Heartland Genealogy

One of the features I appreciate on FamilySearch is the ability to add a  Brief Life History  to an ancestor's profile. Instead of presenting visitors with only dates, places, and relationships, a well-written life story helps explain who that person was and why their life mattered. For years, my "life stories" often consisted of the narrative report generated by RootsMagic. Those reports are wonderful research tools because they organize the facts in chronological order and document each event. However, they are written in a very factual style: Leon Crawford was listed as a one-year-old male on the 1895 Kansas census... Leon Crawford was listed as the son of J. F. Crawford on the 1910 census... Leon Crawford was listed as the head of the household on the 1920 census... While that format is perfect for researchers, it isn't always engaging for cousins or other FamilySearch users who simply want to learn about an ancestor's life. Sinc...

One of the best parts of attending genealogy society meetings is discovering new research tools. I recently attended a meeting of the Brown County Genealogy Society (Kansas) where Cindy Cruz of the Topeka Genealogical Society presented an excellent program on using newspapers for genealogy research. During her presentation, she recommended the Library of Congress'  U.S. Newspaper Directory  as a way to identify newspapers that were published in a particular community. The directory is an outstanding resource when you're trying to answer questions such as: What newspapers were published in this town? When were they published? Where are copies known to exist? Knowing that a newspaper existed is often the first step toward finding an obituary, marriage notice, legal advertisement, or local news item about an ancestor. Looking Beyond the Directory While I have used the Library of Congress directory in the past, my own workflow has gradually evolv...

Do you remember GeoCities? Or the genealogy forums on Genealogy.com? Although the forums on Genealogy.com are no longer active, much of their content can still be found. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the countless genealogy websites that once lived on GeoCities. Many of those pages—and the research they contained—have simply disappeared. No one can guarantee that today's websites will still be available twenty years from now. That's why I'm placing my faith in organizations that have a long-term commitment to preserving information, particularly FamilySearch, WikiTree, and the Internet Archive. They form an important part of the preservation plan that ChatGPT recently suggested for my genealogy research. Among its recommendations were: Export and preserve your blog in multiple formats (WordPress export, full site backup, PDF/EPUB collections) and archive it with the Internet Archive. Create a comprehensive finding aid and legacy guide desc...

Discovering the Story of Neosho Falls, Kansas One of the joys of genealogy research is that a search for an ancestor often uncovers the history of the communities where they lived. Understanding the town can help explain the lives of the people who called it home. While going through my files, I came across several photocopied pages about Neosho Falls, Woodson County, Kansas . Unfortunately, the pages are missing the title page and publication information. The even-numbered pages are headed "Southeast Kansas," suggesting that may be the title of the book, but I have not yet been able to identify the exact source. Even without the complete citation, the article provides a fascinating overview of one of Kansas' oldest communities. The Rise of Neosho Falls According to the article, Neosho Falls traces its beginnings to April 6, 1857 , when Col. N. S. Goss and I. W. Dow arrived from Iowa and discovered that only two settlers—Judge John Woolman and Joh...

Here's a smoother version that keeps your conversational style while improving the flow and readability. 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)  Did your family go on vacation? Describe one or more vacations you took with your birth family or later with your spouse and children. While my husband and I haven't taken an  annual  vacation every year, we've been fortunate to travel to many parts of the United States. Some trips were purely for sightseeing, while others combined family history research with travel. Our travels have taken us to: Rocky Mountain National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hoover Dam, Zion National Park, and Colorado Springs Following the Oregon Trail to Portland...

Telling a Railroad Story Through Song One of the most rewarding parts of genealogy is finding new ways to share our ancestors' stories. Census records, city directories, and newspaper articles tell us the facts of their lives, but music has a unique ability to capture the emotions behind those facts. Recently, I wrote a biography and a "Day in the Life" narrative about my great-grandfather, Judson Foster Crawford , who spent decades working for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in Dodge City, Kansas. As I researched his career, I found myself imagining the dedication, hard work, and perseverance required of a railroad switchman during the early twentieth century. That inspired me to try something different. Using ChatGPT, I created original lyrics celebrating Judson's life and long railroad career. I then used Suno to transform those lyrics into a folk-inspired song titled "The Strength of Judson Crawford." To accompany the mus...

More Than a Marriage License – The Marriage of William C. Odle and Lura Briggs One of the pleasures of genealogy is discovering that there is often more than one record documenting the same event. A marriage license may provide the basic facts, but county clerks sometimes preserved additional records that contain details unavailable anywhere else. Several years ago, I wrote to the Warren County Clerk in Warren County, Indiana , requesting copies of the marriage records for my relatives William C. Odle and Lura Briggs . Along with the expected marriage license and return, the clerk also photocopied pages from the county's marriage register—a large journal that recorded information from the marriage application across several pages. Those additional pages turned a routine marriage record into a much richer genealogical resource. Marriage License The marriage license records that William C. Odle and Lura Briggs were licensed to marry on 19 October 1905 in War...

Using Google NotebookLM One of the questions I often ask while researching an ancestor is, "How can I make this story more engaging for others?" After completing a narrative biography of my great-grandfather, Judson Foster Crawford , I decided to experiment with another AI tool— Google NotebookLM . Using only the information from my documented narrative report, NotebookLM created a cinematic video that presents Judson's life in a documentary-style format. Seeing a lifetime of records transformed into a visual story offers a new perspective on the man behind the census records, city directories, newspaper articles, and family documents. Watch the Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oQt2XSBfuI A Note About the Images The images shown throughout this video were generated by Google NotebookLM to illustrate the historical narrative. They are artistic interpretations and are not actual photographs of Judson Foster Crawford, his family, or the e...

One of the most exciting aspects of today's AI tools is the ability to present family history in a variety of engaging formats. Recently, I used my documented narrative report about my great-grandfather, Judson Foster Crawford , as the basis for a Google NotebookLM Audio Overview . The AI-generated narration summarizes Judson's life—from his years working for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway to the family he helped raise. Using Canva , I paired that audio with historical-themed visuals to create a video, which is now available on YouTube. Judson Foster Crawford at a Glance The infographic provides a quick overview of Judson's life and railroad career, while the audio overview adds a conversational summary of his story. Together, they offer two different ways to experience the same documented family history. Watch the Audio Overview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdOQMJYJOs Although the narration and visuals were created with AI too...

Are Albert Hutchinson’s Parents Wrong? Have you ever had a relationship in your family tree that you accepted for years—only to discover that the evidence might not be as solid as you thought? That is where I now find myself with my second great-grandfather, Albert Hutchinson . Albert served in Company D of the 1st Iowa Cavalry during the Civil War. For years, I have had him identified as the son of Aaron Hutchinson and Sarah Merry . That parentage also appears in online family trees. But there has always been a problem. I have not located a document that directly identifies my Albert Hutchinson—the Iowa Civil War soldier—as a son of Aaron Hutchinson and Sarah Merry. Recently, I uploaded a collection of Hutchinson family documents to Google NotebookLM . These included records involving Aaron Hutchinson, Hutchinson and Merry land transactions, cemetery information, census records, and documents connected with the estate of Lewis N. Hutchinson. Then I asked a...

George Mentzer—From Massachusetts to Woodson County One of the joys of genealogy is rediscovering old county histories. While these books often contain glowing descriptions of their subjects, they can also preserve details that may not be found anywhere else. For today's Monday's Diggings , I'm sharing a biographical sketch of George Mentzer , an early settler of Woodson County, Kansas. I obtained a photocopy of this article many years ago while researching at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka . Today, the same volume is also available digitally through both Ancestry and Archive.org , making it much easier for researchers to access. George Mentzer has appeared on Heartland Genealogy before. Earlier this month I wrote about a Woodson County deed involving George and the fascinating connection between the Mentzer family and George W. Allen of Massachusetts. This biography adds valuable context to that story by describing George's early life, Civi...

The Case of the Missing 1870 Census 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!): Which of your ancestors or relatives have you NOT found in the census records, and what have you done—or are you doing—to try to find that person? Can AI help? Identify one or more of your ancestors that are inexplicably missing from one or more census collections. Why do you think they were not enumerated? The Case of Washington Marion Crawford Every genealogist seems to have at least one family that simply refuses to appear in a census record. For me, one of those families belongs to my second great-grandparents, Washington Marion Crawford and Mary (Foster) Crawford . Washington and Mary were married in March 1860 , so they should have been enumerated together in the 1860 census. A few years later, although he was ...

Using AI to Bring Noah Briles' Civil War Service to Life One of the questions I hear most often when talking about artificial intelligence is, "What can it do for genealogy that I can't already do?" For me, the answer isn't that AI replaces research. It helps me share the stories hidden within the records. My second great-grandfather, Noah Washington Briles , served in Company I, 1st Iowa Cavalry during the Civil War. Like many Civil War soldiers, his compiled military service record consists primarily of muster rolls, pay records, and brief handwritten notes. Those documents are invaluable—but they aren't always easy for family members to understand or appreciate. Recently, I experimented with turning those records into two short cinematic videos. Video 1: Noah Briles' Military Record The first project began with Noah's compiled military service record. After transcribing every card in the record, I asked Google Notebook...

A Revolutionary War Patriot from the Days of GeoCities Do you remember GeoCities ? Long before blogs, Facebook groups, and online family trees, many genealogists shared their research on personal GeoCities websites. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, those sites became an important way to exchange information with distant cousins and fellow researchers. I even maintained my own genealogy pages there. When GeoCities closed in 2009, thousands of genealogy websites disappeared overnight. Fortunately, projects like the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine have preserved snapshots of many of those pages, allowing us to revisit a small piece of early internet genealogy. Today's Friday's Find is a photocopy I saved more than twenty years ago from a GeoCities website devoted to Revolutionary War patriots buried in Indiana. The page featured James Crawford (1758–1836) of Jefferson County, Indiana, complete with the Sons of the American Revolution emblem and a photog...