In this episode of Research Like a Pro, Nicole and Diana discuss their ancestor, William Henry Kelsey, and the spiritual manifestations he recorded in his diary. They explore William’s early life in England, his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his missionary service. The discussion includes details about William’s family, his various residences, and his marriage to Harriet Huggett. Nicole shares specific entries from William’s diary, including accounts of spiritual...
In episode 347 of the Research Like a Pro Genealogy podcast, Diana and Nicole discuss researching material culture through family heirlooms, specifically a book. They use a historical research process similar to the genealogical research process to examine the poem BitterSweet by J.G. Holland, which Diana inherited from her great aunt Effie. Diana inherited the book and, using Gena Philbert Ortega’s methods from her institute course on Material Culture, researches its origins and significance. The...
Research Like a Pro with AI Updates Since Publication March 25: Gemini 2.5 incorporates reasoning/thinking for free users March 20: Claude can now search the web – for paid users in the U.S. More countries and free users will receive the feature soon. March 18: Gemini now has Canvas, a side-by-side interface allowing collaboration between users and Gemini; available to free and paid users. Also, Gemini has Audio Overview (originally only at NotebookLM). March 13:...
Diana and Nicole explore the mystery of Diana’s great-grandfather’s nickname, Dock Harris. They discuss how his name was recorded as D.H., Dock H., or Dock in records, which was puzzling because it seemed like a nickname. They explain how this caused confusion for Diana’s father, Bob, when he began researching the family history. Bob knew his grandfather as Grandpa Harris and had no other information to go on. The family bible even listed his name...
Last week, we were fortunate to host Cathy Duncan for an enlightening webinar on her genealogical research combining Texas migration patterns and DNA analysis. Cathy, a member of our Research Like a Pro study group, shared her journey to connect Lucinda Wright Rinker to her father using a methodical approach that integrates traditional and genetic genealogy methods. This blog post summarizes the key insights from her presentation. This blog post was written by Claude Sonnet...
In this episode of Research Like a Pro, Diana and Nicole discuss how to choose a favorite photo out of a large collection. Diana shares a photo of her grandfather, Edward Raymond Kelsey, on his horse, Pal, and talks about his love for horses. She experimented with using AI to analyze the photo and shares her findings. Diana used Mark Thompson’s Historical Photo Analyzer custom GPT and was impressed with the results. The AI provided...
Merged identities are always difficult in our research, but it is even more so with women. In the U.S., women have a maiden name and could have several different married names. Ensuring that the correct facts and sources are attached to a woman can be tricky without thorough research. However, using a research log and timeline helps put together a profile for a woman that can separate her from others of the same name. The...
In Episode #344 of Research Like a Pro, Nicole and Diana discuss Colonial American Research. Diana explains the difficulties of finding the original immigrant for ancestors who immigrated during the colonial years. Nicole suggests learning from historians who have studied immigration patterns and developing a hypothesis based on what is known about ancestors and their groups. They introduce the book “The Peopling of British North America: An Introduction” by Bernard Bailyn as a resource for...
Nicole and Diana interview Rebecca Shamblin, genealogist, speaker, author, and blogger, about turning your family tree into a book. Rebecca gives an overview of her two books, “Leaving a Legacy: Turn Your Family Tree into a Family Book” and “Building a Legacy: A Guide to Combining Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker.” The hosts and Rebecca discuss the five phases of creating a family history book: planning, researching, writing, printing, and distribution. They talk about choosing...
I’m excited to share some enhancements to my Research Like a Pro with DNA genealogy research log template in Airtable. You can access the new templates here: RLP with DNA Research Log 4.1 (2025) RLP with DNA Research Log 4.1 (2025) – Blank The blank base does not include example data that you need to remove before using. If this is your first time using my Airtable templates, I recommend practicing with the base that...
