[Genealogy] No Butter, Probably, AI for Metes and Bounds Intro Price, Auto-Consulting
Michael John Neill
mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Mon Sep 21 10:13:48 CDT 2026
Need to unsubscribe
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com>
?
Genealogy Update 20 Sept 2026
** No Butter Worth Mentioning
** Intro Price on Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant--Consult Yourself
** Probably
** New Release: Metes and Bounds with AI
** Recorded Webinars
----------------------------
No Butter Worth Mentioning
----------------------------
Depositions in contested Civil War pension applications can provide
wonderful insight into a family’s day-to-day life. This is especially true
for families who do not leave behind letters or other paper ephemera.
Nancy Rampley’s application for a widow’s pension based upon her husband’s
service was denied several times. The resident of Walker Township in
Hancock County, Illinois, claimed the income from her late husband’s farm
was insufficient to support her and the minor children he left behind when
he died in 1893. Her application was denied to the point where a special
examiner was sent to Breckenridge, Illinois, interview her and several
others regarding her claim.
Part of the reason for her pension claim was that her income was
insufficient. As a part of her deposition, Nancy made statements about her
income and expenses for the time period before her deposition was made in
1902.
In 1901, Nancy indicated her proceeds from the farm included:
- 150 bushels of oats valued at 35 cents per bushel–$52.50
- 80 bushels of wheat at 60 cents per bushel–$48.00
- 50 bushels of rye at 50 cents per bushel–$25.00
- 320 bushels of corn at 50 cents per bushel–$160
- her share of the hay-7.5 tons at $8 per ton-$60.00
- poultry and eggs sold–$15.00
- garden dried up
- no butter worth mentioning
Nancy’s son farmed for her and received half the crops as his share. It is
not mentioned why Nancy’s share of the 800 bushels of corn was 320 bushels
instead of 400. The statement that the “garden dried up” makes me wonder if
1901 was a dry year. That’s something that may be mentioned in local
newspapers.
*Lessons and Reminders:*
Not every Civil War pension application contains depositions of this type.
Those that do will not necessarily have details regarding the applicant’s
income. The content of the deposition depends upon the individual claim and
the reasons for its denial. Nancy was claiming she needed the pension to
supplement her income. Her claim was denied by the pension office because
she considered able to work. Other widows may have had to prove their
soldier’s service or their relationship to the soldier. Nancy’s claim was
not denied for those reasons, so her testimony does not focus on those
items.
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.
--------------------
Probably
--------------------
She died probably in Nicholas County, Kentucky, after the 1850 federal
census enumeration.
I debated how to write the sentence. Should it be “She probably died in
Nicholas County, Kentucky, after the 1850 federal census enumeration,” “She
died probably in Nicholas County, Kentucky, after the 1850 federal census
enumeration,” or something similar.
I went with the second iteration for two reasons:
- Anyone who wasa alive in the 1850 census enumeration is now dead.
There is no “probably” about it.
- The “probably,” or more accurately the fact that I do not have a
document that explicitly states where she died, is actually a qualification
of her place of death. Nicholas County is probably where she died.
My statement needs to say that.
It may seem like nitpicking. It is.
Genealogical writing is about being as accurate as we can be and reflecting
as accurately as we can what we “know” from the records we have accessed,
the information they contain, and our interpretation of those records.
Thinking carefully about what we know, what we “probably” know (or
surmise), and what we don’t know is time well spent. It forces us to refine
our analysis and our interpretations. It reduces the chance we make
statements that are not supported by the records.
That does not stop a careless researcher from taking my “probably died in
Nicholas County” statement and phrasing it as “died in Nicholas County.”
We can’t take responsibility for how others interpret our statements.
And there’s no “probably” in that.
--------------------------------------
*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--
-------------------------------------
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.
Available for immediate download. *Introductory price is $23.
<https://michael-john-neill.dpdcart.com/cart/add?product_id=251367&method_id=274508>*
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.
-----------------------------
-----------------------------
--------------------
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/>
----------------------------------------
*Need to unsubscribe? Do so at:*
*https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/mailman/listinfo/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com>*
Michael John Neill
Genealogy Tip of the Day
PO Box 17
Henderson, IL 61439
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://genealogytipoftheday.com/pipermail/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com/attachments/20260921/038b9758/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 44039 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://genealogytipoftheday.com/pipermail/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com/attachments/20260921/038b9758/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image.png
Type: image/png
Size: 13865 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://genealogytipoftheday.com/pipermail/genealogy_genealogytipoftheday.com/attachments/20260921/038b9758/attachment-0003.png>
More information about the Genealogy
mailing list