[Genealogy] Incomplete Probate, Snoutfeathers, Metes and Bounds Released, Self-Consultations
Michael John Neill
mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Sun Sep 20 09:46:00 CDT 2026
Need to unsubscribe
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com>
?
Genealogy Update 20 Sept 2026
** Was Michael's 1869 Probate Missing Heirs?
** Intro Price on Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant--Consult Yourself
** A Snoutfeather
** New Release: Metes and Bounds with AI
** Recorded Webinars
----------------------------
Was Michael's 1869 Probate Missing Heirs?
----------------------------
One record or even a series of records can be entirely correct, entirely
wrong, or somewhere in between. When one only has one record of set of
records to use, it can be difficult to tell which is the case.
The 1869-1870 era probate of Michael Trautvetter in Hancock County,
Illinois, indicated he had the following siblings who either survived him
or left heirs of their own:
- George Trautvetter
- Hinrich Trautvetter
- Wilhelmina Kraft
- Ernestine Hess
The will of Adam Trautvetter, filed a few years earlier in Hancock County,
indicated he was a member of this family as well by his mentioning of his
brother George Trautvetter and George Trautvetter’s known son-in-law, John
Herbert.
Records in the United States indicated that these siblings were born in the
1790s-1800s. As mentioned in other blog posts on this family, baptismal
records in Bad Salzungen, Thuringen, Germany, were located for George
(actually John George), Adam, and Michael. These men were sons of Erasumus
and Anna Catharine (Gross) Trautvetter. Records for the other siblings
could not be located and this was attributed to records that were difficult
to read or the family not living in Bad Salzungen when they were born.
The probate made the relationships pretty clear.
When reviewing the materials from Wohlmuthausen, Thuringen, Germany, where
the Trautvetter family lived during at least the approximate 1830-1855 time
frame, it appeared that there were other siblings. The family book from the
church in Wohlmuthausen suggests that there were two other children of
Erasmus and Anna Catharine (Gross) Trautvetter: Elisabeth Margaretha and
Elisabetha Magdalena. These two women appear to have been married and had
several children of their own.
The question is “why are these women or their descendants not listed in the
Michael Trautvetter probate?” Michael died intestate and his siblings
became his heirs. If these sisters left issue (or were alive themselves)
there should have been a reference to them in his probate?
At this point I don’t have an answer. I had always assumed the probate of
Michael Trautvetter was complete. And it may still be. But I have more work
to do.
I assumed the intestate probate of Michael included all his heirs.
Now I’m wondering.
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.
--------------------
Snoutfeathers?
--------------------
Sometimes a person thinks that they have seen just about every spelling
variation for a name that there is.
And then something else comes along.
The clerk (or someone) thought the maiden name of the mother on a 1904
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, birth certificate said “Snoutfeather.” That actually
seems to be a misreading of the original clerk’s intention (what they are
thinking is an “Sn” looks like a “Tr,” but there was still this order
recorded on the back of the birth certificate for Edward Reif in 1904.
[image: trautvetter-wrong]
<https://rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/trautvetter-wrong.jpg>
There’s even a notation to see the other side of the certificate and the
correction[image: trautvetter-wong3]
<https://rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/trautvetter-wong3.jpg>s
have been made on the original document with a typewriter. There is no
indication of when the correction was made due to the order being issued.
My suspicion is that it was when the individual applied for a Social
Security number.
As a note, I know nothing about this Trautvetter family. I just came across
this while working on something else.
But I’m always happy to get a new spelling variation.
I think.
--------------------------------------
*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--
-------------------------------------
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.
Available for immediate download. *Introductory price is $23.
<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=251367&method_id=274508>*
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/>
----------------------------------------
*Need to unsubscribe? Do so at:*
*https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com>*
Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day
PO Box 17
Henderson, IL 61439
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://genealogytipoftheday.com/pipermail/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com/attachments/20260920/d2b40064/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 44039 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://genealogytipoftheday.com/pipermail/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com/attachments/20260920/d2b40064/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 13865 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://genealogytipoftheday.com/pipermail/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com/attachments/20260920/d2b40064/attachment-0003.png>
More information about the Genealogy
mailing list