Here are the highlights of my family history and genealogy related activities over the past week (ending Sunday, 26 October 2025).
1) Went to Balboa Park on Saturday for the Genealogy Day at the San Diego History Center. Nine organizations had a table with displays for center visitors to check out. I discussed AI and San Diego genealogy with the FamilySearch Center and Sons of the American Revolution folks, and talked with genealogy friends that I haven't see in awhile.
2) Transcribed the 1676 Will of 9th great-grandfather John Gorton (1610-1676) of Roxbury, Massachusetts with the help of FamilySearch Full-Text Search. The will as written in secretary hand and the transcription missed many words - about a 50% success rate.
3) Curated genealogy-related articles to keep myself and my readers updated on the genealogy world in:
4) Wrote two "ABC Biographies" using my AI-assisted "Ancestor Biography Creation" process, and two Life Memory posts, and posted them on Genea-Musings and Substack, in:
5) Requested free AI tools to tell me about these genealogy and family history subjects, and posted them on Genea-Musings and Substack:
- Ask AI: "What Can An AI Agent Do For a Genealogist and Family Historian?"
- Ask AI: "Please Describe a Realistic AI Agent For Family History Writing"
- Ask AI: "Please Describe Elizabeth Sovereen’s Life In 1860 On the Sovereen Farm In Norfolk County, Ontario"
6) Posted one of the AI-assisted memories of my ancestral home in the home's voice, based on my own memories, on Genea-Musings and Substack - see The Watchful House on 30th Street Remembers: "Coach Fred Seaver".
7) Requested free AI tools to create a poem, song lyrics, a podcast and a short video presentation about the life of my mother, Betty Virginia (Car (1820-1895). Had Suno.com create a song using the lyrics. Posted the poem created by Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5, the song lyrics created by Claude Sonnet 4.5, the Suno song link, and the Google NotebookLM audio and video overview links in "San Diego's Betty" -- Family History Poem, Song, Audio Overview and Video Overview Created by Artificial Intelligence on Genea-Musings and Substack.
8) Experimented with the AI Meta photo animation tool and it works. I need to do more photos with it. Hrre is my first success:
9) Added a number of the recent Google NotebookLM Videos to my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@RandySeaver.
10) My AncestryDNA now has 50,017 DNA matches (up 27 from 19 October) with 2,122 "close" matches today (up 2), with no new ThruLines. AncestryDNA provided the "Custom Cluster" feature which looks promising. Added Notes to 3 Matches, and added no new DNA match lines to RootsMagic. MyHeritageDNA now has 13,849 DNA matches (up 15 from 19 October) for me. Reviewed the new DNA matches on AncestryDNA and MyHeritageDNA.
11) Searched for more records of ancestral families on Ancestry, FamilySearch and MyHeritage, downloaded record images to my digital file folders, and added research notes, events and sources to RootsMagic profiles. My RootsMagic family tree now has 74,775 profiles (up 12 from last week) and 147,902 source citations (up 3).
12) Wrote 21 Genea-Musings blog posts last week (Sunday through Saturday), of which one was a press release. The most viewed post last week was James Abraham Kemp's Life Memories - An AI-Assisted Memoir with over 295 views. Genea-Musings had about 158,000 page views last week and over 724,000 views over the past month (lots of bots I fear).
13) Real life events: Visited Linda several days at her memory care facility and we played Uno and catch the beach ball out on the patio. Went to the grocery store on Monday and Friday. My birthsday was Thursday - stayed home and had several phone calls. Went to the DMV for my Real ID and Driver's License renewal on Wednesday and failed the vision test, so I need an opthalmalogist appointment and new glasses. Went to Balboa Park on Saturday for the Genealogy Day and walked around the park. Went to Huntington Beach on Sunday to see Tami's family - had fun talking to the grandchildren about their education. Finished reading The Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter and started Zoo by James Patterson. Watched the baseball playoffs off and on. Watched the Charger game on Thursday and they won 37-10 over the Vikings, so now 5-3. Watched the San Diego State Aztecs game on Saturday and they won 23-0 over Fresno State, so they are now 6-1. It was a busier week than usual!
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