October 19, 2026
Introduction: In this article – to celebrate Family History Month in October – Gena Philibert-Ortega discovers some missing information about her maternal great-grandfather. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”
How are you doing with your Family History Month goals? I’m slowly getting through my genealogy to-do list. One thing I’m noticing in my timelines is that there are decades of information that I’m missing. It’s easy to add things like the census, but what’s more difficult and takes more time are records for the in-between census years.
I took some time looking at my paternal grandfather’s timeline and realized I needed to add more about his life after the 1950 census – specifically, his time working for the Southern Pacific Railroad. While I do have a few records, the majority of what I need will most likely come from historical context and social history. His descendants don’t understand what his life was like working for the railroad, so I need to do some historical research to help with that.
In addition to that research, I realized that there was some information from my maternal side that needed more work. I decided to start with that goal for Week 3 of my Family History Month challenge.
Learning More About My Maternal Great-Grandfather
My maternal grandmother was a genealogist. She and other family members spent time tracing family and writing up family history narratives. These narratives are helpful in learning about my ancestors, but they lack references to records and source citations.
These narratives could be enhanced by adding records that were not available to past generations of genealogists. I’d like to take these writings and add to them so that there is more to the story for descendants to discover.
One of the narratives I’d like to enhance is one written by a cousin about my grandmother’s father, my great-grandfather Benjamin McNeil (1881-1956). This three-page history was read at his funeral on 2 June 1956. There’s quite a bit that can’t be enhanced with records, such as information about his personality, but there is some information that records could help with (and source citations).
For example, one of the sentences in the funeral sketch reads:
During this time, besides providing for his own family, Ben helped his mother file and prove up her homestead, and he helped his brothers build her a home.*
This is information I can add to with homestead records and newspaper notices.
The Homestead
First, to clarify this sentence I might add a few details not found in the original sentence based on the narrative and my own knowledge. Namely, the time period and his mother’s name. Now it reads:
During this time, between 1913-1939, besides providing for his own family, Ben helped his mother, Mary Ann Smith McNeil, file and prove up her homestead, and he helped his brothers build her a home.
A search through GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives for his mother’s name provides results that include notices regarding her homestead, which in turn provide us with some dates.
Her local newspaper, the Snowflake Herald in Snowflake, Arizona, has several notices about her homestead, including this one that appeared on 8 November 1918.
From this notice we see that on 20 May 1914 Mary McNeil made a homestead entry and has now “filed notice of intention to make three-year proof, to establish claim to the land.” The witnesses include her son Benjamin McNeil.
So, between 1914-1918 Benjamin might have been helping her with her claim and improvements, and also serving as a witness. This notice isn’t the only one I found; I found several that date back to 1914 when she first filed. I also found this mention in the “gossip column” about her filing.
So now I have more to help me add to the information about his mother’s homestead and to provide a source citation. I had previously contacted a regional branch of NARA (National Archives) to obtain her homestead claim, so I can include that information as well. Best of all, if Benjamin was helping her, I can narrow down that time period to approximately 1914-1918 – more information for my timeline about his life!
In a paragraph prior to the sentence about helping his mother, there is a reference to him “homesteading” but not much other information.
It was at this time that they began to homestead the McNeil Ranch where they lived for so many years.
I have no idea where this is or if it was a government homestead or just a reference to living in a place. Once again, searching GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives provides more information: the published notice of the land he was homesteading.
Now I can add information about his homestead based on this newspaper article, searching the Bureau of Land Management General Land Office website, and requesting his homestead records through NARA.
Enhancing the Benjamin McNeil Sketch
The more I read this funeral sketch about Benajmin McNeil’s life, the more I realize that it was a great piece of nostalgia for those at his funeral – but for later generations it leaves a lot of questions. Historical context and sources for some of the information presented is needed to help present-day family better understand his life more than half a century after his death.
Yes, I have a great biographic sketch for my great-grandfather, but it is missing information. It’s time for me to update it. Technology and access to records have evolved, which means that we can take older research and make it more complete.
What are you working on for week 3? Let me know in the comments below.
* Frost, Jane. Story of the Life of Benjamin McNeil. 2 June 1956. Pg 3. Photocopies in the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega.
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Note on the header image: Family History Month graphic. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html
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