Ask AI: "What Can You Tell Me About the Life and Family of Gregory Stone (1592-1672)?"

 I saw an advertisement for Perplexity.ai on television today and it said "Ask me anything" --  so on a whim I came into the genealogy cave, opened Perplexity and asked it "What Can You Tell Me About the Life and Family of Gregory Stone (1592-1672)?"  

Why did I ask that question?  Because recently I found out that Gregory Stone (1592-1672) is an ancestor of mine, and I wondered what I could find out using Perplexity instead of Google or Ancestry.com, or FamilySearch.org, or an authored work.  Would it be faster, more complete, or better written than the other sites or references?  Here is the top of my Perplexity screen:

Here is Perplexity's answer:

Based on the search results, here are the key details about Gregory Stone (1592-1672) and his family:

1. Birth and Early Life:

• Gregory Stone was born in 1592 in Great Bromley, Essex, England.
• He was christened on April 19, 1592 at St. George's Church in Great Bromley.
• His parents were David Stone (father) and Ursula (mother).

2. Family and Immigration:

• Gregory had a brother named Simon Stone (born 1585).
• In 1635, Gregory immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony in America.
• He traveled with his second wife, Lydia, and 8 children: John, Daniel, David (3 children from his first marriage), Elizabeth, Samuel, and Sarah Stone (3 years old). Lydia's children from her first marriage, John and Lydia Cooper, also accompanied them.

3. Life in America:

• Initially settled in Watertown, Massachusetts.
• In 1637, moved to neighboring Cambridge (now part of Greater Boston).
• Built a two-story home overlooking Garden Street in Cambridge, which remained in the family for over 130 years.
• Became a freeman in 1636.
• Served as a representative to the General Court in 1638.
• Was one of the proprietors of Watertown.
• Became a deacon of the Cambridge church.

4. Death:

• Died on November 30, 1672, at the age of 80 or 82 years.
• Was buried in the Old Burying Ground in Cambridge.

5. Legacy:

• In 1904, American descendants of Gregory and Simon Stone dedicated a stained glass window in St. George's Church, Great Bromley, to commemorate their ancestors.
• Gregory Stone is remembered as one of the early settlers who helped found the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

6. Ancestry:

• The Stone family had been yeoman farmers in Essex County, England since at least the 14th century.
• Gregory's ancestors can be traced back to William atte Stone (1365-1430).

This information provides a general overview of Gregory Stone's life, his family, and his significance as an early American settler.

I like that it provides sources and images found on the Internet, and that it organizes the events into life segments. The sources used by Perplexity were:

•  https://www.greatbromley.org.uk/church/greatbromley/stone_family/Stone-Family-and-St-Georges-Church.pdf
• https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/M2W5-MNB/gregory-stone-1592-1672
• https://www.geni.com/people/Deacon-Gregory-Stone/6000000001727104897
• https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2001.05.0303%3Achapter%3D14
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/48516122/gregory-stone
• https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100327661
• https://www.simonhoyt.com/stone.html

So how did it do?  I need to evaluate each source given, and search for other resources (eg., published books, birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records, immigration records, land and probate records, military records, etc.  

However, it gave me excellent leads to find more information.  For instance, it told me a baptism date and place - 19 April 1592 in St. George's church in Great Bromley, Essex, England.  Can I find that record?  The best I could do was find the record summary on FamilySearch:

A check of the FamilySearch Catalog indicates that the Great Bromley church parish records on microfilm have not been digitized yet.  Perhaps someone has captured it from the microfilm and added it to their family tree.  However, an image of the baptism record is not in the Memories on Gregory Stone's profile on FamilySearch, or on the 10 family trees on Ancestry.com that I checked (there are over 33,000 family trees on Ancestry with Gregory Stone in them).  However, the search on Ancestry led me to his will, which I downloaded immediately.

An important drawback I found with the Perplexity response is that it doesn't identify Gregory's first wife (Margaret Garrad) as the mother of his first 4 children.  It does identify Lydia --?-- as his second wife.

This whimsical search provided me with significant information to continue researching Gregory Stone.  It took less than one minute to ask Perplexity the question and the answer was great, in my humble opinion.  But I still have to do the work, which will take hours (or maybe many days), to review and condense to form a relatively complete genealogical sketch of Gregory Stone's life. 

Who should I do next?  

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