Ancestry adds Full Text Search

 

Ancestry's Full Text Search.

Ahead of RootsTech, Ancestry has added Full Text Search as a beta feature. This will probably be covered in greater detail next week in the Ancestry keynote and at the Ancestry RootsTech booth. Full Text Search has been invaluable on FamilySearch, so it will be really interesting to see how this new tool stacks up on Ancestry.

This feature may be in the process of rolling out to all users, and can be found from the Search dropdown menu at the top left side of the page when on Ancestry.

A Petition in Equity

 

FamilySearch. Warren County, KY. 1879.

When I last looked at the Grinstead family in Kentucky in March 2020, I did not have a death date or location for Thomas Grinstead (my 4th-great-grandfather). Using FamilySearch Full Text Search, I stumbled on a petition in equity filed by Thomas' daughter Sarah Jane and her husband James Garmon. The Garmons, along with her brother Alexander Grinstead and their families, had moved from Warren County, Kentucky to Missouri. At some point in the 1870s, Sarah's father moved to Missouri and was living with Alexander. He could no longer take care of his father, so Thomas went to live with Sarah, her husband and family in June 1877.

It looks like Thomas' health and mental state deteriorated at the Garmon home in Polk County, Missouri. Sarah and her husband filed the petition in equity to recover costs from Thomas' estate for $500, plus funeral costs and a doctor's bill from March-April 1877. The case includes a deposition from the Garmons, providing the confirmation that Thomas Grinstead died in Missouri about 1 December 1877.

Some of the Grinstead siblings challenged the case, but by August 1879, the Garmons agreed to a settlement to receive $100 from the estate. 

Melissa Catherine

 

Ideogram. Melissa Catherine Grinstead Wheatley. 1860.

There's no official portrait for my 3rd-great-grandmother, Melissa Catherine Grinstead Wheatley. She was born on 8 February 1843 in Warren County, Kentucky, and likely died before her 21st birthday, sometime between 1861 and 1863. She had one son, who went by the name Thomas Whitley. He was born on 5 August 1861.

Her husband Robert remarried in 1872, and moved to Texas. As we have nothing else on Melissa Catherine, the imagined image serves as the best guess we have for her likeness.

She is mentioned in a 1879 Warren County Court record, and I'll pick this up in the next post.

FamilySearch. Warren County, KY. 1879.

Ötzi the Iceman mtDNA has a match

From the FamilyTreeDNA Blog is a fascinating story about a mtDNA match connecting a present day tester with the 5,000 year old Ötzi, who was discovered in 1991 frozen on the Alps in the border of Austria and Italy. A French citizen of Algerian heritage is a match sharing the K1f haplogroup. The research shows the two shared a maternal line ancestor about 7,000 years ago.

FTDNA Blog. 23 Feb 2026.

This is super cool, and shows how great the MitoTree progress has been in recent times.

Oceanwide Plaza

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Downtown LA. 1 Mar 2024.

A set of photos of the infamous Oceanwide Plaza, also currently known as the graffiti towers of Downtown LA. These towers sit across the street from the home of the LA Lakers, Crypto dot com Arena. News out of LA indicates a buyer is emerging from the bankruptcy sale, which might lead to a clean-up and completion for the stalled project.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Oceanwide, 1 Mar 2024.