges and appreciates the help of Wickiser descendant
Mary Wickizer Burgess in tracking Sarah down.
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.
--------------------
“A Good Farm Out In the Sticks” and What’s Not In the Paper
--------------------
[image: image.png]
Real estate is often about one thing: location…at least on the surface.
Genealogical research is never about one source.
The value in location was apparently true about the Riley Rampley farm in
Hancock County, Illinois. At least that’s what the newspaper seems to be
implying.
The *Warsaw Bulletin* mentioned the partition sale of the sale of Riley’s
farm in January of 1909. I’ve known about the partition suit for some time
and (other than the residences of the purchasers) all but the last sentence
is information easily verifiable using court records. The newspaper would
not be an original source for this information. The original source would
be those court records.
It’s the last sentence that intrigues me.
This is a low price for the property, its situation off the main road being
to its disadvantage and affecting its value but not in the least its
producing qualities.
The farm is in the sticks. There’s no doubt about that. In fact, when
Riley’s widow, Nancy, applies for a military pension there is information
about the location of her farm in the application. The special examiner
mentions the difficulty he had getting to the farm. The location of the
farm could have negatively impacted its value.
But there’s a little more to the story than that. And possibly a little
more to the price of the farm than the location. The newspaper does not
tell the real reason behind the partition sale.
The farm was owned jointly by the heirs of Riley Rampley–wife Nancy and
their ten children. Nancy wanted to sell the farm and move to the nearby
town of West Point. Had the heirs been in agreement to a price, they could
have sold without court action and without a public sale. But they couldn’t.
Riley and Nancy’s youngest son Virgil was too young to execute a deed. They
could not have arranged a sale among themselves even if they had wanted to.
A partition suit was necessitated by Virgil’s age.
It’s easy to see how the scenario played out.
Nancy goes to the local justice of the peace, notary public, or someone
else locally who “knows the law” and says she wants to sell the
farm–perhaps to her two sons who have agreed to pay her a price the family
agrees to. He tells her “Mrs. Rampley. You can’t sell the farm by
yourselves this way. Virgil’s too young. The law won’t let him sign a deed.
There ain’t no way you can do it without going to court.”
And so a partition suit is filed and the auction is the end result.
It’s also possible that other bidders at the auction are not seriously
bidding against the Rampley brothers. It would not be unheard of for locals
to not “bid against the family” in an auction of this type. Peer pressure
can be a powerful force and the neighbors were probably well aware that the
family’s only option was a public auction. Sometimes there are ways to
slightly work around the law.
And the newspaper…it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Which is why we never rely on just one source.
*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.
-----------------------------
-----------------------------
--------------------
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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