Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Genealogy Education Bytes - Week of 27 August to 2 September 2026

Welcome to Genealogy Education Bytes, posted on Wednesday afternoon for the past week, where we try to highlight some of the most important genealogy and family history education items that came across my desktop since the last issue.




1) Upcoming Conferences and Institutes:

* Conference Keeper Calendar - has many links to register for and/or view seminars, conferences and institutes.

*  2026 New York State Family History Conference ($$, In-person/Virtual, New York City) -- 18 to 19 September 2026.

*  2026 Heritage Books Genealogical Conference & Cruise with Angie Bush, Blaine Bettinger, and Craig Scott ($$, In-person, Cruise from Miami, Florida) -- 6 to 17 November 2026.

2 ) Upcoming Webinars and Online Classes (times are US Pacific):

* Conference Keeper Calendar - has many links to register for and/or view seminars, webinars and classes.

* FamilySearch MonthlyWebinars (Free)

* RootsTech 2019-2026 On-Demand Sessions (Free) 

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Friday, 4 September, 11 a.m.:  U.S. Great Lakes Region Accreditation: A Genealogical Treasure Trove by Kaye Ford.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Wednesday, 9 September, 7 a.m.:  Novel NYC Records by Alec Ferretti.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Wednesday, 9 September, 8:30 a.m.:  5 Ways Tax Lists Can Assist Your Pennsylvania Research by Katy Bodenhorn.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Wednesday, 9 September, 10 a.m.:  10 New Tools for Pennsylvania Research by Kory L. Meyerink.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Wednesday, 9 September, 11:30 a.m.:  Top 10 Websites for Ohio Genealogy by Dana Palmer.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Friday, 11 September, 11 a.m.:  Researching in Middlesex by Nick Barrett.

3) Recent Podcasts:

* Ancestors and Algorithms:  Ep. 53: The Recording I Almost Didn't Make




4) Recent YouTube Videos:
















*  Marcia Philbrick:  Fifteen and Riding 





5) Did you miss the last post in this series -- Genealogy Education Bytes - Week of 20 to 26 August 2026?

Read past Genealogy Education Bytes here.

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NOTE: If I missed an upcoming conference or webinar, or a useful podcast or video, in this time period, please let me know in a comment or an email.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/09/genealogy-education-bytes-week-of-27.html

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share your comment on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Note that all comments are moderated and may not appear immediately.

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Life Memoir of Sarah (Knapp) Auble (1818-1904) of New Jersey, Indiana and Illinois

 I wrote an AI-assisted ABC biography for  my 2nd great-grandmother Sarah G. (Knapp) Auble (1818-1904) in ABC Biography of #29 Sarah G. (Knapp) Auble (1818-1904) of New Jersey, Indiana and Illinois.  based on my genealogical research over 38 years. 

I wondered what Sarah (Knapp) Auble might have told her grandchildren in a life memoir in 1903. I requested Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 to "Please write a life memoir for Sarah (Knapp) Aublebased on the attached biography, as she might tell her grandchildren in 1903." 

(AI ChatGPT5 Infographic for Sarah (Knapp) Auble's life memoir)

The AI Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 memoir (edited for accuracy and completeness) is:  



A Life Remembered
 
Sarah G. Auble speaks to her grandchildren in Bushnell, Illinois, 1903

Early Years in New Jersey

My dear ones, I find myself growing old now—eighty-five years have passed since that January day in 1818 when I first drew breath in Woodbridge, New Jersey. The Lord has granted me many years to witness this changing world, and your mother insists I commit some of these memories to words before they slip away entirely. So here I sit, in the quiet of this Illinois home, thinking back across all those decades.

I was born into a large and busy household. My father, William Knapp, was an industrious man with ambitions and the courage to pursue them. My mother, Sarah Cutter, came from good stock—her family was well-regarded in our community. I was the eighth child of eleven—three sons and eight daughters, a number that seemed perfectly normal to us then, though I gather it surprises you who know smaller families. How we lived in that full house! The noise, the chaos, the constant work of keeping so many bodies clothed and fed. My parents believed in the virtue of industry and education, and they did their best by all of us.

I remember when Father decided to move us all to Newton, Sussex County, in the northern part of Jersey. I was just a girl, perhaps eleven or twelve years old. Father had gotten into the boot and shoe business—a respectable trade that would occupy him for most of his life. He opened a shop there, and our family became known for honest work and fair dealing. These lessons about integrity in business I would see lived out again in your grandfather David.

Among my siblings, I was particularly proud of my brother Manning. He was younger than I, but he had a brilliant mind and went on to become a judge—a Supreme Court justice in New Jersey, no less. When I lived so far away in Indiana, I confess I missed watching his rise to prominence, but the newspapers would reach us eventually, and I could tell our young people about their uncle the judge. Such a thing seemed remarkable to us country folk.

Marrying David Auble

But I am getting ahead of myself. When I was twenty-six years old, in 1844, I married your grandfather David Auble. He was a good man—honest and hardworking, exactly as a man ought to be. We had no grand wedding, but we were married properly in Newton, and I was content to be Mrs. Auble. He was in the boot and shoe trade, just as my father was, so we understood each other's ways.

After we married, David took me to Newark, a much larger and busier place than I had known. Newark was a growing city, filled with commerce and industry. David established himself in his trade, and I set about making a home for us. Our first child, William, was born around 1845. Then came Frances—we called her Fannie—in 1846. Such joy those early years brought, even with the hard work of raising children in the city.

Charles came next, born in October of 1849, and then Katherine—dear Kate—in 1851. Then our Anna arrived in 1859. Five children by then, and I thought myself quite blessed. But life, as you know, teaches us that blessings are sometimes accompanied by sorrow. Our little Cora was born in 1860, such a sweet baby girl. I was thirty-two years old, and we had no reason to think anything would go amiss. But children were delicate things then, and diseases came without warning. When Cora was only fifteen years old, she took ill in Terre Haute—we had moved west by then—and she died. I confess I have never quite recovered from that loss. A mother does not expect to bury her child. It seems a violation of the natural order.

The Move To Indiana

But let me tell you about our move west, for that was a great adventure in our lives. After 1867, we began to think about leaving Newark. I believe it was your grandfather's desire—he had heard stories of opportunity in the newer towns, and perhaps he was tired of the crowded city. We moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, a thriving place with railroads and commerce. My brother Manning had already established property there, and he sold us a beautiful house and piece of land on Chestnut Street for two thousand dollars in 1870. Your grandfather set up his boot and shoe shop on Main Street, and he became known throughout Terre Haute as a man of integrity and honest dealing. Many people came to his shop, and he was well-respected in the community.

Terre Haute was good to us. It was a growing city, full of opportunity. My daughters took advantage of the schools there—Fannie became a teacher, which gave me great pride. Charles became a painter, got married and lives in Chicago, and Anna married a fine man named Henry Buntin. William moved on to Kansas City to make his own way. We felt we had built something solid there.

Your grandfather and I lived in that house on Chestnut Street for many years. We became members of the Centenary Methodist Church, and we made a life for ourselves. He would speak with pride of having cast his first vote for William Henry Harrison, all those years ago—such a thing was a mark of a long life in America. We watched the nation grow and change around us. The Civil War came and went during our time in Terre Haute, though we were far from the worst of the fighting.

But nothing lasts forever in this world. Your grandfather's health began to fail him after many years of hard work. For two years before his death, he was an invalid, and for the final year, he could scarcely leave the house. On March 22, 1894, he passed away at the age of seventy-seven. Suddenly I was a widow, and the house seemed very quiet.

That was nine years ago now. Nine years of life without the man I had been married to for fifty years. At first, I did not know how I would bear it. But my daughters—Fannie and Katherine especially—they kept me company. After we left Terre Haute, I came here to Bushnell to live with my daughter Anna and her family. It has been a comfort to be surrounded by family again, to know my grandchildren, to tell them stories of their grandfather and their aunts and uncles.

What I Want You To Remember

Now, as I near the end of my days, I find myself thinking about what I would want you to remember. I have lived through eighty-five years of this American nation. I was born when James Monroe was president. I have seen this country grow from a young nation to a great power. I have watched as railroads crossed the continent, as cities rose where there had been wilderness, as the world transformed around me.

But more than all of that, I have learned that a life well-lived is built on work, on integrity, on loving your family as fiercely as you can, and on faith. Your grandfather was not a wealthy man, but he was an honored man. He was known for his honesty. That seemed to matter more to him than any amount of money. I hope that my children and my children's children will remember that.

I have been blessed with good health for most of my life. I have raised children who became teachers and painters and good mothers and fathers themselves. I have buried one child, as mothers sometimes must. I have been a wife for fifty years and a widow for nine. I have loved greatly and been loved in return.

So when you think of me, after I am gone, remember this: life is long, and if you are fortunate enough to live to my age, you will see wonders and sorrows both. Build your homes on solid ground. Choose people of integrity to marry and befriend. Work hard at whatever you do. Look after your family. And never forget where you came from or who came before you.

Now, come sit closer to me. Tell me about your lives. I have told you so much of mine, and I would know the details of yours before the light fades entirely.

===========================

The Video Overview of Molly (Houx) Carringer's life memoir, created by the Google Gemini Notebook AI tool, is below and on my YouTube channel:   


This is historical fiction, based on my own genealogical research and family records. It is what Sarah (Knapp) Auble might have told her grandchildren in 1903.  

I edited the Claude memoir text to correct minor inconsistencies and errors. Every large language model (LLM) AI tool writes descriptive text much better than I can write. The AI tools are very perceptive, insightful and inspiring, creating engaging text in seconds, including local and national historical events and social history detail when requested.

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Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/09/life-memoir-of-sarah-knapp-auble-1818.html

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Please note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

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Della Carringer In the Garden -- (Not So) Wordless Wednesday #931

This is a priceless (to me) image in my computer file folders from the Carringer family collection:


This photograph is of my great-grandmother Abbey Ardelle "Della" (Smith) Carringer (1862-1944) and was certainly taken in the Carringer gardens at 2105 30th Street in San Diego. 

I estimated that it was taken in about 1920 (Della would have been 58 in 1920).  My grandfather Lyle Carringer took a lot of photographs then when my mother was a baby. 

The MyHeritage Scribe AI feature described the original photograph as:
"A black-and-white, slightly sepia-toned snapshot capturing a woman standing on a wooden A-frame stepladder outdoors. She is reaching into the dense foliage of a large bush or tree, which appears to be a mature fig tree based on the distinctively lobed leaves. To the left, a wooden post and crossbeam support a hanging potted plant suspended by chains. A single utility wire cuts diagonally across the pale sky in the background. The scene exudes a casual, domestic mood, likely documenting a routine household or gardening task."
The date prediction was:  
"Prediction: Circa 1915 - 1925 (Matches metadata 'ca1920'). Visual Clues: The woman's 'middy' blouse and ankle-length skirt are hallmark fashions of the late 1910s and early 1920s, representing the transition away from restrictive Edwardian garments toward more practical sportswear. The white-bordered snapshot format also aligns perfectly with this era."
This event is part of my family history!!

NOTE:  I used the MyHeritage photo tools to sharpen and colorize this image.

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Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.    I moderate all comments and they may not appear immediately - please write only one comment.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2026

MyHeritage Offers Free U.S. and Canada Census Records for Labor Day (2 to 7 September)

 I received this information today frrom Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage.

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In honor of Labor Day, MyHeritage is offering free access to 928.4 million U.S. and Canadian census records from September 2–7, 2026. This includes 876.1 million records across 54 U.S. collections and 52.3 million records across 15 Canadian collections.


Search U.S. Census records on MyHeritage


Search Canadian Census records on MyHeritage 


The records include every U.S. federal census from 1790 to 1950, along with U.S. state censuses and Canadian national censuses. Your audience can search these records for details about their ancestors’ occupations, households, residences, and more.

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See previous Genea-Musings posts about MyHeritage record collections and features in https://www.geneamusings.com/search/label/MyHeritage.com.

Disclosure: I receive a complimentary PremiumPlus subscription to MyHeritage, and have received other material consideration in past years. I uploaded my autosomal DNA raw data to their DNA product. This does not affect my objective analysis of MyHeritage products. I am a paid subscriber to Family Tree Webinars and love it.

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/09/myheritage-offers-free-us-and-canada.html

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately.

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Genealogy News Bytes -- Week of 26 August to 1 September 2026

   Welcome to Genealogy News Bytes, posted on Tuesday afternoon for the past week, where we try to highlight the most important genealogy and family history news  items that came across our desktop since the last issue.    


1)  Genealogy and Family History News Articles:









2)  DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy

3)  Genealogy Book/Magazine Notices and Reviews:

*   The Dover Trunk Murder by Nathan Dylan Goodwin: Book Review [Empty Branches On the Family Tree]





4)  Genealogy Software/Mobile Apps



5)  New or Updated Genealogy Digital Record Collections:













6)  Did you miss the last post in this series?  See Genealogy News Bytes - Week of 19 to 25 August 2026.


                          =========================================


Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

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Guest Post: "Echoes In the Blood" Book by Dick Robinson

I was contacted by Dick Robinson, the author of the book Echoes In the Blood: How the Past Lives On In Us, recently and I  offered to publish a guest post about it.  

 I welcome Guest Posts on Genealogy and Family History topics.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You Were Born Into Someone Else’s Story
By Dick Robinson

I thought I was researching my ancestors.

It took me six years to realize I was also researching myself.

That realization became Echoes in the Blood: How the Past Lives On in Us—part memoir, part genealogy, part narrative history.

And it changed the way I think about family history. Like most genealogists, I began with evidence.

Birth certificates. Census records. Wills. Marriages. Deaths. Places. Dates. Relationships. Another ancestor found.

Another generation added.

But eventually the records weren't enough. I wanted to know:
  • Who were these people? What did they endure?
  • What choices did they make?
  • What did they pass down that no pedigree chart could show? And, finally:
  • How much of their story is still living in me?

You Were Born Into Someone Else's Story

That question eventually produced one of the central lines in Echoes:  “You Were Born Into Someone Else's Story.”

Think about that for a moment. None of us arrives at the beginning.

By the time we're born, the story has been underway for generations. People have fallen in love.

Marriages have succeeded—and failed. Children have been born.

Families have crossed oceans.

They've survived wars, depressions, illnesses, prejudice, poverty, loss. 

Some prospered. Some failed spectacularly.

Some left stories that were proudly repeated at family gatherings. Others left stories nobody wanted to tell.

Then we arrived.

We inherited the family name, perhaps. We inherited DNA.

But did we inherit something else?

Eight Famous Cousins

My search produced some astonishing discoveries.

Every genealogical path in Echoes runs through my mother, Evelyn Mae Burnett.

Following those lines connected me genealogically to eight people whose names almost everyone knows:
  • Abraham Lincoln.
  • Helen Keller.
  • Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Winston Churchill.
  • Queen Elizabeth I. 
  • Isaac Newton.
  • William Shakespeare. 
  • Elvis Presley.
That's quite a family gathering.

The documented relationship paths are included in the book's relationship charts and notes. And, yes, discovering those relationships was exciting.

But something unexpected happened while I was writing the book. I realized the famous cousins weren't the story.

They helped me tell it.

One discovery became deeply personal.

Growing up, I never fully understood why my father was so determined to help people see. For 20 years in the Lions Club, he provided Christmas parties, vision screenings, outings, and fundraisers for children who had nothing. It was simply part of who he was.

Decades later, my genealogical research led me to Helen Keller—and to the family relationship connecting us.

Suddenly, I looked at my father differently.

I began to wonder whether something I had regarded simply as one man's passion might belong to a much longer family story.

I can't prove that Helen Keller's influence somehow traveled through generations, and Echoes doesn't argue that ancestry determines destiny. 

But the discovery gave me a new way of understanding my father—and raised the question that eventually became central to the book: "What do we inherit from the people who came before us besides names and DNA?"
  • Lincoln's life raised questions about adversity and character. 
  • Keller's about limitations—and refusing to accept them.
  • Churchill's about resilience.
  • Newton's about isolation, brilliance, and the complicated human being behind the legend.
  • Shakespeare led me deep into ancestry and the mysteries that genealogists know so well.
But increasingly I found myself returning to people whose names will never appear in history books.

My own family.

The Ancestors History Forgot

Those are the people genealogy gives back to us. A record can tell me where an ancestor lived.

But what did home mean to that person?

A census can put a family together beneath one roof. But was it a happy household?

A marriage record can tell me two people stood together on a particular day. It can't tell me whether they loved each other.

A death certificate tells me when somebody died.

It says almost nothing about the hole that death left behind.

That's where genealogy becomes something more than collecting records. It becomes story.

As a professional genealogist-historian, documentation matters enormously to me. Echoes
contains extensive notes, bibliography, and relationship charts. But I'm also a writer.

I wanted readers to feel history, not merely inspect it.

So I sometimes reconstructed historical scenes from the evidence available to me, while clearly distinguishing reconstruction from documented fact.

That line matters.

We can't invent evidence.

But neither should we forget that every document we uncover represents a human life.

What Else Do We Inherit?

The deeper I went, the more I wondered about inheritance itself. DNA is only part of it.

Sometimes a decision made by one person sends consequences rippling through several generations.

That doesn't mean our ancestors control us. Inheritance isn't destiny.

But knowing what came before can change the way we understand what came afterward—including ourselves.

I began to see my family tree differently.

It wasn't simply a chart stretching backward. It was a story moving forward.

Each generation received something. Each changed it.

Each passed something on. And then came us.

We Are Someone Else's Ancestors

That's the part genealogists don't always think about.

We spend so much time looking backward that it's easy to forget: Someday, we're going to be the ancestors. Someone may search for us. Someone may find our names in a database. Someone may wonder what we were like.

What will we have left them besides dates?

That's one reason I believe telling family stories matters. We aren't simply preserving the dead.

We're leaving something for the living.

After six years of following presidents, monarchs, scientists, writers, entertainers—and generations of ordinary men and women—Echoes brought me back to a remarkably simple conclusion.

Five words:  Nothing's more important than family.

Perhaps that's why genealogists keep searching. We're not really looking for names.

We're looking for people.

We're trying to understand the story that existed before we did. The story we were born into.

And, whether we realize it or not, the story we're still writing.

About the Book

Echoes in the Blood: How the Past Lives On in Us combines memoir, documented genealogy, and narrative history in an exploration of family, inheritance, identity, and the ways the past continues to influence succeeding generations.
Paperback: $19.99
Kindle:          $9.99
Available from Amazon:     https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ266WV5

Dick Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize–nominated writer, professional genealogist, public speaker, and publisher. For more than five decades, he has written for major newspapers and national media outlets, including The Washington Post syndicate and The New York Times.

A former board-certified genealogist, he founded Legacy Scribe Books, LLC, and is the Amazon-bestselling author of Blind Black Sheep. Echoes in the Blood is his sixth book, born from a personal question about what families carry forward—beyond names, dates, and records.


                            =========================================

Disclosure: I received no remuneration to publish this blog post or to use and describe this book.  Dick Robinson provided a PDF of the book for me to read.  

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/09/guest-post.html

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately.

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