[Genealogy] Stories Becoming Truth, Any Source in a Genealogy Storm, and More
Michael John Neill
mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Thu Sep 17 13:06:25 CDT 2026
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Genealogy Update 17 Sept 2026
** When the Story Becomes the Truth
** Intro Price on Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant--Consult Yourself
** Any Source in a Genealogy Storm?
** Intro Price Ending on Metes and Bounds with AI
** Recorded Webinars
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When the Story Becomes the Truth
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I’ve taken an ancestral incident in Kentucky in the early 19th century and
turned it into a bedtime story for my grandson.
I did not review the records of the resulting court case before I started
telling the story. There was no preconceived plan to tell the story. I just
started one afternoon when it was naptime and a book was not within reach.
The story had been told several times before I reviewed the actual records.
My concern when telling it had been to keep it age appropriate and not
overly detailed. The story originated from a court case over the theft of
some hogs in Kentucky in the 1810s. I took out some of the gruesome details
involving the actual butchering of the hogs and the inclination of my
ancestor to attempt to murder the perpetrators of the crime.
I knew before looking at the court records that the story I told my
grandson was not the story given in the court records. But I thought I knew
what the actual story was.
I was wrong. There were details I thought were in the court records that
were not. Sometimes my memory was close to what was in the records. Other
times it seemed I had consumed too much Kentucky bourbon when I read the
records the in the first place (I had not).
I’m a fan of telling children stories of their ancestors–just make them age
appropriate. It is a great way to potentially generate some interest in
family history. If you’ve altered the story slightly, just remember that
you’ve done it.
The lesson? The reminder? Our memories of events can easily be incorrect
and it’s important to review any materials before quoting them, discussing
them, or analyzing them.
Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant
*Our approach is to always use AI responsibly and practically a**s your own
genealogy consultant.*
Maybe you can’t afford a consultant for your own research or you have too
many genealogy problems to hire help with every one. AI can serve as your
own genealogy research consultant.
As with a human consultant, you’ll need to do the initial work on your
ancestor, gather what you have, and familiarize yourself with basic sources
in the area. There is no guarantee that AI will solve your problem.
But using AI as your personal research consultant can help. Not by doing
the research for you, or inventing ancestors that never existed, but by
doing what a good consultant actually does: looking at what you have,
summarizing it, discussing it, and giving you ideas on where to look next
or to help you see things in a different way. It may even tell you where
you need to go to improve your research skills.
After using AI, you still may decide to use a human consultant. The work
you did with AI will help you prepare to get the most from that advice from
a real person and to make the best use of your time and money should that
be necessary. We acknowledge in this presentation and approach that AI does
not know everything, is not perfect, and cannot solve every problem. It’s
just another tool.
You'll see how to frame a research problem so AI gives you something useful
instead of something vague. You'll learn to recognize when it's guessing,
because it will, and how to catch hallucinations and how to use AI in a
discerning fashion.
The goal isn't to replace your judgment. It's to give you a thinking
partner available at two in the morning when you finally realize you need
to get outside your own mind on a certain ancestral problem.
Pre-order the presentation now.
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3SJCPREXK5EUC>
Release date: 25 September
Price: $15.99
Includes the full presentation, a detailed handout, and a ready-to-use set
of prompts you can adapt to your own research problems.
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Any Source in a Genealogical Storm?
--------------------
Genealogists who have some length in their genealogical teeth talk about
the importance of knowing the purpose of a record.
It’s true–any researcher who wants to use and interpret something as
correctly as possible needs to know (among other things) the purpose for
which the record was originally created. This may not be the same thing as
the purpose for which the record is now used.
Tax lists are a great example. In some states, particularly in the late
18th and early 19th century, census lists may be missing or not extant, if
they were even taken at all. And that’s just the way it is. If there are no
census records, then there are no census records. The purpose of a census
is usually to count everyone in a specific geographic region–or at least
those individuals that meet the parameters set down by the governmental
entity taking the census.
Tax lists–both of real and personal property–serve a different purpose.
They are created as a way for the government to tax citizens, those who own
real property and those who own sufficient personal property (or property
of a specific kind) to be able to pay a tax.
When census records are unavailable for a certain area and time period, tax
lists may be used to obtain the names of individuals who were residing in
that area. But tax lists are not censuses and censuses are not tax lists.
There’s never a guarantee that a real estate landowner actually lived on
the property on which he was taxed. He probably was, but it’s possible that
he was not. So you could find a person on a real estate property tax list
in County A who never lived in County A.
And a person of extremely limited financial means (without real property
and without any significant personal property) may not appear on a tax list
for County A when he would have appeared on the census for County A because
he lived there.
Tax lists should be used when they are extant for a location. But don’t
call them census records and don’t call them “substitute” census records
either. Call them what they are not leads to confusion and misunderstanding.
It’s actually pretty easy–call them what they are: tax lists.
Oh, and the answer to the question that’s the title of this post is “never"
(unless the tax list was to include everyone whether or not they owed any
tax). Any list that only includes people owing a tax is going to leave out
those who do not.
I use the online trees for the occasional clue when I am stuck as
occasionally a tree compiler has stumbled upon a connection or a source
that has eluded me. Those times are few and far between and are usually
when I am really stuck.
And often when I am really, really stuck there’s not much in the online
trees to actually help me because others are stuck on the exact same
problem as well. But occasionally, for one reason or another, I have
overlooked something or not located something because the information I
have to work with is minimal, has key elements missing, or has an egregious
spelling error that I think is correct.
But if the only source for a genealogical statement that A is the mother of
B is an unsourced online tree, I’m not going to include that statement in
my genealogical records. If there is no way I can evaluate the reliability
of the statement, I’m not going to include it.
It doesn’t matter if I can cite it or not.
Others may disagree about including such information. But if I can’t tell
who compiled it or where they got it and there is no way to evaluate it,
I’m not going to include it in any compilation.
*Metes and Bounds have you confused?*
*If you missed the early-bird price there's still time.*
-------------------------------------
Using AI for Metes and Bounds Deed Analysis--to be released 18 September
-------------------------------------
A completely new presentation!
and there's still time to get it at the introductory price
*Using AI for Metes and Bounds Deed Analysis*
[image: image.png]
Do deeds with metes and bounds descriptions give you headaches? You are not
alone. We will see how to use AI to help with drawing properties, analyzing
deed transactions, noticing patterns, and more. Our presentation is
easy-to-follow, down-to-earth, and practical. This presentation is not
about how to find land records. We will assume you already know how to do
that.
[image: image.png]
Topics covered will include:
-
Using AI to work with metes and bounds descriptions.
-
Manual versus AI transcriptions
-
Fitting parcels together
-
Viewing acquisitions and sales over time
-
Creating ownership chronologies
Participants are encouraged to send Michael a limited number of questions
after they have viewed the presentation.
Revised release date is 18 September 2026. Pre-order price $21
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZ7W2VTNUFRM6>.
Post-release price $27.00. Handout included which will include commentary
and prompts that were used. The presentation is approximately an hour long
and can be viewed more than once.. Order yours today
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=WZ7W2VTNUFRM6>.
Don’t wait as we tend to forget.
About Michael:
Michael John Neill has actively researched his genealogy since the early
1980s. He has given genealogy lectures at a variety of national and small
conferences since the 1990s. Michael has a master’s degree in mathematics
and taught mathematics at a community college for thirty years. He has led
research trips to the FamilySearch Library for over twenty years.
-----------------------------
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--------------------
Webinars
--------------------
Ready-to-Go Webinars from Michael–download immediate:
-
Creating Children’s Stories from Genealogy Events
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/creating-childrens-stories-from-genealogy-information/>
-
Creating Families from pre-1850 Census Records
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/creating-families-from-pre-1850-census-records/>
-
DeedMapper webinars
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/deedmapper-intro-and-more-deedmapper-webinars/>
-
FamilySearch Catalog
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2026/02/19/using-the-familysearch-catalog-webinar/>
-
Farming Ancestor webinars–landowner and non-landowner versions
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/rooting-around-for-farmers-and-tenants-and-laborers/>
-
Full-Text Search at FamilySearch
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2026/08/05/updated-familysearch-full-text-search-webinar/>
-
Full-Text Search at FamilySearch with Common Names
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2025/11/04/common-names-at-familysearch-full-text-webinar/>
-
How Errors Get in Records
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/how-errors-get-in-records-webinar/>
-
Illinois Genealogy Research
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/2026/03/10/genealogy-research-in-illinois-webinar/>
-
Unburying Funeral Home Records
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/unburying-funeral-home-records/>
----------------------------------------
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Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day
PO Box 17
Henderson, IL 61439
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