Blog – Family Locket

RLP 370: Tracing the Enslaved in the 1900 U.S. Census and Enslaved.org Project

Before the episode’s main topic, Diana shares how she uses AI in transcribing deeds and court records and for creating source citations and abstracts for her research log. Nicole shares that she’s been using ChatGPT to summarize profile pages from FamilySearch’s Tree for her research log. Nicole and Diana discuss tracing enslaved individuals in U.S. records, specifically focusing on the 1900 U.S. Census and the Enslaved.org project. Nicole introduces the challenges of researching enslaved people, […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer August 11, 2025 Podcast

Treasure Hunt at the Love County Courthouse: Uncovering Land Records

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of walking into a courthouse and uncovering a treasure trove of your ancestors’ records that exist nowhere else online. My research trip to the Love County Courthouse in Marietta, Oklahoma, turned into exactly that kind of genealogical treasure hunt. What started as a search for one specific 1913 deed mentioned in a newspaper article led to the discovery of over twenty records documenting the land transactions, oil leases, and […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer August 11, 2025 Certification, Research Tips

RLP 369: Decoding the 1819 Weatherford Assault Case in Frontier Arkansas

Today’s episode, sponsored by Newspapers.com, focuses on decoding the 1819 Weatherford Assault Case in Frontier Arkansas. Diana introduces the topic of researching challenging court records and how new AI tools can assist with finding, transcribing, and understanding them. She discusses her project to discover the father of Henderson Weatherford, which led her to Lawrence County, Arkansas, court records. Diana explains how FamilySearch’s Full-Text search capability helped her find records for William and Buman/Bunyan Weatherford. Diana […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer August 4, 2025 Podcast

RLP 368: AI in the Driver’s Seat – Using Technology to Identify Vehicles in Family Photos

In this episode, Diana and Nicole explore how artificial intelligence can help identify vehicles in old family photographs, adding depth to family stories. Diana shares her experience using a custom GPT called “Genealogy Eyes” through ChatGPT to analyze a photo of her mother, Anna Mae Kelsey, seated on a sheep in front of the family car. Listeners learn how AI can identify specific car models and features, providing insights into the family’s economic status and […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer July 28, 2025 Podcast

High-Quality Handwritten Text Recognition with Gemini 2.5 Pro in Google AI Studio

Today I pasted three screenshots of a 1791 South Carolina deed into Google AI Studio, and the resulting transcription was so good, I almost didn’t have to change anything. The deed spanned three pages, so I simply took three screenshots and pasted them one at a time into the same conversation, with the prompt to “transcribe and keep line breaks.” Google AI Studio is a free tool for anyone to try Google’s AI model, Gemini. […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer July 22, 2025 Artificial Intelligence, Research Tips

RLP 367: The Nurturing Legacy of My Second Great-Grandmother – Alice Frazier Harris

In this episode of Research Like a Pro, Nicole and Diana discuss Nicole’s second great-grandmother, Alice “Allie” Frazier Harris, focusing on her nurturing nature. Listeners will learn about Alice’s birth in Montague County, Texas, and her parents, Richard Frazier and Nancy E. Briscoe. Richard was a Civil War veteran. They also discuss Alice’s school years, her marriage to Dock Harris in 1904, and her experiences with motherhood. Alice had four children, two of whom passed […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer July 21, 2025 Podcast

How to Prepare for an Onsite Genealogy Research Trip

Ever had an unsuccessful research trip where you spent time and money traveling to a facility, only to leave feeling frustrated and empty-handed? This is the first full post in our Onsite Research series (introduced here), where we’re diving into how to prepare for an onsite research trip and the essential research planning that should be done in advance. The good news is that with proper preparation, you can avoid those disappointing experiences and make […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer July 18, 2025 Certification, Research Tips

RLP 366: Using AI to Add Historical Context – Boston Union Workhouse and Sarah Jane (Miller) Creer

Today, Diana and Nicole discuss how to use AI to add historical context to your genealogy research, focusing on the Boston Union Workhouse and Sarah Jane (Miller) Creer. Diana begins by introducing the topic, explaining that researching institutions like workhouses can offer significant insights into an ancestor’s experience. She shares that her second great-grandmother, Sarah Jane (Miller) Creer, lived in the Boston Union Workhouse at age 10. Diana used Claude 3.7 Sonnet, an AI tool, […]

By Nicole Elder Dyer July 14, 2025 Podcast

Onsite Research: Beyond Digitized Records

In our digital age, when millions of records are accessible from our home computers, it’s easy to forget that some of our most valuable genealogical treasures still lie waiting in courthouse basements, archive storage rooms, and historical society filing cabinets. While online databases have revolutionized family history research, the reality is that countless records remain undigitized—and these might hold the keys to our most challenging research questions. Claude (an artificial intelligence tool) helped write […]