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Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2024.
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Using the ABC method described in Using Artificial Intelligence In the Ancestor Biography Creation (ABC) Process, here is another ancestor biography using the Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 AI tool.
3) The Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 biography is:
Alexander Sovereen was born on December 22, 1814, in Charlotteville township in London District of Upper Canada. He entered the world just as the War of 1812 was drawing to a close, in an era when pioneer families were carving out new lives in the Canadian wilderness.
Alexander was the second son and third child in a family of four children born to Frederick Sovereen (1786-1875) and Mary Jane (Hutchison) Sovereen (1792-1868), who had married in 1810. His father Frederick was the founder of the village of Fredericksburgh (now called Delhi), and his grandfather was the legendary "Jake Sovereen" who kept a historical pioneer tavern in the area. Alexander's siblings were: William Lewis Sovereen (1811-1892), Mary Catherine Sovereen (1813-????), and Jacob Sovereen (1816-1909).
The Sovereen family was known for their remarkable constitutional vigor and longevity—traits that Alexander would certainly exemplify throughout his long life. His mother's family, the Hutchisons, were Loyalists who hailed from New Jersey and New Brunswick, while his father's roots traced back to German ancestry and New Jersey.
Alexander's earliest years were spent in old Charlotteville, where he witnessed firsthand the raw challenges of pioneer life. He was born while Turkey Point served as the judicial headquarters for the entire London District, a testament to how remote and undeveloped the region was at the time.
When Alexander was about nine years old—"three years past common school age"—his family moved into the second log cabin erected where the village of Delhi would eventually stand. This relocation marked the beginning of the Middleton settlement and the founding of what would become Fredericksburgh and Delhi.
One of Alexander's most vivid childhood memories was of a mischievous incident that resulted in what he called "the tarnalest lambastin'" he ever received. When he was about six years old, he and his older brother William conceived the idea of throwing stones down the big brick and mud chimney of their cabin while their parents were away. Sally Loder, who lived with the family and was cooking dinner, watched in horror as stones rattled down, striking the crane, bouncing onto the hearth, and splashing into the boiling pots along with liberal amounts of soot. While William managed to escape through a hole in the log fence, young Alexander was caught and thoroughly punished by the enraged Sally.
Alexander also recalled his father Frederick's sense of humor. On one memorable night at the family tavern, a noted hunter and trapper named John McCall boasted of his bravery and expressed the wish to meet the devil himself on his way home. Frederick, who could imitate a wolf's howl to perfection, decided to test McCall's courage. Posting himself along McCall's trail, Frederick let loose a series of vigorous howls. Despite initially responding with defiant snarls, McCall eventually beat a hasty retreat back to the tavern, where he remained until daybreak, swearing he had been attacked by an entire pack of wolves in "one of the greatest hairbreadth escapes of his life."
For the first four or more years after the Middleton settlement was established, there was no school within reach of the family. When a school finally opened in a log cabin on a sand knoll near May's Corners on Talbot Road, Alexander's services in the work of home-building had already become too valuable to spare him for regular attendance. He was permitted to attend only sporadically—an average of two to three days per week.
Later, another school was established farther west in a log cabin nearly opposite where "Mike the fortune teller" would live for many years. A man named Sandy Ford taught at both of these schools. Eventually, a school opened in the pioneer log cabin of Joseph Lawson, which stood on the brow of the hill overlooking the Conlin tannery. This building also served as the pioneer meeting house for the settlers and can be considered Delhi's first school.
Alexander deeply regretted his lack of a thorough elementary education. His brother William had the advantage of living for a time with their grandfather Hutchison, where he acquired what Alexander considered "a very great advantage in making the most of life's opportunities"—even though it was only a crude elementary education. This disadvantage would remain with Alexander throughout his life, though it never diminished his remarkable work ethic or his contributions to his community.
On March 3, 1840, at the age of 25, Alexander married Elizabeth "Eliza" Putman in Middleton Township, Norfolk County, Upper Canada. Eliza was born on January 1, 1820, in Wayne, Steuben County, New York. She was the daughter of John Pieterse Putman and Sarah Martin. The Putman family had migrated to and settled in Middleton Township, Norfolk County, Ontario, during the 1830s, joining the steady stream of American settlers seeking new opportunities in Upper Canada.
Alexander and Eliza settled near the village of Fredericksburgh where Alexander cleared a farm and established their family home. Their marriage would span 67 years and produce fourteen children, though tragedy visited their household repeatedly. At least four, and possibly six, of their children died in infancy or early childhood. Another daughter, Valzoria, died as an unmarried young woman at the age of 21.
Their children were:
The newspaper account noted that Alexander and Eliza raised "a large family, mostly girls," and that the family hearth "was always noted for its open-hearted hospitality and good fellowship. No human being was ever turned away from his door hungry or cold."
Alexander Sovereen was a man of extraordinary physical vigor and an inexhaustible capacity for hard work. The 1902 newspaper article that chronicled his life painted a vivid picture of a man who seemed to find recreation in labor itself. Whether working as an employer or employee, he was always found "in the vanguard."
Throughout his life, Alexander engaged in various occupations. Census records show him listed as a farmer in 1851, an innkeeper in 1861, and again as a farmer in subsequent decades. His restless ambition led him into many fields of labor that varied in kind but were never freed from "the grind of toil." No task was deemed too laborious or too hazardous for him to undertake.
Alexander earned particular renown as an expert cradle -- a person skilled at cutting grain with a grain cradle, a large scythe with wooden fingers attached to catch the cut grain. He once cradled as many as six acres in a single day, a feat that marked him as exceptional even among the hardy pioneers of his generation. This skill was passed down through the Sovereen family and was considered a mark of true physical prowess and stamina.
The most remarkable testament to Alexander's vigor came in 1902, when he was 87 years old. A newspaper reporter discovered him cradling green rye while clad in a heavy coat and woolen mittens -- a rare spectacle indeed for a man approaching 90. The article noted that he swung the cradle "as our grandsires swung the old 'turkey wing,' in long bygone days," maintaining the proper form and technique that the younger generation had largely lost.
Alexander established himself as a farmer near the village, where he cleared land and developed a productive farm. The family appeared in various census records throughout the decades, consistently showing their residence in Windham Township, Norfolk County.
When Alexander's father Frederick died in 1875, his will bequeathed substantial land holdings to Alexander. These included the westerly portion of the homestead farm lying west of the main road, comprising part of the south half of Lot 21 and part of Lot 22 in the Eleventh Concession of Windham Township—approximately 63.5 acres. Additionally, Alexander inherited an 18.5-acre parcel of the easterly division of Lot 21, with boundaries carefully delineated in the will.
This inheritance represented not only material wealth but also the continuation of the family's pioneer legacy in the region. Alexander would farm this land for the remainder of his life, maintaining his residence on Lot 21, Concession 11, until his death.
The Sovereen family were devout Baptists, and their faith appears consistently in census records spanning decades. Alexander's religious convictions were paired with a generous and charitable nature. As the newspaper observed, "Had he been less charitable as a citizen, less helpful as a neighbor, and less generous and confiding in his household, he would have made it possible, no doubt, for a more luxurious environment in his old age."
Alexander inherited his father's tradition of open-hearted hospitality. Like Frederick Sovereen before him, Alexander's family hearth was known throughout the community as a place where no one was turned away hungry or cold. This generosity, while it may have cost him material comfort in his later years, earned him the respect and affection of all who knew him.
The article's author noted that despite not winning as many favors from "the fickle Goddess of Fortune" as some less deserving men, Alexander retained "the old-time twinkle of the eye and the old familiar smile" that indicated "the heart is as warm, the conscience as self-approving and trust in the unknown future as implicit, as in the days gone by."
Alexander outlived his wife Eliza by several years. She passed away in March 1895. The 1901 census found the 86-year-old Alexander living with the Jay family as a lodger.
Alexander Sovereen died on August 15, 1907, in Windham Township at the age of 93 (though he was actually 92 by modern calculation). His death certificate listed "old age" as the cause of death after an illness of just four days. He had lived his entire life within Norfolk County, witnessing the transformation of the wilderness his father had settled into an established agricultural community.
True to his character, no physician attended him in his final days. He died as he had lived—with stoic independence and remarkable hardiness.
Alexander was laid to rest in Delhi Cemetery in Delhi, Norfolk County, Ontario, joining other members of the Sovereen and other families who had helped establish the region.
Alexander Sovereen embodied the spirit of the pioneer generation that built Ontario from the wilderness. Born in a log cabin when Upper Canada was still frontier territory, he lived to see the dawn of the twentieth century and the age of modern conveniences. Yet he remained, to the end, a man of the old school—vigorous, hardworking, hospitable, and generous.
The newspaper article concluded its tribute with these words: "When the final summons calls him to his fathers, he will be remembered by all who know him, not only for the good he did do, but for the greater good his noble generosity would have prompted had circumstances been favorable."
Through his fourteen children and twenty-seven grandchildren, Alexander's legacy spread across Ontario and into Manitoba and beyond. His daughter Gertrude's marriage to John H. Cole meant that the old Frederick Sovereen homestead remained connected to the family. His son Addison carried the Sovereen name to the Canadian West, where new frontiers were opening in Manitoba.
Alexander Sovereen's 93 years spanned one of the most transformative periods in Canadian history. He witnessed the birth of a nation, the clearing of the forests, the establishment of communities, and the gradual replacement of pioneer ways with modern life. Yet he never lost the qualities that defined his generation: an indomitable work ethic, unwavering faith, generous hospitality, and the physical vigor that came from a life spent in honest toil.
His story is a testament to the strength, resilience, and character of the men and women who built rural Ontario—one cleared acre, one raised cabin, and one generation at a time.
4) A poem and song lyrics to commemorate and celebrate the life of Alexander Sovereen can be found in "Ode to Alexander Sovereen" -- Family History Poem, Song, Audio Overview and Video Overview Created by Artificial Intelligence. The song created from the song lyrics can be played in that blog post, on Suno.com, and below:
Each week, genealogy record collections are added, removed, and/or updated on FamilySearch and listed on the Historical Record Collection list at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list. In addition, I try to keep track of the number of Full-Text Search collections (indexed, searchable) and the Images collections (browsable but not searchable).
1) As of 17 October 2025, there are 3,405 historical record collections on FamilySearch (an increase of 0 from last week) on the Signed In screen (and 3,404 on the Signed Out screen).
The added, deleted, and updated collections this week from FamilySearch (from a list supplied by Marshall Clow):
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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:
The FamilySearch website says there are 3,405 total entries on the list (after signing in). Marshall's list says there are 3,405 (after signing in). They are definitely in-sync this week.
2) There are now 5,097 searchable image collections on FamilySearch Full-Text Search this week, an increase of 488 from last week. It is not possible to see which collections are new.
3) There are now 25,792 browsable (but not indexed or transcribed) image collections on FamilySearch Images this week, a decrease of 54 from last week. It is not possible to see which collections are new. Where did those removed collections go? Perhaps they went to the Full-Text Search collection list.
See previous FamilySearch-related blog posts in https://www.geneamusings.com/search/label/FamilySearch
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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2025/10/added-and-updated-familysearch-record_17.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. Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not be posted immediately.
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The following genealogy record collections were added to the Ancestry.com Card Catalog page by Date Updated during the period from 11 to 17 October 2025:
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/2025/10/added-and-updated-ancestrycom-record_031654179.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 Twitter, Facebook, 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.
The Artificial Intelligence tools (like ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot, Gemini, Grok, Meta, Grok, and Perplexity) can provide much useful and nearly instant information about subjects in a concise format, especially when they have been pre-trained on a large volume of information about the subjects.
I wondered if the FREE AI tools could provide me with information about a middle-aged wife andm other in Prince Edward County, Ontario in 1845. My 3rd great-grandmother, Sarah (Fletcher) Kemp (1802-before 1850) was age 43 in 1845. I attached my genealogical sketch for Sarah ( 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 54: #61, Sarah (Fletcher) Kemp (1802- before 1850).
1) I chose to use the response from free Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 (as of 8 October 2025) today.
My prompt was: "Please describe the life of Sarah (Fletcher) Kemp in 1845 in Prince Edward County, Ontario "
2) The Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 response was:
In 1845, Sarah Fletcher Kemp was forty-three years old and living in Prince Edward County, Ontario, with her husband Abraham and their large, bustling family. After twenty-seven years of marriage, Sarah had given birth to ten children, with her eleventh and final child, Wesley, still two years away. The Kemp household that year was filled with activity, spanning multiple generations and ages.
The Kemp farm home in 1845 would have been crowded and lively. Sarah's oldest daughter, Waity Catherine was married to John T. Rose three years earlier in 1842 and probably had their own household. The rest of Sarah's children still lived at home:
Mary Ann, age 22, certainly was helping her mother with the cooking, preserving, gardening, cleaning, laundry, needlework, and child care
Stephen J., age 19, was likely helping his father with the farm work in the fields
William Henry, age 16, strong enough to do a man's work in the fields
James Abraham, age 14, growing rapidly and learning the farming trade
John L., age 11, old enough to handle chores and tend animals
Peter Evans, age 8, still young but eager to help
Andrew Hait, age 5, playing around the farmyard
Sarah Jane, age 2, a toddler requiring constant attention
Charles W., born just that September 14th, 1845—a newborn infant
As the mother of a large family on a working farm, Sarah's days began before dawn and ended long after sunset. Her responsibilities were endless and exhausting:
Sarah would rise in the darkness to stoke the fire in the wood stove, the heart of any farmhouse. She'd prepare breakfast for her large family—likely porridge or cornmeal mush, perhaps eggs from their chickens, and bread she'd baked the day before. With Abraham and the older boys heading out to work the fields, they needed substantial meals to sustain them through hours of physical labor.
With two-year-old Sarah Jane and newborn Charles W., Sarah's attention was constantly divided. Infant Charles would need to be nursed multiple times throughout the day and night. Little Sarah Jane was at that adventurous toddler stage, requiring vigilant supervision to keep her safe around the farm's many hazards—open fires, farm animals, tools, and the water pump.
Between caring for her young children, Sarah would have been responsible for:
Cooking three substantial meals daily for a household of ten or more people
Baking bread several times a week in the wood-fired oven
Preserving food for winter—in 1845, this would mean canning, pickling, drying, and salting
Laundry for the entire family, done by hand with water hauled from the well, heated over the fire, and scrubbed on a washboard
Sewing and mending clothes for her large family, as ready-made clothing was not available
Spinning and weaving or at least managing the household's textile needs
Cleaning the house with handmade brooms and soap
Tending the kitchen garden where vegetables and herbs grew
Caring for chickens and possibly dairy cows, churning butter and making cheese
Making soap and candles from animal fat rendered on the farm
Abraham Kemp worked as a farmer, and the family's livelihood depended on the land. In Prince Edward County in 1845, farms were primarily subsistence operations with some surplus sold or traded. The Kemps likely grew wheat, corn, oats, and hay, raised cattle, pigs, and chickens, and maintained an orchard. The entire family would have participated in the farm work according to their abilities.
The Kemps were Wesleyan Methodists, and their faith was central to their lives. Sundays meant church services, likely involving a lengthy wagon ride to the nearest Methodist chapel. For Sarah, Sunday was not truly a day of rest—she still had to prepare meals, care for the children, and manage the household, though the heavy labor ceased.
Prince Edward County in 1845 was a well-established community of farmers, many of them Loyalist descendants or British immigrants. Sarah would have known her neighbors well, and women often helped each other during childbirth, illness, and harvest times. Social gatherings might include church socials, quilting bees, barn raisings, and harvest celebrations.
In spring 1845, Sarah would have been in the late stages of pregnancy with Charles. Despite her condition, the work continued—spring meant intensive cleaning, planting the kitchen garden, and preparing for the farm's busiest season. The older boys would have been helping Abraham with plowing and planting.
Summer brought the birth of Charles in September. Sarah would have been attended by a midwife, possibly a neighbor woman, and perhaps her married daughter. The birth of her tenth living child at age forty-three would have been both joyful and physically demanding.
Autumn meant harvest—all hands were needed to bring in the crops before the frost. Sarah would have been recovering from childbirth while simultaneously preserving the harvest for winter. As winter approached, the family prepared for months of cold, with Sarah ensuring they had sufficient food stores, warm clothing, and firewood.
Life in 1845 was not easy for a farm wife and mother:
Physical exhaustion was constant, especially with a newborn and toddler
Medical care was limited; infant and maternal mortality were real threats
Isolation could be profound, especially in winter when travel was difficult
Economic uncertainty meant the family's survival depended on good weather, successful harvests, and everyone's health
No modern conveniences—no running water, electricity, refrigeration, or labor-saving devices
At forty-three, Sarah had spent twenty-seven years as a wife and mother, bearing and raising children in the demanding environment of 19th-century rural Canada. She had married at fifteen, and by 1845, she had been pregnant or nursing for much of her adult life. Yet she persevered, managing a complex household, supporting her husband's farming operation, raising her children in the Methodist faith, and maintaining the countless threads that held frontier family life together.
In 1845, Sarah couldn't have known that she had only a few more years to live, or that her youngest son Wesley would be born in 1847. She lived day by day, season by season, doing the necessary work with the quiet strength that characterized pioneer women of her era. Her life was one of service, sacrifice, and steady devotion to her family—a life lived without fanfare but with profound impact on the generations that would follow.
The year 1845 was a time of transition in Canada West (as Ontario was then known). The province was still recovering from the Rebellions of 1837-38, and discussions of responsible government were gaining momentum. In Prince Edward County, the community was well-established, with roads, mills, churches, and schools serving the farming population. The county's limestone quarries were becoming economically important, and the surrounding waters of Lake Ontario provided fishing and transportation routes.
For women like Sarah, however, these larger political and economic developments were distant concerns. Her world was bounded by the farm, the family, the church, and the community of neighbors who shared her daily struggles and triumphs. It was a life of hard work, deep faith, and enduring love—a life that, though largely unrecorded, laid the foundation for all that would come after.
3) The Google NotebookLM Audio Overview about Sarah (Fletcher) Kemp's life in 1845 is here.
The Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this post is below.
4) I have no easy way to double check on these responses from Claude. I don't have many book resources for the subjects and the locality, but there are published books available for this time period and general location. The AI tools have been pre-trained on historical events, social history, geography, education, occupations, literature and other disciplines so they can provide information for questions like this one, and now have the ability to search the Internet for website articles.
5) As genealogists, we can often find the later19th century vital and census records for Ontario families, and we may find occupation, immigration, land and probate records. The family mentioned is my ancestral family and I have significant information about their lives from the available records, but I know nothing about their daily lives other than what the records tell me.
6) After I read these types of social history summaries, I wish that I could be a time traveler for one day to visit the Kemo family in Ontario and witness their daily lives. I'm glad that the general lifestyles and occupations are known from historical records and witness accounts.
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