Family Locket

RLP 350: Florence (Creer) Kelsey and the Challenge of a First Job

In Episode 350 of the Research Like a Pro Genealogy podcast, Diana and Nicole discuss Florence Matilda (Creer) Kelsey’s first job. Diana begins by asking Nicole what she has been working on or reading. Diana recaps RootsTech, mentioning classes on AI, locality research, and transcriptions, as well as meeting listeners. Diana then introduces the subject of the episode by asking listeners if they remember their first job outside the home. She notes that ancestors also […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer March 24, 2025 Podcast

“The Indigo Girl” – Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Her Contributions in 18th Century South Carolina

Reading historical fiction based on fact allows us to follow an engaging story and learn history simultaneously. The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd fulfills both possibilities. Who was Eliza Lucas Pinckney, the woman the novel is based on? She is credited with learning to grow the difficult crop of indigo in South Carolina in the early 1700s, which was a challenging task, especially for a woman in Colonial America. We’re reading The Indigo Girl for […]

By Diana Elder March 22, 2025 Book Club, Creating and Sharing Family History

RLP 349: RootsTech 2025 Tech Announcements

In this episode of Research Like a Pro, Nicole and Diana discuss several new genealogy tools and features. They cover the AncestryDNA “Matches by Cluster” feature, which is a visualization tool for Pro Tools users to identify related DNA matches. They also discuss the improved AncestryDNA feature that allows users to attach DNA matches’ lines to their family trees. Nicole explains the updates to the FamilySearch catalog, focusing on the site architecture and place standardization. […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer March 17, 2025 Podcast

“Until Death Do Us Part… Or Five Weeks Later”: A Tale of Marital Woe in 1875 Dallas – Belle Carpenter vs John W Carpenter

Family history serendipity is real. Thanks to a kind fellow researcher, I recently discovered my ancestor’s divorce case that answers the question of what happened to Isabella Weatherford’s first husband, John W. Carpenter. I had her marriage on 3 January 1875, the birth of her first daughter, Clem, on 3 October 1875, and a second marriage to Robert Royston on 16 January 1877. With no death record, I assumed that perhaps John had died or […]

By Diana Elder March 16, 2025 Artificial Intelligence, Research Tips

RLP 348: William Kelsey’s Diary and Spiritual Manifestations

In this episode of Research Like a Pro, Nicole and Diana discuss their ancestor, William Henry Kelsey, and the spiritual manifestations he recorded in his diary. They explore William’s early life in England, his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his missionary service. The discussion includes details about William’s family, his various residences, and his marriage to Harriet Huggett. Nicole shares specific entries from William’s diary, including accounts of spiritual […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer March 10, 2025 Podcast

New Features and Apps Announced at RootsTech 2025

During the last in-person class I taught at RootsTech, on Saturday afternoon, I asked attendees which tech announcements they were most excited about. The answers included Ancestry’s upcoming clustering tool, FamilySearch’s new catalog, Ancestry Networks, and the FamilySearch Together app. These are just a few of the many exciting announcements made at RootsTech 2025! It’s fun to see so many companies announce new technology that will help us with our genealogy research. Here are a […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer March 10, 2025 Creating and Sharing Family History, DNA Tools

AI and FamilySearch Full-Text Search: Working Together to Make Discoveries

Although we know there are likely more records of our ancestors somewhere, it is difficult to know precisely where to search when the known locations are exhausted. Full-text search by FamilySearch has been a game changer in this respect. Introduced at RootsTech 2024, I jumped on and started using it to discover more about my ancestor, Thomas Beverly Royston. I didn’t find anything new for him then, but during RootsTech 2025, I again did a […]

By Diana Elder March 9, 2025 Artificial Intelligence, Research Tips

RLP 347: Effie Kelsey and BitterSweet-A Poem, Researching Material Culture

In episode 347 of the Research Like a Pro Genealogy podcast, Diana and Nicole discuss researching material culture through family heirlooms, specifically a book. They use a historical research process similar to the genealogical research process to examine the poem BitterSweet by J.G. Holland, which Diana inherited from her great aunt Effie. Diana inherited the book and, using Gena Philbert Ortega’s methods from her institute course on Material Culture, researches its origins and significance. The […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer March 3, 2025 Podcast

Citing Digitized Records on FamilySearch

FamilySearch has billions of digitized records, many of which are indexed or available through the AI-assisted Full-Text search. When we find a record about our ancestor, we can attach it to their profile, download it to our files, or add a row to our research log. In each case, a precise source citation should be created to point back to the original record. One of the challenges with citing the source is that with the […]

By Diana Elder March 1, 2025 Research Tips

RLP 346: The Mystery of Claude “Dock” Harris’ Nickname

Diana and Nicole explore the mystery of Diana’s great-grandfather’s nickname, Dock Harris. They discuss how his name was recorded as D.H., Dock H., or Dock in records, which was puzzling because it seemed like a nickname. They explain how this caused confusion for Diana’s father, Bob, when he began researching the family history. Bob knew his grandfather as Grandpa Harris and had no other information to go on. The family bible even listed his name […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer February 24, 2025 Podcast

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