Heartland Genealogy

Sometimes the most valuable result from using AI isn't a beautifully written story. Sometimes it is discovering that something in my genealogy database is wrong. That happened while I was working on an ABC Biography for Rachel Christy Ricketts . As part of my process, I had gathered information about Rachel from my RootsMagic database and the records I had collected for her. I then used that material with Google NotebookLM to explore different ways of turning genealogical research into a story. One of those experiments was an Audio Overview . Listening to Rachel's Story NotebookLM's Audio Overview takes the sources in a notebook and creates a podcast-like discussion of the material. Instead of simply reading my genealogy report back to me, the generated discussion attempted to interpret the records and explain Rachel's life. As I listened, something caught my attention. There was a problem with Rachel's birthplace . The birthplace recorded in my genealogy database d...

 Rachel’s Story in Song After writing about the life of my ancestor Rachel Elmeda Christy Ricketts (1845–1927) , I decided to tell her story in a different way—through music. Using information from Rachel’s biography, I worked with AI to create lyrics tracing her journey from her Christy family in Ohio and Indiana to her life with James Marshall Ricketts and their family in Woodson County, Kansas. I then gave the lyrics to Suno , asking it to create a ballad appropriate to the period from the 1860s through the 1920s. The resulting song, “From Indiana to Kansas,” became the soundtrack for a video that I created and shared on YouTube. It’s another experiment in turning genealogical records—names, dates, census entries, and family relationships—into a story that can be experienced in a different way. I hope you enjoy Rachel’s story in song.

28 April 1845 – 27 January 1927 Early Life and Parents Rachel Elmeda Christy was born on 28 April 1845. Her family group sheet gives her birthplace as Clinton County, Indiana. However, there is conflicting evidence about where she was born. The 1850 and 1860 censuses identify Ohio as her birthplace, as do numerous later census records and her obituary. Thus, although the family information gives Clinton County, Indiana, the records created during Rachel's lifetime generally point toward Ohio.  Rachel was the daughter of Samuel Henry St. George Christy and Lyda Gallimore. Samuel was born 11 September 1819 in Indiana, the son of Ebenezer Christy and Rachel Elizabeth Dawson. Lyda was born 25 March 1824 in Ohio, the daughter of Isom Gallimore and Judith Bentley. Samuel and Lyda married on 3 March 1842 in Fayette County, Ohio.  Rachel's childhood appears to have included moves between Indiana and Ohio. In 1850, five-year-old "Elmedia Cristy" was living in the household of ...

Turning an Ancestor’s Story into Song Have you ever thought about turning an ancestor's life story into a song? I've been experimenting with using artificial intelligence to tell family stories in different ways. My latest experiment took the story of my relative, James Marshall Ricketts, from a collection of genealogical records to a song—and eventually to a YouTube video! It Started with a Biography My first step was to provide ChatGPT with a RootsMagic narrative report for James Marshall Ricketts and ask it to write a biography. James was born on November 28, 1847, in Clinton County, Indiana. As a teenager, he enlisted in Company K of the 7th Indiana Cavalry during the Civil War. After his discharge in 1865, he returned to Indiana and married Rachel Elmeda Christy on July 12, 1866. James and Rachel began raising their family in Indiana before moving to Woodson County, Kansas, where James purchased land in 1879. He spent much of the remainder of his life farming in Kansas. Ja...

  From Indiana Farm Boy to Kansas Pioneer James Marshall Ricketts lived through a remarkable period of American history. Born in Indiana in 1847, he grew up on the eve of the Civil War, enlisted in the Union cavalry while still a teenager, married shortly after returning home, and eventually moved his growing family west to Kansas. There he spent much of the remainder of his life farming in Woodson County. Over the course of his seventy-three years, James experienced the Civil War, westward migration, the development of rural Kansas, and enormous changes in transportation, agriculture, and everyday life. Yet the surviving records also tell a much more personal story—of family, land, military service, visits from relatives, and more than fifty years of marriage. Birth and Parents James Marshall Ricketts was born on 28 November 1847 in Clinton County, Indiana .[3–14] The census records place him in the household of John Ricketts during his childhood. In 1850, three-year-old James wa...

Have you ever discovered that a military record doesn't tell quite the whole story? While researching the Civil War service of James Marshall Ricketts , I initially had a fairly straightforward account of his service. James enlisted in the 7th Indiana Cavalry, was hospitalized in Memphis, returned to his regiment, was promoted to corporal, and eventually mustered out in Texas. Then I looked more closely at his age. Enlisting in the 7th Indiana Cavalry According to his military records, James M. Ricketts enrolled on 18 August 1863 at Indianapolis, Indiana , for a term of three years. He was mustered into service on 11 September 1863 as a private in Company K, 7th Indiana Cavalry. His Company Descriptive Book provides additional information about the young soldier. It describes James as about 5 feet 4½ inches tall, with a light complexion, gray eyes and light hair. He was born in Clinton County, Indiana, and had been working as a farmer. Most importantly, the military record gives h...

A Timeline of Richard Foster’s Warren County Property Have you ever looked at an abstract of title and wondered how you were ever going to make sense of it? The abstract I've been working with traces land in Warren County, Indiana, back to my ancestor Richard Foster , who purchased it from the federal government in 1828. But the abstract is much more than a record of that original purchase. It follows the property through more than a century of wills, heirs, deeds, mortgages, court proceedings, and other transactions. And I probably wouldn't have this record at all if someone hadn't found me through my online genealogy research. A Genealogy Gift from a Stranger Some time ago, I was contacted by a woman who had discovered either my online family tree or my Heartland Genealogy blog and recognized my connection to the Foster family. She had an abstract of title for land that had once belonged to Richard Foster . As I recall, she wasn't researching the Foster family as her ...

Have you ever read another genealogist's blog and wondered whether your families might somehow be connected? I've followed fellow geneablogger Linda Stufflebeam  and her blog, Empty Branches on the Family Tre e, for quite some time. Since several of Linda's posts about her Stufflebeam research have mentioned Warren County, Indiana , I've occasionally wondered whether our families might cross paths somewhere in that county. It wasn't until I received an abstract of title for land originally purchased by my ancestor Richard Foster that I had a reason to look more closely. A Familiar Name on the Map Richard Foster purchased land in Section 10, Township 21 North, Range 9 West in Warren County, Indiana, in 1828. While looking at a map of the first landowners in the area, I noticed something interesting. John E. Stufflebeam owned land nearby. Stufflebeam! Since I recognized the surname from Linda's blog, that immediately caught my attention. Then I checked ...

  When AI Connected a Dower Record to a Piece of Medical History Have you ever been working with a record for one reason only to discover that one of the people named in it had a much bigger story? That's what happened while I was working on a recent Friday Find involving Thomas D. Crawford and his widow, Jane. I started with a record, not with a famous person. The Original Record I have had a photocopy of a Jefferson County, Indiana, probate record in my files for years. I probably obtained the copy during a research trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. More recently, I found the record again in the digitized images on FamilySearch and obtained a much better copy. The record comes from the February 1836 term of the Jefferson County Probate Court and is headed: Jane Crawford vs. The Heirs of Thomas D. Crawford Decd — On Petition for Dower The proceeding involved the partition of land belonging to Thomas D. Crawford. His property was described as the Southwest Quart...

  Following Richard Foster’s Property Through an Abstract of Title Sometimes a genealogy record contains far more of a story than can be absorbed in a single reading. That was certainly the case with an abstract of title for land originally purchased by Richard Foster in Warren County, Indiana . After transcribing the abstract, I decided to experiment with another way of exploring—and sharing—the information it contained. I uploaded the transcription to Google NotebookLM , where I created both an infographic and an audio overview . I then combined those two pieces in Canva to create a video, which I uploaded to YouTube. The finished video provides a different way to follow more than a century of history associated with one piece of land. It Started with Richard Foster The abstract begins on July 12, 1828 , when Richard Foster entered 240 acres from the United States. The property consisted of the northeast quarter and the west half of the southeast quarter of Section 10, Township ...

 A Dower for Jane Crawford Have you ever discovered that a record you copied years ago has become much easier to access? That's the case with this week's Friday Find. Among my files is a photocopy of a Jefferson County, Indiana, probate record concerning the estate of Thomas D. Crawford. I don't have a notation telling me where I obtained the copy, but I suspect it came from one of my research trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Today, I don't have to travel to Salt Lake City to look at the record. I recently located the original probate volume in the digitized images on FamilySearch and was able to obtain a much better copy. More importantly, this record provides an interesting look at what happened to Thomas Crawford's land after his death. Thomas and Jane Crawford I believe the Thomas D. Crawford named in this probate proceeding is the Thomas Crawford found on FamilySearch as GVRH-QF4 , husband of Jane Todd. Other sources support the identifica...