Tip Roundup for 10 November 2025
If you're doing family research, you have experiences and knowledge worth sharing.
The water in the Mission: Genealogy pool is lovely, so I went looking for some of our quieter members to jump in and splash around with the regulars. I hope the tips they’ve shared will help our shy members to get more involved, and will give everyone new ideas on how to progress in their research and writing.
You Don’t Have to be Perfect
Each of us is at a different point in our family history journey. Erin Hoover wrote about her genealogy do-over. She started with the information collected by her family, and then added to it by downloading family trees created by others. That reminds me of when I started with Ancestry. I eventually started over and turned off Member Tree Hints and Potential Relative Not Yet in Your Tree. But that’s not what Erin did.
Erin didn’t start from scratch. She got organized, documented the facts, and figured out what needed more research. Check out her post for her organization tips.
In MelRootsNWrites’s post, she tells about how she was contacted about a mistake in her tree. Of course, she felt terrible, but it happens to all of us. It’s horribly embarrassing to have someone else catch a mistake, but as I pointed out in a presentation on Italian Records, even the town clerk got it wrong sometimes. While there are some rude individuals, most want to help. Ignore the trolls, cherish the genearosity, and embrace the fact that no one is perfect.
New Area of Research
I love church records. I often use them at FamilySearch and American Ancestors. But when I needed the church records of the Greenfield Center Baptist Church, a staff member told me the records “are sketchy at best going back that far…” Then my phone calls and email requesting permission to view the records were ignored. These are private records, and they are under no obligation to allow me access. I was disappointed, but I took the hint and moved on.
Nancy Gilbride Casey wrote “Bless Your Family History Research by Delving into Church Records,” which appeared in Stirpes: The Journal of the Texas State Genealogical Society. The embed takes you to her Substack, which takes you to her blog, where the full article is posted.
One of her suggestions is to follow the line of successor churches. As a volunteer at the Nashua Historical Society, I got a request for help locating church records. I was amazed that the very first church in Nashua, New Hampshire, which was formed on 16 December 1685, still exists, but is in a different part of the city and is now known as The First Church.
Tool to Help Tell Your Stories
I’m not a technophobe, but I am taking my time to get into the AI pool. So far, I’ve dipped my toe in and I’ve decided asking it to proofread my Substack posts before publication is a good idea. Just as I don’t accept all suggestions from a human editor, I don’t accept all AI suggestions, but I’ve liked some of them.
Randy Seaver, Geneaholic has persuaded me to go in a little deeper. He asked AI, “Please describe an autumn day in the life of Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942) at age 13 in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1890. What household duties did he have? Did he go to school, and what did he learn at school? What games, entertainment and fun did he enjoy?” I loved the answers, but could I trust them?
Randy told me Perplexity and Gemini provide source links. Regardless of the AI I use, I’ll need to verify the information, but it’s easier to find the supporting documentation when I know what I’m looking for. Frederick would have played mumblety-peg. My father taught me that game. Check out Randy’s post because the AI description of the game matches what my father taught me, not the description from the Wikipedia entry.
Why You Should Share Your Stories
I wrote about it in Sharing Your Research Pays Off, and I’m not the only one who has found that writing about family history on Substack has opened doors to new relationships and opportunities.
Emily Gravelle shares her experiences of connecting with family, discovering new stories, genearosity, support from the Substack genealogy community, and new opportunities. All because she started a newsletter on Substack this past May.
Call for Contributors
Why should we all have to learn the hard way? Please share what you’ve learned. Email me at YourFamilyQuest@gmail.com
Upcoming Events:
Thursday, 13 November 2025 at 4 pm/7 pm (PST/EST) Speakers’ Corner: Convicts and Crime, Tragedy in Our Families with Jenny MacKay and Debbie Harris
Friday, 14 November 2025 at 10 am/1 pm (PST/EST) Projectkin Live: Emma Explores Preview
Sunday, 16 November 2025 at 10 am/1 pm (PST/EST) Projectkin Live: Patriot or Loyalist? Lori Olson White Shares for Stories250
Thursday, 20 November 2025 at 10 am/1 pm (PST/EST) Emma Explores…Stories, Mysteries and Fame
Sunday, 23 November 2025 at 10 am/1 pm (PST/EST) Projectkin Live: Preview
Thank you for including my Genealogy Do-over article. It looks like I'm in great company and have some reading to do!
Thank you for including me in this round up. I hope others can experience the positivity that comes with sharing family history.