The Artificial Intelligence tools (like ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot, Gemini, Grok, Meta, Grok, and Perplexity) can provide much useful and nearly instant information about subjects in a concise format, especially when they have been pre-trained on a large volume of information about the subjects.
I wondered if the FREE AI tools could provide me with information about a young New England girl's life in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. My third great-grandmother, Amy (Champlin) Oatley (1798-1865) was age 14 in 1812.
1) I chose to use the responses from free Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4 (as of 19 August 2025) today.
My Prompt was: "Amy Champlin was the seventh child of twelve children, and fifth daughter of eight, of her parents. At age 14 in 1812, what was her life like in South Kingstown, Rhode Island? What were her family duties, her education, and her family, social and fun activities?"
I uploaded a PDF of my updated Genea-Musings blog post (https://www.geneamusings.com/2014/10/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks-week-40-amy.html) to provide information about Amy and her family to the AI Tool.
2) The free Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4 AI tool responded with:
Amy's Life In 1812 In New England
Based on the historical information and what we know about Amy's family background, here's what her life would likely have been like as a 14-year-old in South Kingstown, Rhode Island in 1812:
Family Duties and Household Responsibilities
As the seventh child in a family of twelve, fourteen-year-old Amy would have had substantial responsibilities within the Champlin household. In colonial America, children entered their teen years already on a path toward their life's occupation and grew into adulthood more quickly than today (Colonial Teenagers | TeachingHistory.org). Being the fifth of eight daughters, Amy would have been deeply involved in the "women's work" that kept a large household functioning.
Her daily duties would have included caring for her younger siblings—Alice was only four years old, John Kenyon was eight, and Abigail was ten. Amy would have helped with feeding, dressing, and supervising these younger children, essentially serving as an assistant mother. She would also have been responsible for typical household tasks such as spinning thread, sewing and mending clothes, helping with cooking and food preservation, cleaning, and assisting with laundry—a massive undertaking for a family of fourteen people using 1812 methods.
Given that her father Joseph was fairly prosperous (evidenced by his later estate of over $4,700 in 1850), the Champlin family would have been among the more comfortable families in South Kingstown, but this didn't exempt Amy from hard work—it likely meant higher expectations for proper household management.
Education
Girls would learn how to run a house, and if they belonged to wealthier families, they would learn things like French, while only upper class children were able to receive schooling (About Rhode Island Family Life in the Colonial Times | Synonym). As a member of a fairly prosperous family, Amy would have received more education than many girls of her time. Girls were taught different things such as nursing, social etiquette and needlework (Everyday Life - Rhode Island).
Amy's education would have included basic literacy and numeracy—essential skills for managing a household and conducting family business. She would have learned to read well enough to study the Bible and other religious texts. Her writing skills, however, were limited, as evidenced by the fact that she later signed her will with a mark rather than her signature. This was not uncommon for women of the era, even those from prosperous families.
Practical education would have been extensive: advanced needlework including embroidery and fine sewing, basic medical knowledge for treating family illnesses, food preservation techniques, household management, and likely some French or other "accomplishments" befitting her family's social status. Much of this education would have come from her mother Nancy and older sisters Phoebe, Mary, Nancy, and Elizabeth.
Social and Religious Life
Rhode Island during colonial times was very family oriented, and in many cases, everything except Sunday worship was done at home (RI Farming Family Tree). The Baptist faith would have been central to Amy's social world. Weekly church services were not just religious obligations but the primary social gathering for the community.
In 1812, Amy would have been approaching the age when young people typically underwent baptism and joined the church as full members. (She was indeed baptized the following year at age fifteen in Exeter.) Church-related activities would have included prayer meetings, Bible study, and social events organized around the congregation.
The Champlin family's prosperity would have meant they participated in South Kingstown's social elite. Amy would have attended community gatherings, seasonal celebrations, and likely participated in the exchange of social visits that was customary among established families. Her social circle would have included other daughters of successful farming and merchant families.
Recreation and "Fun" Activities
Despite all the work, bible lessons, and schooling, children still found time to play games like marbles, flying kites, bowling, ring toss, walking on stilts, sack races, Blind Man's Bluff, and spinning tops (03.02.06: Child Life in the New England Colonies). However, by age fourteen, Amy's recreational activities would have been more limited and more closely supervised than those of younger children.
Her entertainment would have included quilting bees and sewing circles with other young women, where they could socialize while working. Seasonal activities might have included berry picking, corn husking bees, and barn raisings—community events that combined work with socializing. Dancing was popular in many communities, though its acceptance varied by religious denomination.
Reading would have been both educational and recreational—religious texts, improving literature, and perhaps novels if the family approved. Music was also important; Amy might have learned to play simple instruments or participated in church singing.
Winter evenings would have been spent in family activities around the fireplace—storytelling, reading aloud, needlework, and games like checkers or card games (if religiously acceptable to the family).
The Broader Context of 1812
Amy's fourteenth year coincided with the War of 1812, which would have created an atmosphere of uncertainty and excitement. Rhode Island men were involved in the conflict, and there would have been concerns about British naval actions along the coast. This would have made Amy's world feel both more connected to larger events and more precarious.
The year 1812 also represented a time when traditional rural life was beginning to change due to early industrialization. The "Rhode Island system" was emerging, where families were hired as units for mill work (Early Industrialization in the Northeast | United States History 1 (OS Collection)), though the Champlin family's prosperity meant they weren't dependent on such employment.
At fourteen, Amy was on the cusp of young womanhood, with marriage and motherhood likely just a few years away. Her year in 1812 represented the last period of her childhood, as she would be baptized and married within the next year, launching her into the adult responsibilities that would define the rest of her remarkable life.
3) I have no easy way to double check on these responses from Claude, although the cited reference pages are helpful - the cited pages are new this past month to Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4. I don't have many book resources for the subjects and the locality. The families mentioned are my ancestors and I have significant information about their lives from the available records, but know nothing about their daily lives.
4) As genealogists, we can usually find the 18th and 19th century town records, and the later census and vital records, for New England families, and we may find occupation, immigration, land and probate records. However, there are books and websites about the daily lives of people in those times. The AI tools have been pre-trained on historical events, social history, geography, literature and other disciplines so they can provide information for questions like this one, and in recent months have the ability to search the Internet. Note that Claude provided links to several web pages about the social history.
5) After I read these types of social history summaries, I wish that I could be a time traveler for one day to visit the Champlin and Oatley families in New England and witness their daily lives. I'm glad that the general lifestyles and occupations are known from historical records and witness accounts.
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