Added and Updated FamilySearch Record Collections - Week of 9 to 15 May 2026

Each week, I try to keep track of the number of Full-Text Search collections (indexed, searchable) and the Images collections (browsable but not searchable) -- see Sections 1) and 2) below. In addition, I list the genealogy historical record collections (often name-indexed) that are added, removed, and/or updated on FamilySearch and listed on the Historical Record Collection list  --  See Section 3.

1)  As of 15 May 2026, there are now 6,666 searchable and full-text transcribed image collections on FamilySearch Full-Text Search this week, an increase of 2 from last week. There are over   1.98 BILLION "results" in the collections.  It is not possible to see which collections are new.

 

 2)  As of 15 May 2026, there are now 24,686 browsable (some indexed, none transcribed) image collections on FamilySearch Images this week, a decrease of 26 from last week. There are over 6.023 BILLION images in these collections.  There are 2,101 collections from the United States, 6,917 from Europe and 219 from Canada.  It is not possible to see which collections are new.  

3)  As of 15 May 2026, there are 3,435 Historical Record Collections (many indexed, browsable) on FamilySearch (an increase of 2 from last week) on the Signed In screen.

The Deleted, Added and Updated Historical Record Collections this week include:

--- Collections Deleted ---

--- Collections Added ---

*  England and Wales, Census, 1921 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000564); 31,698,408 indexed records with 31,698,408 record images, ADDED 12-May-2026
*  Italy, Gorizia, Census, 1742-1895 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000449); 17,250 indexed records with 4,396 record images, ADDED 13-May-2026

--- Collections Updated ---

Alaska, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2684865); Browse 22,595 Images only, no index (was 22,410 records with 22,595 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Canada, Newfoundland, Census, 1921 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2226517); 194,365 indexed records with 8,415 record images (was 218,865 records with 8,415 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Find a Grave Index (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2221801); 266,995,561 indexed records with 1,088,742 record images (was 265,645,816 records with 190,493,176 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
France, Rhône, Military Registration Cards, 1865-1932 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3007175); 404,641 indexed records with 404,001 record images (was 404,564 records with 404,163 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Germany, Saxony, Leipzig, Miscellaneous City Records, 1701-1922 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2040001); Browse 91,076 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 91,076 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026

Illinois, Births and Christenings, 1824-1940 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1676968); 1,124,902 indexed records with 1,148,872 record images (was 1,070,559 records with 1,148,872 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Illinois, Chicago, Catholic Church Records, 1833-1925 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1452409); 302,566 indexed records with 295,723 record images (was 302,566 records with 295,723 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Illinois, Deaths and Burials, 1749-1999 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3541609); 568,478 indexed records with 178,463 record images (was 561,490 records with 177,615 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Illinois, Marriages, 1815-1935 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1680829); 998,463 indexed records with 1,003,760 record images (was 981,241 records with 1,003,760 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Iowa, Death Records, 1904-1951 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2531337); 2,227,961 indexed records with 475,273 record images (was 2,227,956 records with 475,273 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026

Iowa, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2796750); Index only (63 records), no images (was 602,723 records with 0 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Italy, Catania, Catania, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1929 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2043496); 747,768 indexed records with 434,962 record images (was 747,745 records with 434,962 images), UPDATED 11-May-2026
Italy, Enna, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1866-1944 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2068343); 2,585 indexed records with 836,855 record images (was 735 records with 836,855 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Louisiana, New Orleans Index to Passenger Lists, 1853-1952 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2443949); 439,667 indexed records with 435,421 record images (was 439,472 records with 435,372 images), UPDATED 11-May-2026
Mexico, Aguascalientes, Catholic Church Records, 1601-1962 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1502404); 950,575 indexed records with 618,532 record images (was 905,747 records with 618,532 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026

Mexico, Baja California and Baja California Sur, Catholic Church Records, 1750-1984 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1506640); 60,085 indexed records with 29,943 record images (was 60,085 records with 29,943 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Campeche, Catholic Church Records, 1638-2003 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1473200); 472,028 indexed records with 189,697 record images (was 469,525 records with 189,697 images), UPDATED 13-May-2026
Mexico, Coahuila, Catholic Church Records, 1627-1978 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1502401); 1,394,845 indexed records with 393,502 record images (was 1,369,363 records with 393,502 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Colima, Catholic Church Records, 1707-1969 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1508604); 360,894 indexed records with 228,566 record images (was 337,352 records with 228,566 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1514-1970 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1615259); 4,608,313 indexed records with 4,263,289 record images (was 4,171,214 records with 4,263,289 images), UPDATED 15-May-2026

Mexico, Michoacán, Catholic Church Records, 1555-1996 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1883388); 7,159,405 indexed records with 5,283,986 record images (was 5,481,345 records with 5,283,986 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Nuevo León, Catholic Church Records, 1544-1982 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1473204); 1,149,073 indexed records with 447,381 record images (was 1,123,394 records with 447,381 images), UPDATED 15-May-2026
Mexico, Sinaloa, Catholic Church Records, 1671-1968 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1473206); 906,141 indexed records with 521,512 record images (was 848,640 records with 521,512 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
Mexico, Sonora, Catholic Church Records, 1657-1994 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1473203); 626,560 indexed records with 383,518 record images (was 593,340 records with 383,518 images), UPDATED 15-May-2026
Netherlands, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1910 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1778468); Index only (1,572,754 records), no images (was 1,571,557 records with 0 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026

Netherlands, Deaths and Burials, 1668-1945 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1500717); Index only (211,659 records), no images (was 211,582 records with 0 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Netherlands, Gelderland, Church Records, 1405-1966 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2038506); Browse 388,400 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 388,400 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Netherlands, Marriages, 1565-1892 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1500716); Index only (458,519 records), no images (was 458,225 records with 0 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Netherlands, Noord-Brabant, Church Records, 1473-1965 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2037960); Browse 2,113,313 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 2,113,313 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Netherlands, Zuid-Holland, Church Records, 1367-1916 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2037907); Browse 730,286 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 730,286 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026

New York, County Naturalization Records, 1791-1980 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1999177); 3,332,563 indexed records with 3,080,948 record images (was 3,238,427 records with 3,080,948 images), UPDATED 11-May-2026
Oregon, Multnomah County, Voting Registration Records, 1908-1958 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2759505); 983,145 indexed records with 982,511 record images (was 982,984 records with 982,475 images), UPDATED 12-May-2026
Rhode Island, Vital records, 1846-1898, 1901-1955 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1935767); 981,335 indexed records with 32,524 record images (was 750,518 records with 32,524 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
South Africa, Transvaal, Civil Death, 1869-1954 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2998108); 961,705 indexed records with 1,081,775 record images (was 960,655 records with 1,081,693 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026
Spain, Gerona, Municipal Records, 1566-1960 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2015355); 1,328,675 indexed records with 390,067 record images (was 1,417,226 records with 390,067 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026

Spain, La Coruña, Municipal Records, 1648-1951 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2015359); 897,082 indexed records with 258,646 record images (was 897,079 records with 258,646 images), UPDATED 09-May-2026
United States, Census, 1940 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2000219); 134,774,667 indexed records with 3,841,151 record images (was 134,774,669 records with 3,841,151 images), UPDATED 14-May-2026
United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1339071); Browse 11,979,092 Images only, no index (was 0 records with 11,979,092 images), UPDATED 13-May-2026
United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1861144); 12,217,993 indexed records with 19,317,962 record images (was 12,074,279 records with 19,317,962 images), UPDATED 13-May-2026
Wales, Marriage Bonds, 1650-1900 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2761121); Index only (199,560 records), no images (was 199,526 records with 0 images), UPDATED 08-May-2026

--- Collections with new images ---

Argentina, Buenos Aires, Civil Registration, 1861-2018 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000041); 1 indexed records with 111,708 record images (was 1 records with 111,707 images), last updated 07-Jun-2024
Brazil, Alagoas, Civil Registration, 1876-2023 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4469403); 1 indexed records with 454,205 record images (was 1 records with 454,200 images), last updated 07-Jun-2024
Brazil, Maranhão, Civil Registration, 1827-2022 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4469402); 1 indexed records with 906,167 record images (was 1 records with 906,160 images), last updated 07-Jun-2024
United States, Census, 1950 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4464515); 157,892,854 indexed records with 52,743,735 record images (was 157,892,854 records with 52,743,050 images), last updated 16-Jun-2024
United States, Obituary Records, 2014-2023 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000145); 1 indexed records with 28,204,728 record images (was 1 records with 28,204,723 images), last updated 22-Jul-2024

--- Collections with images removed ---

Australia, Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1770729); 457,578 indexed records with 525,179 record images (was 457,578 records with 525,969 images), last updated 28-May-2025
Australia, Deaths and Burials, 1816-1980 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1770857); 103,977 indexed records with 108,839 record images (was 103,977 records with 108,863 images), last updated 19-Mar-2025
Australia, Marriages, 1810-1980 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1770858); 140,493 indexed records with 149,669 record images (was 140,493 records with 149,836 images), last updated 28-May-2025
England, Somerset, Church Records, 1501-1999 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4380193); 4,285,771 indexed records with 4,777,050 record images (was 4,285,771 records with 4,777,053 images), last updated 04-Jan-2026
Italy, Deaths and Burials, 1806-1910 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1708705); 76,671 indexed records with 428,736 record images (was 76,671 records with 428,888 images), last updated 28-Mar-2026

United Kingdom, British Armed Forces and Overseas Vital Records, 1761-2005 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4324570); 2,878,200 indexed records with 2,861,334 record images (was 2,878,200 records with 2,868,205 images), last updated 22-Sep-2021
West Virginia, Deaths, 1804-1999 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1417434); 2,214,804 indexed records with 2,378,802 record images (was 2,214,804 records with 2,378,894 images), last updated 07-Apr-2026
West Virginia, Marriages, 1780-1970 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408729); 1,470,588 indexed records with 35,261 record images (was 1,470,588 records with 35,456 images), last updated 07-Apr-2026

--- Collections with new records ---

--- Collections with records removed ---

Texas, Birth Index, 1903-1997 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1949342); Index only (17,102,110 records), no images (was 17,102,111 records with 0 images), last updated 17-Feb-2012
United States, Public Records, 1970-2009 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2199956); Index only (875,600,617 records), no images (was 875,600,626 records with 0 images), last updated 23-Dec-2025
United States, Residence Database, 1970-2024 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000290); Index only (413,858,332 records), no images (was 413,858,373 records with 0 images), last updated 22-Jun-2024

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

My friend and SDGS colleague, Marshall, has come up with a way to determine which collections are ADDED, DELETED or UPDATED, and to alphabetize the entries in each category. Thanks to Marshall for helping me out here!

Marshall notes that there are:

• 3,435 Historical Record Collection entries
• 0 removed entries
• 2  added entries 
• 40 updated entries
• 13 entries with more or fewer images 
• 3 entries with more or fewer records

Marshsll's list shows 5Historical Record Collections this week, an increase of 2 collections. The image above shows 3,435 collections, so the Image number is in sync with Marshall's list number.

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

See previous FamilySearch-related blog posts in        https://www.geneamusings.com/search/label/FamilySearch

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.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not be posted immediately.

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Added and Updated Ancestry.com Record Collections - Week of 9 to 15 May 2026

   The following genealogy record collections were added to the Ancestry.com Card Catalog page by "Date Updated" during the period from 9 to 15 May 2026.

The ADDED and Updated collections include:

• Texas, U.S., Divorce Index, 1968-2017; 8,097,581 indexed records wthout record images, Updated 5/15/2026. This database is an index to approximately 2.9 million divorces that were filed in State of Texas, USA, from 1968-2017.
• Utah, U.S., Cemetery Inventory, 1847-2021; 1,610,986 indexed records wthout record images, Updated 5/15/2026. This collection contains an index of information taken from cemetery records produced in Utah between 1847 and 2021. The collection doesn’t have images of the original records.
• Edinburgh, Scotland, Poor Law Records, 1817-1852; 38,959 indexed records with record images, ADDED 5/14/2026. This collection contains records from government poorhouses in Edinburgh, Scotland, dated between 1817 and 1852.
• Fulton County, Georgia, U.S., Absentee Military Voters, 1944-1962; 17,562 indexed records with record images, ADDED 5/12/2026. This collection contains registers of absentee voters from Fulton County, Georgia, dated between 1945 and 1962. Most of the records are for military personnel serving overseas.
• Malta Heraldry, 1500-2000; 11,029 indexed records with record images, ADDED 5/12/2026. This collection contains heraldry records from Malta dated between 1500 and 2000.
• Cheshire, England, Wills and Probate, 1530-1858; 803,874 indexed records with record images, ADDED 5/12/2026.  This collection contains wills and probate records from Cheshire, England, dated between 1530 and 1858.

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

The complete Ancestry.com Card Catalog is at https://search.ancestry.com/search/CardCatalog.aspx.

By my count, there are 4 NEW record collections ADDED this past week, per the list above. There are now 33,934 collections available as of 15 May, an INCREASE of  3 from last week.

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

Disclosure: I pay for an All-Access subscription from Ancestry.com. In past years, Ancestry.com provided a complimentary All Access subscription, an autosomal DNA test, material considerations for travel expenses to meetings, and hosted events and meals that I attended in Salt Lake City.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/added-and-updated-ancestrycom-record_012844935.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 it on Facebook, X, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Please note that all Comments are moderated so they may not appear immediately.

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Ask AI: "Describe the Courtship of Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle in Lancashire in the Late 1830s" (Parts 1 and 2)

 I wondered if my AI Assistant Anthropic Claude could provide me with information about the courtship of my wife's 2nd great-grandparents, Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle in Lancashire in the late 1830s. The biography of Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle is in ABC Biography of Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle of Lancashire, New South Wales and California (1818-1861).

(AI NotebookLM Infographic -- Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle Courtship and Marriage in  Lancashire)

I asked Claude to create a description of Alexander and Rachel (Morley) Whittle's courtship and early marriage years in the 1830s, based on the biography and social history.

The Claude Sonnet 4.6 response was:

The Sawyer and the Millgirl

A Story of Bolton-le-Moors, 1838–1840

Part One: The Timber Yard — Spring, 1838

The sawdust was in everything. It settled in Alexander Whittle’s hair and his eyebrows and the creases of his knuckles, and at the end of a day in the yard he could taste it on the back of his throat, dry and faintly sweet, like the memory of a forest. He didn’t mind. He was twenty years old and strong, and the rhythm of the long saw — the push and the pull, the grain splitting clean — was as natural to him as breathing.

Bolton-le-Moors was a cotton town, and like all cotton towns in those years it ran on noise. The clatter of the looms came through the walls of the mills on Deansgate and spread out across the valley like weather. But the timber yard on the edge of town — where Alexander had worked since he was fourteen, first as a boy running errands for the older men, and now as a journeyman sawyer — had its own quieter music: the creak of stacked planks settling, the rasp of a draw-knife, the whisper of a plane along a board.

He was the second-youngest of twelve children, a fact that had taught him early to make himself useful and to take up no more space than he was given. His father, old Alexander, was a gardener in Chorley who smelled of earth and wet leaves and spoke mostly in nods. His mother, Margaret, had kept the household running with a kind of furious competence that left no room for idleness. When the chance came at fourteen for the younger Alexander to apprentice to a sawyer in Bolton, she’d packed his bundle herself.

He lodged on King Street, in a room above a chandler’s shop, and ate his suppers at a boarding house two streets over. It was a small life, but it was his own, and on Saturday evenings, when the yard was shut and his wages were in his pocket, he felt the pleasant lightness of a young man with the whole week ahead of him.

He first saw Rachel Morley on a Saturday in late April.

The market on Churchgate was still busy in the late afternoon, the stalls heaped with turnips and bolts of cloth and secondhand boots. Alexander had come for nothing in particular — perhaps a pie from the woman who sold them near the corn exchange, perhaps just to walk. He nearly collided with her at the corner by the draper’s stall.

She was carrying a bundle of finished cloth — piecework, he would later learn, taken in by the week from one of the mills — and it was large enough that she couldn’t see over it, which was why she walked straight into him.

The cloth went one way. Alexander caught it before it hit the mud.

“Careful,” he said, and then felt immediately foolish, since she was the one who’d been walking blind.

She looked up at him with dark eyes that held no particular gratitude. “I’d have managed,” she said.

He handed back the bundle. “I don’t doubt it.”

She regarded him a moment — taking his measure, he thought, in the way that women did when they weren’t sure whether to be polite or not. Then something shifted in her expression, not quite a smile but the possibility of one.

“You’re at the timber yard,” she said. “I’ve seen you going past on Deansgate of a morning.”

“That’s me.” He felt colour rise in his neck. “Alexander Whittle.”

“Rachel Morley,” she said, and hitched the bundle back under her arm. “Good afternoon, then.”

And she walked on.

He stood on the corner for a moment, watching her go. The market noise went on around him. He thought: I’ll see her again. He didn’t know if it was a prediction or a plan.

It turned out to be both.

He found out from the woman at the pie stall — who knew everyone and everything within a quarter-mile — that Rachel Morley lived on Lum Street with her twin sister Leah, that they were both illegitimate, that their mother Jane had died four years ago of drink and poverty, and that the two girls had been keeping themselves ever since by taking in piecework and doing whatever else needed doing.

“Hard girls,” the pie woman said, with a kind of admiring disapproval. “Not ones to take charity.”

He ate his pie and thought about this.

He began to find reasons to walk past the end of Lum Street on a Thursday evening, which was when, he had established, Rachel returned the finished cloth and collected new work from the mill agent’s office on the corner. He told himself this was happenstance. He was not, he told himself, a man who loitered.

The third Thursday, she was waiting for him.

Not precisely waiting — she was standing outside the mill agent’s office with her bundle, but her eyes were already on the end of the street when he came around the corner, and she didn’t look surprised.

“I thought you might be coming this way,” she said.

“I often do,” he said, which was almost true now.

They walked together as far as the top of Churchgate. He carried the bundle. She let him, which he understood was its own kind of statement. She didn’t talk much, but when she did talk she was direct, without ornament, in the way of someone who had learned not to waste words because no one was likely to listen anyway. He liked that. He found himself talking more than he usually did, filling the spaces she left, telling her about the yard and the different woods and what each one smelled like when the saw bit through it — pine like a cold morning, oak like something ancient and dark, chestnut almost like bread.

She listened with her head slightly tilted, as if she were deciding whether this was worth her time.

“You love it,” she said at last. “The work.”

“I do,” he said. He hadn’t quite known it until she said it.

She nodded, as if this confirmed something. “That’s something, at least,” she said. “A lot of men don’t love anything.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that. They had reached the top of Churchgate. She took back the bundle.

“Same time next week, then,” she said, and walked on before he could answer.

Part Two: Lum Street — June, 1838

By June they were walking together every Thursday, and on Saturday evenings when the market was on, and sometimes on a Sunday afternoon when the weather permitted and they went out along the river path that ran east from town into quiet country. The summer evenings were longer and the town was easier to move through in the warm months. They walked out further along the river, or up onto the moor above the town, where the wind came off the hills and you could see all of Lancashire laid out below like a map: the mills, the chapels, the thin grey lines of roads, and somewhere to the west, Chorley, where Alexander’s family still were, and further west, the coast, and beyond that, nothing they could see.

He met Leah, who was Rachel’s double in face and quite her opposite in temperament — loud, teasing, quick to laugh — and who looked him up and down the first time they met and said: “You’re bigger than I expected.”

“Leah,” Rachel said, in a flat voice that meant: stop.

“I’m paying him a compliment,” Leah said, entirely unabashed.

The room on Lum Street was small and cool and very clean. The two sisters had a habit of neatness that Alexander found touching — everything in its place, the cloth stacked in order of weight, a small bunch of dried rosemary hanging by the window not because it did anything useful but because it smelled like something other than damp wool. Their mother had taught them this, Rachel told him. Jane Morley had been many things, not all of them good, but she had kept a clean house.

“Did she?” Alexander said. He was sitting on the stool by the fire, which was Rachel’s stool, a fact he had not yet noticed.

“Until the end,” Rachel said. She said it simply, without self-pity, the way you state a fact about the weather. “After that, Leah and I managed.”

He tried to imagine it: two girls of fifteen, sixteen, keeping a room clean and finding enough work and not asking anyone for anything. He thought of his own home in Chorley, his mother’s voice filling every corner, his brothers arguing over the dinner table, his father’s quiet presence like ballast. He had always had too many people. Rachel had always had too few.

“You’ll not have to manage on your own forever,” he said. He hadn’t meant it as a proposal. He wasn’t sure, afterwards, what he had meant it as. But Rachel went very still, and looked at him with those dark eyes, and said nothing at all, which in his experience of her meant she was thinking seriously about something.

He walked home to King Street that night and he knew with the particular certainty of the young that something had been decided, even if neither of them had said it in so many words.

On Lum Street, Leak told Rachel “He’s steady,” as if this were the most important thing in the world. “You want steady. We had enough of the other kind growing up.” Rachel did not argue with this.

He and Rachel did not speak of love directly. It was not much the habit of people in their world, where feeling was something you showed by what you did rather than what you said. But he carried her bundle on Thursdays, and she mended a tear in his coat without being asked, and on cool evenings when they sat by the fire on Lum Street, Leah would find reasons to be elsewhere in the room, and in that space between the fire and the window, Alexander and Rachel were quietly, thoroughly, in the same world together.

By August of 1838 they were meeting whenever they could arrange it, which was not always easy in a town where everyone knew their neighbours’ business. Leah was their ally and their cover story and their most enthusiastic audience. She had opinions about everything, including Alexander, which she offered freely.

In early September he kissed her for the first time. They were on the river path, and it was dusk, and she had been telling him something about a woman on her street who kept a goat, and he had simply done it, because she was there and the evening was pale gold over the fields and he couldn’t think of any good reason not to. She looked at him afterwards with an expression he couldn’t quite read, and then she said: “About time.”

He laughed. She smiled then, the real smile, the one she didn’t give to just anyone.

“Have you ever wanted to go somewhere else?” Rachel asked him one evening, sitting on the moor wall with the light still pink in the west.

He considered the question. “Sometimes. My brother Stephen talks about it. About going abroad.”

“Where?”

“Australia. America. He reads the newspapers.” Alexander smiled. “I tell him to get on with it if he wants to go.”

Rachel looked at the horizon. “I’ve never been further than Blackburn,” she said. “When we were eleven, Mother was taken up — a removal order, they called it. They came and put us on a cart and took us to Blackburn as if we were parcels. I didn’t like it.”

“Being moved without choosing?”

“Any of it.” She looked at him. “If I ever went anywhere, I’d go because I chose to.”

He held that thought, turning it over. The wind moved across the moor. In the valley below, the mill chimneys put up their thin lines of smoke into the evening sky.

....  to be continued!

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

The AI Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this story is in:  

This is historical fiction based on known events in the lives of my wife's ancestors -- it might have been this way. The persons mentioned are my wife's 2nd great-grandparents, and I have significant information about her life from the available records, but I know nothing about her day-to-day life.

As always, I am amazed at what life was like in any place over 180 years ago. This description of the family life in Lancashire is interesting and so different from our current daily activities.

After I read these types of social history summaries, I wish that I could be a time traveler for one day to visit this Whittle family in 1840 England and witness their daily lives.  I'm glad that the general lifestyles and occupations are known from historical records and witness accounts.

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

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/2026/05/ask-ai-describe-courtship-of-alexander.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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Findmypast Friday: Explore Irish Stories In Vivid Detail

 I received this information from Findmypast today:

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

Discover Derry with these new additions.

This Findmypast Friday, we've bolstered our record collection with over 14,000 brand new Irish records spanning 359 years.

We've also added six titles to our newspaper archive, with more stories than ever for you to discover.

Ireland, Londonderry (Derry) & Armagh, Absent Voters Lists 1918

This brand-new set comprises 7,891 records from the Northern Irish cities of Derry and Armagh.

Ireland, Londonderry (Derry), Freemen Records 1604-1963

These 6,865 new records tell the story of apprentices who went on to earn the privilege of becoming freemen between the 17th and 20th centuries. You'll find a wide range of trades included, from blacksmiths and tailors to butchers and merchants

New pages from Monmouthshire to Maldon

We added six new publications to our newspaper archive this week, and updated 31 existing titles - there are 302,967 new pages for you to explore.

New titles:

• Huddersfield Boro’ Advertiser, 1913-1917, 1922-1942
• Maldon Express, 1873, 1877, 1880, 1889, 1893, 1932
• Musical Transcript, 1853-1854
• Nursing Times, 1905-1919
• The Crescent, 1896-1908
• Voice of the People, 1848, 1848

Updated titles:

• Ampthill & District News, 1912, 1914–1941, 1943–1946, 1966
• Belfast Mercantile Register and Weekly Advertiser, 1871–1887, 1889–1893
• Brighton Standard and Fashionable Visitors’ List, 1877, 1883–1884, 1890, 1894, 1950
• Broughty Ferry Guide and Advertiser, 1994–2005
• Cambridge Daily News, 2000–2002, 2004
• Carmarthen Journal, 2001
• Coventry Evening Telegraph, 2005
• Coventry Herald, 1885
• Crawley News, 2003–2005
• Dublin Journal, 1782–1784, 1792–1793, 1796, 1798–1799, 1804–1816, 1820–1821, 1823–1824
• Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1990, 1996, 1999–2002, 2004–2005
• Field, 1912–1920
• Gravesend Reporter, 1910–1919
• Grays & Tilbury Gazette, 1897, 1912
• Guernsey Star, 1878
• Hereford Times, 1912, 1918
• Inverness Courier, 1939–1941
• Kentish Gazette, 1883
• Kentish Mercury, 1911–1919
• Loughton and District Advertiser, 1891
• Monmouthshire Beacon, 1912–1919
• Newcastle Courant, 1876, 1880, 1894
• Reading Evening Post, 2001–2002
• Richmond and Twickenham Times, 1880–1893
• Sporting Life, 1916–1919
• Stamford Mercury, 1912–1915, 1917–1919, 1922, 1926, 1928–1929, 1931–1936, 1938–1945
• The Queen, 1875–1885
• Thetford & Watton Times, 1917–1919
• Tower Hamlets Independent and East End Local Advertiser, 1913–1919
• Waltham Abbey and Cheshunt Weekly Telegraph, 1879, 1885
• Yorkshire Gazette, 1913

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See all of my posts about Findmypast at   https://www.geneamusings.com/search/label/FindMyPast

Disclosure: I have a complimentary subscription to Findmypast, and have accepted meals and services from Findmypast, as a Findmypast Ambassador. This has not affected my objectivity relative to Findmypast and its products.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/05/findmypast-friday-explore-irish-stories.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, Instagram, Threads 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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Added and Updated MyHeritage Record Collections - Week of 8 to 14 May 2026

 The following Record Collections were ADDED or Updated in the MyHeritage Collections Catalog during the week of  8 to 14 May 2026:

• MyHeritage Family Sites (Family Trees), Updated May 13 2026, 99,680,964 entries
• MyHeritage members (Family Trees), Updated May 13 2026, 77,406,184 entries
• MyHeritage photos & docs (Images), Updated May 13 2026, 478,844,000 entries
• Search Connect™ - Searches by MyHeritage Members (Family Trees), Updated May 13 2026, 577,316,181 entries
• FamilySearch Family Tree (Family Trees), Updated May 13 2026, 1,234,095,471    entries
• Filae Family Trees (Family Trees), Updated May 13 2026, 319,493,600 entries
• MyHeritage Family Trees (Family Trees), Updated May 13 2026, 6,896,484,674 entries 
• Geni World Family Tree (Family Trees), Updated May 13 2026, 373,673,252 entries.
• United States, Incoming Passenger Lists from Canada, 1895-1957 (Passenger Lists), ADDED May 12 2026, 5,237,130 records

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

There are 1 ADDED record collections in the list this past week, and MyHeritage now has a total of  7,550 record collections (an increase of 1 collections from last week (the image above shows only 1,684 - that must be an error!!).  The overall set of MyHeritage collections has 39,705,920,466 records or entries (a decrease of about 100 million  entries from last week).  

The number of entries in the family tree collections were last updated this week. 

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/2026/05/added-and-updated-myheritage-record_0479390147.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.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.

Ask AI: "Describe Life In the Daniel Spangler Family in 1835 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania"

 I wondered if my AI Assistant Anthropic Claude could provide me with information about an ancestral family's life in 1835 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.  My 3rd great-grandfather Daniel spangler (1781-1851) was age 54, and had a farm in Sandy Creek Township in Mercer County.  I posted an ABC Biography for Daniel Spangler in ABC Biography of #50 Daniel Spangler (1781-1851) of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

(AI NotebookLM Infographic -- Daniel Spangler's Life in 1835 in Pennsylvania)

I asked Anthropic Claude to create a description of Daniel Spangler's family life and work in Mercer County, Pennsylvania in 1835, based on the biography and social history.

The Claude Sonnet 4.6 response was:

The Daniel Spangler Family in 1835: A Year in Sandy Creek Township

The Household

By 1835, Daniel and Elizabeth Spangler had been farming their 200-acre tract in Sandy Creek township, Mercer County, Pennsylvania for six years. At 54 years old, Daniel was in his prime as a farmer and community member, while Elizabeth, at 39, managed a bustling household that reflected both the blessings and challenges of frontier farm life.

The household that year was crowded and lively. Their seven surviving children (all girls) ranged from seventeen-year-old Anna Maria down to three daughters still in infancy or early childhood. Anna Maria, now seventeen, was being courted by Joseph Carringer, a young man from the neighboring family. Elizabeth, age thirteen, was old enough to be a substantial help to her mother with household duties. Sarah Elizabeth, eleven, was energetic and bright, already showing signs of the strong woman she would become. Dorothea Matilda, only seven, was still learning her letters and helping with lighter chores. And the three youngest—Helen, four; Rebecca, three; and baby Louisa, not yet born—kept the household in constant motion.

Daily Work and Farm Operations

Daniel's day began before dawn, regardless of the season. The 200-acre farm required constant attention—there were fields to plow, plant, and harvest; livestock to tend; fences to mend; and endless repairs to buildings and equipment. In 1835, most of his land would have been devoted to mixed agriculture typical of western Pennsylvania: wheat, corn, oats, and hay for animal feed, along with kitchen gardens that Elizabeth and the girls maintained for vegetables and herbs.

The farm's livestock were essential to both subsistence and income. Dairy cows provided milk, butter, and cheese—products Elizabeth and her daughters processed daily. Pigs were butchered in the fall, their meat preserved through smoking and salting to last through the winter. Chickens supplied eggs and occasional Sunday dinners. Oxen or horses provided the muscle for plowing and hauling. Sheep might have provided wool that Elizabeth and the girls would card, spin, and weave into cloth during the long winter evenings.

Daniel worked alongside hired help during busy seasons—harvest time especially required extra hands. The Carringer families, living nearby, likely participated in work exchanges where neighbors helped each other during critical periods like threshing or barn-raising. This reciprocal labor was the backbone of frontier agricultural success.

Women's Work

Elizabeth's work was no less demanding than Daniel's, though it centered on the house and immediate surroundings. Her day began even earlier than her husband's—fires to start, breakfast to prepare, bread to bake, meals to cook, children to dress and organize. In 1835, with Anna Maria seventeen and Elizabeth thirteen, she had capable helpers, but the younger children still required constant supervision.

The household tasks followed seasonal rhythms. Spring meant soap-making from winter's accumulated fat and lye, a smelly but essential task. Summer brought endless cycles of preserving—vegetables pickled and stored in the root cellar, fruits made into jams and preserves, herbs dried for winter use. Fall was butchering time, when every part of the pig had to be processed and preserved. Winter brought the indoor work of spinning, weaving, sewing, and mending—making and repairing the family's clothing and household linens.

Anna Maria, at seventeen, was learning everything her mother knew about running a substantial household. She could bake bread, preserve food, tend the sick, manage poultry, make butter and cheese, sew and mend clothing, and probably had already started accumulating items for her future marriage to Joseph Carringer. Young Elizabeth, though only thirteen, was learning these same skills, watching both her mother and older sister for the day when she would marry and have a family.

Education

Education in Sandy Creek township in 1835 was intermittent and basic. The township likely had a one-room schoolhouse where children attended when farm work permitted—more regularly in winter when agricultural demands were lighter. The 1850 census showed that the younger Spangler daughters attended school, suggesting the family valued education despite its practical limitations.

Daniel and Elizabeth, both literate in English and German, likely supplemented their children's formal schooling at home. Bible reading was part of daily life, providing both spiritual instruction and reading practice. The girls would have been taught basic arithmetic necessary for household management—measuring ingredients, calculating fabric needed for sewing, keeping accounts of dairy and egg production.

Anna Maria and Elizabeth probably had more limited formal education than their younger sisters would receive, as they had been born in Virginia before the family's 1829 settlement in Pennsylvania. But they learned practical mathematics through helping their mother with household accounts, read the family Bible and perhaps a few other precious books, and wrote letters to family members who had moved away.

Boys and girls received different practical educations. While all learned reading, writing, and basic arithmetic, the girls focused on domestic arts—cooking, preserving, sewing, spinning, weaving, knitting, basic medical care, and household management. These skills were not considered less important than academic learning; they were essential survival skills that would determine a family's comfort and prosperity.

Social Life and Community

The Spangler family's social life centered on several interconnected circles: the church, the neighborhood, and the wider German-American community. As members of the Reformed Church tradition, Sundays meant church attendance where they would worship, catch up on news, and strengthen community bonds. Church was also where courtships developed under the watchful eyes of parents—Anna Maria and Joseph Carringer likely sat where they could exchange meaningful glances during services.

The proximity of the Carringer families—Henry and Martin Carringer were enumerated near the Spanglers in the 1830 census—meant frequent interactions. Women would visit each other, bringing their sewing or mending to work on together while they talked. Children played together, creating bonds that would last lifetimes. Men would gather to discuss crops, livestock, politics, and make deals for labor exchanges or equipment sharing.

Work bees brought the community together for both labor and socializing. Quilting bees allowed women to create essential bedding while gossiping and sharing news. Barn-raisings brought entire neighborhoods together to accomplish in a day what one family could not do in weeks. Corn-husking bees turned tedious work into competitive fun. These gatherings always ended with substantial meals and often with music and dancing.

The German-American identity remained strong in 1835. Though most community business was conducted in English, German was still spoken at home and in informal gatherings. German foods graced the table—*sauerbraten*, *lebkuchen*, *strudel*, and other recipes Elizabeth had learned from her mother and mother-in-law. German hymns were sung at church and around the family hearth.

Entertainment and Leisure

Entertainment in 1835 was largely home-made and community-based. The Spangler family's leisure time, limited as it was by the demands of farm life, centered on simple pleasures. Music was important—someone in the family likely played a simple instrument like a fiddle or a harmonica. Singing was free and required no equipment; German folk songs and hymns were passed down through generations.

Storytelling was a primary evening entertainment. Daniel would tell his children about growing up in York, about their grandfather Rudolf, about the family's journey from Germany several generations earlier. The older girls might read aloud from one of the family's few precious books—probably the Bible, a hymnal, and perhaps an almanac that provided both practical information and entertainment.

Seasonal celebrations marked the year. Christmas retained German traditions—possibly a small tree decorated simply, special cookies and breads, perhaps simple gifts of practical items like new mittens or a pocketknife. Easter brought egg decorating and special foods. The Fourth of July was celebrated with community gatherings, demonstrating the family's American patriotism alongside their German heritage.

Visiting was a major form of entertainment. When work permitted, families would spend an afternoon or evening at a neighbor's house, bringing their children along. The adults would talk while the children played, and everyone would share a simple meal. These visits strengthened community bonds and broke the isolation of frontier farm life. In these Mercer County communities, farms were often a quarter-mile or more apart.

Weddings were major social events. With Anna Maria likely engaged to Joseph Carringer by 1835, the family would have been anticipating a wedding celebration that would bring together their entire community. Such events lasted all day, with religious ceremony, feasting, music, and dancing—one of the few times when the community truly set work aside for pure celebration.

Courtship and Marriage Plans

The year 1835 was significant for the Spangler family because it marked Anna Maria's courtship with Joseph Carringer. At seventeen, she was of prime marriageable age by frontier standards. The courtship would have followed proper conventions—Joseph calling at the Spangler home under Elizabeth's supervision, walking with Anna Maria to church or community events with younger siblings as chaperones, perhaps sitting together at community gatherings.

Daniel and Elizabeth would have carefully evaluated Joseph as a potential son-in-law. The Carringer family's reputation, their work ethic, their religious commitment, and Joseph's prospects for supporting a family would all factor into their approval or disapproval. The fact that multiple Spangler daughters eventually married Carringer men suggests that Daniel and Elizabeth held the family in high regard and actively encouraged these matches.

The preparation for Anna Maria's eventual marriage would have been ongoing. She and her mother would be accumulating household items—linens, quilts, cookware, preserved foods—that would help her start her new household. Elizabeth would be teaching her daughter the final skills she needed to be a successful farm wife: how to manage a household budget, how to care for a sick child, how to handle the delicate social politics of a small community.

Challenges and Realities

Life in 1835 was not without its hardships. The Spangler family had already lost two infant children, and the constant threat of childhood illness hung over every parent. Medical care was primitive and often ineffective. Women faced the dangers of childbirth with each pregnancy—Elizabeth had already borne eight children by 1835 and would have two more before she was done.

Economic uncertainty was constant. Crop failures, livestock disease, market fluctuations, and weather disasters could devastate a family's finances in a single season. The probate records from Daniel's death in 1851 show that even after decades of work, the estate had barely enough to cover debts and provide for the minor children.

Yet the Spangler family was building something substantial. The 200 acres represented security and opportunity. The growing relationships with the Carringer family represented community integration and support networks. The children's education, however basic, represented investment in the next generation. The preservation of German traditions alongside American adaptation represented a healthy cultural identity.

A Typical Day in 1835

A summer day in 1835 might have unfolded like this: Daniel and the hired man rose before dawn to milk the cows and feed the livestock. Elizabeth and Anna Maria started the kitchen fire and began preparing breakfast—mush or porridge, bread, perhaps eggs and preserved meat. The family gathered for a quick breakfast and morning prayer before dispersing to their tasks.

Daniel and the hired man headed to the fields for a long day of cultivating corn or cutting hay. Elizabeth put the younger girls to work weeding the kitchen garden while she and Anna Maria tackled the laundry—a full day's work involving heating water, scrubbing clothes on a washboard, wringing them out, and hanging them to dry. Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth watched the younger children and prepared the midday meal.

Dinner (the midday meal) brought everyone together briefly for substantial food—bread, cheese, vegetables from the garden, perhaps salt pork. Then back to work—Daniel to the fields, Elizabeth and the girls to afternoon tasks like churning butter, mending clothes, or preparing supper.

Evening brought the family together again for supper, evening chores (milking, feeding animals, collecting eggs), and a brief period of leisure—perhaps Daniel read from the Bible while Elizabeth mended by candlelight and the girls practiced their letters or worked on needlework. By dark, everyone was exhausted and ready for bed, knowing tomorrow would bring the same round of essential tasks.

This was the rhythm of life in Sandy Creek township in 1835—hard work, simple pleasures, strong community bonds, and the constant hope that the next generation would have better opportunities than the last. The Spangler family was successfully navigating the transition from German immigrants to American farmers, building a legacy that would spread across the continent in the decades to come.

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

The AI Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this story is in:  

This is historical fiction based on known events in the lives of my ancestors -- it might have been this way. Daniel and Elizabeth (Konig) Spangler are my 3rd great-grandparents, and I have significant information about this family from the available records, but I know nothing about their day-to-day lives.

As always, I am amazed at what life was like in any place over 190 years ago. This description of Daniels family life in Pennsylvania is interesting and so different from our current daily activities.

After I read these types of social history summaries, I wish that I could be a time traveler for one day to visit this Spangler family in 1835 Pennsylvania and witness their daily lives.  I'm glad that the general lifestyles and occupations are known from historical records and witness accounts.

==============================================\

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/2026/05/life-in-daniel-spangler-family-in-1835.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.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.