In this podcast episode, hosts Diana, Nicole, talk with Michelle Mickelson, AG, and discuss the crucial role of church, cemetery, Native American, and Spanish language records in Southwestern genealogy. They emphasize that these records, often predating government documentation, are indispensable for exploring family relationships, migration patterns, and cultural practices through details found in baptism, marriage, and burial entries. The discussion covers a variety of denominations including Catholic, Episcopal, and Methodist, among others. They also offer...
Artificial Intelligence tools have made huge strides in transcribing handwritten text in recent years. I’ve already written about FamilySearch’s use of AI to transcribe thousands of deed and probate images here: AI-Powered Full-Text Search of Handwritten Text at FamilySearch. In this post, I’ll share how I’ve been using ChatGPT 4.0 (the paid version) and Claude (free version) to upload images (.jpg and .png) and transcribe them quickly. These large language models (LLMs) do a pretty...
In this episode, Diana and Nicole welcome guest Michelle Mickelson, AG, to discuss key records and repositories for researching ancestors in the Southwestern United States. They explore the differences between federal, state, and local records, highlighting the importance of each for uncovering vital information. Michelle guide listeners through navigating the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), state archives, historical societies, local government records, university archives, and private collections. They emphasize the value of collaboration...
Finding an immigration record for an ancestor arriving in the United States after 1906 will depend on record availability and good search techniques. Identifying your ancestor among people of the same name is a challenge and thorough research in the U.S. records is important to find every clue available. Timeline of Immigration Laws Key to understanding 20th-century immigration is knowing the laws and historical context that influenced an ancestor’s desire to emigrate from their home...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about the story of Eliza Ann Isenhour (1850-1898) and the family lore that claims she was a full-blooded Cherokee. The conversation starts with the 1884 incident that left Eliza a widow with four young children and another on the way after her husband, William Henderson Shults, died following an accident. Faced with the challenges of widowhood, Eliza remarries Jacob Meek, and they eventually move to Indian Territory,...
Do you have instances of multiple relationships, such as double cousins, or pedigree collapse, in your family tree? If so, the new third-party DNA tool BanyanDNA can help you analyze the amount of DNA you share with your cousins. Leah Larkin introduced Banyan DNA in December of 2023, and in that blog post she wrote: BanyanDNA is unlike any other tool for genetic genealogy. Not only can it help you identify an unknown parent, grandparent,...
In this episode, we discuss breaking up complex research projects into phases. This is a great way to make progress on a research question that might otherwise seem daunting. We’ll talk about how to identify the mother of Elsie, a woman born in 1820, as an example of how to set up phases for research. We’ll also discuss how to determine which phases are necessary and how to write research objectives. We wrap it up...
Exploring the use of artificial intelligence chatbots for creating written content is the new frontier – full of uncertainties and unknowns. Organizations that once prohibited the use of LLMs for research papers are now allowing them, as long as authors are fact-checking the output and attempting to cite potentially copyrighted materials included in the output. In 2023, the International Conference on Machine Learning prohibited the use of LLMs in their call for papers. In 2024,...
Have you wondered how DNA segment data could help with a research project? I have been working on a chromosome map in DNA Painter for several years and gradually added matches that I’ve identified descending from one of my ancestral couples. For my Cline DNA research project, I’m seeking genetic evidence confirming my hypothesis that John C. Cline is the father of Clemsy (Cline) Weatherford. Using the segment tools that are part of GEDmatch’s Tier...
In episode #300 of Research Like a Pro, Diana and Nicole discuss the evolution of their genealogy research methodology, Research Like a Pro (RLP), over the years, focusing on past, present, and future perspectives. Past Developments: Technology: Initially, Diana and Nicole utilized tools like PAF and Ancestral Quest for family trees, Google Sheets for research logs, and Evernote for notes. They also used a lot of paper files and some digital files for organization. Genealogy...
