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Friday Find

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Chester Lighter's Obituary Have you ever gone back through your genealogy files and discovered information that you had collected years ago but never fully incorporated into your family tree? That is what happened when I came across my handwritten transcription of the obituary for Chester Lighter. Years ago, before digitized newspapers became widely available, I spent time at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka researching the Dodge City newspapers on microfilm. Instead of printing every article, I often copied the information by hand. Sometimes those notes were complete transcriptions, while other times they were simply summaries of the information I thought was important. One of those handwritten documents was the obituary for Chester B. Lighter, published in the Dodge City Daily Globe on Thursday, May 1, 1969. The Obituary According to my handwritten notes, Chester Lighter died on Wednesday, April 30, 1969, in Roscoe, Illinois, following his involvement in a highway a...
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Silas Dooley

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A Pioneer Life in Kentucky and Ohio Early Life and Family Background Silas Dooley was born on March 8, 1786, in Harrod's Station, Lincoln County, Kentucky, the son of Captain Moses Dooley and Mary Body Dooley. His birth occurred during the early years of Kentucky's settlement, when families moving west from Virginia and other eastern states were establishing new communities beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The family had made that journey several years before Silas was born. According to Silas's obituary, published in the Eaton Democrat on July 19, 1877, Moses Dooley moved his family from Bedford County, Virginia, to Kentucky in 1781. The obituary describes the journey as a difficult trip across the mountains, with Silas's mother carrying her youngest child in her arms. The family initially lived within a fortified settlement because of the dangers associated with frontier life. They eventually settled in Kentucky, where Silas was born. Silas was born six years before...
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Twice Connected

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The Lighter Family and My Crawford and Ralston Ancestors Have you ever found a family history that connects to more than one branch of your family tree? That's exactly what happened when I looked at Genealogy and Family Histories of the Lighter and Wilhelm Families . I was interested in the Lighter family because of their connection to my Crawford ancestors. However, as I examined the pages listing the children and grandchildren of Jacob Henry Lighter, I realized that this family was connected to two different sides of my ancestral tree ! One connection was through my Crawford family, while the other was through my Ralston ancestors. The Lighter Family Genealogy The book, Genealogy and Family Histories of the Lighter and Wilhelm Families , contains information about the descendants of Jacob Henry Lighter and his wife, Sarah Ann Strickler. Pages 66–68 provide information about their children, including birth dates, marriages, residences, occupations, and the names of their children....
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From Militsary Records to Music

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Telling George Mentzer's Story with AI Have you ever considered turning your genealogical research into a song? Recently, I've been experimenting with using artificial intelligence to tell the stories of my ancestors in different ways. My latest experiment involved George Mentzer , a Civil War veteran who served in Company C of the 24th Massachusetts Infantry. What started with his military service record eventually became a song—and then a YouTube video! Starting with a Military Service Record As genealogists, we spend considerable time locating, transcribing, and analyzing historical documents. While those records provide valuable information about our ancestors, they aren't always particularly interesting to family members who don't share our enthusiasm for genealogy. George Mentzer's compiled military service record consists of 28 pages documenting his service in the Union Army during the Civil War. The records contain information about his enlistment, military ...
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Monday's Diggings

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The Story Behind an Obituary — Pauline's Notes for Her Father Have you ever wondered how much information gets left out of an obituary? Or whether the information published in a newspaper matches what the family originally provided? Among my family papers is a collection of handwritten notes created by my grandmother, Pauline Mentzer Briles, following the death of her father, Charles O. Mentzer, in August 1955. At first glance, these pages appear to be several attempts to write an obituary. However, as I examined them more closely, I discovered that they contain much more than biographical information. They also include notes about the funeral service, the pallbearers, and relatives and friends who attended. Fortunately, I also have newspaper obituaries from the Iola Register , Yates Center News , and Emporia Gazette , along with Charles's Kansas death certificate. Together, these documents provide an opportunity to compare what Pauline wrote with what was eventually published—...
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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

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A Halloween Marriage License and Some Crawford-Sellers Connections It's Saturday Night, and time for another round of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun ! This week's challenge from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings is to identify an ancestor who experienced a life event on Halloween, October 31, and share something about that person's life. Since I use RootsMagic 12 to manage my genealogy research, I decided to start with an On This Date report for October 31. Unfortunately, I didn't find any close relatives who were born, married, or died on Halloween. However, one event caught my attention because it involved two surnames that frequently appear in my Crawford research. On October 31, 1859, Theophilus S. Seller obtained a marriage license to marry Myra Crawford in Hendricks County, Indiana. While neither individual is a known direct ancestor, their families have some interesting connections to my ongoing Crawford research. A Halloween Marriage License Myra Crawford was born o...
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The Civil War Service of George Mentzer

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Three Years in Uniform What can a military service record tell us about an ancestor's experiences during the Civil War? Sometimes, the answer is quite a bit more than simply when he enlisted and when he was discharged. I've been working my way through the 28-page compiled military service record of George Mentzer , who served in Company C of the 24th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. At first glance, many of these pages appear repetitive. Most are company muster rolls recording whether George was present or absent during a two-month period. However, when examined together, these records provide a timeline of his military service from September 1861 through September 1864. They also document a furlough, a lost set of company records, an outstanding bounty payment, and some conflicting information about his discharge. By combining these records with the history of the 24th Massachusetts Infantry, I can begin to understand the military experiences that formed ...
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Friday Find

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A Wedding Announcement from My Microfilm Research Do you remember researching newspapers before they were digitized and searchable online? Have you spent hours scrolling through microfilm, hoping to find a mention of an ancestor or relative? Before online newspaper collections became widely available, I made research trips to the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka, Kansas. There, I spent time reading newspapers on microfilm, particularly those from Dodge City, Kansas, where several branches of my family lived. Instead of printing or copying every article I found, I frequently made handwritten notes. Sometimes these notes were fairly complete transcriptions. Other times, I simply recorded the information I considered important. Today's Friday Find comes from one of those handwritten notes. Eileen Jones Weds Russel Horton On Wednesday, April 17, 1941, the Dodge City Daily Globe published a wedding announcement for Eileen Jones and Russel Horton. I found the article on page 5,...
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From Historical Scrapbook to AI Storytelling

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The Beck-Bookman Library Have you been following Randy Seaver's experiments with artificial intelligence on his Genea-Musings blog? If so, you're probably familiar with his ABC Biography process, which uses AI to turn genealogical research into stories. Recently, I had the opportunity to demonstrate AI storytelling to an AI interest group in Holton, Kansas. Since I wanted the presentation to have a local connection, I chose a historical scrapbook about Holton's Beck-Bookman Library as my source material. The scrapbook contained newspaper articles, letters, and other documents chronicling the library's history. It provided a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate how several AI tools could work together to transform historical records into different forms of storytelling. I started with ChatGPT , using it to transcribe the scrapbook's articles and letters. Those transcriptions were compiled into a PDF that became the source material for the next steps. Using that inf...
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Who Was There?

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Discovering a Useful RootsMagic Report Are you a RootsMagic user? If so, have you explored the variety of reports available in the program? With the release of RootsMagic 12, I decided to spend some time exploring the reports available in the software. While I was interested in the new reports, I also wanted to revisit some of the reports introduced in earlier versions that I had never used. That's when I discovered a report that could become a valuable tool in my genealogy research: the "Who Was There List." This report isn't new, but it was new to me! What Is the "Who Was There List"? The "Who Was There List" allows users to identify individuals in their RootsMagic database who have events associated with a particular location during a specified time period. Instead of looking at one person or family at a time, the report provides a broader view of the people connected to a particular place. For someone like me, who frequently researches family, ...
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