Easily Transcribe & Abstract Deeds with New Custom GPT
May 20, 2025
How to transcribe and abstract deeds quickly and accurately with Jenn’s custom GPT.
Missing from the Census? Try This Strategy
January 15, 2025
This little tip has stood me well in finding “missing” male head-of-household ancestors in the 1850-1880 US census, and might help you, too! (Note that I’ll be saying “him” a lot in this post because in this case we’re usually seeking a fellow.) (Its better than shouting “Show yourself!” at your computer screen when your
My 2025 Genealogy Goals
January 3, 2025
The last two years have been all about formalizing my genealogy education. And this year will be more of the same, but with the added bonus that I’ll be doing all that around a robust load of very interesting clients and some fun speaking gigs! That said, I have one big, bad goal for this
2024 Genealogy Recap
December 30, 2024
Way back on January 8th I posted my 2024 genealogy game plan and I’m happy to say that I crossed most everything I wanted to do off my checklist, and then a little more besides! Such as… Becoming a Professional Genealogist But the most important thing I did was actually start taking clients as a
AI Test: Successfully Summarizing Tax Laws
December 10, 2024
This is the tale of how AI literally showed me up regarding summarizing historic tax laws. Genealogists in Georgia are all too aware that our early censuses are missing.1 And because of that, we need to find other ways to identify our early Georgia ancestors. Fortunately, many early Georgia counties have tax records to make
Court Records Added to FamilySearch AI Search
October 7, 2024
Rather watch on YouTube? It appears FamilySearch has quietly opened their court records to FamilySearch’s AI-powered search! Why is AI-enabled search of court records game changing? When launched, FamilySearch allowed users to search Land and Probate records using AI full text search. This was an immediate game changer for many genealogists, allowing us to find
Proof Argument: Determining George W West’s Birthdate
May 19, 2024
Part of my genealogy education has been writing proof arguments. I was able to determine my brick wall ancestor George W. West’s birthdate using a really cool document known informally as “The Joe Brown Census” and some intense documentary research. Here’s what I came up with. Proving George W. West’s Birthdate Question: What was the
Evil Mean Stories and Grandpa (My Latest Movie)
April 15, 2024
One of the great southern authors, Dorothy Allison, once said that we Southerners like to tell “evil mean stories.” For example, when I was very small, and my sister even smaller, a family member told us a tale out of our family tree. As the story went, our ancient ol’ many times great-grandpa (let’s call
Reconnect Formerly Enslaved Ancestors with this Heart Wrenching Resource
April 12, 2024
I’ve been working on an African-American ancestry case for a good while now, attempting to discover a friend’s ancestor’s whereabouts before Emancipation. Unsurprisingly, this has been a tough one. But I’m chipping away, one research project at a time! Because of that project, I invariably disappear down the rabbit hole when I discover a new-to-me
Cherokee County, Georgia Genealogy: 5 Resources You Might Not Know About
February 21, 2024
Psst! If the land records in this post interest you, sign up for my upcoming “Land Records: The Cornerstone of Georgia Genealogy” presentation for the Georgia Genealogical Society on August 8, 2024. As a Cherokee County, Georgia-based genealogist who loves to get out of the house and go bother other people about history, I’ve spent
Categories
- 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
- African-American Genealogy
- AI
- Bishop Family
- Blanton family
- Butterworth Family
- Cherokee County Georgia
- Cowan Family
- DNA
- Duncan Family
- Dunn Family
- Genealogy
- Georgia Genealogy
- Gravitt Family
- Hester Family
- Hill family
- McDaniel Family
- Military
- Professional Genealogy
- Rice Family
- Southern US History
- Tax
- West Family