Calling all Genea-Musings fans—
It’s Saturday Night again, which means it’s time for some more Genealogy Fun!
Hey boys and girls, let’s dive in.
Here is your assignment, should you choose to accept it (you are reading this, so I assume you’re ready to play along—cue the Mission Impossible music!):
- Review the last three or four Best of the Genea-Blogs posts (see Randy’s archive here: https://www.geneamusings.com/search/label/BestofGeneaBlogs).
- Pick one of the articles listed that either helped your research or your writing, touched your emotions, or simply impressed you.
- Tell us which article you chose (and link to it), and explain why you picked it—and how it helped, touched, or inspired you.
My Pick: Using Tax Records in Genealogy Research
Since I just wrote a post about James Tanner’s “Why Are You Stressing Over an End of Line,” I decided to look for a different favorite this week. I chose Linda Stufflebeam’s thoughtful and practical post, “Using Tax Records in Genealogy Research.”
For anyone who hasn’t dipped their toes into tax lists yet, Linda provides an excellent, approachable introduction. These records can be surprisingly rich, and her post is a great reminder of just how useful they can be.
I’ve returned to the same sets of tax records many times over the years. Each pass gives me something new—either confirming what I thought I knew or nudging me toward a new direction. Most of my tax-record work centers on my CRAWFORD family in Kentucky and Virginia, and using these lists I’ve been able to:
- verify that multiple men of the same name lived in the same early Kentucky area that later became Garrard County,
- confirm that two Crawford women owned land in Garrard County,
- track land ownership and acreage changes,
- identify (in some cases) the party from whom land was purchased,
- determine an approximate migration timeline from Virginia to Kentucky for James Crawford,
- locate neighbors and other landowners on the same Kentucky watercourse during the same period.
If you haven’t explored tax records yet, Linda’s post is an excellent place to begin!
Other Posts Now on My Reading List
Randy’s weekly roundup always gives me things to think about, and there are a few posts I hadn’t gotten to yet that definitely deserve a closer look—especially since they tie in with my work using AI tools in genealogy.
Here are three I plan to read more carefully and see how I might apply them to my own research and blog:
- Immersive Genealogy with ChatGPT-5: Turning Research into “A Day in the Life” Stories by Diane Henriks on Know Who Wears the Genes In Your Family.
- A Continuum of AI Use in Family History by Andrew Redfern on Andrew Redfern.
- Crafting Better Research Prompts: A Complete Walk-through by Steve Little on AI Genealogy Insights.
Each one touches on topics I’m already exploring—storytelling, AI tools, and ways to prompt more effective research assistance—so I’m looking forward to diving in.