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...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro we delve into the intricacies of naturalization records, with a special focus on 20th-century cases. A significant part of the episode is dedicated to a case study of Adolph Salmon, a German immigrant. We discuss how Diana traced his naturalization journey through various records, including census data, newspapers, and court documents. We highlight the significance of creating timelines and merging information from diverse sources to reveal a comprehensive...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about our ancestor, Selina (Beddoes) Kelsey. Selina lived until age 97, and was regularly featured in Utah newspapers due to being one of the last pioneers to arrive in Utah by wagon (before the railroad). Selina was only 4 years old when she crossed from Nebraska to Salt Lake City by covered wagon. Diana organized the newspaper clippings into a timeline in Airtable to keep track of...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about an outcast in our family tree. Diana shares how she responded to the 52 Ancestors prompt to write about an ancestor who was an outcast. She chose William “Dick” Shults, who fled town after a gunfight and settled in Arizona. He made it into the newspapers several times in the early 1900s due to run-ins with the law and other events. Join us as we discuss...
Newspapers provide a look at our ancestors’ lives that can be unique. Before Google Photos, Family Search Memories, and Ancestry trees, we clipped newspaper articles and saved them in scrapbooks. My grandmother, Florence (Creer) Kelsey, was a wonderful keeper of news articles relating to her family, and thanks to her, I have a nice collection of clippings about my great-grandmother Selina (Beddoes) Kelsey. At the time of her death in 1962, Selina was one of...
Marriage records are one of the three vital records we rely on for identifying our ancestors and their relationships. They can contain the residence of the bride and groom, names of parents or witnesses, clues to religion, birth information, the bride’s maiden name, and more. Because of the legal implications of marriage, most U.S. counties began recording marriages early in the county’s formation. If the couple was married in a church, there could also be...
Today Diana and I are going to wrap up our discussion of locality research. In last week’s episode we talked about the first two question to ask: “What happened?” and “Where did it happen?” Today, we are talking about the last question: “Why did it happen?” This episode is all about the historical context that affected our ancestors lives. What is your favorite way to learn about historical context? We suggest several ideas, including county...
Do you know more about your male or female ancestors? Men are definitely easier to research. They owned land and were listed as the heads of household on U.S. Federal Census records before 1850. We’ve probably all traced our surname line back as far as possible – who wouldn’t want to know where their name came from? The soldiers, land owners, prominent business men, and community leaders in our family trees have captured the interest of many of...
