[Genealogy] Dead Ex-husbands, Really Tracking Research, Self-Consultations, More AI metes and bounds, and getting more from census
Michael John Neill
mjnrootdig at gmail.com
Fri Sep 25 07:30:39 CDT 2026
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Genealogy Update 25 Sept 2026
** My Ex-husband is dead. Am I A Widow?
** Intro Price on Using AI as a Genealogy Consultant--Consult Yourself
** Really Tracking Your Research
** More Land Platting with AI and Getting the Most From the Census
** Recorded Webinars
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My Ex-husband is Dead. Does that Make Me a Widow?
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P. A. Troutfetter was dead by 1927. That is true.
Whether that technically makes Violet B. Troutfetter his widow as she is
shown in this 1927 Denver, Colorado, city directory is another story.
The Troutfetters were divorced in 1901 in El Paso County, Colorado. There
are no documents indicating they married again and P. A. (better known as
Philip) at some point returned to Thomas County, Kansas, where he died.
1927 Denver, Colorado, City Directory, p. 2199; digital image on
*Ancestry.com* 20 February 2014
It was not unusual for a divorced woman to pass herself off as a widow when
in actuality she was divorced. In some locales and time periods a woman may
be referred to as a “grass widow,” but that’s not often used on census
enumerations.
Always take the term “widow” with a small grain of salt.
The Wm. J. Troutfetter in this post is a brother to P. A. Troutfetter and
the Victor E. is Wm. J’s son. Violet and Philip Troutfetter had no children.
Whether having a dead ex-husband makes a woman a widow or not is another
question entirely. And…in some cases it doesn’t matter what the answer is
as people can tell the census taker or directory information collector any
version of reality that they care to.
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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Really Tracking Your Research
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In the old days of genealogy, we were told to fill out “research logs”
where we tracked the sources we used, what names or families we looked for
in these sources and the results of our search. Tracking what we did as we
did it was a laudable goal.
I’m just concerned now that with the advent of searchable databases, most
genealogists are not coming anywhere close to tracking what they search for
in a specific database or on a given website.
If I am searching for a family in an online 1860 census index, am I keeping
track of all the necessary variants of the first name and the last name? If
I fail to locate the likely head of household, am I searching for all the
other likely household members? Do I write down all the variants for the
last name and think about what is the best combination of wildcard and
soundex searches for those names? Do I do the same with the first names? Am
I searching for all nicknames, diminutives, etc.?
If the likely residence of a family is geographically small and the
population is also small, I can search the census manually. If it is large
with a population to go with it, this may be possible or it may be
impractical. I’ve seen articles where it has been said someone cannot be
found in a census. I rarely see where the specific unsuccessful searches
are listed out in an attempt to defend the “can’t find them statement.” If
the census is searched manually then listing the procedure really is not
necessary (but the source is). But if a manual search is not done and it is
said “she can’t be found” then the search parameters should be included.
The genealogical community is more aware of the importance of sources than
they were twenty-five or so years ago. Now we need to work on our tracking
of search parameters, particularly when we are indicating someone “can’t be
found” and a manual search is impratical.
------------------------------------
More Land Platting with AI
-----------------------------------
This session will expand on the “Metes and Bounds with AI” presentation. It
will include additional and more convoluted examples of metes and bounds
properties, discuss platting out properties in federal land states
involving sections and townships, and include an example of a metes and
bounds description in a federal land state. This session presupposes that
the listener has a basic understanding of land record terminology and knows
how to locate land deed records as those topics are not a part of this
presentation.
Release date: 15 October 2025.
Early order price: $18.99
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=C4JG43VE263BW>
Order includes audiovisual file and handout.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Getting the Most from US Census Records
----------------------------------------------------------
This session will help you to get the most from United States census
records–covering from 1790 through 1950. We will start with what you should
do when you find any census enumeration–which is not to transcribe it. We
will highlight the questions asked, talk about using enumerator
instructions, see how to get as much from a census enumeration as possible,
determine when a census suggests other records be searched, and more.
We will cover typical errors and how those arose, concerns about
reliability of the informant (did they just guess at information?), reasons
why people lie, and more.
We will talk about research strategies for people who are difficult to
find, ways names get written and transcribed and how to formulate a census
search plan those individuals who are difficult to locate.
The presentation will last approximately ninety minutes. Purchase includes
media file and handout.
Pre-release order price is $15.99.
<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=H4MQXGKGGXM9U>
Release date: 16 October 2026.
--------------------
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/>
-
Metes and Bounds With AI–platting and analysis
<https://genealogytipoftheday.com/index.php/using-ai-for-metes-and-bounds-deed-analysis/>
-
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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