Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Genealogy Education Bytes - Week of 27 March to 2 April 2025

 Welcome to Genealogy Education Bytes, posted on Wednesday afternoon for the past week, where we try to highlight some of the most important genealogy and family history education items that came across my desktop since the last issue.


1) Upcoming Conferences and  Institutes 

* Conference Keeper Calendar - has many links to register for  and/or view conferences and institutes

*   OGS 2025 Conference "Light Up Your Genealogy" ($$) - 30 April to 3 May 2025 - In-Person (Sandusky, Ohio)

*  NGS 2025 Family History Conference "Tales & Trails" ($$) - 23 to 25 May 2025 - In-Person (Louisville, Ky.)

*  2025 International German Genealogy Partnership (IGGP) Conference ($$) - 12 to 15 June 2025 - In-Person and Virtual (Columbus, Ohio)

2 ) Upcoming Seminars, Webinars and Online Classes (times are US Pacific):

* Conference Keeper Calendar - has many links to register for and/or view webinars and classes.

*  FamilySearch Library Classes and Webinars (Free)

*  GenWebinars ($$)


*  Family Tree Webinars 24-Hour Genealogy Webinar Marathon (free for a week) - Thursday, 3 April to Friday, 4 April):  24 webinars 

*  Family Tree Webinars (free for a week) - Tuesday, 8 April, 7 p.m.:  Finding Great-Granny’s Family: Four Words and DNA by Cathie Sherwood

*  Family Tree Webinars (free for a week) - Wednesday, 9 April, 11 a.m.:  Foundations in DNA 2 of 5: Understanding and Using Y-DNA and mtDNA by Blaine Bettinger.

*  Family Tree Webinars (free for a week) - Friday, 11 April, 11 a.m.:  Neglected Gold in Older Genealogical and Historical Periodicals by Paula Stuart-Warren.

3) Recent Podcasts:


*  Branching Out:  RootsTech 2025 Wrap-Up




4) Recent YouTube Videos




*  Ancestry:  


*  Carole McCullough Geneablogger:  Genealogy AI Face-off: 1 Analysing Documents
*  Carole McCullough Geneablogger: Genealogy AI Face-0ff: 2 Extracting Data
*  Carole McCullough Geneablogger: Genealogy AI Face-off: 4 Embedding Historical Context
*  Carole McCullough Geneablogger:  Genealogy AI Face-Off: 6 Research Planning and Strategy




*  DearMYRTLE's Archive:  Mondays with Myrt - 31 Mar 2025

*  Ellen Thompson-Jennings - Family History Hound:  Diahan Southard’s Unexpected Path to DNA & Family History






*  Genealogy TV:  23andMe - Genealogy TV Podcast






* Prompts to Pedigrees: Gen AI & Genealogy:  Ancestry.com: Are Suggestions Worse Than Hints?



*  Write Yoiur Family History With Devon Noel Lee:  Writing Family History? It Doesn't Have to Be a Book!

5) Did you miss the last post in this series - Genealogy Education Bytes -  20 to 26 March 2025?   Read past Genealogy Education Bytes here.

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

NOTE:  If  I missed something important in this time period, please let me know in a comment or an email. 

Copyright (c) 2025, 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 your comment 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.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Randy and a Friend in 1946 -- (Not So) Wordless Wednesday #864

  I found another priceless (to me) photograph in my computer file folders:

The little boy on the right of the photograph is me...and I have no idea who the little girl is.  This photo was probably taken by my grandmfather, Lyle Carringer, in about 1946 (because I appear to be 2 or 3 years old).  I don't recognize the setting - perhaps it is in Balboa Park.  It could be on our city block too.  

My mother never told me the name of my friend - this may be the only photo I have of her. Perhaps she was the daughter of one of my mother's many college friends who all had babies during World War II.

This photograph is a part of my family history.  I used the MyHeritage Photo tools to enhance and colorize a black and white photograph.  

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


Copyright (c) 2025, 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 Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.    I moderate all comments and they may not appear immediately - please write only one comment.

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

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Genealogy News Bytes - Week of 26 March to 1 April 2025

Welcome to Genealogy News Bytes, posted on Tuesday afternoon for the past week, where we try to highlight the most important genealogy and family history news  items that came across our desktop since the last issue.    


1)  Genealogy and Family History News Articles:






2)  DNA-Related News Articles



4)  New or Updated Genealogy Digital Record Collections:

















5)  Did you miss the last post in this series?  See Genealogy News Bytes - 19 to 25 March 2025.   Read all recent Genealogy News Bytes here.  

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


Copyright (c) 2025, 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 Twitter, 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. 

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Ask AI: "Please Create a Photorealistic Image of a Sod Cabin On the Windy Northwestern Kansas Plains in 1885"

I attended the AI day at the i4GG conference in San Diego online last Friday, and watched five presentations by Steve Little and Mark Thompson, including one that described and demonstrated the new photorealistic image generation capabilities recently offered by OpenAI's ChatGPT tool.  They also described it in the webinar on the same day and at the same time on Family Tree Webinars - see Picture the Past: An Introduction to AI Images for Family Historians (paywalled)).  

I wanted to try it out so I tried to create a prompt about my 2nd great-grandfather's (Devier J. Smith, 1839-1894) sod cabin in Cheyenne County, Kansas in 1885.  

1)  My prompt for the free ChatGPT4 Image tool was:  "Please create a photorealistic image of a sod cabin on the windy northwestern Kansas plains in 1885 with a stream running by the cabin, trees along the stream and randomly on the plain, with a horse and wagon, and a 50 year old bearded man working on his sod house."

The resulting image was:


(image created by ChatGPT)

That is really pretty good, but the trees aren't blowing in the wind and I wish it was more colorful.  The one-line description at the bottom of the image is a nice try at a label or filename. 

2)  So I asked:  "would you please make the photorealistic image more colorful, with a cloudy sky with the sun peeking through and the trees swaying in the wind?"

The modified image was:


                                                      (image created by ChatGPT)

Even better, I think.  The horse and buggy are on the other side of the stream now, the wind appears to be affecting the trees,  and it looks like he is building a second room or a windbreak on the cabin.  The cabin probably is too close to the stream and probably was built up on a small grade. 

Unfortunately, I used up my free credits for the day, but I can make more photorealistic images tomorrow!

3)  I also asked ChatGPT4:  "Please tell me about building a sod cabin in 1885.  How big were they, what tools were used, what materials did they use? "

The response was:

Building a sod cabin in 1885 was a practical solution for homesteaders on the treeless plains, especially in areas like northwestern Kansas. These cabins, also called soddies, were made from prairie sod—thickly rooted grass and soil cut into blocks.

Size and Structure

  • Most sod cabins measured 12 to 16 feet wide and 16 to 24 feet long, though some were larger.
  • Walls were typically 2 to 3 feet thick, providing excellent insulation against heat and cold.
  • The roof was often made of sod on a wooden frame, but if lumber was available, shingles or boards were used.

Materials Used

  • Sod blocks: Cut from the prairie using a plow, each block was about 2 feet long, 1 foot wide, and 4 inches thick.
  • Wood: Often scarce on the plains, but used for roof support beams, doors, and windows.
  • Grass or straw: Sometimes mixed with mud to reinforce walls.
  • Rock or logs: If available, these were used as a foundation to keep the walls from absorbing too much moisture.
  • Canvas or tar paper: Used to line the inside walls to keep dirt from falling inside.

Tools Used

  • Breaking plow or sod cutter: To cut the sod into uniform blocks.
  • Spade or shovel: For shaping and moving sod blocks.
  • Hatchet or axe: If wood was available for beams or rafters.
  • Saw and hammer: For constructing doors, windows, and roof supports.
  • Auger or brace-and-bit: To drill holes for pegs or nails.
  • Rope and pulley: Sometimes used to lift heavy sod blocks.

Construction Process

  • Foundation: Some cabins were built directly on the ground, but rocks or logs were used if available.
  • Laying the Walls: Sod bricks were stacked in an overlapping pattern, much like bricks in a masonry wall.
  • Doors and Windows: Frames were installed, often made from wood brought in by wagon.
  • Roofing: If sod was used, it was laid over a wooden frame and covered with tar paper or straw to reduce leaks.
  • Finishing Touches: Inside walls were sometimes covered with muslin, newspaper, or plastered with mud to make them smoother.

Challenges and Benefits

  • Pros: Cheap, well-insulated, fire-resistant, and relatively easy to build.
  • Cons: Dirt would sometimes fall from the ceiling, walls could become damp, and rain could cause leaks if not built properly.
  • Many homesteaders lived in sod houses until they could afford to build wooden homes. However, some soddies lasted for decades!
  • Would you like any details on a specific aspect, like roofing methods or interior furnishings?

Devier J. Smith traveled every summer from 1885 to 1893 from McCook, Nebraska (2,600 feet altitude) to Cheyenne County, Kansas (3,300 feet altitude) along the south fork of the Republican River to build his cabin.  His "ranch" was along the river (I found the plot in More Land Patents in Cheyenne County, Kansas for Devier Smith and Della Smith).  He may have built his cabin on a slope dug into the dirt so that one side of the cabin was protected from the elements.

Devier's daughter Della Smith (1862-1944) also had 40 acres, and Della's neighbor was her future husband, Henry Austin Carringer (1853-1946).  Austin and Della married in 1887 and took the train to San Diego and lived there the rest of their lives.

Devier's wife and children thought that the high altitude and dryer weather helped them breathe better and was healthier.   His son David Devier Smith may have helped build the cabin, and perhaps Devier hired help from the nearby town of Wano (near St. Francis).   

Austin Carringer may have built a sod cabin on his land because he lived there for months on end before his marriage.  

The ChatGPT4 image generator worked really well. 

4)  I tried the same prompt on (free) Google Gemini 2.0 Flash and received:


                                                      (image created by Gemini)

5)  And the same prompt on (free) Grok 3:


                                                      (image created by Grok)

6)  Microsoft Co-pilot uses OpenAI Dall-3 to create images.  Here is the image with the same prompt:


                                                      (image created by CoPilot)

7)  Now we have four relatively realistic image generators.  I believe in dipping my hook into all AI streams.

8)  How would you have improved the prompt?  Perhaps I should provide more detail about the cabin, the terrain, the sky, etc?  

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

See all of my Artificial Intelligence-related posts at AI and Genealogy Compendium.

Copyright (c) 2025, 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 appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Announcing YOUR GENEA-GENIE

 The time has come to unveil YOUR GENEA-GENIE

  • Do you have lots of family history data about your ancestors, but can't write reports or make audios or videos about your family members?
  • Are you leery of Artificial Intelligence?
  • Do you want to pass something great to your descendants and relatives?

YOUR GENEA-GENIE may be helpful!

YOUR GENEA-GENIE is a Windows and Mac desktop program, with a companion iOS and Android mobile app, to help you write and create reports, poems, songs, podcasts and videos about your ancestors that will have your family members begging for more family history.

And Best Of All - IT'S FREE!!!

HOW IT WORKS:

  • Upload your family tree with family names, relationships, dates and places (including media, notes and sources if possible) to an online family tree - for example, at Ancestors.com, OurHeritage.net or FamilyFind.com. 
  • Select a profile in the online family tree, select the Facts (or similar) page, copy and save all of the information into a PDF document.
  • Open YOUR GENEA-GENIE on your desktop computer or mobile device, and submit your PDF document.
  • Choose which products you want - a written report, a poem, song lyrics, an audio podcast, or a video about your ancestor.  
  • The user can choose how many words in the report, if they want historical events, how many stanzas in the poem, how many verses in the song, how many minutes of the podcast, etc.  
  • YOUR GENEA-GENIE will prompt an AI tool to write the report based on the information, prompt another AI tool to write the poem and song lyrics, and prompt another AI Tool to create the podcast.  You will love the written description of your ancestor living in a historical time based on facts and the heartfelt prose created for the poem and the song, and the podcast discussion.
  • If your file has photographs with titles, you can make a video showing selected photos or record images while the podcast plays describing the ancestor.  You can then upload the video to your YouTube channel.  
  • You can even choose which free AI tool you want to use - the default is OpenAI ChatGPT4 for written reports, Anthropic Claude for poems, X Grok for songs, Google Gemini for Podcasts, and Zoom for videos.  Or you can choose any of them for a specific product.  
You will be amazed at how well this works, and how 
easy it is to use.  

Of course, a well-documented ancestor with family names, dates, places, sources, notes and media will produce significantly better results than an ancestor or profile without much information.  

A few clicks and you will have a lot of well written and interesting information about your ancestor.  

Note that this product will not do the genealogy research for you - that's going to be a future product!!  Also in the future are automagic ancestor books.

Are you interested in YOUR GENEA-GENIE?  Please leave a comment noting your interest.  If you have suggestions for improvements, please email the author.

NOTE:  This product is not commercially available at this time.  It is in the "alpha" stage of development.  

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

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2025/04/announcing-your-genea-genie.html

Copyright (c) 2025, 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.  Please 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.
Posted by at 3 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, March 31, 2025

Randy's Genealogy Pot-Pourri - Week Ending 30 March 2025

 Here are the highlights of my family history and genealogy related activities over the past week (ending Sunday, 23 March 2025).  

1)  Attended the Chula Vista Genealogical Society General Meeting on Wednesday.  Sara Cochran presented "Who Needed It Anyway? - the 1890 U.S. Census."

2)  Virtually attended the AI Day at the i4GG conference on Friday with Steve Little and Mark Thompson providing six presentations.  Interesting, especially the new image creation capabilities at OpenAI and Google Gemini.   

3)  Transcribed the 1856 Article of Agreement Between William Knapp and Martin Myers for Land in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey from FamilySearch Full-Text Search.

4)  Wrote a genealogical sketch for 2nd Great-GrandUncle Jesse Rich (1822-1871) of Hilperton, Wiltshire for the 52 Relatives theme.

5) Curated genealogy-related articles  to keep myself and my readers updated on the genealogy world in:
6)  Requested free AI tools to tell me about these genealogy subjects:

7)  Requested free AI tools to create a poem and song lyrics about my 3rd greatgrandfather, Benjamin Seaver (1791-1825), and had Suno.com create a song using the lyrics.  Posted the poem created by Claude 3.7 Sonnet and the song lyrics by Grok 3, and the Suno song MP4, in "Abigail's Thread" -- A Family History Poem and Song Created by Artificial Intelligence.


8)  Added more ancestor Notebooks to the Google NotebookLM AI tool, captured the audio overviews, and used TurboScribe (free for 3 transcriptions a day) to render the podcasts into text.  I finished my 2nd great-grandparents notebooks and have 10 podcast transcriptions still to do. Also, I finished adding the Claude biographies to a word processing file through the second great-grandparents.  I have started doing Notebooks and Claude biographies on the 3rd great-grandparents now. 

9)  My AncestryDNA now has 48,771 DNA matches (up 27 from 23 March) with 2071 "close" matches today (up 1), with two new ThruLines (both wrong IMHO).  Added Notes to 2 Matches, and added no new DNA match lines to RootsMagic.   MyHeritageDNA now has 13,392 DNA matches (up 9 from 23 March) for me.  Reviewed the new DNA matches on AncestryDNA, MyHeritageDNA, FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe.  

10)  Occasionally matched RootsMagic 10 profiles to FamilySearch Family Tree.  I have matched 52,563 of my RootsMagic persons with FamilySearch Family Tree profiles (up 14).  

11)  Searched for more records of ancestral families on Ancestry, FamilySearch and MyHeritage, downloaded record images to my digital file folders, and added research notes, events and sources to RootsMagic profiles.  My RootsMagic family tree now has 74,344 profiles (up 13 from last week) and 147,415 source citations (up 14).  Added more short biographical sketches and source citations to ancestors, and edited historical place names for a number of families.  

12) Wrote 19 Genea-Musings blog posts last week (Sunday through Saturday), of which two were  a press release. The most viewed post last week was "The Yeoman's Tale" -- A Family History Poem and Song Created by Artificial Intelligence with over 326 views.  Genea-Musings had about 39,600 page views last week and over 199,000 views over the past month. 

13)  Real life events:  Visited Linda several days at her memory care facility and we played Uno. Went to the grocery store on Monday and Friday.  Went to the dermatologist on Monday and she did a biopsy on the tip of my nose - it's a basal cell carcinoma so I have another minor surgerey scheduled.  My desktop computer keyboard stopped working on Friday so I bought a new keyboard on Saturday and things are back to normal.  I'm still reading In Too Deep by Lee Child.  The Padres season started and they were 3-0 this week.

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

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2025/03/randys-genealogy-pot-pourri-week-ending_040628267.html

Copyright (c) 2025, 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.  Please 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.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Amanuensis Monday -- 1856 Article of Agreement Between William Knapp and Martin Myers for Land in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey

 This week's document for transcription is the 1856 Article of Agreement between William Knapp and Martin Myers for land in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey.

*  Deeds, Sussex county: Sussex. Deeds 1855–1857, pages 590-591 (image 314 of 342):

The transcription of this document is (based on the FamilySearch Full-Text Search, with corrections as required, including line breaks):

Halfway down the right-hand page, the indexing box says:

William Knapp
        to
Martin Myers

In the main body of the article of agreement on the right-hand page (page 591):

Article of Agreement made and entered into this twenty seventh day of September 
Eighteen hundred and fifty five Witness that I William Knapp of the township of Newton in the 
County of Sussex and State of New Jersy do let and lease unto Martin Myers of the same place a certain piece of land and premises situate in the Village of Newton in the county aforesaid adjoining the West side of the Lot owned 
by the said Martin Myers said land so leased is eight feet in breadth and extending the whole length of the lot now owned by the 
said Martin Myers for and during and until water ceases to run and grass ceases to grow.  And the rent for the
said lot of land is hereby acknowledged to have been received by me the said William Knapp In Witness
whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the 27'th day of September 1855 .
Signed Seaved and delivered }
in the presence of                   }
Robert T. Sherron                  }  New Jersy

                                                   Sussex County ss } Be it remembered that on this sixteenth day of December A D 1856 before me a Master in Chancy of said State personally came Robert T Sherron of full age 
who being duly sworn on his oath says that he saw William Knapp the above named grantor sign seal & deliver the 
within Indenture as his Voluntary act and deed and that he the said Robert T. Sherron then subscribed his name 
to the same at the same time as an attesting Witness thereto 
Sworn & Subscribed this 16 " day of December 1856   }
         W S Johnson Master in Chancery                          }
                                               Received and Recorded 16'th December 1856 
                                                                           Edmonds Clerk

The source citation for this article of agreement is:

"Sussex, New Jersey, United States records," article of agreement, William Knapp to Martin Myers, dated 27 September 1855, recorded 16 December 1856; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSGD-3KHQ?view=fullText : accessed Dec 27, 2024), "Deeds, Sussex county: Sussex. Deeds 1855–1857," page 591 (image 314 of 342);  original records at Sussex County courthouse, Newton, New Jersey.

This is a Derivative Source (because it is a court clerk's transcription of the original article of agreement with Primary Information and Direct Evidence of the names of the two parties, and the dates of the agreement execution and recording.   

William Knapp (1775-1856) had a shoe and boot business on Main Street in Newton, New Jersey, and his neighbor on the west of his land was Martin Myers.  Apparently, he leased an 8 foot strip of land to Martin Myers in perpetuity ("...until water ceases to run and grass ceases to grow.").

William Knapp (1775-1856) was born in about 1775 in what was then Dutchess County, New York, and he died 16 June 1856 in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey.  He married Sarah Cutter (1785-1878) in about 1804 in Woodbridge, New Jersey.  They had 11 children.  William and Sarah (Cutter) Knapp are my 3rd great-grandparents, through their daughter Sarah G. Knapp who married David Auble in 1844.

Read other transcriptions of records of my ancestors at Amanuensis Monday Posts.

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


NOTE: Genea-blogger John Newmark (who writes the excellent TransylvanianDutch blog) started a Monday blog theme years ago called "Amanuensis Monday." John offers this definition for "amanuensis:"

"A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another."

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2025/03/amanuensis-monday-1856-article-of.html

Copyright (c) 2025, 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 your comments on Twitter, 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 online immediately.

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

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)