Using AI in Research Logging : Isabella Weatherford Project Part 5

 

As genealogists, we know the importance of keeping detailed research logs. Today, I’m excited to share insights from my recent project on Isabella Weatherford, demonstrating how I used both traditional methods and AI assistance to log my research effectively. In previous blog posts, I shared how I used Artificial Intelligence to help me form a research objective, transcribe and organize a 57-page pension file for the timeline, make a locality guide for Dallas County, Texas, and create a research plan. In this post, I’ll share my results in following that plan and how I used AI to log the research in my Airtable base.

Review of the Research Plan

Before diving into the research log, let’s quickly review my research to this point:

1. Objective: To examine the economic and social conditions in Dallas County, Texas, in the early 1870s and their influence on Isabella D. Weatherford’s life and marriage prospects.
2. Summary of Known Facts: I compiled a bulleted list of key facts about Isabella’s life, including her birth, marriages, and known residences.
3. Working Hypothesis: I developed a hypothesis about Isabella’s family movements, the potential impacts of the Civil War, and her early marriages.
4. Prioritized Research Plan: I created a plan focusing on county histories, newspapers, census records, tax records, and migration patterns.

 

Following the Research Plan

County Histories

My first step was to explore county histories, starting with John Henry Brown’s History of Dallas County, Texas: From 1837 to 1887.¹
This dense narrative, contemporary for the area, provided valuable insights. Due to copyright restrictions, I could only download individual pages for personal use or research. I carefully browsed the book and selected four pages specifically dealing with the Civil War and Reconstruction. I added these pages to a Google Doc for AI analysis. I then used Claude, an AI assistant, to transcribe and summarize each image individually. This process transformed four pages of dense, difficult text into four readable, engaging paragraphs.  Prompting Claude to put direct quotes in brackets helped me avoid plagiarism. I added this summary to my Google Doc and created a detailed entry in my research log, including the full source citation.

I  searched two additional county histories, using Claude to transcribe or summarize the narrative. The histories provided valuable insight into the history and economics of the area directly after the Civil War and during the reconstruction era.

Newspapers

Next, I turned my attention to newspaper research. Unfortunately, my search for “Weatherford” or variants yielded negative results. The Dallas Herald images online were difficult to read, and the text was very dense, so I decided not to continue with this part of the research.² Despite this, I made sure to log this source and my comments. I added a new field called “Future Research” to my log, ensuring that the Airtable AI assist would be aware of these gaps in my research and could potentially suggest new avenues for exploration later on.

 

Census Research

My census research took an interesting turn. Previous searches had located the Henderson Weatherford household in the 1860 census of Dallas County, Texas, Precinct 6.³ However, my extensive searches for each member of the Weatherford family in the 1870 census of Dallas County had yielded no results. I knew that Isabella’s two older sisters had married and were found in Benton County, Missouri, in 1870, so I decided to expand my search to Missouri. After several unsuccessful attempts using various combinations of names and birth years, I finally had a breakthrough. I found “Samuel H Welaford” with mother indexed as “Clarissy,” sister “Telitha,” and no father present.⁴ This entry in Camden County, Missouri, turned out to be our Weatherford family, albeit with significant misspellings and indexing errors.

Tax Research

Following my research plan, I next examined the Dallas County tax rolls. I was able to locate Henderson Weatherford, Isabella’s father, in the 1860 tax list. This record provided valuable information about Henderson’s property and tax obligations. I carefully added this information to my research log, ensuring I included a precise source citation for future reference.

Henderson was listed as a blacksmith in the 1860 census. His two acres of land in the tax list correlate with his occupation. This was an era of agriculture in Texas, and land was cheap. If he were farming, he would have had many more acres like his neighbors: 64 to over 1000 acres. Many other Weatherfords (his mother, brothers, and other kin) are listed in the subsequent Dallas County tax records, but this is the only mention of him. He likely died soon after the 1860 census and this tax list. His last son, Samuel Henderson Weatherford, was born in January of 1862. We can hypothesize that Henderson died between March 1861 and January 1862. It was a practice in the South to name a child after his father if the father had died while the mother was expecting the child. This gives me a decent approximation of Henderson’s death combined with the tax and census evidence.

Migration

My research took an unexpected turn when Isabella’s residence was discovered in Camden County, Missouri, in 1870. This new information prompted me to investigate how Clemsy Weatherford might have taken her young family west and then returned to Texas. I focused on researching the development of railroads, particularly the Texas and Pacific Railway. I found a comprehensive article on the history of the railway, which I summarized using AI assistance. The summary focused specifically on the railway’s connection to Dallas and its potential impact on migration patterns in the early 1870s.

The following map shows a possible migration route between Missouri and Texas for Isabella, her mother, and her brother, Samuel. The 1880 census shows Isabella married to Robert Royston and residing in Johnson County. Clemsy and Samuel are in nearby Wise County—all in the same general area near Dallas.

Throughout these research steps, I maintained a detailed log in Airtable of my searches, findings, and analyses. In the final blog post of this series, I’ll show how I wrote the report using Airtable’s AI assist feature.

Best of luck in all your genealogical endeavors!

Research Like a Pro with AI Series

Using AI to Find Research Questions and Write Objectives: Isabella Weatherford Project Part 1

Using AI in Timeline Creation and Source Analysis: Isabella Weatherford Project Part 2

Using AI in Locality Research: Isabella Weatherford Project Part 3

Using AI in Research Planning: Isabella Weatherford Project Part 4

Using AI in Research Logging: Isabella Weatherford Project Part 5

Using AI in Report Writing: Isabella Weatherford Project Part 6

1. John Henry Brown,  History of Dallas County, Texas: From 1837 to 1887 (Dallas: Milligan, Cornett & Farnham, 1887) pp. 102-104; digital book, The Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth14390/ : accessed 22 July 2024; summary by Claude 3.5 Sonnet, 29 July 2024.
2. Dallas Herald, Vol 18, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 21, 1871; digital images, The Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth294600/m1/?q=Dallas%20County : accessed 29 July 2024).
3. 1860 U.S. Census, Dallas County, Texas, population schedule, Precinct 6, p. 120 (penned), dwelling 834, family 835, H. Weatherford household; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 September 2016); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 1292.
4. 1870 U.S. Census, Camden County, Missouri, population schedule, Adair, p. 475A (stamped), p. 7 (penned), dwelling 47, family 47, Clamsy Welaford household; imaged, “United States Census, 1870,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7163/ : accessed 24 July 2024).