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.

“The Thread Collectors”: A Fictionalized Civil War Novel Based on Family History

Jun 27, 2025

We often have family stories that have been passed down through the generations to us. How much truth is in the story we may never know, but in the novel, The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman, we have an interesting example of weaving a tale from historical research and a thread of a story. The authors collaborated on this novel. Shaunna has African-American ancestry, and Alyson has Jewish ancestry. They combine...

Tracing the Enslaved in the 1900 U.S. Census and Enslaved.org Project

Jun 22, 2025

Tracing the enslaved in U. S. records is challenging and time-consuming. Because enslaved people typically only had first names until emancipation, we hope to find identifying information, such as age and possible family groups, in records like the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules. We also look for records post-emancipation, such as the 1867 Voter Registration and the 1870 census. Tracing people forward in time presents its own challenges because the formerly enslaved may have chosen...

Memories of My Father: Bobby Gene Shults (1927-2011)

Jun 15, 2025

On this Father’s Day, I’ve been reminiscing about my dad, Bobby Gene Shults. He was one of the “greatest generation” who served in World War II and went on to build a life and raise a family afterward. He wrote his own life history, which is filled with stories about the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and his adventures as a young boy in Texas, Oklahoma, and California. When we visited, he’d tell those stories...

AI-Assisted Genealogy: Decoding the 1819 Weatherford Assault Case in Frontier Arkansas

May 21, 2025

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...

AI in the Driver’s Seat: Using Technology to Identify Vehicles in Family Photos

May 18, 2025

Do you have any photos of family members by their cars? What can you add to a family’s story by analyzing the make, model, and price of the car? It turns out, this is another great use of artificial intelligence. For this 52 Ancestor blog post around the theme of “Wheels,” I chose a photo of my mother, Anna Mae Kelsey, where the family car is the backdrop. Using AI to help with the analysis,...

Boston Union Workhouse and Sarah Jane (Miller) Creer (1841-1902): Using AI to Add Historical Context

May 4, 2025

When we discover that our ancestor was in an institution such as an asylum, prison, or workhouse, we can learn much about their experience by researching the institution. My 2nd great-grandmother, Sarah Jane (Miller) Creer, resided in the Boston Union Workhouse in Lincolnshire, England at the age of 10. Wanting to learn more about this specific workhouse, I queried AI and was pleased with the accurate and informative report created by Claude 3.7 Sonnet. AI...

Piecing Together a Family Story: Thomas B. Royston’s Land and Headstone in Chambers County, Alabama

Apr 27, 2025

On my recent trip to Alabama, I had the opportunity to visit Chambers County, where my third great-grandparents, Thomas and Cynthia Royston, settled in the mid-1800s. I visited the cemetery where Thomas was buried and viewed the land he owned. I previously wrote about researching him at the Alabama Department of History and Archives and the Chambers County Courthouse, and in this blog post, I’ll use that research as well as my previous findings to tell...

A Day at the Chamber County Courthouse: Tips for Success

Apr 19, 2025

What can you find at the county courthouse? Records kept on the county level, such as deeds, mortgages, marriages, wills, guardianships, etc., are vital for our research. Although many of these items may be available online, some likely exist only at the courthouse. A trip to the courthouse may be in order if we want to perform reasonably exhaustive research. I recently visited Chambers County, Alabama, the residence of my ancestor, Thomas Beverly Royston, from...

A Day at the Alabama Department of Archives & History: Thomas B. Royston’s Tax Record

Apr 13, 2025

After exhausting online resources, genealogists often wonder what else can be found in a government archive. These important repositories house many collections important to researchers, such as government records, county records, manuscript collections, and more. In my recent visit to the Alabama Department of Archives & History, I discovered another record that shed light on the life of my ancestor, Thomas B. Royston. I had researched him extensively in both DeKalb and Chambers County Alabama...

Home Sweet Home: The House that Charles C. Creer Built

Mar 30, 2025

Ancestral homes are an important part of our family history. We can research the home’s architecture and records, such as city directories, taxes, maps, newspapers, and more. For this 52 Ancestor blog post theme of “Home Sweet Home,” I researched and wrote about the Spanish Fork home of my great-grandparents, Charles Cannon Creer and Mary Margaret Peterson. Charles built the home for his bride to move into upon their marriage on 23 March 1892, and...

Blog Post Categories

Sale

14-Day Research Like a Pro Challenge Workbook - Digital Only Original price was: $32.99.Current price is: $22.99.
Research Like a Pro Webinar Series - 2023 Original price was: $60.00.Current price is: $45.00.
Research Like a Pro Webinar Series - 2024 Original price was: $60.00.Current price is: $45.00.
Research Like a Pro Study Group
Rated 5.00 out of 5
Original price was: $400.00.Current price is: $350.00.

About Diana Elder

“The Thread Collectors”: A Fictionalized Civil War Novel Based on Family History

Tracing the Enslaved in the 1900 U.S. Census and Enslaved.org Project

Memories of My Father: Bobby Gene Shults (1927-2011)

AI-Assisted Genealogy: Decoding the 1819 Weatherford Assault Case in Frontier Arkansas

AI in the Driver’s Seat: Using Technology to Identify Vehicles in Family Photos

Boston Union Workhouse and Sarah Jane (Miller) Creer (1841-1902): Using AI to Add Historical Context

Piecing Together a Family Story: Thomas B. Royston’s Land and Headstone in Chambers County, Alabama

A Day at the Chamber County Courthouse: Tips for Success

A Day at the Alabama Department of Archives & History: Thomas B. Royston’s Tax Record

Follow Us

Search

Blog Post Categories

Airtable Links

Free Downloads

Newsletter Sign Up – Receive Excel Research Log

Featured Products

Sale