Diana Elder

About Diana Elder

Diana Elder AGⓇ AGL is a professional genealogist, author, and speaker. She is accredited in the Gulf South region of the United States through the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). Diana graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Elementary Education and has turned her passion for teaching to educating teens and adults in proven genealogy techniques. Diana is the author of Research Like a Pro: A Genealogists Guide and creator of the “Research Like a Pro” study group. She writes regular articles for FamilyLocket.com, the genealogy website created by her daughter, Nicole Dyer. She presents regularly at genealogy conferences, sharing the methods she uses every day to solve challenging genealogical problems.

Transforming Court Records Research with AI: A Case Study from Colonial Virginia Part 2: Analysis

Feb 13, 2026

Claude 4.5 Sonnet assisted with organizing and writing this blog post based on my research report and a syllabus about using AI for court records. In part 1 of this series, we learned how AI assisted my research on finding, logging, and organizing a series of court orders between Samuel Daniel and my Roystons. In this blog post, we’ll go through the cases and see how AI helps us understand the legal context of court...

Transforming Court Records Research with AI: A Case Study from Colonial Virginia Part 1 – Finding and Logging

Feb 6, 2026

Claude 4.5 Sonnet assisted with organizing and writing this blog post based on my research report and a syllabus about using AI for court records. For generations, genealogists have known that court records contain some of the richest genealogical information available—and some of the most challenging to access. Unlike vital records or census enumerations, court records rarely come with indexes. The researcher faces the daunting task of browsing court books page by page, deciphering cryptic...

Understanding the FamilySearch Research Wiki – Part 4: Case Study

Jan 24, 2026

Success in our research depends on understanding the locality’s records, history, and required methodology. Whether we’re experienced in the research locality or a newbie, there is always more to learn. In this blog series on the FamilySearch Research Wiki, guest blogger Virginia Pratt will help us understand what the wiki contains and how best to use it. Virginia worked on the FamilySearch Wiki team for five years, writing and organizing Wiki pages. We’re excited to...

Using the FamilySearch Research Wiki – Part 3: Understanding Topic Pages

Jan 10, 2026

What Genealogists Can Learn from Colum McCann’s “TransAtlantic”: Writing Family History

Jan 2, 2026

Immigrant stories are fascinating, and in the novel TransAtlantic by Irish author Colum McCann, we follow an Irish immigrant and three subsequent generations. As family historians, we benefit from reading historical accounts based on the author’s research. We can gain important contextual information and insight into the plight of our ancestors. In TransAtlantic, we view the immigration story from the Irish perspective, with young Lily Duggan braving the Atlantic Ocean to start a new life in...

Using the FamilySearch Research Wiki – Part 2: Understanding Locality Pages

Dec 26, 2025

Using AI as Your Genealogical Deed Abstracting Partner: A Case Study

Dec 19, 2025

A good case study can give us excellent ideas for tackling our challenging research. Enjoy this blog post by one of our Family Locket team members, Jill, who shares her success using AI as an assistant. by Jill Leonard Nock, AG® Historical deed research can be simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting. The thrill of discovery often comes after hours of deciphering 18th- or 19th-century handwriting, tracking chains of title, and piecing together family relationships. But what if...

Using the FamilySearch Research Wiki – Part 1: Getting Started

Dec 12, 2025

When Birthdates Don’t Agree: Analyzing and Correlating Evidence

Dec 7, 2025

Our family history research depends heavily on finding dates for our ancestors’ births, marriages, deaths, residences, and more. Tracking down those dates can be challenging when the original records with primary information simply do not exist. Before a jurisdiction mandated birth certificates, family Bible records, church records, a newspaper notice, a letter, or other non-governmental source may have recorded the birth of a child. However, through time, those sources may not have survived, even if...