family-history

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 17: DNA

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I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 17: DNA

Introduction

Whose NPE is this, anyway?, or, Check your biases at the door

A couple of years ago, I had an intriguing DNA match on 23andMe. Our Relatives in common indicated a match on my Ohio branch – maternal grandfather’s line. The match has a somewhat unique name and is from a town 8 miles from where Grandpa was born. Unfortunately, that is the town the match died in, three months after the message I sent him on 23andMe. Since he’s not living, I’ll call him RZ here.

RZ has a reasonably easy lineage to trace, and we clearly branched apart once we went back 2 generations from Grandpa. It should have been easy to identify our common ancestor. But it wasn’t. I became convinced that RZ had an NPE. RZ’s mom was born 12 years after her closest sibling, and when her “sister” was 17… perhaps one of Grandpa’s brothers fathered a child with RZ’s mom’s “sister”… my digging didn’t produce convincing evidence (e.g., opportunity in the form of the same location).

Discussion

I took two of Steve Little’s Artificial Intelligence classes given at the National Genealogical Society and his course AI Genealogy Seminars: From Basics to Breakthroughs at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) (wow! Highly recommend all of them). During the latter, Steve was showing us his custom chat Photo Analyst, and we used a photo I had of Grandpa with his siblings, parents, and grandfather. Steve asked me if the photo showed three generations or four and I suddenly had a light bulb moment.

Grandpa was born ten years after his next older sibling, when his sisters were 17 and 19… suddenly it wasn’t so obvious that it was RZ’s mom that was the NPE after all.

How AI can help

It’s tempting to stare at a brick wall and hope it blinks first. But when it comes to DNA mysteries, AI can be your sidekick with better night vision.

Here’s how AI assisted me:

  • Clustering DNA Matches: While DNA sites offer tools like “shared matches,” I used ChatGPT to summarize common surnames and locations across clusters. Asking it, “Do you see any recurring names or places in this list of matches?” can nudge you in a direction you hadn’t considered.
  • Reframing the Question: AI helped me phrase the real question: “Could the NPE be on my side instead?” That reframing gave me the ah-ha moment during Steve Little’s seminar. Sometimes it’s not the facts that need changing—it’s the lens.

Despite the current uncertainty around 23andMe, I’m reluctant to give up my account there, in the hopes that a Relative in common there will break through this mystery.

If you’re feeling stuck, AI might not have the answer, but it sure can ask a better question.

Summary and challenge

Sometimes DNA doesn’t reveal a clean answer—it kicks up dust and asks if you’re sure that branch belongs where you thought it did. What started as a search for someone else’s NPE brought me face-to-face with my own family’s possibilities.

Your turn:

Challenge #1: Use ChatGPT to compare 3–5 of your DNA matches. Ask it to spot shared surnames or birthplaces. Copy-paste the match notes or segment info (no personal identifiers!) and ask, “What patterns do you notice?”

Challenge #2: Have an old photo? Upload it to an AI photo enhancer like MyHeritage’s Deep Nostalgia or use ChatGPT’s image tools to generate a caption or age estimate. What stories surface?

Genealogy isn’t about finding the answer—it’s about learning to ask better ones, again and again.

We’ll wade into the world of Institutions next week—those places that held, housed, or helped (sometimes harmed) our ancestors. Think prisons, hospitals, orphanages, and more. Bring tissues… and curiosity.

Old-style image of a family standing in front of a farmhouse, with a man's and a girl's faces blurred out

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 16: Oldest story

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I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 16: Oldest story

Introduction

The oldest story in my family is 342 years old!

One of the oldest pieces of family lore I’ve found isn’t so much a handed-down tale—it’s a letter. A letter written in 1683 by my ancestor, Louis Thibou, that’s now housed at the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina. I’m not sure why Louis wrote it, but it reads as a promotion piece of the Carolinas to London Huguenots. You can read the transcription and view a scan of the original here. (Fair warning: it’s in French and 17th-century ink, though it’s in remarkable condition.)

There are many interesting parts of this letter! And each time I read it I find more. But the one which fits this week’s topic best is this passage, translated from the French:

God has given us a son who is called Jacob after the one we lost in England; the captain of a warship was his godfather. 

Discussion

Now that’s a line with weight. Who was this captain? Did Jacob grow up hearing that story? Did it stick around in either man’s family? I wonder if it’s possible to postulate who the warship captain was?

How AI can help

I used Gemini (Google’s AI) for its broad internet access. My prompt:

Jacob Thibou was born between 1680 and 1683 in Charleston, now South Carolina. His father says “God has given us a son who is called Jacob after the one we lost in England; the captain of a warship was his godfather. ” How would I try to track who this captain was?

Gemini gave me a five-part plan, with details on each:

1. Establish a More Precise Birth Year and Location

2. Research Jacob Thibou’s Father

3. Focus on Royal Navy Activity in the Late 17th Century

4. Consider Other Naval Connections

5. Genealogical Databases and Forums

It identified key information to look for, challenges, and a summary. Some of the information is either obvious or obviously can’t be done. But there are enough nuggets there to chase a few things.

Summary and challenge

I’m using AI to revisit old mysteries with a fresh lens. It won’t hand me a tidy answer, but it does offer new ways to think about the problem—and sometimes that’s exactly what we need. At some point, between the new angles and new information available, I will crack this! How about you? What old stories would you like to prove or disprove, and how can AI help you?

Figure 1 An English warship in use during the time Jacob was born, the HMS Royal Sovereign (she served from 1637-1697)

By http://website.lineone.net/~d.bolton/Fleet/sover.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1093850

Next week, we explore “DNA.” Things may get… molecular.

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 15: Big mistake

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I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 15: Big mistake

When a Baby Genealogist Assumes…

My big mistake as a baby genealogist? I assumed my great-grandparents were married before their children arrived. Logical, right? Turns out, not so much. I wasted years searching for a marriage that didn’t exist—at least not when I thought it did.

What Took Me So Long?

Everyone in the family swore that Nanny and Great-Grandpa married on November 11, 1908, likely in Manhattan. I knew how to work the New York and New Jersey records. I hunted. I cross-referenced. I came up empty.

Then one day, while poking around on FindMyPast thanks to a genealogical society membership, I stumbled across my grandmother’s baptism record. That gave me a church. I followed the breadcrumb trail through her siblings’ records, and that led me to a surprise: the marriage record. Dated 1918. After nearly all their children were born.

The Draft Card That Changed Everything

Here’s where a timeline helps. In September 1918, Great-Grandpa filled out a draft registration card listing himself as married. Just two weeks later, on September 28, 1918, he and Nanny had a marriage, recorded in both the church and the city. I’m convinced that one event (the draft) led directly to the other (marriage).

My cousin found a 1908 church record for their religious ceremony, so they likely felt that was “good enough” until Uncle Sam came knocking. It was the looming possibility of military service that likely pushed them to make it official in the eyes of the law.

Could AI Have Helped? Absolutely.

If I’d had AI tools back then, I could have created a quick timeline like this:

  • 1908: Church marriage (religious, no civil record)
  • 1909–1917: Children born
  • Sept 12, 1918: Draft card lists him as married
  • Sept 28, 1918: Civil marriage license filed

Even a free AI tool could organize those clues quickly, especially when you input events from census records, baptism registers, or draft cards. The pattern becomes pretty clear when laid out visually.

What I Learned (and What You Can Try Too)

This mix-up taught me never to treat family lore or assumptions as fact. Every old mystery deserves a second look with fresh eyes and new tools. Try these next steps:

  • Recheck online databases
  • Search for new DNA matches
  • Build a timeline
  • Revisit webinar notes or conference takeaways
  • Explore genealogical society perks

Sometimes the answer was there all along. We just need to look differently.

An older man holding an infant

Figure 1 Me with Great-Grandpa, just a short time ago!

Next week, we explore “Oldest story.”

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries (and assumptions!) are my own.

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 14: Language

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52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 14: Language

Was that an Irish brogue, or just childhood imagination? This week’s post unpacks family memories, a transcribed poem from the past, and how AI helps preserve our ancestors’ voices—literally. Learn how to turn audio into stories with a little tech and a lot of heart.

Introduction

I truly admire my bilingual ancestors for their talents. I took many years of French in school and only barely made myself understandable on a Paris vacation!

I was in awe in Luxembourg, where locals often speak five or six languages. The country officially uses Luxembourgish, German, and French in administration, while many also speak English—and even Portuguese, Latin, Spanish, or Italian. It’s a fascinating example of how multilingualism thrives in daily life—see more on the languages of Luxembourg.

Did you or your ancestors have to learn a new language and new culture?

Discussion

I remember as perhaps a young teenager, interviewing my grandmother about her mother, who was 100% Irish. I knew Nanny when I was a girl, and I mentioned to Grandma that I remembered Nanny’s brogue. Grandma scoffed, saying, “If she had an accent, it was a Jersey accent.”

Cue quick recheck of my research: Nanny was born in Morris County, New Jersey to a line of Irish miners. Her parents were both born there as well. Nanny had no more brogue than I do. My mind was playing tricks on me.

How AI is Helping

I had found a cassette tape of my father reading poetry and had it converted to a .wav file. Doing research for this post, I hit play and got very nostalgic hearing that voice that I hadn’t heard in many, many years. But even better, I can use it to get his work to a wider audience by easily transcribing and sharing it.

Here’s what I did with the audio file:

  • Converted the cassette to a .wav
  • Used Microsoft Clipchamp to cut it into shorter clips
  • Converted to .mp3 with VLC
  • Transcribed with Descript (free version)
  • Prompted ChatGPT to format it like a poem

A Poem, and a Voice Returned

One of the most moving moments came when I pressed play on that old cassette. I hadn’t heard my dad’s voice in so long—it was like he stepped back into the room for a moment.

After transcribing and formatting it with a little AI help, I didn’t just hear his words—I felt them. This poem in particular gave me a glimpse of a man I didn’t fully know, beyond just “Dad.” He lived in New York City all his life, came of age in the 1960s, and would’ve known people like the young woman in his verse.

Here’s the poem. See what you find in it.

Important Things

by Robert E. “Bob” Anderson (1942–2009)

The lake in Central Park,
some twenty-odd stories below,
reflects the rising moon.
Warm summer breezes
blow in from the terrace
as the gathering crowd
clinks crystal stemware,
laughs,
and talks aloud.

I chat with a girl—
long, straight hair,
round tinted glasses—
about interests we share.
She wore a silken blouse,
unbuttoned halfway.
I listened politely
to what she had to say:

“I enjoy good poetry—
but only if it deals
with important issues—
like the slaughter of the seals,
the banning of the bomb,
the saving of the trees,
the horrors of war—
important things like these.”

I nod
and sip my drink.

“These are important,” I agree,
“but I’m afraid
they’re beyond
a simple soul like me.

My favorite topics
tend usually to deal
with more simple things—
like the way folks feel.

The magic touch of love,
the warmth of a loving heart,
and the cold emptiness
when two lovers part.

The despair of loneliness,
trying not to let it show—
and when we find someone new,
the wary joy we know.

What makes a person rise each day
to live
and face
whatever this fickle life
will give to you.

These may seem nothing,
but they matter to my friends.
We’ll have to trust to you
to see how this world ends.”

A cassette tape labeled "NEW POEM READINGS"

Figure 1 The tape which let me hear my dad’s voice again

Summary and Next Steps

Sure, I could’ve transcribed it myself. But a few trial runs, some free tools, and now I can bring my father’s poetry to readers who never met him. AI didn’t replace the story—it helped me tell it better.

What voices from your past might be waiting?
Try a voicemail, interview clip, or old video! Ask AI what it can do with it. Try it out.

🎧 Bonus! Listen to the poem yourself:

The tape which let me hear my dad’s voice again – if the player doesn’t work, use this link

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 13: Home sweet home

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I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 13: Home sweet home

Introduction

Some of my sweetest memories are from the first time we shared a house with my grandparents. It gives me a very fond “Home sweet home” feeling. Grandma put curling rollers in my hair there, and Grandpa read the comics to me. I sat in the window with my father during a thunderstorm while he explained to me why lightning was pretty, not scary. Dad built an HO train set to go around most of the living room. In the kitchen, I fell and broke my front baby teeth. Dad would bring me into the basement to watch television, which is surely where I saw the moon landing and the original airing of Star Trek.

How about you? Did you have a Grandma to come home to?

Figure 1 Me trick or treating in front of that house

Discussion

I got very curious about the house history and it had a bit of a family tradition behind it. We had a family friend, who had gone to high school with my mother. They were so close we called her “Aunt Bobbie.” Seems that her family had owned the house for a couple of generations and then sold it to my parents when they were starting out. My grandparents, as they eyed Grandpa’s retirement, sold their house and moved in with us. I am sure my grandmother was a great help to my mother. I have good memories with my parents and grandparents there, until I was 4 or 5 when they bought their retirement house and moved away, and soon we left as well.

How AI is Helping

Researching a house’s history used to mean digging through dusty deed books at the county courthouse or cross-eyed scrolling through microfilm. AI makes it a lot less overwhelming —even for those of us who still remember rotary phones.

Here’s how I used (or could’ve used!) AI to uncover the backstory of our family home:

  • Property Records & Ownership Chains: AI tools like ChatGPT can help identify where to search for historical property records. Ask it for the best ways to access deeds, plats, or tax records in your county or state. You can also upload old deeds and use AI to summarize or transcribe them.
  • Photo Recognition: If you’ve got old pictures of the house, you can run them through tools like Google Lens or AI-enhanced photo analysis to spot time periods, materials, or architectural styles—useful clues if the paperwork trail is cold.
  • Name Connections: AI can search historical newspaper archives or directories for names linked to the house. I asked ChatGPT what it could find on “Aunt Bobbie’s” family, and boom—suggestions for census records, school yearbooks, and even maps where her surname showed up.
  • Historical Maps: AI can help you compare old maps (like Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps) to modern ones, tracing how a neighborhood grew and changed. Ask AI to guide you to digitized map collections relevant to your region.
  • Write the Story: Finally, once you’ve got the pieces, AI helps stitch them together into a readable narrative. Whether you’re listing former owners or recounting the time a goat got stuck on the porch roof, AI can turn it into a readable story so others can picture it, too.

Summary and Next Steps

Our homes hold more than memories—they hold history. Next time you pass by your childhood home or an ancestor’s address from a census record, consider letting AI lend a hand in uncovering its past.

Next week, we explore “Language.”

Figure 2 The house in discussion, from a 1980s tax photo

Hint: New York City has tax photos from the 1980s at https://nycrecords.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/SO_d1a15702-bc15-474b-9663-c1820d5ae2e3/ and they also have from the 1940s.

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 12: Historic event

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I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 12: Historic event

Introduction

I am lucky enough to remember two of my great-grandparents, my father’s maternal grandparents. My dad used to tell me how his grandfather, Francis William CAREY (1881-1975), lived through times of significant change. Dad wrote:

“When he passed away, I thought he had seen most of the technological progress mankind had ever made: he traveled on a train pulled by a steam engine to his new home, and saw men land on the moon.”

Discussion

When great-grandpa was young, he worked at a carriage house for the wealthy – before motor vehicles were common. He used to say that the rich had two-horse carriages, and the very rich had four-horse carriages. That perspective helped me realize that history isn’t just grand world-changing events—it’s also personal experiences, the moments that shape families.

Each generation witnesses history in its own way. My father shared stories about computers, my son interviewed me about the Challenger explosion, and my children watched the 9/11 attacks unfold on live television.

What will be your story? Don’t let these stories fade away. Share them—write them in a blog, a family newsletter, a book, or even a social media post. Your story matters.

How AI is Helping

AI can be tremendously useful in identifying historical events that may have affected our ancestors. Using historical records and timelines, AI can help pinpoint major local and global events that influenced their lives.

Frances William Carey was born 1881 in Madison, Morris, New Jersey, USA, lived in Manhattan, New York, and died in New City, Rockland, New York, USA in 1975. List historical events that he may have witnessed, heard of, been part of, or that may have otherwise affected his life.

These are just a few examples, but AI can take things further. By analyzing census data, newspapers, and historical maps, AI tools can provide even deeper insights into the lives our ancestors lived.

Summary and Next Steps

History isn’t just found in textbooks—it’s found in family stories, passed down through generations. We can use AI to uncover and document these moments, ensuring they aren’t lost. This week, take time to reflect: What major events have you lived through? How did they shape you? Try using AI to draft a short biography of yourself or an ancestor based on historical records.

Next week, we explore “Home sweet home.”

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 11: Brick Wall

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I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 11: Brick Wall

Introduction

The theme for Week 11 is “Brick Wall.” Every genealogist encounters an ancestor who seems impossible to trace. For me, that ancestor was Mary Catherine DENNY SMITH—until a breakthrough came with the help of generous volunteers. My search led to a book mentioning William DENNY’s daughter Mary marrying a Mr. SMITH, only for me to hit another dead end with Mary’s ancestor, Mary TIEBOUT.

Discussion

Years ago, Dorothy Koenig published New Netherland Connections, a newsletter focused on early American colonial genealogy. In 2009, I was lucky enough to publish a query in her newsletter (Vol 14 p 54):

TIEBOUT – Seeking parents of Mary TIEBOUT, who m. William YOUNG 5 Dec 1756 at Trinity Church Parish [NYG&BR 69:280] by NY Marriage License dated 4 Dec 1756 [NY Marriage Licenses Prior to 1784, p 388 (or 477), M.B. 1:372]

Three candidates present themselves:
Maria TIEBOUT bp 08 Aug 1736 NY NY; Albert TIEBOUT & Cornelia BOGERT
Maritje TIEBOUT bp 16 Jan 1732 SI NY; Teunis TIEBOUT & Margrietje DRINKWATER
Marytje TIEBOUT bp 29 Nov 1724 NY RDC; Hendricus TIEBOUT & Elisabeth BURGER

One clue may be that a sponsor of Mary’s dau Mary was Jane THIBOUT (1759).
That daughter Mary had as a sponsor of her children: Sponicus YOUNG and wife, Jane SHEBOU (1781); and also Jane TIEBOUT M.P. (1790); and finally John YOUNG and Jane THIBOU (1793).

Mary d 23 Jan 1811 Hackensack and was buried First Reformed Church there.

Any leads appreciated.

A kind reader, Bill Vinehout, found crucial details in the Viele Genealogy book that changed everything. Surprisingly, none of my original three candidates were correct! Thanks to Bill’s help, I was able to trace Mary’s lineage back multiple generations. One of my most exciting discoveries was her ancestor Louis THIBOU, a man so fascinating that I’ve written about him in this blog before. Holding a letter he wrote in 1683 with my own hands was a surreal experience.  (More info on the letter archived here.)

Figure 1 Me holding the letter my 7th great grandfather wrote!

Both Dorothy and Bill are gone now, but I am forever grateful for their generosity of spirit – and that of countless others.

How AI is Helping Break Brick Walls

Today, AI can play the role that Dorothy and Bill once did for me. I asked Claude, an AI assistant, for ways to help other researchers tackle brick walls. Here are some of its suggestions:

  • Create a step-by-step guide for solving brick wall cases.
  • Develop specialized guides for common genealogy challenges.
  • Compile overlooked records that may hold missing pieces.
  • Share success stories, breaking down the exact steps used.
  • Provide research log templates to help organize findings.

These are powerful ideas! If AI tools had been around in 2009, I could have used them to cross-reference sources, analyze surname variations, and uncover hidden patterns more quickly. While AI can’t replace human insight and experience, it can certainly speed up the process.

Paying It Forward

Both Dorothy and Bill have since passed away, but their generosity lives on through the research they contributed. Inspired by their kindness, I’ve committed to helping others by dedicating time each week to genealogical volunteer work. Whether it’s contributing to the New York GenWeb county site I coordinate or sharing research strategies, I want to give back.

Challenge for Readers

How can you pay it forward? Have you received help in your genealogy journey that you can pass on to others? Even small efforts—sharing records, answering queries, or mentoring new researchers—can make a difference. Many people have mentioned having breakthroughs thanks to FamilySearch AI indexing, for example, which we can learn and share about. Transkribus is posed to break down language barriers, which we can use to share information globally. Let’s continue the tradition of generosity in genealogy!

Summary and Next Steps

Breaking through genealogical brick walls often requires persistence, collaboration, and the right resources. My journey with Mary Catherine DENNY SMITH and Mary TIEBOUT proves that asking for help can lead to unexpected breakthroughs. AI tools now offer additional ways to assist in research, making discoveries more accessible than ever.

I’ve set a weekly reminder to contribute to genealogy projects and encourage you to do the same. How will you use your knowledge to help others? Let’s keep building connections, one discovery at a time.

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 10: Siblings

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I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 10: Siblings

Introduction

Amy Johnson Crow’s theme for Week 10 is “Siblings.” I’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on Lydia Coral West (1888-1944) and Grace West Crozier (1890-1975), sisters of my grandfather A Gordon West.

Discussion

Lydia Coral West was the unmarried sister and the eldest girl of the family. Her mother’s sister had named her daughter Lydia Cora, so I am sure there was someone the sisters wanted to honor. It may have been a woman who ran the orphanage where Lydia’s mother lived for a time. Aunt Lydia had artistic talents—my grandparents hung a still life that she painted, and I admired it as a girl without initially knowing its provenance. (I was promised that painting, but my own siblings decided otherwise… a sibling story I do not want to discuss.) My uncle has a painting of my grandfather that Aunt Lydia created when Grandpa was a boy. What a treasure! Lydia died at only 56, but I don’t know why—I just scheduled myself a task of ordering her death certificate.

Unlike Lydia, who remained unmarried, Grace’s life took a different path. Grace West Crozier lived into my lifetime, but I never got to meet her. I remember when she died, though, and that due to illness my grandfather was unable to travel back to Ohio to attend her funeral. Aunt Grace had chased the family history and left many details on the WEST family line—many details, but no sources—which I have had a lot of fun chasing (and proving correct) over the years.

Tantalizingly, Aunt Grace added onto the tree that there were others of this line (collateral relatives) but she didn’t know if the intended recipient was interested. That document gave me much pleasure and helped feed the growing genealogy bug in me. Aunt Grace had three children whom I met, and her son, Stephen Crozier, had corresponded with me for years. (To do: ask my uncle about her.) Her obituary, frustratingly headlined “Mrs. Earl Crozier” rather than with her name, says that she was a practical nurse.

A 3-generation family posing for a black and white photo

The WEST family; Grace on the left and Lydia on the right

How AI is Helping My Research

The photo above, of three generations of the family, is a true treasure to me. (My grandfather is the baby.) I would love to see if AI can tell me more about it. Steve Little has created a custom GPT to use in analyzing photos. I asked it,

Please analyze this photo and tell me what you can about the people in it. I am particularly interested in the woman on the left and the woman on the right.

It gave me detailed information, including:

About Grace:

  • She is wearing a long, white dress with a high neckline and sleeves, which is common in Edwardian fashion.
  • Her hair is styled voluminously, possibly using a “Gibson Girl” style, which was fashionable in the early 1900s.
  • She stands slightly apart from the others, appearing tall and poised, with an air of confidence.
  • Her expression is serious and somewhat distant, which was typical of the era, as smiling in photos wasn’t common.

About Lydia:

  • She is also dressed in a high-necked, long-sleeved blouse with a dark skirt, another fashion trend of the early 1900s.
  • Her hair is styled in an updo, similar to the woman on the left, with a puffed-out shape.
  • Her facial expression is stern and composed, and she has an upright posture.
  • She stands next to a young boy, who may be a sibling or child.

Much like Mark Thompson discussed in the seminar, Artificial Intelligence and Family History: The Basics and Beyond, AI helped me notice details I had previously overlooked. Why is Grace wearing a white dress? I looked up her wedding and it was in July 1910, when the baby in this picture was about to turn 3. Was that a nearly 3-year-old, making this a wedding photo? (AI doesn’t think so – it’s dating the photo to around 1908, based on baby development, shoes, musculature, and other factors.) And why did they (I just learned) marry in Canada, in a division which is now a 1 hour 41-minute drive away? (First known baby is 16 months later.) Is the marriage why she appears “poised, with an air of confidence?”

AI is definitely in genealogy mode, as it raises as many questions as it answers! But it is helping me to better understand those who came before, and I am grateful.

Challenge for Readers

Identify an ancestor’s sibling that you’d like to learn more about, and ask AI to give you ideas, analyze photos, or provide new perspectives!

Summary and Next Steps

Exploring Lydia and Grace’s lives through AI-driven photo analysis has given me new insights into their era, fashion, and personalities—things I might not have noticed on my own. AI has also sparked new questions: Was Grace’s dress related to her wedding? Why did she marry in Canada? And what more can I learn about Lydia’s life and her artistic legacy?

To take this further, my next steps include:

  • Ordering Lydia’s death certificate to uncover details about her passing.
  • Asking my uncle for any additional memories or documents about Aunt Grace.
  • Investigating Canadian marriage records to better understand why Grace married there.
  • Running additional AI analysis on the family photo, perhaps comparing it with other dated images.
  • Testing other AI tools to refine facial recognition and dating estimates for family photos.

Genealogy is never truly finished—it’s a continuous journey of learning, verifying, and connecting. AI is proving to be a fascinating assistant in this process, uncovering patterns and prompting new avenues of research. With AI as a research companion, I look forward to uncovering even more about Lydia, Grace, and the family members who shaped their lives.

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 9: Family Secrets

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I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 9: Family Secrets

Introduction

This week’s discussion is on Family Secrets. My paternal grandmother told me many family history stories – all of them wrong. I loved Grandma, but boy, did she spin them.

Discussion

One of the stories I got was about her maternal grandfather, James HART. When I was a baby genealogist and new to the hunt, I did manage to do the “family interviews” part. Grandma told me that James was killed “in a hunting accident” when she (born 1916) was “a girl.”

To say that I searched for years for his death is an understatement. When my boys were small and I was a Cub Scout den leader, we visited a state park where I asked a Park Ranger about researching hunting deaths from the 1920s. They gave me a phone number but it didn’t get me anywhere.

I didn’t find his death in the vitals indexes during the time period I thought it would have happened.

When newspapers started coming online, I spent many late nights getting bleary-eyed.

Finally one day, after my grandmother and father died in quick succession, I was going through family photos and found one labeled “Bob [my dad] with Joseph and Joe <redacted>.” That surname had cousins on this line so I did an internet search to get the photo back to the family. I connected with a cousin and we spent time discussing family history.

“James?” he said. “Oh, he shot himself.”

Wait, what?

Must have been a hunting accident, right?

Nope.

The newspaper headline is “Despondent Man Ends Life With Shotgun.” He was not in the woods and he very deliberately exited this world.  

Grandma, your family secret is no more.

Depression runs through our family, but until recently no one would discuss it.

How AI is Helping My Research

I asked AI how it can help me identify patterns of depression running in a family. It offered several options:

  1. Analyzing Obituaries and Newspaper Reports

AI-powered tools like Newspapers.com and Chronicling America use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to search for terms like “despondent,” “melancholy,” or “troubled” in historical newspapers, which might indicate depression or suicide.

AI sentiment analysis can review obituaries or death reports to detect language patterns related to mental health struggles.

2. Detecting Mental Health Clues in Family Records

AI-assisted genealogy platforms (like Ancestry and MyHeritage) can analyze cause-of-death records across generations, looking for recurring trends such as “self-inflicted wound,” “nervous breakdown,” or “institutionalized.”

AI handwriting recognition tools can decode personal letters, diaries, and census records to find mentions of mental health conditions.

3. Cross-Referencing Medical and Historical Data

AI can help analyze old medical records and census documents to identify patterns of institutionalization or hospitalization in a family tree.

Tools like Google’s BERT AI model or ChatGPT can scan large volumes of historical text and extract relevant information related to mental health.

4. Family Tree Pattern Recognition

AI tools can analyze relationships and life events to identify stressors that may have led to depression or suicide, such as economic downturns, family deaths, or war experiences.

Predictive modeling could compare your family’s history to broader social trends, revealing external factors that contributed to mental health struggles.

5. Speech-to-Text for Oral Histories

AI transcription tools (like Otter.ai or Whisper) can convert old family interviews into searchable text, helping you detect recurring themes of depression or emotional distress in family stories.

6. Photo Analysis for Hidden Clues

AI-powered facial recognition tools might help analyze historical photos for physical signs of illness or distress.

Some AI models can even compare expressions across multiple generations to spot potential inherited traits related to emotional well-being.

Challenge for Readers

Mental health research may not be as thrilling as chasing an elusive ancestor, but it’s just as important. It’s crucial to have the knowledge in order to combat it.

My recommendation: give your GEDcom to an AI model such as Claude or ChatGPT and ask it to look for words indicating mental health struggles, identify the people, and identify clusters or potential inheritance of such. Add in other factors such as military service and other situational and environmental factors. With that information, we may be able to identify those who are more at risk, and take early steps for treatment.

Summary and Next Steps

I’m so grateful that my father, a young adult in the 1960s, thought it important to be open and honest with me, and impressed on me the value of keeping the lines of communication open, even as we had our own mighty struggles. He worked so hard to fight the secrecy he’d been raised in so that we could do better.

Grandma, the truth is finally known—and it’s for the better.

A man with two boys posing for a photo, in black and white

The photo that broke the brick wall

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 8: Migration

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I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 8: Migration

Introduction

Migration is a theme that touches every genealogist because all of us descend from migrants. My own maternal haplogroup, I4, traces a journey from eastern Africa through the Middle East to Europe. But rather than focusing on just my distant ancestors, I’m turning the lens inward—to my own migration story.

Migrations

I take great pride in my American ancestors, from the religiously persecuted Huguenots who arrived in 1624 to the post-famine Irish who faced hardship head-on. For generations, my family remained rooted on the East Coast of the United States, particularly Staten Island, New York, where they settled in 1665. I was born and raised there, had my children there, and expected that our roots would remain firmly planted.

Then came the attacks of September 11, 2001.

I was in Manhattan when the towers fell. My husband managed to reach our small children, but I was trapped in the city, desperate to get home and hold them close. Like many others, I left New York in the time that followed. My father remained, the last of my direct line on Staten Island. When he passed in 2009, the link to my ancestral home of nearly 350 years was severed. What was once my family’s anchor became a memory.

Figure 1 By Niels Jørgensen (1859-1943) – bruun-rasmussen.dk, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80153432

How AI is Helping My Research

AI is transforming how we understand migration, both in the broader historical sense and in personal genealogy. Here are some ways AI is assisting my research:

  1. DNA Analysis & Migration Patterns: AI-driven tools like MyHeritage’s “Theory of Family Relativity” and 23andMe’s haplogroup mapping provide insights into ancestral migration routes. AI helps compare my DNA with ancient population data, identifying possible pathways my ancestors took.
  2. Historical Record Analysis: AI-powered platforms like Ancestry’s StoryScout and FamilySearch’s record hinting system analyze documents, connecting names, locations, and migration events. AI can surface records I might have overlooked, revealing new details about how and why my ancestors moved.
  3. Newspaper & Obituary Searching: AI-driven newspaper archives can identify migration clues hidden in articles, obituaries, and legal notices. By scanning old papers for names, locations, and key terms, AI has helped me uncover mentions of family moves, ship arrivals, and land purchases.
  4. Census & Ship Passenger List Analysis: AI makes searching census records more intuitive, predicting potential matches and migrations by analyzing occupation changes, neighbors, and household structures. Passenger lists and naturalization papers also benefit from AI’s ability to extract and organize details quickly.
  5. Geographical Data Visualization: Tools like Google Earth’s AI-powered historical overlays allow me to visualize ancestral locations. AI-driven mapping software reconstructs old neighborhoods, providing a clearer sense of the landscapes my ancestors knew.

Challenge for Readers

Have you traced your ancestors’ migration patterns? Try using an AI-powered genealogy tool to uncover a migration story in your family tree. Look at census records, passenger lists, or even DNA migration maps. You might be surprised at what you find! Share your discoveries in the comments or with fellow researchers.

Summary and Next Steps

Migration is not just an event—it’s a story of movement, struggle, and change. Whether fleeing persecution, seeking better opportunities, or adapting to life-altering events like 9/11, migration shapes our family narratives.

AI offers new ways to uncover these stories, making research faster and more insightful. By harnessing AI, we can connect with our ancestors in ways never before possible.

Disclosure

This post was created by me and refined with AI assistance. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.