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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I have so many farmers in my ancestry. I wondered how they worked their land every spring. I knew they used horses to pull the plow but I didn't know the actual process or the equipment used. So I asked OpenAI ChatGPT5 to describe it. Here is my Prompt: "I have many ancestors who were farmers who plowed and planted their land in the spring. Please describe the plowing equipment and processes used…
I received this information from Findmypast today: ============================ Explore new school and prison records spanning 82 years. We've bolstered two existing collections of Guernsey records this week, with brand new school records and prison registers available for you to explore. We've also added over 260,000 pages to our newspaper collection. Guernsey, Prison Registers We've updated our…
T he following Record Collections were ADDED or Updated in the MyHeritage Collections Catalog during the week of 14 to 20 August 2026: Italy, Tuscany, Florence Military Service Roll Index (Military Documents), ADDED Aug 20 2026, 629,584 records Montana, County Births (Birth Records), ADDED Aug 18 2026, 517,408 records Netherlands, Leiden Population Registers, 1606-1939 (Other), ADDED Aug 18 2026,…
I wondered if my AI Assistant Anthropic Claude could provide me with information about an ancestor's daily life in 1864 in Westminster, Massachusetts. My 2nd great-grandparents Isaac Seaver and Lucretia Smith had married in 1851, and had five living children in 1864. I posted ABC Biographies for the m in ABC Biography of #16 Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) of Massachusetts and ABC Biography of #17…
It's Treasure Chest Thursday - a time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings. The treasure today is the 1701 death record for Thomas Reed in the Sudbury, Massachusetts vital record book: The death record for Thomas Read is the fourth entry in the Reed listings on page 322: The transcription of the death entry is: "[REED]…
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 seminars, conferences and institutes. * 5th Annual…
I wrote an AI-assisted ABC biography for my 3rd great-grandfather Daniel Spangler in ABC Biography of #50 Daniel Spangler (1781-1851) of Pennsylvania and Virginia based on my genealogical research over 38 years. I wondered what Daniel Spangler might have told his grandchildren in a life memoir in 1851. I requested Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 to " Please write a life memoir for Daniel Spangler based…
This is a priceless (to me) image in my computer file folders from the Seaver family collection: This photograph is of my father, Frederick W. Seaver (1911-1983) lying on the sand in Laguna Beach, California on their honeymoon in July 1942. I'm pretty sure this photograph was taken by my mother. The photograph probably should be rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise to be oriented correctly - the…
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 Ne ws Articles: * Finding Your Roots Season 13: New Season featuring Bette Midler, Rita Moreno and Mark Cuban and others, premiering January 12, 2027 on…
Thanks to my friend and genealogy colleague Yvette Porter Moore, I have information about my mother's (Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) high school activities at San Diego High School between 1933 and 1936. Yvette has done a lot of work discovering, compiling and preserving the high school records at the school. Here is my mother's high school cumulative record: It is pretty cryptic in places!…
Here is the latest chapter in the story of the courtship and early married life and times of my maternal grandparents, Emily Auble and Lyle Carringer, who married in June 1918. The background information and the list of chapters of their life together are listed at the end of this post. This is historical fiction with real people and real events, and is how it might have been. And now we are into…
Here are the highlights of my family history and genealogy related activities over the past week (ending Sunday, 16 August 2026). 1) Hosted and moderated the Chula Vista Genealogical Society (CVGS) Research Group meeting with 13 in atrendance on Zoom. I reported on several new or updated features on Ancestry.com, the Ancestor Map Builder and TreeAlive apps, new books, my own work, and free and…
