Hill County Genealogical Society

04/11/2026

National Genealogical Association Annual Conference

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

04/11/2026

Are you checking the church records for finding answers about your ancestors?

Using Church Session, Membership, and Discipline Records (New Quicksheet)

Church records go far beyond baptisms, marriages, and burials. Many congregations — especially Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, Lutheran, Reformed, and early frontier churches — kept session minutes, membership rolls, and discipline records. These documents contain revealing details about residence, relationships, conversions, migrations, community disputes, moral expectations, and the everyday lives of members. For genealogists, these records provide context and evidence not found in civil documents, often naming individuals who appear nowhere else. This Quicksheet highlights what these church governance records include and how they can break open genealogical brick walls.

Get the four-page Quicksheet PDF at https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/using-church-session-membership-and-discipline-records/

04/11/2026

Check for the neighbors as part of the "FAN Club" research strategy .

"Neighbors as Memory Prompts."

Before interviewing that relative, see if you can determine the names of any near neighbors. Names of those neighbors may generate memories of events you never would have asked about otherwise. Census records that are public (if the person is old enough) are one place to get these names. City directories are another (particularly if they are searchable by address). Telephone directories may also help, particularly for those ancestors who were rural. Ask about your interviewee’s neighbors. You may get more than you bargained for.

This was yesterday's tip. Get them daily in your email by visiting our site and adding your email address at: https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/tip-of-the-day_genealogytipoftheday.com

--Michael

04/11/2026

Searching for any immigration papers filed in these states?

Free Online Western States Immigration Records - Updated

Looking for Immigrant ancestors? 325 total links to Free Collections, which include Passenger lists, alien declarations, ship manifests, etc. Immigration Records are chock-full of very useful genealogy information.

https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/325-free-online-immigration-collections-from-the-western-states/

04/11/2026

Streetcar Conductors

Historical Occupation Profiles – Streetcar Conductors. Behind every occupation is a story about how your ancestor lived. Streetcar conductors worked on urban transit systems that transported passengers within cities during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Streetcars, powered first by horses and later by electricity, were a primary mode of public transportation in many urban areas. Conductors were responsible for managing passengers, collecting fares, and ensuring orderly operation of the streetcar.

Get the Profile at https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/historical-occupation-profiles-streetcar-conductors/

04/11/2026

DNA & the puzzling Endogamy

If your DNA results feel confusing, you are not alone.

When matches don’t make sense, it is easy to assume you are missing something. But in many cases, the real issue is endogamy.

Endogamy changes how DNA behaves. It can make distant relatives look closer than they are and send your research in the wrong direction.

This course will help you recognize those patterns and give you a clear strategy for working through them.

If your DNA research has ever felt frustrating or stuck, this may be the missing piece.

Learn more here:
https://hubs.la/Q049vfWX0

04/06/2026

We will be having a HCGS meeting and learning session for all who are interested in gathering family history of our ancestors. It will be on Monday, April 6, 2026, from 6-7 pm, at the City Library.

The topic will be about Ancestry's Full Text Search. Please join us Monday evening in Hillsboro and give us your input to let us know if you have used it, if it has helped you, and what type of records you found?

04/06/2026

Did you play Hide & Seek as a child? Now we play it as an adult genealogy researcher.

04/03/2026

So true for many of us!

04/03/2026

This probably has happened to all of us with finding information of our ancestors. Thank you for sharing The Ancestor Hunt

04/03/2026

Remembering our Ancestors

04/03/2026

A new look for the front of the Hillsboro City Library at 118 S. Waco St. It looks really nice!