Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Where Were Your Ancestors 150 Years Ago?

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Determine where your ancestral families were in May 1876 -- 150 years ago.

2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  

3)  Share your information about your ancestors' locations in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Here's mine:

On my father's side:

• My great-grandparents Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922) and Hattie Louisa (Hildreth) Seaver (1857-1920), who married in 1874, resided in Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts at 149 Lancaster Street, living with Hattie's family. My grandfather Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942) was born in late 1876.

• My second great-grandparents, Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) and Lucretia Townsend (Smith) Seaver (1828-1884), who married in 1851, resided in Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts at 7 Cedar Street. The household included their son Benjamin and daughters Nellie and Elizabeth.

• My second great-grandparents, Edward Hildreth (1831-1899) and Sophia (Newton) Hildreth (1834-1923), who married in 1852, resided in Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts at 149 Lancaster Street. The household included my great-grandparents and Hattie's brother Clarence Hildreth (1874-1878).

• My third great-grandmother, Sophia (Buck) (Brigham) (Newton) Stone (1797-1882), probably resided in Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, perhaps with her daughter Sophia (Newton) Hildreth's family.

• My great-grandparents Thomas Richmond (1848-1917) and Julia E. (White) Richmond (1848-1913), who married in 1868, probably resided in Killingly, Windham, Connecticut -- i don't know the address. The household included three of their first four children.

• My second great-grandparents, James Richmond (1821-1912) and Hannah (Rich) Richmond (1824-1911), who married in 1845, resided in Putnam, Windham, Connecticut on what is now called Richmond Road. The household included some of their children.

• My second great-grandparents, Henry Arnold White (1824-1885) and his second wife Almira (Taft) White (1842-1947), who married in 1866, resided in Killingly, Windham, Connecticut.

On my mother's side:

• My second great-grandparents, David Jackson Carringer (1828-1902) and Rebecca (Spangler) Carringer (1832-1901), who married in 1851, resided in Boulder, Boulder, Colorado. The household included my great-grandfather, Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946) and his brother Harvey Edgar Carringer (1852-1946).

• My third great-grandfather, Henry Carringer (1800-1879) probably resided in Columbus City, Louisa, Iowa on his farm with some of his children.

• My second great-grandparents, Devier James Lamphier Smith (1839-1894) and Abigail A. (Vaux) Smith (1844-1931), who married in 1861,  resided in Concordia, Cloud, Kansas. The household included my great-grandmother, Abbie Ardell Smith (1862-1944) and several other children.

• My third great-grandparents, Samuel Vaux (1816-1880) and Mary Ann (Underhill) Vaux, wgo married in abo ut 1837, probably resided in Platte, Andew, Missouri. The household may have included some of their children.

• My second great-grandparents, David Auble (1817-1894) and Sarah (Knapp) Auble (1818-after 1900), who married in 1844, resided in Terre Haute, Vigo, Indiana at 411 Chestnut Street. The household included my great-grandfather, Charles Auble (1849-1916) and several other children.

• My third great-grandmother, Sarah (Cutter) Knapp (1785-1878) resided in New Barbadoes, Bergen, New Jersey with her son, Manning Knapp.

• My second great-grandfather, James Abraham Kemp (1831-1902) resided in or near Delhi, Norfolk, Ontario. His first wife died in 1874 and he married again in late 1876. The household included my great-grandmother Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952) and several other children.

• My third great-grandparents, Alexander Sovereen (1814-1907) and Eliza (Putman) Sovereen (1820-1895), wh married in 1840, resided in Windham, Norfolk, Ontario, probably with some of their children.

I think that's all of my ancestors alive in 1876 -- one grandparent, eight great-grandparents, fourteen second great-grandparents, and seven third great-grandparents. Note that they resided in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, New Jersey and Ontario.

I wonder how they celebrated the 100th Anniversary of American Independence.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-where-were.html

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

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ABC Biography of Amos Plimpton and Mary Guild of Massachusetts (1735-1808)

 Using the ABC method described in Using Artificial Intelligence In the Ancestor Biography Creation (ABC) Process -- Updated, enhanced by further developments, here is another ancestor couple biography using the Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 AI tool.

1) The genealogical sketches for my 5th great-grandparents Amos and Mary (Guild) Plimpton of Massachusetts, including family members, record abstracts and sources, are in  52 Ancestors - Week 115: #138 Amos Plimpton (1735-1808) and 52 Ancestors - Week 116: #139 Mary (Guild) Plimpton (1735-1800). Amos Plimpton was a Revolutionary War soldier.

(AI NotebookLM Infographic - Amos and Mary (Guild) Plimpton Family Biography)

2) For the Claude AI biography, I attached a PDF of the genealogical sketch for the specific ancestors using the plus (+) icon, and then prompted the AI tool with:  "You are an expert genealogist and family historian. Please create a biography based on information in the attached file for the Amos and Mary (Guild) Plimpton family. Include parents, siblings, spouses and children (with birth and death dates and places). Summarize life events, add historical events as appropriate, but do not add or embellish any extra genealogical details. Use section headings. Expand the information in each section to add more details. The tone should be engaging and suitable for family members."

3)  The Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 biography (lightly edited for accuracy) is: 

The Family of Amos Plimpton & Mary Guild

of Medfield, Massachusetts, 1735 – 1808

This family biography traces the lives of Amos Plimpton (1735–1808) and his first wife, Mary Guild (1735–1800), colonial New Englanders whose lives unfolded against the dramatic backdrop of the American Revolution and the founding of a new nation. Rooted in the small town of Medfield, Massachusetts for generations, the Plimpton family story is one of land, loyalty, and legacy — a family that literally lived on the same ground their ancestors had cleared more than a century before.

Amos Plimpton: Early Life and Family Origins

Amos Plimpton was born on 16 June 1735 in Medfield, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony — a prosperous farming community about twenty miles southwest of Boston. He was the second child and second son of John Plimpton (1708–1756) and Abigail Fisher (1711–1785), who had married in Medfield in 1731. The Plimpton family were well-established residents of Medfield, having held land there for multiple generations, and their homestead would remain a central feature of Amos's entire life.

The town of Medfield in the 1730s was a close-knit Puritan community, largely agricultural, where families like the Plimptons were known as yeomen — independent landowners who farmed their own land. Colonial New England life revolved around the rhythms of the seasons, the church, and the community, and a second son like Amos would have grown up working the family farm, learning the skills of husbandry that would serve him throughout his long life.

Parents

John Plimpton (1708–1756) and Abigail Fisher (1711–1785) raised their family on the ancestral Plimpton homestead in Medfield. John died in 1756, the same year Amos married, leaving Abigail a widow. She lived until 1785, and upon her death, Amos — as the surviving son on the property — took possession of the family estate, settling the inheritance by paying out shares to his siblings.

Siblings

Amos grew up alongside four brothers and sisters, a typical colonial New England family:

• John Plimpton — Born before 27 January 1731/32 in Medfield. The eldest child, John predeceased his father, dying on 22 April 1754 at just twenty-two years of age, leaving Amos as the eldest surviving son.
• Olive Plimpton — Born before 8 February 1737 in Medfield. She married Adam Peters on 5 May 1758 in Medfield and died young, on 12 September 1768, still in Medfield, at around thirty-one years of age.
• Abner Plimpton — Born before 6 May 1742 in Medfield. Abner eventually moved north, dying in Vermont in 1814. He and his wife Esther appear in a land transaction with Amos in 1765, suggesting the siblings maintained close ties even after Abner relocated.
• Unity Plimpton — Born before 6 January 1746 in Medfield. She married Benjamin Boyden on 22 December 1758 in Medfield and lived a long life, dying in 1828 in Medfield at approximately eighty-two years of age.

Mary Guild: Early Life and Family Origins

Mary Guild was born in 1735 in Walpole, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony — the same year as her future husband Amos, though in a neighboring town about ten miles to the south of Medfield. She was the eldest daughter of Nathaniel Guild (1712–1796) and Mary Boyden (1708–1776), who had married in Dedham in 1733. The Guild family were also established New England colonists with deep roots in the region.

Walpole in the 1730s was a young town, having been set off from Dedham only in 1724, and the Guild family were among its early settlers. Mary would have grown up in this formative community, surrounded by the rhythms of colonial farm life much like Amos in Medfield. How and when she and Amos met is not recorded, but Walpole and Medfield shared social and religious connections — marriage across neighboring towns was common — and the two likely met through church or community gatherings.

Parents

Nathaniel Guild (1712–1796) lived to the remarkable age of about eighty-four, outliving his wife Mary Boyden (1708–1776) by twenty years. In his 1795 will, Nathaniel divided his estate equally among his surviving children, with Mary Plimpton (née Guild) receiving a one-seventh share of both his real and personal estate. After Nathaniel's death in 1796, the heirs came together in 1798 to sell the family lands in Walpole to Harman Guild, with both Amos and Mary signing the deed alongside Mary's siblings.

Siblings

Mary was the oldest of six children in the Guild family, and the records show that most of her siblings settled in communities across Norfolk and Bristol counties:

• Nathaniel Guild (born 29 May 1739, Walpole) — Married Rebecca Hart on 21 September 1767 in Walpole. He died on 4 April 1793 in Stoughton, Norfolk, Massachusetts, predeceasing his father.
• Mercy Guild (born about 1742, Walpole) — Married Ebenezer Hewins on 2 May 1761 in Walpole. She lived a long life, dying about 1820 in Walpole at approximately seventy-eight years of age.
• Susanna Guild (born 3 August 1744, Walpole) — Married Ezra Morse on 13 April 1765 in Walpole. She died on 11 January 1822 in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
• Samuel Guild (born 13 October 1746, Walpole) — Married twice: first to Elizabeth Ferguson in 1770, and after her death, to Katherine Leonard in 1786. He died on 11 May 1816 in Easton, Bristol County.
• Mehitable Guild (born about 1752, Walpole) — Died on 12 February 1816 in Massachusetts. She appears to have remained unmarried, as she is listed as a 'spinster' in the 1798 deed settling her father's estate.

Marriage and Life Together

Amos Plimpton and Mary Guild were married on 9 December 1756, in Medfield, Massachusetts. The Medfield Vital Records book records the union simply as 'Amos Plimpton and Mary Guild, Dec. 9, 1756.' Amos was twenty-one and Mary twenty-one, both marrying at a typical age for colonial New England. The year of their marriage was also the year Amos's father John Plimpton died, suggesting Amos was stepping into adulthood and the responsibilities of head of household in rapid succession.

The couple made their home on the original Plimpton homestead in Medfield. This was no ordinary house — it was a place layered with family history. According to the town historian Mr. Tilden, the original Plimpton house had long since decayed and been replaced by a second structure, a two-story house with a single large room below and a front door at the westerly end, to which a lean-to had been added in the rear. This was the house into which Amos and Mary moved as newlyweds, and where they would raise their children and live out most of their lives.

Together, Amos and Mary would share forty-four years of marriage until Mary's death in 1800. Their partnership weathered the deaths of three young children, the upheaval of revolution, and the gradual passing of their parents' generation, as Amos and Mary grew into the matriarchs and patriarchs of the Medfield community they had always called home.

Children of Amos Plimpton and Mary Guild

Amos and Mary had five children, though sadly three died in infancy or early childhood — a common and heartbreaking reality of colonial life:

• Molly Plimpton (born 8 May 1758, Medfield) — The eldest child and only daughter to live to adulthood. Molly married twice: first to Joseph Cole on 29 June 1780 in Medfield, and after his death, to Amos Kingsbury on 14 April 1785. The Kingsburys settled on the original Plimpton homestead alongside her father, a fact that would shape the later chapters of the family story. Molly died on 27 January 1813 in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

• Elizabeth Plimpton (born 14 June 1761, Medfield) — Died on 2 May 1766, just a few weeks short of her fifth birthday.

• John Plimpton (born 22 September 1763, Medfield) — Named for his grandfather, young John lived only two years, dying on 9 October 1765.

• Amos Plimpton (born 25 March 1770, Medfield) — Named for his father, this child lived only two months, dying on 26 May 1770. The loss of three children within a few years must have been an especially sorrowful season for the family.

• Mercy Plimpton (born 9 September 1772, Medfield) — The youngest child. Mercy married Aaron Smith on 6 October 1795 in Medfield and lived a long life, dying on 13 April 1850 in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, at the age of seventy-seven.

Land, Property, and Livelihood

Like most New England yeomen of his era, Amos Plimpton's wealth and status were tied closely to land. The historical record preserves several significant property transactions that illuminate his economic life and place in the community.

In March 1765, Amos purchased a one-fifth share of a 45-acre tract of woodland lying in the northern part of Wrentham from his brother Abner and Abner's wife Esther, paying twelve pounds. The woodland was bounded on the north by the Charles River — valuable timberland in colonial New England. Just months later, in September 1765, Amos sold the same parcel to David Wight, a yeoman of Medway, for twelve pounds and six shillings, netting a small profit. This kind of property trading was a common way for colonial farmers to manage assets and generate income.

The most significant property event of Amos's life came in 1785, when his mother Abigail Fisher Plimpton died. As the surviving son on the homestead, Amos inherited the ancestral estate, paying out shares to his siblings Abner Plimpton, Unity Boyden, and the heirs of Olive Peters. The old Plimpton homestead — with its layered history of original structures, rebuildings, and additions — was now entirely his. The genealogist Levi B. Chase noted that Amos 'was the last of the name residing on the original homestead,' a distinction that speaks to both his attachment to the land and his family pride.

In 1798, Amos and Mary joined her siblings in selling the Guild family lands in Walpole, following the death of her father Nathaniel Guild in 1796. The deed, a remarkable document listing all the Guild heirs, records Amos as 'Yeoman' and Mary as his wife, and together they received their portion of the $1,671.43 paid by Harman Guild for the family property.

Amos Plimpton and the American Revolution

Among the most remarkable chapters of Amos Plimpton's life is his service in the American Revolution. He was thirty-nine years old when the war began, hardly a young man, yet he answered the call to arms with unmistakable commitment.

His military career began on 19 April 1775 — the very day of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the opening shots of the Revolutionary War. Amos marched out with Captain Ephraim Chenery's Medfield company, part of Colonel John Smith's regiment, responding to the alarm that the British Regulars were on the move. He served eleven days in this initial mobilization. It is a striking thought: on the day that 'the shot heard round the world' was fired at Concord, Amos Plimpton was among the Massachusetts militiamen who dropped their tools and marched toward the sound of the guns.

His service continued into 1776. He was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in Captain Aaron Guild's company — notably, a Guild, perhaps a relative of his wife Mary — under Colonel Lemuel Robinson's regiment. He enlisted on 29 January 1776, and the regiment served at Dorchester Heights in late March 1776. The fortification of Dorchester Heights was a pivotal moment in the war: General George Washington directed the placement of cannons captured at Fort Ticonderoga, overlooking Boston Harbor, which compelled the British to evacuate Boston on 17 March 1776 without a battle. Amos was present for this decisive strategic victory.

He also served as a Lieutenant in Captain Sabin Mann's Medfield militia company, and by September 1777, his name appears on a list of men who paid money in lieu of service for the Continental Army quota — Amos paid £15. By this point he was forty-two years old, a property-owning farmer with family responsibilities, and the payment reflects a common and accepted practice for established householders who could not leave their farms for extended service.

Amos's gravestone at Vine Lake Cemetery in Medfield identifies him as 'Lieut. Amos Plimpton,' a permanent acknowledgment of his military rank and service. His record in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War stands as testimony to a man who served his town, his colony, and his new nation across multiple campaigns and years.

Later Years

The 1790 and 1800 Censuses

The federal censuses of 1790 and 1800 offer brief but vivid snapshots of the Plimpton household. In 1790, Amos appears in Medfield with one male over sixteen (himself) and one female (Mary), suggesting their daughters had left home or the household was otherwise small at that time. By 1800, the census records one male over forty-five (Amos, now sixty-five) and one female aged twenty-six to forty-five (perhaps his daughter Molly). It is a quiet portrait of a couple growing old together.

Mary (Guild) Plimpton's Death

Mary (Guild) Plimpton, Amos's wife of forty-four years, died on 20 March 1800 in Medfield. She was sixty-four years old. The loss of a life partner of such long standing must have been profound for Amos, then sixty-four himself. The household they had built together — the farm, the children, the community ties — now continued without her.

Second Marriage

Later in 1800, Amos married for a second time. His new wife was Mary (Pratt) Breck (1750–1843), widow of Elijah Breck of Sherborn. The Medfield Vital Records note the intention of marriage on 6 November 1800, just seven months after Mary Guild's death. Mary (Pratt) Breck was fifty years old at the time of the marriage, fifteen years younger than Amos. She would outlive him by thirty-five years, dying on 11 December 1843 at the extraordinary age of ninety-three in Medway, Massachusetts, and was buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Millis.

The town historian Mr. Tilden records a charming domestic detail about this second marriage: when Amos remarried in 1800, his son-in-law Amos Kingsbury was still living in the house, and 'the house being found too small, a new part was added to the west end, of about the same shape and size as the old part.' Even in his mid-sixties, Amos was expanding and improving the ancient family home.

Amos Plimpton's Will and Final Years

On 13 January 1807, Amos Plimpton wrote his last will and testament — a careful, detailed document that reveals the shape of his world in his final years. He was seventy-one years old, described as 'Gentleman' in the probate records, a step up in social designation from the 'Yeoman' of his earlier years.

The will opens with careful provision for his widow, Mary (Pratt) Plimpton: she was to have use of the front room, bedroom, back room, and back chamber of the dwelling house, together with half the cellar, the well, yard room, and half the wood house. Beyond shelter, Amos specified an annual allotment for her support in rich and specific detail: eight cords of firewood, five bushels of Indian corn, five bushels of rye, one bushel of malt, one barrel of cider, sixty pounds of pork, fifty pounds of beef, sixty pounds of cheese, thirty pounds of butter, ten pounds of flax, and five pounds of sheep's wool. This extraordinary list paints a vivid picture of colonial New England farm life — a largely self-sufficient household economy where everything from food to fiber was produced at home.

The bulk of the estate — all real property including buildings and lands — went to his grandson John Kingsbury, son of his daughter Molly and her husband Amos Kingsbury. The exception was a woodlot at 'Smith's Plane,' which Amos gave to his younger daughter Mercy Smith (wife of Aaron Smith), along with six hundred dollars to be paid in annual installments of one hundred dollars over six years. Amos's wearing apparel went to his son-in-law Aaron Smith; his farming tools to grandson John Kingsbury. The remaining personal estate was divided equally among his two sons-in-law (Amos Kingsbury and Aaron Smith) and grandson John Kingsbury.

The will was witnessed by John Baxter, Thaddeus Moore, and Alpheus Fisher. It was proved in the Norfolk County Probate Court on 6 September 1808, with John Kingsbury named as executor.

Death and Burial

Amos Plimpton died on 20 August 1808 in Medfield, Massachusetts, at the age of seventy-three. He was buried at Vine Lake Cemetery in Medfield, where his gravestone still stands. The inscription carved there reads:

In Memory of

Mr. Amos Plimpton.

Died August 20th 1808

Aged 73

How peaceful are our slumbers here,

No cares disturb our rest,

In vain shall death alarm our fear,

Since Christ the grave hath blest.

These epitaph verses, common in New England Congregationalist tradition, speak to a faith that was a bedrock of Amos's community throughout his life. He was a man who had seen war, buried three children, outlived his first wife of four decades, and carried the family homestead through seventy-three years of colonial and early American history.

The Plimpton Homestead: A Living Legacy

Perhaps no detail in Amos Plimpton's story is more evocative than the fate of the old family homestead. The Plimpton house in Medfield was, by the time historian William Tilden wrote about it in 1887, already a memory. The second house — the two-story structure that Amos and Mary had called home — stood until about 1875, when it was torn down and a new house built by William Kingsbury (grandson John's son) on the same cellar. In Tilden's words, Amos had been 'the last of the name residing on the original homestead.'

Through his daughter Molly and her son John Kingsbury, the land passed out of the Plimpton name but remained in the family bloodline. The brook, the field, the street lot — all the pieces of the estate Amos had tended — were gradually sold for house-lots as Medfield grew into the nineteenth century. The homestead that John Plimpton had established generations before, that Amos had inherited and improved and loved, was absorbed at last into the expanding town around it.

But the story did not end there. Amos's daughter Mercy and her husband Aaron Smith carried the family forward into the 1850s. His grandson John Kingsbury, named in the will as executor and heir, was the keeper of the flame for the next generation. And the name Plimpton, though no longer attached to that Medfield address, lived on in the records of a town shaped by the quiet, enduring work of families like Amos and Mary's.

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4) An Audio Overview (essentially a podcast) created by the Google NotebookLM AI tool) describing and celebrating the lives of the Amos and Mary (Guild) Plimpton family can be heard here (click on "Play" for the "Audio Overview").

5)  The Video Overview discussing the Amos and Mary (Guild) Plimpton family created by the Google NotebookLM AI tool is:  

6)  The Slide Deck produced by Google NotebookLM was incorporated into a Google Slides file, and the created Google Vids presentation is below:  

7)  I edited the Claude biography text to correct minor inconsistencies and errors. Every large language model (LLM) AI tool writes descriptive text much better than I can write. I was an aerospace engineer in my former life, and my research reports and genealogical sketches reflect "just the facts gleaned from my research." The AI tools are very perceptive, insightful and create readable text in seconds, including local and national historical events and social history detail when requested.

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Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/abc-biography-of-amos-plimpton-and-mary.html

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.

Added and Updated FamilySearch Record Collections - Week of 9 to 15 May 2026

Each week, I try to keep track of the number of Full-Text Search collections (indexed, searchable) and the Images collections (browsable but not searchable) -- see Sections 1) and 2) below. In addition, I list the genealogy historical record collections (often name-indexed) that are added, removed, and/or updated on FamilySearch and listed on the Historical Record Collection list  --  See Section 3.

1)  As of 15 May 2026, there are now 6,666 searchable and full-text transcribed image collections on FamilySearch Full-Text Search this week, an increase of 2 from last week. There are over   1.98 BILLION "results" in the collections.  It is not possible to see which collections are new.

 

 2)  As of 15 May 2026, there are now 24,686 browsable (some indexed, none transcribed) image collections on FamilySearch Images this week, a decrease of 26 from last week. There are over 6.023 BILLION images in these collections.  There are 2,101 collections from the United States, 6,917 from Europe and 219 from Canada.  It is not possible to see which collections are new.  

3)  As of 15 May 2026, there are 3,435 Historical Record Collections (many indexed, browsable) on FamilySearch (an increase of 2 from last week) on the Signed In screen.

The Deleted, Added and Updated Historical Record Collections this week include:

--- Collections Deleted ---

--- Collections Added ---

*  England and Wales, Census, 1921 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000564); 31,698,408 indexed records with 31,698,408 record images, ADDED 12-May-2026
*  Italy, Gorizia, Census, 1742-1895 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000449); 17,250 indexed records with 4,396 record images, ADDED 13-May-2026

--- Collections Updated ---

Alaska, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2684865); Browse 22,595 Images only, no index (was 22,410 records with 22,595 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Canada, Newfoundland, Census, 1921 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2226517); 194,365 indexed records with 8,415 record images (was 218,865 records with 8,415 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Find a Grave Index (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2221801); 266,995,561 indexed records with 1,088,742 record images (was 265,645,816 records with 190,493,176 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
France, Rhône, Military Registration Cards, 1865-1932 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3007175); 404,641 indexed records with 404,001 record images (was 404,564 records with 404,163 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Germany, Saxony, Leipzig, Miscellaneous City Records, 1701-1922 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2040001); Browse 91,076 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 91,076 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026

Illinois, Births and Christenings, 1824-1940 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1676968); 1,124,902 indexed records with 1,148,872 record images (was 1,070,559 records with 1,148,872 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Illinois, Chicago, Catholic Church Records, 1833-1925 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1452409); 302,566 indexed records with 295,723 record images (was 302,566 records with 295,723 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Illinois, Deaths and Burials, 1749-1999 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3541609); 568,478 indexed records with 178,463 record images (was 561,490 records with 177,615 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Illinois, Marriages, 1815-1935 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1680829); 998,463 indexed records with 1,003,760 record images (was 981,241 records with 1,003,760 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Iowa, Death Records, 1904-1951 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2531337); 2,227,961 indexed records with 475,273 record images (was 2,227,956 records with 475,273 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026

Iowa, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2796750); Index only (63 records), no images (was 602,723 records with 0 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Italy, Catania, Catania, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1929 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2043496); 747,768 indexed records with 434,962 record images (was 747,745 records with 434,962 images), UPDATED 11-May-2026
Italy, Enna, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1866-1944 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2068343); 2,585 indexed records with 836,855 record images (was 735 records with 836,855 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Louisiana, New Orleans Index to Passenger Lists, 1853-1952 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2443949); 439,667 indexed records with 435,421 record images (was 439,472 records with 435,372 images), UPDATED 11-May-2026
Mexico, Aguascalientes, Catholic Church Records, 1601-1962 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1502404); 950,575 indexed records with 618,532 record images (was 905,747 records with 618,532 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026

Mexico, Baja California and Baja California Sur, Catholic Church Records, 1750-1984 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1506640); 60,085 indexed records with 29,943 record images (was 60,085 records with 29,943 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Campeche, Catholic Church Records, 1638-2003 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1473200); 472,028 indexed records with 189,697 record images (was 469,525 records with 189,697 images), UPDATED 13-May-2026
Mexico, Coahuila, Catholic Church Records, 1627-1978 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1502401); 1,394,845 indexed records with 393,502 record images (was 1,369,363 records with 393,502 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Colima, Catholic Church Records, 1707-1969 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1508604); 360,894 indexed records with 228,566 record images (was 337,352 records with 228,566 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1514-1970 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1615259); 4,608,313 indexed records with 4,263,289 record images (was 4,171,214 records with 4,263,289 images), UPDATED 15-May-2026

Mexico, Michoacán, Catholic Church Records, 1555-1996 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1883388); 7,159,405 indexed records with 5,283,986 record images (was 5,481,345 records with 5,283,986 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Nuevo León, Catholic Church Records, 1544-1982 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1473204); 1,149,073 indexed records with 447,381 record images (was 1,123,394 records with 447,381 images), UPDATED 15-May-2026
Mexico, Sinaloa, Catholic Church Records, 1671-1968 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1473206); 906,141 indexed records with 521,512 record images (was 848,640 records with 521,512 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Sonora, Catholic Church Records, 1657-1994 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1473203); 626,560 indexed records with 383,518 record images (was 593,340 records with 383,518 images), UPDATED 15-May-2026
Netherlands, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1910 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1778468); Index only (1,572,754 records), no images (was 1,571,557 records with 0 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026

Netherlands, Deaths and Burials, 1668-1945 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1500717); Index only (211,659 records), no images (was 211,582 records with 0 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Netherlands, Gelderland, Church Records, 1405-1966 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2038506); Browse 388,400 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 388,400 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Netherlands, Marriages, 1565-1892 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1500716); Index only (458,519 records), no images (was 458,225 records with 0 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Netherlands, Noord-Brabant, Church Records, 1473-1965 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2037960); Browse 2,113,313 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 2,113,313 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Netherlands, Zuid-Holland, Church Records, 1367-1916 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2037907); Browse 730,286 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 730,286 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026

New York, County Naturalization Records, 1791-1980 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1999177); 3,332,563 indexed records with 3,080,948 record images (was 3,238,427 records with 3,080,948 images), UPDATED 11-May-2026
Oregon, Multnomah County, Voting Registration Records, 1908-1958 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2759505); 983,145 indexed records with 982,511 record images (was 982,984 records with 982,475 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Rhode Island, Vital records, 1846-1898, 1901-1955 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1935767); 981,335 indexed records with 32,524 record images (was 750,518 records with 32,524 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
South Africa, Transvaal, Civil Death, 1869-1954 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2998108); 961,705 indexed records with 1,081,775 record images (was 960,655 records with 1,081,693 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Spain, Gerona, Municipal Records, 1566-1960 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2015355); 1,328,675 indexed records with 390,067 record images (was 1,417,226 records with 390,067 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026

Spain, La Coruña, Municipal Records, 1648-1951 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2015359); 897,082 indexed records with 258,646 record images (was 897,079 records with 258,646 images), UPDATED 09-May-2026
United States, Census, 1940 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2000219); 134,774,667 indexed records with 3,841,151 record images (was 134,774,669 records with 3,841,151 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1339071); Browse 11,979,092 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 11,979,092 images), UPDATED 13-May-2026
United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1861144); 12,217,993 indexed records with 19,317,962 record images (was 12,074,279 records with 19,317,962 images), UPDATED 13-May-2026
Wales, Marriage Bonds, 1650-1900 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2761121); Index only (199,560 records), no images (was 199,526 records with 0 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026

--- Collections with new images ---

Argentina, Buenos Aires, Civil Registration, 1861-2018 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000041); 1 indexed records with 111,708 record images (was 1 records with 111,707 images), last updated 07-Jun-2024
Brazil, Alagoas, Civil Registration, 1876-2023 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4469403); 1 indexed records with 454,205 record images (was 1 records with 454,200 images), last updated 07-Jun-2024
Brazil, Maranhão, Civil Registration, 1827-2022 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4469402); 1 indexed records with 906,167 record images (was 1 records with 906,160 images), last updated 07-Jun-2024
United States, Census, 1950 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4464515); 157,892,854 indexed records with 52,743,735 record images (was 157,892,854 records with 52,743,050 images), last updated 16-Jun-2024
United States, Obituary Records, 2014-2023 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000145); 1 indexed records with 28,204,728 record images (was 1 records with 28,204,723 images), last updated 22-Jul-2024

--- Collections with images removed ---

Australia, Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1770729); 457,578 indexed records with 525,179 record images (was 457,578 records with 525,969 images), last updated 28-May-2025
Australia, Deaths and Burials, 1816-1980 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1770857); 103,977 indexed records with 108,839 record images (was 103,977 records with 108,863 images), last updated 19-Mar-2025
Australia, Marriages, 1810-1980 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1770858); 140,493 indexed records with 149,669 record images (was 140,493 records with 149,836 images), last updated 28-May-2025
England, Somerset, Church Records, 1501-1999 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4380193); 4,285,771 indexed records with 4,777,050 record images (was 4,285,771 records with 4,777,053 images), last updated 04-Jan-2026
Italy, Deaths and Burials, 1806-1910 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1708705); 76,671 indexed records with 428,736 record images (was 76,671 records with 428,888 images), last updated 28-Mar-2026

United Kingdom, British Armed Forces and Overseas Vital Records, 1761-2005 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4324570); 2,878,200 indexed records with 2,861,334 record images (was 2,878,200 records with 2,868,205 images), last updated 22-Sep-2021
West Virginia, Deaths, 1804-1999 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1417434); 2,214,804 indexed records with 2,378,802 record images (was 2,214,804 records with 2,378,894 images), last updated 07-Apr-2026
West Virginia, Marriages, 1780-1970 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408729); 1,470,588 indexed records with 35,261 record images (was 1,470,588 records with 35,456 images), last updated 07-Apr-2026

--- Collections with new records ---

--- Collections with records removed ---

Texas, Birth Index, 1903-1997 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1949342); Index only (17,102,110 records), no images (was 17,102,111 records with 0 images), last updated 17-Feb-2012
United States, Public Records, 1970-2009 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2199956); Index only (875,600,617 records), no images (was 875,600,626 records with 0 images), last updated 23-Dec-2025
United States, Residence Database, 1970-2024 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000290); Index only (413,858,332 records), no images (was 413,858,373 records with 0 images), last updated 22-Jun-2024

===================================

My friend and SDGS colleague, Marshall, has come up with a way to determine which collections are ADDED, DELETED or UPDATED, and to alphabetize the entries in each category. Thanks to Marshall for helping me out here!

Marshall notes that there are:

• 3,435 Historical Record Collection entries
• 0 removed entries
• 2  added entries 
• 40 updated entries
• 13 entries with more or fewer images 
• 3 entries with more or fewer records

Marshsll's list shows 5Historical Record Collections this week, an increase of 2 collections. The image above shows 3,435 collections, so the Image number is in sync with Marshall's list number.

==========================================

See previous FamilySearch-related blog posts in        https://www.geneamusings.com/search/label/FamilySearch

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/added-and-updated-familysearch-record_01273634621.html

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not be posted immediately.

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Added and Updated Ancestry.com Record Collections - Week of 9 to 15 May 2026

   The following genealogy record collections were added to the Ancestry.com Card Catalog page by "Date Updated" during the period from 9 to 15 May 2026.

The ADDED and Updated collections include:

• Texas, U.S., Divorce Index, 1968-2017; 8,097,581 indexed records wthout record images, Updated 5/15/2026. This database is an index to approximately 2.9 million divorces that were filed in State of Texas, USA, from 1968-2017.
• Utah, U.S., Cemetery Inventory, 1847-2021; 1,610,986 indexed records wthout record images, Updated 5/15/2026. This collection contains an index of information taken from cemetery records produced in Utah between 1847 and 2021. The collection doesn’t have images of the original records.
• Edinburgh, Scotland, Poor Law Records, 1817-1852; 38,959 indexed records with record images, ADDED 5/14/2026. This collection contains records from government poorhouses in Edinburgh, Scotland, dated between 1817 and 1852.
• Fulton County, Georgia, U.S., Absentee Military Voters, 1944-1962; 17,562 indexed records with record images, ADDED 5/12/2026. This collection contains registers of absentee voters from Fulton County, Georgia, dated between 1945 and 1962. Most of the records are for military personnel serving overseas.
• Malta Heraldry, 1500-2000; 11,029 indexed records with record images, ADDED 5/12/2026. This collection contains heraldry records from Malta dated between 1500 and 2000.
• Cheshire, England, Wills and Probate, 1530-1858; 803,874 indexed records with record images, ADDED 5/12/2026.  This collection contains wills and probate records from Cheshire, England, dated between 1530 and 1858.

=========================================

The complete Ancestry.com Card Catalog is at https://search.ancestry.com/search/CardCatalog.aspx.

By my count, there are 4 NEW record collections ADDED this past week, per the list above. There are now 33,934 collections available as of 15 May, an INCREASE of  3 from last week.

==============================================

Disclosure: I pay for an All-Access subscription from Ancestry.com. In past years, Ancestry.com provided a complimentary All Access subscription, an autosomal DNA test, material considerations for travel expenses to meetings, and hosted events and meals that I attended in Salt Lake City.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/added-and-updated-ancestrycom-record_012844935.html

 Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Facebook, X, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Please note that all Comments are moderated so they may not appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.

Ask AI: "Describe the Courtship of Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle in Lancashire in the Late 1830s" (Parts 1 and 2)

 I wondered if my AI Assistant Anthropic Claude could provide me with information about the courtship of my wife's 2nd great-grandparents, Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle in Lancashire in the late 1830s. The biography of Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle is in ABC Biography of Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle of Lancashire, New South Wales and California (1818-1861).

(AI NotebookLM Infographic -- Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle Courtship and Marriage in  Lancashire)

I asked Claude to create a description of Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle's courtship and early marriage years in the 1830s, based on the biography and social history.

The Claude Sonnet 4.6 response was:

The Sawyer and the Millgirl

A Story of Bolton-le-Moors, 1838–1840

Part One: The Timber Yard — Spring, 1838

The sawdust was in everything. It settled in Alexander Whittle’s hair and his eyebrows and the creases of his knuckles, and at the end of a day in the yard he could taste it on the back of his throat, dry and faintly sweet, like the memory of a forest. He didn’t mind. He was twenty years old and strong, and the rhythm of the long saw — the push and the pull, the grain splitting clean — was as natural to him as breathing.

Bolton-le-Moors was a cotton town, and like all cotton towns in those years it ran on noise. The clatter of the looms came through the walls of the mills on Deansgate and spread out across the valley like weather. But the timber yard on the edge of town — where Alexander had worked since he was fourteen, first as a boy running errands for the older men, and now as a journeyman sawyer — had its own quieter music: the creak of stacked planks settling, the rasp of a draw-knife, the whisper of a plane along a board.

He was the second-youngest of twelve children, a fact that had taught him early to make himself useful and to take up no more space than he was given. His father, old Alexander, was a gardener in Chorley who smelled of earth and wet leaves and spoke mostly in nods. His mother, Margaret, had kept the household running with a kind of furious competence that left no room for idleness. When the chance came at fourteen for the younger Alexander to apprentice to a sawyer in Bolton, she’d packed his bundle herself.

He lodged on King Street, in a room above a chandler’s shop, and ate his suppers at a boarding house two streets over. It was a small life, but it was his own, and on Saturday evenings, when the yard was shut and his wages were in his pocket, he felt the pleasant lightness of a young man with the whole week ahead of him.

He first saw Rachel Morley on a Saturday in late April.

The market on Churchgate was still busy in the late afternoon, the stalls heaped with turnips and bolts of cloth and secondhand boots. Alexander had come for nothing in particular — perhaps a pie from the woman who sold them near the corn exchange, perhaps just to walk. He nearly collided with her at the corner by the draper’s stall.

She was carrying a bundle of finished cloth — piecework, he would later learn, taken in by the week from one of the mills — and it was large enough that she couldn’t see over it, which was why she walked straight into him.

The cloth went one way. Alexander caught it before it hit the mud.

“Careful,” he said, and then felt immediately foolish, since she was the one who’d been walking blind.

She looked up at him with dark eyes that held no particular gratitude. “I’d have managed,” she said.

He handed back the bundle. “I don’t doubt it.”

She regarded him a moment — taking his measure, he thought, in the way that women did when they weren’t sure whether to be polite or not. Then something shifted in her expression, not quite a smile but the possibility of one.

“You’re at the timber yard,” she said. “I’ve seen you going past on Deansgate of a morning.”

“That’s me.” He felt colour rise in his neck. “Alexander Whittle.”

“Rachel Morley,” she said, and hitched the bundle back under her arm. “Good afternoon, then.”

And she walked on.

He stood on the corner for a moment, watching her go. The market noise went on around him. He thought: I’ll see her again. He didn’t know if it was a prediction or a plan.

It turned out to be both.

He found out from the woman at the pie stall — who knew everyone and everything within a quarter-mile — that Rachel Morley lived on Lum Street with her twin sister Leah, that they were both illegitimate, that their mother Jane had died four years ago of drink and poverty, and that the two girls had been keeping themselves ever since by taking in piecework and doing whatever else needed doing.

“Hard girls,” the pie woman said, with a kind of admiring disapproval. “Not ones to take charity.”

He ate his pie and thought about this.

He began to find reasons to walk past the end of Lum Street on a Thursday evening, which was when, he had established, Rachel returned the finished cloth and collected new work from the mill agent’s office on the corner. He told himself this was happenstance. He was not, he told himself, a man who loitered.

The third Thursday, she was waiting for him.

Not precisely waiting — she was standing outside the mill agent’s office with her bundle, but her eyes were already on the end of the street when he came around the corner, and she didn’t look surprised.

“I thought you might be coming this way,” she said.

“I often do,” he said, which was almost true now.

They walked together as far as the top of Churchgate. He carried the bundle. She let him, which he understood was its own kind of statement. She didn’t talk much, but when she did talk she was direct, without ornament, in the way of someone who had learned not to waste words because no one was likely to listen anyway. He liked that. He found himself talking more than he usually did, filling the spaces she left, telling her about the yard and the different woods and what each one smelled like when the saw bit through it — pine like a cold morning, oak like something ancient and dark, chestnut almost like bread.

She listened with her head slightly tilted, as if she were deciding whether this was worth her time.

“You love it,” she said at last. “The work.”

“I do,” he said. He hadn’t quite known it until she said it.

She nodded, as if this confirmed something. “That’s something, at least,” she said. “A lot of men don’t love anything.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that. They had reached the top of Churchgate. She took back the bundle.

“Same time next week, then,” she said, and walked on before he could answer.

Part Two: Lum Street — June, 1838

By June they were walking together every Thursday, and on Saturday evenings when the market was on, and sometimes on a Sunday afternoon when the weather permitted and they went out along the river path that ran east from town into quiet country. The summer evenings were longer and the town was easier to move through in the warm months. They walked out further along the river, or up onto the moor above the town, where the wind came off the hills and you could see all of Lancashire laid out below like a map: the mills, the chapels, the thin grey lines of roads, and somewhere to the west, Chorley, where Alexander’s family still were, and further west, the coast, and beyond that, nothing they could see.

He met Leah, who was Rachel’s double in face and quite her opposite in temperament — loud, teasing, quick to laugh — and who looked him up and down the first time they met and said: “You’re bigger than I expected.”

“Leah,” Rachel said, in a flat voice that meant: stop.

“I’m paying him a compliment,” Leah said, entirely unabashed.

The room on Lum Street was small and cool and very clean. The two sisters had a habit of neatness that Alexander found touching — everything in its place, the cloth stacked in order of weight, a small bunch of dried rosemary hanging by the window not because it did anything useful but because it smelled like something other than damp wool. Their mother had taught them this, Rachel told him. Jane Morley had been many things, not all of them good, but she had kept a clean house.

“Did she?” Alexander said. He was sitting on the stool by the fire, which was Rachel’s stool, a fact he had not yet noticed.

“Until the end,” Rachel said. She said it simply, without self-pity, the way you state a fact about the weather. “After that, Leah and I managed.”

He tried to imagine it: two girls of fifteen, sixteen, keeping a room clean and finding enough work and not asking anyone for anything. He thought of his own home in Chorley, his mother’s voice filling every corner, his brothers arguing over the dinner table, his father’s quiet presence like ballast. He had always had too many people. Rachel had always had too few.

“You’ll not have to manage on your own forever,” he said. He hadn’t meant it as a proposal. He wasn’t sure, afterwards, what he had meant it as. But Rachel went very still, and looked at him with those dark eyes, and said nothing at all, which in his experience of her meant she was thinking seriously about something.

He walked home to King Street that night and he knew with the particular certainty of the young that something had been decided, even if neither of them had said it in so many words.

On Lum Street, Leak told Rachel “He’s steady,” as if this were the most important thing in the world. “You want steady. We had enough of the other kind growing up.” Rachel did not argue with this.

He and Rachel did not speak of love directly. It was not much the habit of people in their world, where feeling was something you showed by what you did rather than what you said. But he carried her bundle on Thursdays, and she mended a tear in his coat without being asked, and on cool evenings when they sat by the fire on Lum Street, Leah would find reasons to be elsewhere in the room, and in that space between the fire and the window, Alexander and Rachel were quietly, thoroughly, in the same world together.

By August of 1838 they were meeting whenever they could arrange it, which was not always easy in a town where everyone knew their neighbours’ business. Leah was their ally and their cover story and their most enthusiastic audience. She had opinions about everything, including Alexander, which she offered freely.

In early September he kissed her for the first time. They were on the river path, and it was dusk, and she had been telling him something about a woman on her street who kept a goat, and he had simply done it, because she was there and the evening was pale gold over the fields and he couldn’t think of any good reason not to. She looked at him afterwards with an expression he couldn’t quite read, and then she said: “About time.”

He laughed. She smiled then, the real smile, the one she didn’t give to just anyone.

“Have you ever wanted to go somewhere else?” Rachel asked him one evening, sitting on the moor wall with the light still pink in the west.

He considered the question. “Sometimes. My brother Stephen talks about it. About going abroad.”

“Where?”

“Australia. America. He reads the newspapers.” Alexander smiled. “I tell him to get on with it if he wants to go.”

Rachel looked at the horizon. “I’ve never been further than Blackburn,” she said. “When we were eleven, Mother was taken up — a removal order, they called it. They came and put us on a cart and took us to Blackburn as if we were parcels. I didn’t like it.”

“Being moved without choosing?”

“Any of it.” She looked at him. “If I ever went anywhere, I’d go because I chose to.”

He held that thought, turning it over. The wind moved across the moor. In the valley below, the mill chimneys put up their thin lines of smoke into the evening sky.

....  to be continued!

================================

The AI Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this story is in:  

This is historical fiction based on known events in the lives of my wife's ancestors -- it might have been this way. The persons mentioned are my wife's 2nd great-grandparents, and I have significant information about her life from the available records, but I know nothing about her day-to-day life.

As always, I am amazed at what life was like in any place over 180 years ago. This description of the family life in Lancashire is interesting and so different from our current daily activities.

After I read these types of social history summaries, I wish that I could be a time traveler for one day to visit this Whittle family in 1840 England and witness their daily lives.  I'm glad that the general lifestyles and occupations are known from historical records and witness accounts.

==============================================

Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page.  Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/ask-ai-describe-courtship-of-alexander.html

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.