Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:
It’s Saturday Night Again –
Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!!
Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.
1) What genealogy “rabbit hole” did you go down recently? Did you have genealogy fun? How did it help your genealogy research?
As I posted on Friday, this past week has seen a lot of Changes throughout the genealogy community. For me, those changes have also become ‘rabbit holes’
While I haven’t started playing with Suno.com and song creation (yet), I have been amazed by what Randy has created! If you haven’t listened to any of his work, check out
And then read Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post for more information about his creations!
Like Randy, I have been learning how to put AI (Artificial Intelligence) to work for me. I’m finding great value in these tools! I’ve been using these tools in the following ways:
- Write a meta description for a blog post — using ChatGPT, ask it to write a meta description for following and then paste in the contents of a post
- Transcribing newspaper artciles — using Chrome’s Sider extension, drag an image into Sider and ask it to extract the text – See post AI and Images
- Improve biography generated by RootsMagic — ask ChatGPT to write a biography based on following information and then paste in the contents of a RM narrative report – see post AI Biography
- Write a research report based on newspaper articles or a transcription of a document – see post AI and Jail History
- And thanks to Randy’s examples, I even ventured into poetry and had AI write a poem about my 2nd great grandfather’s civil war service and imprisonment – See AI Poetry
I have started working in RootsMagic 10 whose release was announced earlier this week. One of the new features that is intriguing is the ability to enter DNA data.
Not only is RootsMagic 10 offering new DNA features but Ancestry’s ProTools are providing more information about shared matches. While I haven’t had much time to ‘play’ with these, I have made one very important observation:
If I look at shared matches between myself and a cousin to one of my parents, the match list will show matches below 20 cM since they share more than 20 cM with this older cousin!
Even though I have been ‘playing’ with these tools, I have also started researching the family of John Crawford whose 1796 will is in Will Book A in Botetourt County, Virginia. While my Crawford line does not descend from this John Crawford, working with this family is improving my knowledge of the Virginia families that moved to Kentucky and Tennessee.
One observation that I’ve made from playing around with DNA in RootsMagic and on Ancestry is the value of descendancy research. Thus, I need to quit playing and get back to work!
You’ve been very busy down the tech rabbit hole this week and with your journey to Botetourt County, you are back to yet another of my husband’s ancestors’ homes. Be sure to check out the personal property tax lists which begin there in 1783.
I’d have to check, but I know I’ve looked at some tax lists – possibly in Montgomery county. I found a James Crawford and a Bazaleel Maxwell in the same year. I think these are brothers-in-law. They are both married to descendants of Capt. John Anderson. John Anderson and most of his children are in Fort Boonesborough in 1780. However James Crawford and Bazaleel Maxwell are not there. Thus, I’m using the Maxwell tax entry to suggest that James (wife Rebecca Anderson) is also in Virginia at the time. One small hint at a time!
Hello! I saw this post of yours from a couple of years back https://heartlandgenealogy.org/2022/01/06/another-military-mystery/ . Oscar was my Grandfather! You seem to know most of what I do about his official military service, but happy to share any additional details. And I’d love to hear more about our shared genealogy.
Oscar is my 2nd cousin twice removed. Our common ancestor is Samuel Henry St. George Christy who married Lyda Gallimore. Their granddaughter, Gertrude Alice Christy married Orla Marvin Butcher, Oscar’s father. I’ve researched descendants of Samuel Christy so I can figure out my DNA matches. Most of my genealogy research is in my Ancestry tree called Heartland Genealogy.
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