Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Genealogy Education Bytes - Week of 4 to 10 June 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.

*  Palatines To America National Conference ($$, In-person, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania) -- 18 to 19 June 2026.

*  FEEFHS Annual Conference ($$, In-person, in Salt Lake City) -- 5 to 7 August 2026.

*  Pennsylvania's Genealogy Event "PaGE" 2026 Conference ($$, Virtual) -- 6 to 8 August 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, 12 June, 8 a.m.:  Land Records of Upper Canada 1 of 3: Crown Land Petitions by Janice Nickerson.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar --  Friday, 12 June, 9:30 a.m.:  Land Records of Upper Canada 2 of 3: Heir & Devisee Commission Files by Janice Nickerson.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar --  Friday, 12 June, 11 a.m.:  Land Records of Upper Canada 3 of 3: Land Registry Office Records by Janice Nickerson.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Tuesday, 16 June, 11 a.m.:  Mastering Data Collection by Jill Morelli.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Wednesday, 17 June, 11 a.m.:  DNA in Action 3 of 6: Generating Clues from DNA Networks by Karen Stanbary.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Friday, 19 June, 11 a.m.:  Descendants in Dialogue: Connecting Families of the Enslaved and Enslavers by Sharon Batiste Gillins and Cheri Hudson Passey.

*  Legacy Family Tree Webinar -- Tuesday, 23 June, 11 a.m.:  Top 10 Canadian Collections at MyHeritage by Kaye-Prince-Hillenberg.

3) Recent Podcasts:

* Ancestors and Algorithms:  Ep. 41: Tracing Enslaved Ancestors with AI | Using Perplexity, Claude, NotebookLM, and ChatGPT to...




4) Recent YouTube Videos:



*  BYU Library Family History Center:  Swedish Family History Research - Maureen Brady (3 June 2026)


*  Denyse Allen • Chronicle Makers:  I Let AI Fact-Check My Genealogy Research (And It Was Brutal)


*  Ellen Thompson-Jennings - Family History Hound:   FamilySearch Full-Text Search: Find Records You Didn't Know Existed






*  Forgotten Family Lines:  How To Solve An Old PHOTO Mystery!



*  Marcia Philbrick:  The Paper Trail of Private Hutchinson
*  Marcia Philbrick:  Albert's Road
*  Marcia Philbrick:  Albert Hutchinson Audio Overview



*  Randy Seaver, Geneaholic:  A Song -- "Seaver Roots of Roxbury"



*  Trace Your New England Roots:  Yellow Feather: The Brewing Storm in 1660s New England!


*  Write Your Family History With Devon Noel Lee:  Incorporate Historical Context And Write Better Family History Stories


5) Did you miss the last post in this series -- Genealogy Education Bytes - Week of 28 May to 3 June 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:  
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 Philip Jacob König of York, Pennsylvania, a Revolutionary War Soldier, in 1791

  I wrote an AI-assisted ABC biography for the family of my 5th great-grandparents Philip Jacob and Maria Barbara (Wilhelm) König in ABC Biography of Philip Jacob and Maria Barbara (Wilhelm) König Family of Rheinland-Pfalz and Pennsylvania based on my genealogical research over 38 years.  Philip Jacob König was a Revolutionary War soldier.

I wondered what Philip Jacob König might have told his grandchildren in a life memoir in 1791.

(AI Google NotebookLM Infographic for Philip Jacob König's life memoir)

1)  I requested Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 to   "Please write a life memoir for Philip Jacob König based on the attached biography, as he might tell his grandchildren in 1791."

2)  The AI Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 memoir (edited for accuracy and completeness) is: 


A Life Remembered

The Story of My Life, as I Have Lived It

As Told to My Grandchildren by Philip Jacob König
York County, Pennsylvania • 1791

Come closer, children. Pull your chairs near the fire, for the autumn evening grows cold and the light is already failing. I am not so young as I once was, and there are things I wish to tell you before I no longer can.

You know me as Großvater — old Philip Jacob, with his grey beard and his bad knee and his habit of watching the millrace too long. But I was young once, as young as you are now, and I have seen things and done things and lost things that you cannot yet imagine. I have crossed a great ocean. I have stood in a snowstorm and heard the sound of cannon. I have buried a wife. I have watched this nation born out of blood and argument.

So settle in. This will take some time.

The Village of My Birth — Niederhorbach, 1738

I was born on the fifteenth day of February, in the year 1738, in the village of Niederhorbach, in the Rhineland Palatinate of Germany — a small place that I suspect most of you have never heard of, and which I myself can only picture now through the fog of fifty-three years and an ocean of distance. Three days after my birth, my mother and father carried me to the church at Edenkoben to be baptized, as was the custom of our people. My father was Johann Nicolaus König, and my mother was Maria Margaretha Stuber — God rest both their souls. They had married six years before I came into the world, in that same church at Edenkoben, and they were good and decent people who worked hard and asked little.

 My father had been married once before, you see. His first wife, Maria Ursula Bohringer, had died young, leaving him with two small boys: my half-brothers Gottfried and Peter. Gottfried was nearly ten years older than I, and Peter a few years behind him. Then Father married my mother, and from that union came my sister Anna Elisabetha, then myself, then two more — little Johan Wilhelm, who came after me, and our youngest, Maria Barbara. So you see, we were a full house. Seven of us in all, if you count both of Father's families together, which I always did.

 The Palatinate in those years was a worn-out place. The great wars of the previous century — and there had been so many wars — had bled the land dry. Soldiers had marched through our valleys, burned our crops, taken what they pleased. The lords and princes taxed what little remained. The winters were hard and the harvests uncertain. When I was very small, the grown-ups spoke in low voices about the cost of bread, about neighbors who had packed their belongings onto a cart and gone west — always west, toward the Rhine, toward the ships, toward the New World that people were calling Pennsylvania.

I did not fully understand what Pennsylvania was. I imagined it was something like the next valley over, only bigger. I was wrong about that.

The Decision to Go — and the Ship Called Ketty

I was fourteen years old in the autumn of 1752, old enough to carry my share of the baggage and young enough to think the whole thing was a tremendous adventure, when my father gathered us together and said that we were leaving. Not for the next village. Not for Frankfurt or Heidelberg. We were going to Pennsylvania, in British America, across the sea.

My father had been thinking on this for years, I believe. Several uncles and friends had already gone before us, perhaps — I am not certain of the exact order of things — and the letters that came back, or the word that traveled through the German communities, painted a picture of land that a man could actually own, of forests thick with game, of soil that had never been plowed. My father was not a reckless man. He did not decide lightly. But he decided.

We traveled overland to the Rhine and then by river to the coast. I will spare you the details of the crossing itself, for they were not pleasant. The ship was called the Ketty. We boarded in the late spring of 1752, along with many other Palatine families, all of us crowded below decks with our bundles and our prayers. The ocean is not like anything you have ever seen, children — it is immense in a way that makes you feel very small and very alone with God. The waves in a storm were higher than the rooftop of this house. People wept. People prayed. Some people died. But we did not.

We came into Philadelphia in October, blinking in the American light, surrounded by people speaking English and Dutch and Swedish and a dozen other tongues, and my father stood on that dock and I watched his face — and I think he was frightened, and I think he was relieved, and I think he was proud, all at the same time. We had made it. We settled in York County, among other German families, where a man could speak his own language and find a church that sang the old hymns, and that was where I became, truly and permanently, an American.

Growing Up in York County — and Becoming a Subject of the Crown

York County in those years was a young place, still being carved out of the wilderness. There were farms and mills and churches, but the forest was never far away, and everyone worked. I worked alongside my father and helped establish what we had. I learned English, though I confess I still dream in German to this day. I learned how land in Pennsylvania was measured and claimed and taxed and sold. I learned the names of the men who mattered in the township — the justices of the peace, the mill owners, the elders of the church.

In the year 1762, I took the formal step of becoming a naturalized British subject, in accordance with an act of His Majesty's Parliament. I will tell you plainly that I thought nothing strange about it at the time. We were all British subjects here — that was simply what one was, in Pennsylvania. I swore the oath with a clear conscience and went home and thought no more about it. I could not have imagined, in 1762, that within fourteen years I would be fighting a war against that same Crown. But life has a way of surprising you.

Barbara — The Love of My Life

I met Maria Barbara Wilhelm the way one meets most people worth knowing — gradually, and then all at once.

The Wilhelm family were neighbors in the German community of York County, and Maria Barbara — Barbara, I always called her — was the daughter of Jacob Wilhelm, a man I respected greatly. Her family had come over in 1734, a full eighteen years before mine, on a ship called the Saint Andrew, and had settled in the Tulpehoeken region of Lancaster County. Barbara herself was American-born, which gave her a kind of easy confidence in this land that I, who still carried Germany somewhere in my chest, admired enormously.

She was born in September of 1740 — two years younger than I — and she was, I will tell you plainly, a remarkable woman. She could manage a household with one hand and settle a dispute among the children with the other, and she never seemed flustered by anything. Her laugh was something I could pick out of a room full of noise. I fell in love with her laugh before I ever properly spoke to her.

We were married on the first of April, 1763 — yes, April Fools' Day, and yes, your grandmother found this funny her entire life — in the parlor of her father's house in Lancaster County. The Reverend John Waldschmidt married us, in the Reformed faith. The church record reads: “König, Philip Jacob, s. of Nicolaus König, and Maria Barbara, d. of Jacob Wilhelm; Apr. 1, 1763; in Jacob Wilhelm's house.” Simple words for the most important day of my life.

I should also tell you something that has always made me smile: my sister Maria Barbara König eventually married Barbara's brother, Johann Adam Wilhelm. So the two families became doubly joined — which I think is as it should be, because the Wilhelms were good people and I was glad to have more of them as kin.

Building the Farm — and the Mill

In December of that same year we were married, I purchased two hundred acres of my father's farm, including the house I had grown up in. I was twenty-five years old, newly wed, and full of ambition. We farmed. We worked from before dawn until after dark, planting and harvesting and putting by for the winter, and the years passed in the way that years do when one is busy and young and has a wife one loves.

By the time our children came — and they came steadily: Philip Jacob in 1764, Elizabeth in 1767, Henry in 1770, George in 1774, Peter in 1775, John in 1776, Barbara in 1777 — we had built something solid. A house. A farm. A name in the township.

Then in 1771, my brother-in-law Martin Cronemiller died. You will not remember Martin, children; he was your great-aunt Elisabetha's husband, a good man taken too soon. He had owned a grist mill, and on the tenth of June that year, I became its new owner — the mill and thirteen acres of land with it. I paid what it was worth, and I went home that evening and sat with Barbara a long while, thinking about what it meant to be a miller.

I will tell you what it means to be a miller. It means that every farmer in the township comes to you. It means you are at the center of things. It means early mornings and late nights and a constant fine coating of flour dust on your coat, and it means that when the harvest is good, your neighbors are happy, and when the millstone cracks or the millrace runs dry, everyone looks at you as though you have personally arranged the misfortune. I loved every day of it.

By 1779 I had built a sawmill as well, on a large lot in York that I purchased from Henry and Catharine Wolf. Two mills — grain and timber — and the farm besides. I had three horses, five cows, twelve sheep, and two hundred and fifty acres by the time the first census came around. I tell you this not to boast, but because I want you to understand: we built that from nothing. From a family that had crossed the ocean with bundles on their backs and hope in their hearts.

The War — and What I Did in It

I was thirty-seven years old in the spring of 1775, when the news came that there had been fighting at Lexington and Concord, in Massachusetts. The argument between the colonies and the Crown had been building for years — you are old enough to know the history, or you should be — but when it turned to shooting, everything changed.

In November of that year, I was chosen by popular vote as a member of the York County Committee of Safety. I want you to understand what that meant. The Committee of Safety was the actual government of the county in time of war — we selected the officers for the battalion, organized and trained the men, supplied them as best we could, and oversaw the militia. It was not a ceremonial position. Men's lives depended on the decisions we made.

I had also been appointed Supervisor of Highways for Manchester Township that year, which may sound less dramatic, and is. But even roads matter in a war — you cannot move troops without roads, and I knew every lane and ford and bridge in this township.

On the seventh of July, 1776 — three days, only three days, after the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia — the five militia battalions of York County were on the march toward Perth Amboy in New Jersey, to take up positions against General Howe's army threatening New York City. I marched with them. Barbara was at home with six children, the youngest just months old, and a farm to manage, and she did not weep when I left, though I saw what it cost her not to.

I will tell you plainly about what happened in New York. It was a disaster. General Howe was a capable commander and he had a great army, and New York fell. On the sixteenth of November, at Fort Washington, the British outflanked us and nearly the entire command was captured. We lost men that day — good men, York County men, men whose names I knew. I will carry those names as long as I live.

But then came Christmas night, 1776. If you know one thing about this war, know this: General Washington gathered what was left of his army — ragged men, half-frozen, their boots worn through — and he crossed the Delaware River in the dark, in a sleet storm, with ice in the river threatening to stove in the boats. And we were there. The York County troops were at the vanguard. We struck at Trenton on the morning of the twenty-sixth, and then at Princeton, and the Hessians and the British did not know what had hit them.

I have been asked many times what that night was like. I tell you honestly: I was cold and frightened and my hands would not stop shaking, and I did not feel brave. I do not think bravery is the absence of fear. I think it is doing what needs doing while the fear is there. When we crossed that river, every man on those boats was afraid. We crossed it anyway.

After I came home, I served the Committee of Safety through 1777 and 1778, and sat as Assessor for Manchester Township. Then in 1779 I began a three-year enlistment as Captain of the Fourth Company, Third Battalion. My company numbered seventy-two men. I was responsible for those men — for their training, their supplies, their conduct, their welfare. It was the heaviest responsibility I have ever carried. We served until the war ended and the company was disbanded in 1783. Every one of us went home.

The Loss of Barbara

I do not speak of this easily, even now.

Barbara — your grandmother Barbara, my first wife — died before 1779. She was not yet forty years old. We had seven children together, the youngest not two years old. She managed everything while I was away at the war. The farm, the children, the mill — she kept it all together while I was marching through New Jersey and freezing on the Delaware. I did not thank her enough for that while she lived. I tell you this so that you will not make the same mistake with the people you love: tell them. Tell them while you can.

She was a good woman, and a brave one, and she deserved more years than she received. I hope she knew how much I loved and appreciated her.

Catherine — and the Years Since

In time, as widowers must, I remarried. My second wife is your grandmother Catherine — Maria Catherina Ziegler, the daughter of John and Anna Ziegler of York. She was baptized right here, at Christ Lutheran Church. We have had three children together: John Adam, born in 1783; Catherine, born in 1787; and little Anna Maria, just this past August. Fifty-three years old and I have a baby in the house. Life is not without its humor.

Catherine has been a steadfast and patient woman, and I am grateful for her. To inherit a household of older children from a first marriage, and to make it her own with grace and good humor — that is no small thing, and I have not taken it lightly.

The years since the war have been busy ones. By 1783 I owned two houses, the two mills, and two hundred fifty acres. I have added to it since. In April of 1787, I petitioned for another fifty acres in Manchester Township, and the warrant came back signed by Benjamin Franklin himself — the great man was then President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, and I confess I held that paper a long time before I filed it away. I have never met Mr. Franklin, but I have his signature, and that is something.

Last year, the new government of the United States conducted its first census, and a man came to our door and wrote down the names of our household. I thought about that for a long while afterward — that a free nation was counting its people, not to conscript them or tax them arbitrarily, but simply to know them. That struck me as a remarkable thing. I had been counted once as a subject of a king. Now I was counted as a citizen of a republic. The difference is everything.

What I Want You to Know

I am drafting my will this autumn. I am not a young man and I know what that means. I want the mills to stay in the family if they can — Henry will have the grist mill and the sawmill, and the land they stand on. I have tried to be fair to all nine of my children, and to Catherine as well. The First Reformed Church in York will receive fifty pounds, because that church has been the center of our community for as long as I can remember, and it will be here long after I am gone.

But what I want to leave you cannot be written in a will.

I want you to know that this family came from nothing — from a small village in a poor and tired land — and crossed an ocean with their hands and their faith and their stubbornness, and built something here worth having. I want you to know that the land you stand on was fought for, not just by men with muskets, but by women who kept homes and farms and families together while the men were away. Do not forget the women. History forgets them too easily.

I want you to know that being a citizen of this country is not something to be taken for granted. I have been a subject of princes and a subject of a king and now I am a citizen of a republic, and I am here to tell you that the last is worth more than all the others combined. Guard it. Work for it. Argue about it. That is what citizens do.

And I want you to know that the mill is not just a mill. It is every season your grandfather got up before dawn and kept the stones turning and the flour moving and the neighbors fed. When you walk past it, remember that.

The fire is burning low. I am tired. But I am glad you asked, and I am glad you listened.

Your Großvater, Philip Jacob König
Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania
In the fifty-third year of my life, and the sixteenth of American Independence, 1791.

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

Editor's Note:

This memoir is written in the voice Philip Jacob König might have used, based entirely on documented genealogical and historical records. All dates, names, places, events, and relationships are drawn from primary and secondary sources; no genealogical details have been added or altered. Philip Jacob König died before 25 February 1792, when his will was probated in York County, Pennsylvania.

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

3)  The Video Overview of Philip Jacob König's life memoir, created by the Google NotebookLM AI tool, is:      

4)  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.

5)  This is historical fiction, based on my own genealogical research and family records. It is what Philip Jacob König might have told his grandchildren in 1791.  

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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: 

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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Aunt Marion Hemphill and Fred Seaver at the Old Point Loma Lighthouse in San Diego in 1982 -- (Not So) Wordless Wednesday #920

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


This photograph was taken in the summer of 1982 at the Old Point Loma Lighthouse within the Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma in San Diego, California.

My father, Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983) is the man on the right in the photograph.  His sister, Marion Frances (Seaver) (Braithwaite) Hemphill (1901-2000) is the woman on the left in the photograph.  

I think I took this photograph -- Linda and I went with my parents and Marion to the Lighthouse and the Cabrillo National Monument on the top of Point Loma.  My parents, Fred and Betty (Carringer) Seaver are inurned at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery not far from the site of this photograph.  

Aunt Marion was the oldest of my father's siblings, and visited San Diego several times after 1970 to visit her brother and our family.  My father had prostate surgery in early 1982 and was recovering from that at the time of this photo. 

I requested MyHeritage to enhance and colorize this photograph (i8t was a color photograph but yellowed a bit over time. 

This event is part of my family history!!

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The URL for this post is:  

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, June 9, 2026

Genealogy News Bytes - Week of 3 to 9 June 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:














3)  Genealogy Book/Magazine Notices and Reviews:




4)  New or Updated Genealogy Digital Record Collections:







 Genea-Musings]



5)  Did you miss the last post in this series?  See Genealogy News Bytes - Week of 27 May to 2 June 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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Can an AI Browser Agent Create an NEHG Register-Style Family History Report From Research Notes?

I struggle to create an NEHG Register-Style family history report from all of my research notes.  I like to add a Narrative Report created by RootsMagic with Source Citations to my Person Notes for a Person profile page in RootsMagic in addition to my Research Notes (which may or may not have Source Citations)

I wondered if an AI Browser Agent like the FREE Perplexity's Comet could take my Person Notes for a RootsMagic profile and create a (New England Historical and Genealogical) Register-style family history report. Here is what I found:

1)  Here is the top of my Person Notes on the Person Screen in RootsMagic for Johann Nicolaus König (1707-1776) of Germany and Pennsylvania:


 And at the end of the RootsMagic Narrative Report (which did not have Event or Person Notes) are the sources created by RootsMagic from my input data and the start of the Research Notes for this person profile:


I copied the Person Notes into a Genea-Musings blog post, brought the blog post up on the screen in Perplexity Comet, and asked Perplexity Comet to "Please write a Register style family history report for the family in these notes, including source citations as endnotes":


2)  Without any editing, here is the Register-style report that Perplexity Comet created in seconds.

Johann Nicolaus König of Leinenweber and later York County, Pennsylvania, married three times and left four known children who accompanied him from the Palatinate to Pennsylvania and are treated here in Register style.[geneamusings]

1. Johann Nicolaus¹ König (1707–1776)

Johann Nicolaus¹ König was born 18 May 1707 in Leinenweber, Rheinland‑Pfalz, Germany, son of Hans Paulus König and Anna Catharina (—?). He was of the Reformed faith and spent his early life in the Palatinate, a region repeatedly ravaged by war and religious conflict in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, conditions that helped prompt his emigration. He is found in German records and later Pennsylvania records under several forms of his name, including Johann Nicolaus König, Nicholas König, Nicolaus Konig, and Nicholas Koenig/King.[geneamusings]

He married first, at Edenkoben, Rheinland‑Pfalz, on 20 January 1728, MARIA URSULA BOCHINGER, who was born about 1709, likely in Rheinland‑Pfalz, and died before 1735 at Niederhorbach, Rheinland‑Pfalz. They had two known sons, both baptized in the Palatinate, before Maria Ursula’s death.[geneamusings]

He married second, at Edenkoben, on 19 June 1735, MARIA MARGARETHA STUBER, daughter of Johann Jacob Stuber and Anna Catherina Mann, who was baptized 30 November 1702 at Herren‑Sulzbach, Rheinland‑Pfalz, and was living as late as the family’s move to York County but died there before 1771. She appears in later records as Maria Margaretha König, reflecting her married surname.[geneamusings]

Johann Nicolaus and Maria Margaretha emigrated from the Palatinate in 1752 with their blended family, leaving a war‑torn, religiously divided region for British North America. They traveled down the Rhine to Rotterdam, embarked on the ship Ketty (Capt. Theophilus Barnes), and sailed via Portsmouth, England, to Philadelphia, where they arrived in mid‑October 1752 and took the oath of allegiance on 16 October 1752. The Ketty passenger list names Johann Nicolaus König, age 45, wife Maria Margaretha, and children Gottfried, Johann Peter, Anna Elisabeth, Philipp Jacob, Johann Wilhelm, and Maria Barbara, and notes that they went on to Chester County.[geneamusings]

The family’s precise whereabouts between 1752 and 1760 are uncertain, though later ties of two König children to the Wilhelm family of Lancaster County suggest a possible residence in Lancaster or Berks County during that period. By 1760 Johann Nicolaus had settled in Manchester Township on the north side of the Codorus River in York County, where he purchased 200 acres of land for 600 pounds and, with his sons, established a home and farm. He became a naturalized British subject on 21 March 1762, and his sons Jacob and Godfrey were naturalized 9 September 1762, further anchoring the family in the region.[geneamusings]

Between 1764 and 1771 his second wife, Margaret (Maria Margaretha) King, died, and on 27 December 1764 his son Jacob bought the original 200‑acre tract for 600 pounds. On 22 August 1765 Nicholas King purchased another 200 acres, and on 19 November 1770 he acquired a house and lot on the east side of Beaver Street in the town of York from Andrew Rudisilly for 60 pounds.[geneamusings]

He married third, at the First Reformed (Trinity) Church in York, Pennsylvania Colony, 17 December 1771, SUSANNA VOGELE, who was born about 1705 in Germany and was living as late as 1776 in York County. She appears in records as Susanna or Susan Vogele and, after marriage, as Susanna King.[geneamusings]

On 9 March 1776, describing himself as “sick and weak in body, but of sound disposing mind,” Nicholas King made his will at York, signing by mark. In it he commended his soul to God, directed payment of his debts and funeral charges, provided that his wife Susanna should have a life residence in his dwelling house, a cash legacy of 20 pounds, and sufficient bedding, and devised the Beaver Street house and lot in York in fee to his daughter Anna Elizabeth Cronemiller. He ordered that his remaining personal estate be sold at public vendue and the proceeds divided equally among his four children: Godfrey, Anna Elizabeth Cronemiller, Philip Jacob King, and Barbara, wife of Adam Wilhelm of Lancaster County. He appointed his “loving daughter” Ann Elizabeth Cronemiller executrix.[geneamusings]

The will was proved 29 March 1776 in York County, after testimony by witnesses Henry Wolff and George Lewis Leffler that Nicholas King had executed the instrument as his last will while of sound mind. He died between 9 and 29 March 1776 at York, York County, Pennsylvania, but no burial place has been identified for him or any of his wives.[geneamusings]

Children of Johann Nicolaus¹ König by his first wife, Maria Ursula Bochinger, all born in the Palatinate:

  1. i. JOHANN GOTTFRIED² KÖNIG, b. before 24 Oct. 1728, Edenkoben, Rheinland‑Pfalz; m. about 1761, York Co., Pa., ANNA CHRISTINA ZIEGLER; d. 19 Oct. 1805, Manchester Twp., York Co., Pa.[geneamusings]

  2. ii. JOHANN PETER² KÖNIG, b. Dec. 1730, Edenkoben; d. 1793, Hatfield, Montgomery Co., Pa.[geneamusings]

Children of Johann Nicolaus¹ König by his second wife, Maria Margaretha Stuber, all born in the Palatinate:[geneamusings]

  1. iii. ANNA ELISABETHA² KÖNIG, b. before 6 Mar. 1737, Edenkoben; m. 20 June 1756, Lancaster, Lancaster Co., Pa., JOHANN MARTIN CRONEMILLER; living 1776 in Manchester Twp., York Co., Pa.; d. after 1776.[geneamusings]

  2. iv. PHILIP JACOB² KÖNIG, b. 15 Feb. 1738, Niederhorbach, Rheinland‑Pfalz; m. (1) 1 Apr. 1763, Lancaster, Lancaster Co., Pa., MARIA BARBARA WILHELM; m. (2) about 1779, York, York Co., Pa., MARIA CATHERINA ZIEGLER; d. before 25 Feb. 1792, Manchester Twp., York Co., Pa.[geneamusings]

  3. v. JOHAN WILHELM² KÖNIG, b. about 1745, Edenkoben; further life not traced.[geneamusings]

  4. vi. MARIA BARBARA² KÖNIG, b. before 11 Feb. 1750, Edenkoben; m. about 1770, probably in Pennsylvania, JOHANN ADAM WILHELM; living 1776.[geneamusings]

No children are known by the third wife, Susanna Vogele.[geneamusings]

Endnotes

  1. Richard Shue, The Kings of York County: Pioneers, Patriots and Papermakers (York, Penn.: the author, n.d.), Part I, p. 23, sketch of Johann Nicholas Konig.[geneamusings]

  2. Konig‑King research material (letters and family group sheets), 1973–1980; Historical Society of York County, Pennsylvania; Alfred Kuby letter, 23 June 1980, Johann Nicholas Konig birth and baptism record.[geneamusings]

  3. Konig‑King research material (letters and family group sheets), 1973–1980; Historical Society of York County, Pennsylvania; family group sheet, Johann Nicholas Konig and Maria Ursula Bochinger marriage record.[geneamusings]

  4. Konig‑King research material (letters and family group sheets), 1973–1980; Historical Society of York County, Pennsylvania; Karl Scherer letter, 29 March 1973, Johann Nicholas Konig and Margaretha Stuber marriage record.[geneamusings]

  5. Konig‑King research material, Alfred Kuby letter, 23 June 1980, birth and baptism of Johann Nicholas Konig, 18 May 1707, Leinenweber, Rheinland‑Pfalz.[geneamusings]

  6. Richard Shue, Kings of York County, Part I, p. 25, Nicholas King probate.[geneamusings]

  7. “Pennsylvania, Probate Records, 1683–1994,” digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org), York Co., “Will books, 1749–1882; General index to wills, 1749–1940,” Wills v. A–D 1749–1779, vol. C, pp. 342–44, will and probate of Nicholas King, 1776; also on FHL microfilm US/CAN 22,131.[geneamusings]

  8. “York County, Pennsylvania, 1745–1800: First Reformed (Trinity) Church,” indexed database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), marriage of Nicolaus Konig and Susan Vogele.[geneamusings]

  9. “Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669–2013,” digital images, Ancestry.com, PA – York > York > United Church of Christ > Trinity United Church of Christ, AD 1771, image 132 of 502, marriage of Nicholas Konig and Susanna Vogele.[geneamusings]

  10. “Deutschland Heiraten, 1558–1929,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org), entry for Nicklaus Koenig and Maria Ursula Bechingers, 20 Jan. 1728, Evangelisch, Kapellen‑Drusweiler, Pfalz, Bavaria; FHL microfilm 193,930.[geneamusings]

  11. Ibid., duplicate entry cited in compiled notes.[geneamusings]

  12. Konig‑King research material, family group sheet, Johann Nicholas Konig and Maria Ursula Bochinger marriage record.[geneamusings]

  13. “Deutschland Heiraten, 1558–1929,” FamilySearch, Nicklaus Koenig–Maria Ursula Bechingers marriage, 20 Jan. 1728.[geneamusings]

  14. Konig‑King research material, family group sheet, Johann Peter Konig baptism record, Dec. 1730, Edenkoben.[geneamusings]

  15. “Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558–1898,” indexed database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org), entry for Philipps Jacob Koenig, b. 15 Feb. 1738; citing FHL microfilm 193,822.[geneamusings]

  16. Konig‑King research material, Karl Scherer letter, 29 March 1973, Johann Nicholas Konig–Margaretha Stuber marriage, 19 June 1735, Edenkoben.[geneamusings]

  17. “Germany, Marriages, 1558–1929,” indexed database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org), entry for Nicolaus Koenig and Maria Margaretha Stuber.[geneamusings]

  18. Richard Shue, Kings of York County, Part I, p. 23, data on Maria Margaretha (Stuber) König.[geneamusings]

  19. “Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558–1898,” FamilySearch, entry for Maria Margaretha Stuber, bapt. 30 Nov. 1702, Herren‑Sulzbach.[geneamusings]

  20. “Germany, Marriages, 1558–1929,” FamilySearch, entry for Nicolaus Koenig and Maria Margaretha Stuber.[geneamusings]

  21. “Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558–1898,” FamilySearch, baptism of Maria Margaretha Stuber, Herren‑Sulzbach.[geneamusings]

  22. Ibid., same baptismal entry as note 21.[geneamusings]

  23. Richard Shue, Kings of York County, Part I, p. 23, death of Maria Margaretha (Stuber) König before 1771.[geneamusings]

  24. Richard Shue, Kings of York County, Part I, p. 23, use of married form Maria Margaretha Konig.[geneamusings]

  25. Richard Shue, Kings of York County, Part I, p. 23, third marriage of Johann Nicholas Konig to Susanna Vogele.[geneamusings]

  26. “York County, Pennsylvania, 1745–1800: First Reformed (Trinity) Church,” Ancestry.com, marriage of Nicolaus Konig and Susan Vogele, 17 Dec. 1771.[geneamusings]

  27. “Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1669–2013,” Ancestry.com, PA – York > York > United Church of Christ > Trinity United Church of Christ, AD 1771, image 132, marriage of Nicholas Konig and Susanna Vogele.[geneamusings]

  28. “York County, Pennsylvania, 1745–1800: First Reformed (Trinity) Church,” Ancestry.com, entry referring to Susan/Susanna Vogele.[geneamusings]

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

3)  That is a much more readable and engaging Register-style report than RootsMagic can produce in my humble opinion, perhaps because Perplexity can access Internet information for historical event and social history.  The Comet report summarized the events in the RootsMagic Narrative Report and my Research Notes and wove it into a concise Register-style report.  I asked Perplexity Comet to add more "context and social history" to the report and it added another 950 words to the overall report (not shown above).  

NOTE:  I have Sources for birth, marriage, death and other events of all of the children of this man, but the RootsMagic Narrative Report does not list them for some reason.  The above report would be more complete if  the RootsMagic Narrative Report without Person Notes was better formatted. 

4)  Other Options:
  • I could also use a Narrative Report created in Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree, or other genealogy software to do this Perplexity Comet task of creating a Register-style family  history report.  
  • Instead of a blog post, I could copy a Narrative Report into a Word processing document and save it as a PDF and ask Perplexity to do the task (not Comet which is the AI Browser Agent that works on a web page). 
  • I asked the AI Google Gemini's Browser Agent to do this same task with the same web page and the result was similar for the facts but it lacked all of the event context and social history in the top paragraphs above.
5)  Of course, the researcher needs to have the names, relationships, events, dates, places, notes and sources in their genealogy software program to produce a useful Register-style report.

I should have asked for Perplexity Comet to translate the sources into Evidence Explained quality sources -- what I have for sources for this person is 15 years old.

6)  I'm pretty sure that Perpexity Comet can also create a Modified Register Report (the NGSQ style) but haven't tried that yet.  

7)  What about a multi-generatinal Descendants or Ancestor Report?  I'm sure that the paid versions of the AI tools could do that but I'm doubt that the Free AI tools can do it.

8)  So the ANSWER to the ttle question is:  YES!!!  Cool.  Faster!  My problem is the RootsMagic Narrative Report source problem.    

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

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.


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