I wrote about Using Steve Little's Genealogy Research Assistant V8 to Develop a GPS Proof Summary on 25 February 2026, which used Version 8 of Steve Little's Genealogy Research Assistant tool. I also used this tool (then in Version 8.5.1c) in Using Steve Little's AI Genealogy Research Assistant V8.5.1c To Develop a Research Plan on 5 April 2026.
Steve continues to improve and expand the Genealogy Research Assistant (GRA) tool -- see Steve's blog post The Genealogical Research Assistant (GRA): Free for Every AI Platform for the latest update. The custom prompt is available for several Artificial Intelligence platforms, including OpenAI ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude and Google Gemini (all with FREE and PAID access).
Steve Little's Genealogy Research Assistant (GRA) custom prompt is now in Version 9.2.0 -- you can use it at Genealogy Research Assistant on OpenAI ChatGPT. The custom prompt short description of the GRA tool is:
A) I asked Steve Little's OpenAI ChatGPT “Genealogy Research Assistant” to “please evaluate this genealogical sketch and provide research suggestions” and attached a PDF of my genealogical sketch for Sarah Fletcher (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 54: #61, Sarah (Fletcher) Kemp (1802- before 1850)). Sarah Fletcher is my 3rd great-grandmother, and one of my "brick wall ancestors."
B) The ChatGPT5 GRA assessment was:
I evaluated the sketch as a genealogical research hypothesis, rather than simply accepting the family-tree conclusions. The central identification of Sarah Fletcher as Abraham Kemp's wife is reasonably supported, but her parentage and death remain unresolved, and several of the dates and source citations need closer work.
Overall assessment
Research subject: Sarah Fletcher Kemp, reportedly born 7 July 1802 and married to Abraham Kemp on 16 April 1818.
Current conclusion: Probable for Sarah Fletcher as the wife/mother in the Kemp family; Not Proved for her parentage and death date/place.
The strongest evidence is the Kemp family Bible material, supplemented by later records identifying the parents of several children. But the Bible evidence is presently available to the researcher as a transcript, not the original Bible, and the transcript's provenance is incomplete. The sketch itself acknowledges that the transcription date and circumstances are unknown.
1. What the sketch establishes fairly well
The Bible transcript reportedly states:
Abraham Kemp married Sarah Fletcher on 16 April 1818.
Sarah Kemp's birth was recorded as 7 July 1802.
Eleven children are associated with the couple, beginning with Waity Catherine and ending with Wesley.
Several later marriage records independently identify Abraham and Sarah as parents. In particular, the sketch reports that:
Peter Evans Kemp's 1875 marriage record names Ab'm and Sarah Kemp as parents.
Wesley Kemp's 1874 marriage record names Abram and Sarah Kemp.
Andrew Hait Kemp's 1905 marriage record names Abraham and Sarah Kemp.
Those are valuable because they are not merely repetitions of the Bible transcript. They provide independent, direct evidence for the parentage of those particular children.
The 1851 census is also important. Abraham appears with his second wife, Sephrona, and several children, including Wesley, while Sarah is absent.
That makes Sarah's death before the 1851 enumeration plausible, but it does not itself prove that she had died. Absence from a census requires more analysis before being treated as Negative Evidence.
2. The biggest weakness: Sarah's parentage
The sketch explicitly says:
"The names of the parents of Sarah Fletcher are not known, and no siblings are known."
I would preserve that statement.
The temptation here will be to search for a Sarah Fletcher born about 1802 and attach her to a Fletcher family in Prince Edward County. That would be premature. Sarah Fletcher is a relatively ordinary name, and her marriage at approximately age 15 gives us a useful clue but not an identity.
The research question should therefore be:
Who was the Sarah Fletcher who married Abraham Kemp on 16 April 1818, and what evidence identifies her parents?
Rather than:
"Who were the parents of Sarah Fletcher born 7 July 1802?"
The first question keeps the identity problem in view.
Start Here
Priority |
Research action |
Why |
Access |
|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Locate the original Kemp family Bible, or establish its complete provenance and obtain a better copy of the transcript |
The Bible is currently the principal source for Sarah's birth and marriage |
free/fee [VERIFY] × written request/in-person |
2 |
Re-examine the 1818 marriage record for Abraham Kemp and Sarah Fletcher |
A marriage record may identify witnesses, bondsmen, officiant, residence, or other associates who could lead to Sarah's family |
free/fee [VERIFY] × online/in-person |
3 |
Research Sarah Fletcher's FAN cluster around Prince Edward County circa 1810–1820 |
Parents may be identifiable indirectly through neighbors, witnesses, associates, or a Fletcher household |
free/fee [VERIFY] × online/in-person |
4 |
Search for a death/burial/estate record for Sarah Fletcher Kemp, 1847–1851 |
This could convert the current inference about her death into Direct Evidence |
free/fee [VERIFY] × online/in-person/written request |
5 |
Build a complete timeline for Abraham Kemp, Sarah, Sephrona/Ann, and all children from 1818–1861 |
The two later censuses may reveal the chronology of Abraham's remarriage and help distinguish Sarah from other women |
free, online / [VERIFY] |
3. The Bible transcript deserves a provenance investigation
This is potentially the most productive overlooked issue.
The sketch says the Bible belonged to a descendant of Abraham Kemp, that a transcript was typed at an unknown time, and that a copy was deposited with the Orange County Genealogical Society/Huntington Beach Public Library.
That means the evidentiary chain is roughly:
Kemp family Bible → unknown transcription → deposited copy → researcher's transcription/access
The source in hand is therefore a Derivative Source, not the Original Source.
That doesn't make its information useless. It means we need to investigate:
Who possessed the Bible?
Who made the transcription?
When was it made?
Was it a complete transcription?
Does the original Bible still survive?
Are there photographs/scans of the relevant pages?
Does the transcript preserve original spelling, punctuation, parentheses, and annotations?
What does the parenthetical material mean?
That last point is especially important.
The transcript gives:
"Sarah Kemp 7 July 1802 (about 1807)"
and several children also have two dates, for example Waity Catherine:
"23 Sept 1821 (23 Dec 1820)"
The sketch adopts some of the parenthetical dates while apparently treating the first dates differently in other cases. The meaning and origin of those parentheses needs to be established before using either set as authoritative.
4. There is an important date problem
The sketch's opening says Sarah was born 7 July 1802, while the transcript reportedly gives "7 July 1802 (about 1807)."
Her reported marriage date of 16 April 1818 would make her about 15 years, 9 months old if the 1802 birth date is correct.
That is young, but not chronologically impossible.
I would therefore not change the 1802 date, but I would label it as something like:
Sarah Fletcher was recorded in the Kemp family Bible transcript as born 7 July 1802; the transcript also contains the parenthetical notation "about 1807," the meaning of which is presently unexplained.
That is more analytically sound than silently selecting one date.
5. Sarah's death is currently an inference, not an established event
The sketch says Sarah "may have died after son Wesley's 1847 birth and before 1851," because Abraham had a different wife by the 1851 census.
That's a sensible working hypothesis.
But there are several separate propositions here:
Sarah was alive when Wesley was born in 1847.
Sarah was no longer Abraham's wife by the 1851 census.
Abraham's wife in 1851 was Sephrona.
Therefore Sarah probably died between 1847 and 1851.
The first three do not automatically prove the fourth. Divorce, separation, migration, household structure, or an otherwise undocumented marital transition are alternative possibilities.
The research priority should be marriage and death/burial records, not simply accepting "died before 1850."
In fact, I would revise the sketch's heading from "Death: before 1850" to something like:
Death: Not yet established; probably after 1847 and before the 1851 census enumeration.
The sketch itself later uses the broader and better-supported "before 1851" formulation.
6. The 1851 and 1861 censuses deserve a dedicated conflict analysis
The 1851 household includes:
Abraham Kemp, age 55
Sephrona Kemp, age 44
Abraham Jr., age 21
John, age 17
Peter E., age 14
Wesley, age 4.
The 1861 household instead has:
Abraham Kemp, age 65
Ann Kemp, age 55
Wesley, age 13.
This raises a useful research question:
Is Ann Kemp in 1861 the same woman as Sephrona Kemp in 1851?
The sketch appears to treat the 1861 woman as another wife, but it doesn't establish her identity. The age progression makes Sephrona/Ann a candidate, but co-residence and approximate age alone do not prove identity.
This is precisely where a FAN analysis could help. Search for:
Sephrona Goddard
Sephrona Sheltraw
Ann/Anne variants
Abraham Kemp
witnesses and associates in the relevant marriages
neighboring households in both censuses
land transactions involving Abraham and either woman.
7. The children provide a particularly strong research avenue
The children are not merely descendants to document; they are evidence about their mother.
I would systematically collect the following for each of the eleven children:
Child |
Priority records |
|---|---|
Waity Catherine |
marriage, death, baptism |
Mary Ann |
marriage, death, baptism |
Stephen J. |
both marriages, death, church |
William H. |
marriage, death, church |
James Abraham |
both marriages, death, church |
John L. |
death, marriage, church |
Peter Evans |
1865 & 1875 marriages, death |
Andrew Hait |
1867 & 1905 marriages, death |
Sarah Jane |
marriage, death, church |
Charles W. |
census, burial/death |
Wesley |
1874 marriage, death, church |
The later marriage records are especially valuable because the sketch already reports that some explicitly name Abraham and Sarah as parents.
I'd look for the same information in the other children's records. If several genuinely independent records name Sarah, they strengthen the identification of Sarah Fletcher as the mother, although they don't necessarily establish her own parentage.
8. The marriage record may be the key to the Fletcher family
For the 16 April 1818 marriage, don't stop at the names and date.
Extract every available element:
bride's name
groom's name
residence
age, if given
marital status
officiant
witnesses
bondsmen/sureties
consent statement
parents, if named
denomination
associated township/parish
original vs. derivative status
exact record location
At age 15, parental consent or a related record may be particularly important. If the surviving record set includes a consent, bond, license application, or church entry, the adults involved could provide the first real route into the Fletcher family.
9. FAN research should be central, not an afterthought
Because Sarah's parents and siblings are unknown, I would deliberately construct a Fletcher cluster for Prince Edward County.
Look for Fletcher households and individuals approximately:
1810–1825
and correlate them with:
the 1818 Kemp-Fletcher marriage
church records
land transactions
probate
tax records
witnesses to marriages
neighbors of Abraham and Sarah
later records of Sarah's children.
The goal isn't to find a Fletcher family with a daughter named Sarah.
The goal is to find a Fletcher family that produces a network of independent connections to the Sarah who married Abraham Kemp.
Evidence matrix I'd use
Proposition |
Current evidence |
Assessment |
|---|---|---|
Sarah Fletcher married Abraham Kemp |
Kemp Bible transcript; 1818 date |
Probable |
Marriage occurred 16 Apr 1818 |
Bible transcript |
Probable, subject to original-record verification |
Sarah was born 7 Jul 1802 |
Bible transcript |
Possible/Probable, but conflicting parenthetical notation needs explanation |
Sarah was mother of Peter Evans |
1875 marriage record reportedly names Abraham & Sarah |
Probable |
Sarah was mother of Wesley |
1874 marriage record reportedly names Abraham & Sarah |
Probable |
Sarah was mother of Andrew Hait |
1905 marriage record reportedly names Abraham & Sarah |
Probable |
Sarah died before 1851 |
Absence from 1851 household + Abraham's remarriage |
Possible/Probable hypothesis, not proved |
Sarah died before 1850 |
No evidence presented establishing 1850 specifically |
Not established |
Sarah was born in Prince Edward County |
Bible reportedly says "probably" |
Possible, requires corroboration |
Sarah's parents were [Fletcher family] |
No evidence currently presented |
Not Proved |
A significant research opportunity
I would also investigate why the sketch says "probably Quebec" in one place but "probably Prince Edward County" in another. The opening biography gives Sarah's birth as probably Quebec, while the notes later say probably Prince Edward County.
That is a genuine internal inconsistency and should not be smoothed over.
The research question should be:
What exactly does the original Bible say about Sarah's birthplace, and where did the Quebec/Prince Edward County alternatives originate?
If "Quebec" is an interpretation rather than a transcription of the Bible, it should be clearly separated from the Bible evidence.
Suggested research objective
I would rewrite the research objective as:
Identify the Sarah Fletcher who married Abraham Kemp on 16 April 1818 in the Prince Edward County area; establish her birth and death details; and determine, if possible, the identities of her parents and siblings.
Success criteria
A strong conclusion would ideally include:
An independently verified 1818 marriage record.
Evidence linking that Sarah Fletcher to Abraham Kemp.
Evidence distinguishing her from other Sarah Fletchers.
Corroboration of her birth/place.
Evidence establishing her death or a sufficiently developed argument for her disappearance before 1851.
Independent evidence identifying her parents.
Resolution of the 1802/1807 and Quebec/Prince Edward County discrepancies.
Most important: I would not spend much time initially trying to find Sarah's parents by searching birth records alone. The 1818 marriage, parental-consent material, church records, Fletcher FAN cluster, land/probate records, and records of Sarah's children are more promising routes for solving the identity problem.
This assessment is based on the supplied sketch and its cited material; the conclusions above are a research draft requiring human verification, not a claim that the genealogy has been proved.
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