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Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Ask AI: "What Are the Best 'Substitute Records' For Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates For a Person In the 19th Century?"

I'm training myself to ask questions about my genealogy and family history research of the available Artificial Intelligence tools.  This is hard to do for an experienced male aerospace engineer!  But it is instructive!

1)  Today, my prompt is:  "You are an experienced genealogist. What are the best "substitute records" for birth, marriage and death certificates for a person in the 19th century?"

I asked this question to the free AI tools on OpenAI's ChatGPT-4o, Anthropic's Claude,    Microsoft's CoPilot, Google's Gemini, Meta's AI, and Perplexity.

                                                          (image created by Meta AI)

2)  In my opinion, by far the best and most complete answer I received was from OpenAI's ChatGPT-4o:
When 19th-century birth, marriage, and death certificates are not available, there are several "substitute records" genealogists can use to gather vital information. Here are the most common alternatives:

1. Church Records
  • Baptism/Christening records: Often include the child’s name, date of birth or christening, and parents' names.
  • Marriage registers: Provide details about the couple, witnesses, and sometimes parents.
  • Burial records: Offer information about the deceased, including death date and burial location.
  • Confirmation and communion records:  May serve as indirect evidence of age or residence.
2. Census Records
  • Federal census: From 1850 onward in the U.S., censuses list every member of the household, including ages and birthplaces, helping to estimate birth years.
  • State censuses: These can provide similar details and may be conducted more frequently than federal censuses.
  • Census mortality schedules: Available for some census years (e.g., 1850-1880 in the U.S.), listing people who died in the 12 months prior to the census.
3. Newspapers
  • Birth announcements: Not as common in the early 19th century, but occasionally found in local papers.
  • Marriage announcements: Frequently include names of the bride, groom, and sometimes family members.
  • Obituaries: Often provide the deceased’s birth and death dates, family details, and important life events.
  • Funeral notices: May offer clues about death date and burial information.
4. Probate and Estate Records
  • Wills: Can mention children, spouses, and other relatives, giving indirect evidence of relationships and life events.
  • Letters of administration: Used when someone dies intestate (without a will) and can provide family member names.
  • Guardianship records: Valuable for identifying minors and their relationships to others.
5. Military Records
  • Pension applications: Often include detailed personal information about the veteran, spouse, and children. Widows' pensions can include marriage and death details.
  • Service records: Sometimes list next of kin or beneficiaries.
  • Draft registration records Include birthdate, birthplace, and sometimes parents' names.
6. Land and Property Records
  • Deeds: May name spouses or other family members involved in land transactions.
  • Land grants and patents: Can help establish residency and identify family relationships through joint ownership or inheritance.
7. Court Records
  • Divorce records: Often provide marriage dates, places, and family details.
  • Legal disputes: May include testimony that provides personal history.
8. Cemetery Records and Gravestones
  • Gravestones: Often inscribed with birth and death dates, sometimes marriage information.
  • Cemetery records: Can include additional details about family members, especially in family plots.
9. Family Bibles
  • Many families recorded births, marriages, and deaths in their Bible. These are valuable primary sources, though they often need to be cross-referenced for accuracy.
10. Local Histories and Biographies
  • Published county or town histories frequently contain biographical sketches of early settlers, which may include birth, marriage, and death information.
11. Tax Records
  • While not directly listing vital events, tax records can establish an individual’s presence in a location over time, helping to narrow down dates of life events.
12. Immigration and Naturalization Records
  • These can provide birthplaces, dates, and family relationships, especially in naturalization papers filed after 1906.
13. Directories
  • City and business directories may include a person’s address, occupation, and family members, offering indirect clues about birth, marriage, and death.
By piecing together information from multiple sources, genealogists can often reconstruct a fairly complete picture of an individual’s vital details in the absence of formal birth, marriage, or death certificates.

I then asked "What less common substitute records are there?"

And the ChatGPT-4o response was:

In the 19th century, beyond the more well-known substitute records like church, probate, and land records, there are several less common but still valuable records that genealogists can use when direct birth, marriage, or death certificates are not available. These records often exist in smaller collections or specialized archives but can be treasure troves of information.

Less Common 19th-Century Substitute Records:

1. Midwife and Physician Records

  • In some communities, midwives or local physicians kept records of births they attended. These can include names of the child, parents, and date of birth. These records are often rare but can be found in personal collections, regional medical archives, or historical societies.

2. School Records

  • Enrollment Registers: Schools kept detailed records of students, which often included the student's name, age, date of birth, and sometimes the parents’ names. These registers could be particularly useful for determining birth dates.
  • Teacher's Records: Some teachers maintained personal records of their students that could contain information about families in a community.

3. Tax Records

  • Poll Tax Lists: In many places, males were required to pay poll taxes once they reached adulthood, usually around age 21. This can be a clue to estimate birth years.
  • Property Tax Records: These records often listed the heads of households and the value of their property, which can provide indirect evidence of a person's presence in a location or their death (when they disappear from the rolls).

4. Poorhouse and Almshouse Records

  • Local government institutions that provided for the poor often kept detailed records of residents, which could include their place of birth, age, family members, and reasons for their stay. These records are less commonly consulted but are a great source for genealogists researching impoverished ancestors.

5. Pauper Bonds

  • In cases where a community needed to care for poor or orphaned children, pauper bonds were sometimes created. These legal documents placed children under the care of a guardian or family, often providing names, dates, and family relationships.

6. Bastardy Bonds

  • If an unwed mother gave birth to a child, the father could be legally required to provide financial support through a "bastardy bond." These records often name the mother, the father, and the child, providing important details about the birth and parentage.

7. Prison and Asylum Records

  • Inmates in prisons or mental asylums were often recorded with personal details like age, place of birth, and family contacts. These records may be useful when direct information from more conventional sources is missing.

8. Ship Passenger Lists and Immigration Records

  • Passenger lists often contain important details about individuals, including their age, occupation, and family members traveling with them. For immigrants, these lists can be used to estimate birth years and track movements between countries.

9. Census Mortality Schedules

  • In the U.S., mortality schedules were part of the federal census in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. These recorded people who had died in the year prior to the census and usually included name, age, gender, birthplace, and cause of death.

10. Occupational and Trade Records

  • Guild Records: For those involved in trades (such as blacksmiths, coopers, tailors), guild or trade association records might exist. These often list apprenticeships, which can indicate a birth year, or details on marriages and deaths of members.
  • Union Records: By the late 19th century, many professions had unions that kept records of members, including details like birth dates, death dates, and sometimes marital status.

11. Newspaper Legal Notices

  • Legal notices in newspapers, such as estate settlements, divorce filings, court actions, and auction announcements for land and property sales, can provide indirect evidence of family events like deaths or marriages.

12. Freemasonry and Fraternal Organization Records

  • Membership records from Masonic lodges, Odd Fellows, or other fraternal organizations can include valuable genealogical details, such as age at initiation, occupation, and death notices within the organization.

13. Temperance Society and Church Missionary Records

  • Some religious or temperance organizations kept extensive membership lists, which may include ages, dates of significant life events (marriages, deaths), and family connections.

14. Funeral Home Records

  • Some funeral homes kept detailed records of their clients in ledgers, including information about the deceased, their family, the cause of death, and burial details. These records can sometimes be found in local archives or through the funeral home itself.

15. Orphanage and Foundling Hospital Records

  • Children taken in by orphanages or hospitals often had records that included information about their parents, birth dates, and sometimes details about why they were placed in care. These can be rare, but invaluable for those researching abandoned or orphaned children.

16. Town Selectmen Records (for New England)

  • In New England towns, selectmen were responsible for managing local affairs, and they often kept records related to public assistance, community disputes, and even the care of the elderly or poor. These documents might contain details about life events like deaths or marriages, especially for those under town care.

17. Insurance Policies and Records

  • Life insurance policies and payout records can provide evidence of death dates, beneficiaries, and sometimes family relationships. Some individuals took out life insurance policies that listed their age or specific family members as beneficiaries.

18. Railroad Employment Records

  • The railroad industry was a major employer in the 19th century, and some railroad companies kept detailed records of their employees. These might include date of birth, marital status, and information about dependents or next of kin.

Conclusion:

These less common records, while not always easy to locate, can be incredibly valuable when vital records are missing. They often exist in more obscure collections—local libraries, historical societies, or specialized archives—and require digging, but they may contain unique information about family relationships, occupations, and life events. 

Perplexity.ai offered these resources in thier response:
Gemini AI offered these resources in their response:
4) In general, I think the answers to the prompt are reasonable. While most experienced genealogists are aware of these methods and resources, many inexperienced and occasional genealogists are not.   

5)  What methods and resources did the answers to the question miss, or should be explained better?

I have no problems with any of these comments, although they are rather terse in some cases.  

The real gems, in my opinion, concern the less common substitute records!  Many of them may not apply in every case, but one or more might provide, or lead to, the record sought by the researcher.

A similar question could be asked specifically for other centuries, and different answers may be provided.  I will leave that to the reader to explore!

6)  What other questions should I (we?) ask the AI tools for genealogy research?  Please tell me in comments.

7)  :  All "Ask AI" posts are listed in "Artificial Intelligence Posts" on this blog.  
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Copyright (c) 2024, Randall J. Seaver

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