Nicole and Diana discuss the critical steps to ensure a productive genealogy research trip. They emphasize the importance of thorough preparation to avoid frustration and wasted time and money, highlighting that onsite research presents unique challenges compared to online research. Listeners learn that creating a clear research objective is the first crucial step, and Nicole shares contrasting examples from her own experiences: a successful, targeted trip to Love County, Oklahoma, for her Kinship Determination Project,...
In this episode Diana and Nicole host Robert Stevens, co-founder of Heirloom Charts. Robert, who began genealogy in 2010 to help his wife, Jodi, join the DAR, discusses their family-run business that creates customized lineage charts, emphasizing their custom-made, meticulously researched designs. They typically use approved record copies from hereditary societies like the DAR or Mayflower Society and sometimes hire professional researchers to ensure accuracy. Robert shares that charts start at $159 and highlights a...
Today, Diana and Nicole talk about the many valuable genealogical records still waiting in courthouses, archives, and historical societies that aren’t digitized. Nicole shares her personal journey into onsite research, with recent trips to the Love County, Oklahoma courthouse and Historical Society, and the Kentucky Historical Society and Department of Library and Archives. She also talks about visiting Brigham Young University Special Collections to see an ancestor’s diary, and other facilities like the FamilySearch Library....
Diana and Nicole discuss comparing marriage records, specifically original licenses and returns versus marriage book entries. Diana shares her experience analyzing the marriage record of her 2nd great-grandfather, John C. Harris, to Rebecca D. (Alford) Harris in 1888. She explains how her father received the original marriage license and certificate from the Milam County, Texas, Courthouse in 1977. They examine the details of the original document, noting the different inks and handwriting from the county...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
Diana and Nicole discuss Thomas B. Royston’s land and headstone in Chambers County, Alabama. Diana shares about her trip to Alabama, where she visited the cemetery where her third great-grandfather, Thomas, is buried and viewed the land he owned. They start with Thomas’s life in DeKalb County, examining the 1840 census and questioning the identity of “F.B. Royston.” The discussion moves to Thomas acquiring land through a federal land grant and his later move to...
