Friday Find Wells Family Today’s Friday Find features another fascinating set of family papers preserved in the collection of Preston B. Wells. These handwritten notes trace the Wells lineage across several generations, offering valuable details about births, marriages, and deaths that bring the…

Gone Missing Knowing that I wouldn’t be spending time on my computer while enjoying a weekend at the lake with my siblings and their families, I skipped my usual Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post. These weekly prompts are often lighthearted, but this week’s question was more serious—and one I…

How I Use AI Using AI in My Genealogy Work Recently, the Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence group on Facebook asked its members how they were using AI. As I read through the responses, I found myself wishing I could select more than one option—because AI has become part of many aspects of my…

Sellers DNA Provides Major Hint to My Crawford Ancestry Do you have DNA matches to members of your FAN club that you just can’t place in your family tree? That’s been my struggle with my SELLERS matches. When I experiment with my Ancestry tree and list Rebekah Douglass Crawford as the mother of my…

Monday Diggings Frederick Broils Land Grant Do you have photocopies of old land deeds tucked away in your research files? When I opened my BRILES–North Carolina folder, I discovered four such photocopies—unfortunately without any source information. My first thought was that FamilySearch’s Full…

October Weekends at Acorns Resort Since Octoere 2013, October has meant more than pumpkins and falling leaves for the Crawford family—it has meant gathering at Acorns Resort on Lake Milford, just north of Junction City, Kansas. What began as a simple family getaway has grown into a cherished…

ABC Biography: Alma Jean Currey Early Life Alma Jean Currey was born on April 5, 1912, in Plainville, Rooks County, Kansas, to Hiram M. Currey and his wifeNarrative Report for Alma Jean …. A short notice in the Plainville Times shared the happy news: “A little daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. H.…

Friday Find Kennedy Family Today’s Friday Find features another set of handwritten family records preserved in the collection of Preston Wells of Michigan—my 3rd cousin once removed. Preston and I share common ancestors in Ozias Wells and Mary Kennedy. These notes shed light on the family of…

Crawford Land Have you ever used land records to connect family members? That’s the challenge I’ve taken on—using early Virginia land and court records to sort out the tangled Crawford family lines. Recently, I located a deed in Botetourt County where Andrew Crawford and his mother, Margery, sold…

Using AI to Persuade Us Thanks to the Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence Facebook group—and encouragement from Randy Seaver—I’ve become a frequent user of AI tools. I primarily rely on them for transcription, editing blog posts, and turning genealogy reports into narratives. Because of these…

Is It Online? Helping Researchers Use the Nemaha County Historical Society Website Do you ever vent in a Facebook group? Recently, I came across a post in the Genealogy Chit Chat group where someone shared their frustration about researchers relying solely on online sources. The author pointed out…

Monday’s Diggings: Jacob Broyle Land Patent Do you have old maps tucked away in your genealogy files? Today’s find is a photocopy of a map titled “First Patents of Land in Madison County, Virginia.” Unfortunately, the copy I have does not include the original source, but similar maps can be found…

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1) Genealogy can be really fun. Please create, or have Artificial Intelligence…

ABC Biography Earnest O. Currey Early Life and Family Earnest Oran Currey was born on April 5, 1906, in Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas. He was the son of Hiram Miles Currey and Winifred Mae “Winnie” Hutchinson. He grew up with several siblings, including Winifred Crawford and Alma Greiner,…

Friday Find Do you have handwritten notes in your genealogy files that were copied from a book by another researcher? Today’s WELLS family Friday Find is just such a treasure. It’s a transcription of WHITE family information taken from the book Memorials of Elder John White. These notes trace the…

Crawford R1b-01A Trees Is your Crawford yDNA line in the R1b-01A group? If so, have you tried to figure out how your branch might connect to the others in this cluster? One way to start untangling these relationships is to place our “earliest known ancestors” onto collaborative world trees such as…

RootsMagic 11 – GROUPS When it comes to using new software, are you a diver or an evaluator? Do you sit back and check out all of the new features and how to use them before committing to an upgrade? Or, do you just dive in and start using the software and figure it out as you go? When it comes to…

Documenting a Family History Do you have old correspondence tucked away in your genealogy files? If so, have you ever noticed that some of it refers to families that don’t seem to connect directly to your research? That was my experience when I reopened a 1993 letter containing details about the…

Muster Rolls Do you have ancestors who served in the Civil War? If so, were any of them called to defend their own state from invasion? When we think of Confederate troops crossing state lines, Pennsylvania often comes to mind. Yet on the western frontier, Kansans faced that same threat in October…

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1) Pick one of your ancestors that you want to know more about. Based on your…

ABC Biography: Mary Lela (Currey) Walters Early Life Mary Lela Currey was born on 17 August 1901 in Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kansas, to Hiram Miles Currey and Winifred Mae “Winnie” Hutchinson. She grew up in Kansas with her siblings and appears in both the 1905 Kansas State Census and the 1910…

Friday Find Do you have handwritten family group sheets tucked away in your genealogy files? This week’s Friday Find is a fascinating set of such records documenting the families of Nathaniel, Green, and Ozias Wells. Each page focuses on one family line and is written in a style reminiscent of…

Confirming Relationships Have you ever faced the challenge of proving a lineage when a child was born after his father’s death? That is the case with my fourth cousin’s ancestor, William Clay Crawford. He was born on 30 January 1861 in Warren County, Indiana—nearly three months after the death of…

Crawford Land Partition Do you use FamilySearch’s new full-text search feature? If so, you may have noticed that not all records can be accessed from home. From past experience, I knew that most Indiana deeds are restricted to viewing at an affiliate library or a Family History Center. That…

RootsMagic 11 Somehow I was caught unawares! RootsMagic just released a new version of their genealogy software. While I have not figured out the new features, I have purchased the software, converted my file and started using it. As a former school technology coordinator, I have strong…

Monday’s Diggings Have you ever used—or even seen—a Range Index for a section of land? When I began my genealogy journey with Kansas records, I quickly discovered how valuable these books can be. A Range Index takes a single section of land and traces every recorded transaction for that land over…

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:  It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to: 1) Check out Top Five Surprises by D.M. Debacker on the Gathering Leaves blog. I…

ABC Biography: Myrtle Irene Currey The Life of Myrtle Irene Currey Early Years in Kansas Myrtle Irene Currey was born on January 11, 1899, in Pomeroy, Wyandotte County, Kansas. She was the daughter of Hiram M. Currey and grew up in eastern Kansas. By June 1900, at only a year old, she was living…

1896 Wells Letter Today's find is a letter from Burdette Hall to his uncle. The original of this letter is in the papers belonging to PRston Wells of Michigan. Chittenango, N.Y.Apr. 20, 1896 Dear Uncle, I am going to inflict you with another genealogical letter. Cousin Hattie & I are still hunting…