Court records can be challenging to research for a number of reasons: difficulty finding them, transcribing them, and understanding them. With new artificial intelligence tools at our disposal, we now have an assistant that can tackle each of these challenges. My recent project to discover the father of Henderson Weatherford led me to the Lawrence County, Arkansas, court records. Transcribing and interpreting them gave me insight into a previously unknown Weatherford individual who might be key in finding Henderson’s origins.

Finding Court Records with FamilySearch Full-Text Search

Henderson Weatherford’s origins have long been a brick wall for me. I had attached him to the Dallas County, Texas, Weatherford family, but previous projects disproved that connection and pointed to a William Weatherford of Izard County, Arkansas. I decided for my next research phase to add DNA to the project and research William in the records before his appearance in 1829 in Izard County, Arkansas. My research objective for the Weatherford project follows:

Using DNA and documentary evidence, test the hypothesis that William Weatherford of Izard County, Arkansas, is the father of Henderson Weatherford. William was born 1780-1790 and was present on the 1830 census of Izard County. Henderson was born about 1815 in Tennessee and died about 1862 in Dallas County, Texas. He married Clemsy Cline in about 1838 in Izard County, Arkansas.

Through locality research, I found that Izard County was created from Independence County, which was created from Lawrence County. Records in either county could include William and give me more clues to his origins.

Using FamilySearch’s Full-Text search capability, I was excited to see a series of court records for Weatherfords in Lawrence County. One of these was for William, and the rest were for Buman/Bunyan Weatherford. Previously, searching court dockets involved a page-by-page scan of the microfilm. With AI now looking at every word in the text, we can more easily find records. We may still need to peruse the digitized microfilm in case AI missed something carefully, but this gives us a head start and can help us find new locations to research.

FamilySearch Full-Text Search for Weatherford, Lawrence County, Arkansas 1819-1830

Transcribing the Court Records

With five court records discovered by FamilySearch, the next step was to transcribe each one. FamilySearch provides a transcription and summary that is helpful to determine if the record is for our ancestor. In this case, however, the summary missed the record for Buman Weatherford.

Court Record and Transcription

I turned to Claude.ai to transcribe the Weatherford entries in the court docket book. I want the AI to follow the practice of keeping the line breaks and transcribing every detail. A sample prompt for transcribing would be:

You are an expert genealogist skilled at reading handwriting from the early 1800s. I’ve provided an image of a record from court docket book. Transcribe the record preserving the line breaks. Place any unknown words in square brackets.

I provided the image and watched Claude provide the transcription.¹ After the AI completes the task, you always need to check for accuracy. I often find a word or date may be inaccurate and ask AI to make the correction. In this case, I also asked Claude to interpret the record. It used its extended thinking to ponder the document, then gave me the following.

Lawrence Circuit Court, US vs Wilson and Weathford, July 1819

Claude.ai transcription and interpretation

This was fairly good but has some errors. I replied that this was an assault and battery case, and Claude revised the transcription and the interpretation.

Revised transcription by Claude

Understanding the Court Case

I found that there were five separate entries in the court docket books for this case, so I created a Google Doc where I could put each transcription. Once those were all in the document, I could upload that to Claud,e then ask it to explain the entire case. This is my favorite method for working with any record that spans many documents, such as a pension or estate file.

Google Doc holding the court case transcriptions

Once the transcriptions were complete, I asked Claude to use the Google Doc and provide an explanation of the proceedings. I made a couple of corrections and asked for the summary to be chronological. The result was an understandable description of the court case.

Weatherford Court Records in Chronological Order

March 20, 1819

• Capias (arrest warrant) issued for William Wilson and Buman Weatherford

March 22, 1819

• William Wilson and Buman Weatherford indicted by the United States for assault and battery on Levi Gentry
• Grand jury returned “a true bill” (found sufficient evidence for prosecution)

July Term 1819

• Judgment entered for assault and battery on Levi Gentry
• Sheriff returned an “alias” (second writ) against Wilson

November 24, 1819

• Benjamin Weatherford failed to appear in court despite being ordered to do so
• Court ordered forfeiture of Weatherford’s recognizance bond
• John Gilbreath (Weatherford’s security/bondsman) held liable
• Scire facias ordered against Benjamin Weatherford and John Gilbreath
• Alias warrant issued against William Wilson

December 4, 1819

• Payment made by Wilson

March 29, 1820

• Pluries (third or subsequent) writ awarded against William Wilson
• Scire facias case against “Buneon” (Benjamin) Weatherford continued to next term
• William Weatherford (possibly a relative) served as juror in unrelated Boran vs. Plott case

March 30, 1820

• Court continued session from previous day

April 20, 1820

• Additional payment made by Wilson

July 29, 1830

• Scire facias case against Weatherford & Gilbreath continued until next term

This interpretation made the case much clearer and helped me understand the cryptic entries in the docket book. AI also provided  “notes on terminology” that were helpful as I had no idea of some of these terms.

• Assault and battery: Criminal charge for threatening and physically harming someone
• True bill: Grand jury’s formal indictment
• Capias: Arrest warrant
• Alias/Pluries writs: Second and subsequent writs when earlier ones fail
• Recognizance: Court bond
• Scire facias: Writ demanding someone show cause against judgment execution

 

The name inconsistency (Buman/Benjamin/Buneon Weatherford) likely represents clerical variations rather than different individuals, as was common in historical records.

What about that name variation? At first, I thought it must be Benjamin, but now I’m unsure. It could be any of those names, and I’ll need to continue researching Buman/Benjamin/Buneon for clarity. Regardless of his name, Buman is another Weatherford present in the area with William Weatherford (who was a juror during the same time). Tracing the two men to a previous location, perhaps in Illinois or Tennessee, as hinted in William’s presumed son’s birthplaces, could prove the clue I need to move the Weatherford line back.

AI is truly making a difference in our research. We still need to check for accuracy and think through the implications of a record, but AI gives us a boost.

Best of luck in all your genealogical research!

1. Lawrence County, Arkansas Circuit Court, C:32, US vs Wilson and Weatherford, July 1819, imaged, “Lawrence, Arkansas, United States Records,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLL-39XP-S?view=fullText : accessed 13 May 2025), IGN 008198693, image 79 of 847.