Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- An Unusual Newspaper Article About Your Ancestors

  Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) Have you found an unusual, chilling, amazing, or fascinating newspaper article about your ancestors? 

2)  If so, please share the article and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from the article.  Provide a source citation too!

2)  Share your information about your newspaper article in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Lisa S. Gorrell for this SNGF idea.

Here's mine:

Early in my research (in about 1990?), I went to the San Diego Public Library to see if there was newspaper articles about my Carringer families in the San Diego newspapers.  Fortunately, there was an index on microfiche for the San Diego Union newspaper from 1868 to about 1980.  Here is one of the articles that I found unusual, fascinating and amazing.

One of the articles I found was this one (image captured in recent years on GenealogyBank):

The transcription of the article is:

"Carringer Gardens, Model of Beauty,

Have Also Wealth of Entertainment

By Ada Perry

"Mr. and Mrs. Lyle L. Carringer, 2130 Fern st., are never bored with their garden.  They have four fish pools in it filled with finny pets that are always on the move.  Sometimes they move out on the grass but the Carringers chalk this up to playfulness and continue to enjoy the aquatic aspects of their home.

"The Carringer place is distinctly in the livable small garden or outdoor living room class.  The pools are strategically located to invite folks outdoors for pleasure and relaxation.  One pool, the smallest, is placed near the rear door of the house as a starting point.  From there to a sunny larger pool planted to lilies and overhung with shrubs is a natural step.

"Other parts of the garden planted to flowers, cacti and succulents and several fruit trees are easily accessible from the second pool and then the Carringers and their friends naturally gravitate to a lath house furnished with chairs and tables.

"There are sources of amusement in the lath house.  The remaining pools are located there.  One is a rill in the heart of a pretty rockery and the other a shadowy oval presided over by a rice plant with curving stalks topped with laves like giant hands.  Directly above the pool a tree fern rests apparently on the water.  The invisible stand which holds it up represents some clever household ingenuity.  It was formerly a piano stool.

"A grill is built at the end of the lath house on a rock structure.  The grill space can be filled with a decorative potted plant when not in use although the Carringers have found it a consistent entertainer.

"Next to the grill in a glass house annex is a surprise feature.  On shelves are aquariums filled with tropical fish, paradise, moons, guppies, and other fancy swimmers weaving about in grassy water jungles; blinking, gobbling and raising families in the most distracting style.  The glass house is heated for them and each aquarium has individual radiators and thermometers for perfect comfort.

"Tropical aquariums are often kept indoors but the Carringers have theirs handy to the pools where fish life from goldfish to guppies can be observed.  Certain of the tropicals are moved to the goldfish pools at favorable times for variety."

The source citation is:

"Carringer Gardens, Model of Beauty, Have Also Wealth of Entertainment," San Diego [Calif.] Union newspaper, Sunday, 24 March 1935, page 18, columns 5-6, Lyle L. Carringer garden article;   GenealogyBank, Newspaper Archives   (https://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 3 January 2022).

Lyle L. Carringer (1891-1976) and Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer (1899-1977) are my maternal grandparents.  They built the house at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego in 1920, and resided there for about 30 years.  My mother grew up in that house and garden.  Lyle loved to build things and was very creative.  Emily was a horticultural expert and loved the gardens.  My guess is that building and maintaining the gardens, the pools, the lath house and the glass house were evening and weekend projects for the whole family.  I have very distant memories of playing in the lath house and glass house and recall the goldfish pools as a young boy.  After 1946, my family lived in the building on the south side of the gardens.  They sold the Fern Street house in 1950 and the new owner built a fence to wall off his property from two little boys.  

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-unusual.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 X, Facebook, 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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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Extreme Weather or Natural Disaster Experiences

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) Did extreme weather or a natural disaster ever affect you or your ancestor(s)? In what way(s)? How did you find this out? Describe one or more of the extreme weather experiences in your own life or in your ancestors lives.ry.

2)  Share your information about you or your ancestor(s) extreme weather or natural disaster experiences in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this SNGF idea.

Here's mine:

Living in San Diego all of my life, I  have not experienced an "extreme weather condition" or a "natural disaster" like a hurricane, a tornado, a firestorm, a blizzard, a really hot heat spell, a really cold spell, a flood, or a destructive earthquake.  Just luck through geography. [Knocking on wood!!!]

Most of my ancestry came through the northeast - New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ontario, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado.  I'm sure that many of my ancestors experienced extreme cold, blizzards, floods, and hurricanes.  They survived because they were prepared for the cold and rain. They were smart if they stayed out of the river valleys and stayed higher than the water level.

One of my ancestors experienced a tornado -- Rebecca (Spangler) Crringer (1832-1901). She and her family were residing in Washington County, Iowa in 1873 when a tornado hit nearby.  Rebecca was at a friend's home and suffered injuries but survived.  See Carringers in the News -- The Great Tornado of Washington County, Iowa in May 1873 in which "Mrs. Carringer" (I'm very sure this was Rebecca!) was listed as being injured.

I wrote a story about the experience using AI in Ask Claude AI: "Please Create a Dialogue Between Rebecca Carringer and Her Family About Surviving the Tornado" which included another story about Rebecca telling her grandson Lyle Carringer about the experience.

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-extreme.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 X, Facebook, 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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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Describe a Family Vacation

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) Did your family go on vacation? Describe one or more of your vacations with your birth family or with your spouse and children.

2)  Share your information about your vacation(s) in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Lisa S. Gorrell for this SNGF idea.

Here's mine:

I described my birth family vacations to State bowling tournaments and to the cabin on Bass Lake near Yosemite when I was a child in other blog posts.

This story is about our first years of parenthood.

One of the best things we ever did as a family was to attend a weeklong Christian camp in the San Bernardino mountains, called Forest Home.  Our church (Chula Vista Presbyterian Church) encouraged and organized going to this camp every year and quite a few of our church family friends went.  We went every other year from 1975 to 1985, and gained spiritual and intellectual knowledge, and got to know our church friends well.  

The toddlers and infants slept with their parents, and the other age groups (elementary school, junior high school, high school) had a separate camp with age-appropriate programs and counselors. There were nature hikes in the mountains, swimming in the lake, miniature golf, doing crafts, etc. For the adults, the schedule was breakfast, then Bible Study with a preacher, lunch, free time activity in the afternoon (we usually went to the lake), dinner, an Evening song service with the camp leader, and free time until bedtime.  The camp leader and the pastors were well-known in the evaqngelical community.  We loved hearing different preachers every day.  

Our girls "graduated" from the morning nursery to the toddler care to the all-day and overnight Indian Village (for elementary school students), which had counselors.  We had lunch with our little girls with a lunchroom full of small children.  Twice during the  week we got to see the girls when they were in the Indian Village -- they came to visit for the afternoon, and we usually went to the lake.  

There were other travel vacations as our girls grew up -- several visits to Hawaii, many visits to San Francisco to see their maternal grandparents and uncle, driving up the West Coast to Seattle and Victoria in 1983 in our new Oldsmobile, travel softball trips all over Southern California, a cruise out of Miami to Jamaica, Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, and a week in a Puerta Vallarta resort.

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

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/08/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-describe.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 X, Facebook, 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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An AI Poem -- "The Genealogist's Lament," and AI Song "The Genealogy Blues"

 It was a whimsical request a year ago, and I posted it on Facebook at the tim,e but did not write a blog post about it.  I asked Anthropic Claude to "Please write a humorous poem about doing genealogy and family history research, including finding birth, death, marriage, church, probate, land, census, military, immigration, city directories, DNA, family papers, photographs, etc. making a family tree, using online resources like Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, MyHeritage.com, Findmypast, American Ancestors, Find A Grave and more." And it did!

(AI Google NotebookLM Infographic - The Genealogist's Lament)

Here is the poem created by Anthropic Claude:

The Genealogist's Lament

I started with a simple quest, just curious, you see,
To find out who my great-grandma was—how hard could that be?
But here I sit at 3 AM, my eyes bloodshot and sore,
With seventeen browser tabs open and records by the score.

Ancestry.com calls to me with hints in little leaves,
While FamilySearch has billions more tucked up its family sleeves.
MyHeritage sends emails daily: "New matches found!"
And Findmypast has newspapers where ancestors abound.

I've mastered the art of reading dates that make no earthly sense,
Where January comes after March—those records are so dense.
Birth certificates that lie about the year they came to be,
And marriage records listing brides who died in infancy.

The census taker, bless his heart, was clearly drinking rum—
My great-great-grandfather's aged from sixty-two to twenty-one!
His name is spelled five different ways across the decades' span:
From Wilhelm Koch to Bill Cook—they're the same poor man!

Find A Grave became my friend for tracking down the dead,
Though half the photos are too blurry to tell a foot from head.
And probate records, oh my stars! They're written in a code
Where "whereas" and "heretofore" make my brain explode.

Land records speak of metes and bounds, of rods and chains and more,
While I just want to know if great-great-grandpa owned the store.
Church records hide in dusty vaults or burned up long ago,
The one I need was lost, of course, in 1880's snow.

Military records tell tall tales of battles won and lost,
Immigration papers stamped with dates that make my timeline crossed.
City directories are grand until you realize with dread
Your ancestor was "John Smith"—you'll never find that thread!

My DNA results came back—what chaos they have wrought!
Fourth cousins, twice removed, who share the genes I thought
Were safely mine alone to claim, now message me each day:
"I think we're related! Let's compare!" they cheerfully say.

The family papers that survived are yellow, torn, and strange,
With names of people no one knew and dates outside their range.
Photographs with faces stern stare back without a clue—
Is this my ancestor or just some random person who

Got mixed up in the family box of memories and regret?
American Ancestors holds the key to records I can't get
Anywhere else online, though their paywall makes me weep.

The subscription fees pile up while my bank account's not deep.

My family tree's become a vine that's twisted, gnarled, and wild,
With branches going everywhere and notes that drive me riled:
"Possibly John Johnson Jr., but could be John Johnson Sr.,
Or maybe it's that other John—research further!"

I've learned that every database has different facts to share,
The same person can be born in three states—it's not fair!
One source says she died at twelve, another says ninety-three,
And somehow she gave birth between—it's a mystery to me!

The Mormon pioneers, God bless them, indexed everything in sight,
But German Gothic script appears to have been designed to spite
Poor genealogists like me who squint and guess and pray
That "Johann" doesn't really say "Susan" anyway.

My browser's bookmarks overflow with sites I've yet to check,
My printer's running low on ink, my office is a wreck.
I've joined Facebook groups for every surname that I've found,
Where arguments about birth years make quite an angry sound.

"That's NOT the right Maria Schmidt!" the keyboard warriors cry,
"My great-aunt's cousin's friend once said..." and theories multiply.
The family stories passed along are wonderful but wrong—
That Cherokee princess tale has lasted far too long!

My spouse no longer speaks to me; my friends all run away
When I begin to talk about what records I found today.
"Did you know in 1847..." I start with great delight,
And watch their eyes glaze over as they vanish from my sight.

But still I search through databases and microfilmed old books,
Ignoring all the family's concerned and worried looks.
For somewhere in this tangled mess of records, names, and dates,
My ancestor is waiting—while my sanity abates.

So here's to all you genealogists who've fallen down the hole
Of chasing dead relations—it's consumed your very soul!
We'll search through every record that was ever made by man,
To prove that great-great-grandpa really was from Pakistan!

*Now if you'll excuse me, I must check that hint again—
It might be breakthrough evidence... or just another dead end!*
But wait - what insights might AI lend?
I could just hand to to my descendants to fend!

Of course, I requested my AI-assistant Anthropic Claude to create song lyrics based on the prompt above.  Here are the song lyrics:

                 The Genealogy Blues 

(Verse 1)
Started with a simple question 'bout my family name
Just wanted to know great-grandma, thought it was a simple game
Now I'm up at three AM with seventeen tabs open wide
Ancestry and FamilySearch are fighting side by side
My eyes are getting bloodshot from these records I can't read
German Gothic handwriting is all I'll ever need (NOT!)

(Verse 2)
Find A Grave's got headstones but the photos are too dark
MyHeritage keeps sending me cousins from Iowa
Probate records written in some ancient legal code
"Whereas" and "heretofore" make my poor brain explode
Wilhelm Koch became Bill Cook somewhere along the way
Same man, different spelling, drives me nuts all day

(Chorus)
I got the genealogy blues, the family tree disease
Every hint's a dead end and it brings me to my knees
Census records lying, birth dates don't align
DNA matches messaging me all the time
I got the genealogy blues, and they're driving me insane
One more "possibly maybe" and I'll go completely plain

(Verse 3)
City directories got every John Smith in the land
Military records contradict what's written by hand
Immigration papers stamped with dates that can't be right
Church records burned in fires back in 1889's night
Land deeds speak of metes and bounds, of rods and chains galore
While I just want to know if grandpa owned the corner store

( Chorus)
I got the genealogy blues, the family tree disease
Every hint's a dead end and it brings me to my knees
Census records lying, birth dates don't align
DNA matches messaging me all the time
I got the genealogy blues, and they're driving me insane
One more "possibly maybe" and I'll go completely plain

(Bridge)
Every database different, every source tells different lies
Born in three different states with three different alibis
She died at twelve and ninety-three, gave birth in between
Strangest family history that you've ever seen
Mormon pioneers indexed everything they could find
But left us poor researchers pulling out our hair and mind

(Verse 4)
Family photos stare at me with faces I don't know
Yellow papers in a box from a century ago
Stories passed down through the years are wonderful but wrong
That Cherokee princess tale has lasted way too long
My friends all run away when I start to share my finds
"Did you know in 1847..." and they lose their minds

(Chorus)
I got the genealogy blues, the family tree disease
Every hint's a dead end and it brings me to my knees
Census records lying, birth dates don't align
DNA matches messaging me all the time
I got the genealogy blues, and they're driving me insane
One more "possibly maybe" and I'll go completely plain

(Outro)
So here's to all you researchers who've fallen down the hole
Chasing dead relations has consumed your very soul
We'll search through every record that was ever made by man
To prove great-great-grandpa came from Afghanistan
Now if you'll excuse me, got another hint to check
Might be the breakthrough or just another wreck
(Genealogy blues... they got me good...)
(Genealogy blues... in my neighborhood...)
(Genealogy blues... they never end...)
(Just one more record... around the bend...)

Armed with the song lyrics, I marched over to Suno.com (my favorite AI tune creator) and asked it to create the song from the lyrics with a male voice, upbeat tempo, and an uplifting pop melody:

The Canva.com video of this song is on my YouTube channel here.  

[NOTE: For some reason, YouTube will not fully upload an MP4 created by Suno so I use Canva to create the YouTube video. In this case, the Suno upload to YouTube was 2:01 minutes, while the Canva video is 6:37 minutes.]

Isn't genealogy fun?  I really enjoy watching Claude, Suno and Canva be much more creative than I can be.

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

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/2026/08/an-ai-poem-genealogists-lament-and-ai.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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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Are Your Ancestors Missing in the Census?

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) Which of your ancestors or relatives have you NOT found in the Census records and what have you done or are doing to try to find that person? Can AI help?

2)  Identify one or more of your ancestors that are inexplicably missing from one or more census collections.  Why do you think they were not enumerated?

3)  Share your information about your Ancestor or Relative NOT in the census records in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Marian B. Wood for this SNGF idea.

Here's mine:

My paternal grandmother, Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver (1882-1962) was not enumerated in the 1940 U.S. census with her husband Frederick W. Seaver (1876-1942) and daughter Geraldine (1917-2007) in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts on 16 April 1940.  Frederick and Geraldine were residing at 90 Main Street in Leominster.  Frederick was the informant, and provided accurate information, including an M for married. 

Where was Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver?  Over the years, I have searched for her in the Ancestry, FamilySearch and MyHeritage 1940 U.S. Census collections.  I tried:

• Surname spellings: Seaver, Sever, Seavers, Seaner, Severs, Sevier, Leaver, Lever, Leaner, S*v*r*, L*v*r*, Se*er*, Le*er*, etc.
• First name spellings: Alma, Bessie, Alm*, Bes*, A., B., Mrs. Frederick, Mrs. F.W., etc. 
• Birth year: 1882 plus/minus 5 years; no birth year
• Birth location:  Connecticut, Massachusetts, adjacent states.

Why was she not enumerated? 

• Omitted by the enumerator in Leominster.
• Was visiting friends or relatives in Massachusetts, New Hampahire or Connecticut on the enumeration day.
• Was traveling, in a hospital or care center on the enumeration day.
• Told her husband and daughter to fool the enumerator.

Can AI help?  I asked the free OpenAI ChatGPT5 tool to provide reasons she might be absent, and a strategy to find her in the 1940 census.  

Why might Alma have been absent?

Given what is known about the family, I would rank the possibilities approximately as follows:

1. Enumerator or indexing error (most likely)
2. Visiting relatives on 1 April 1940
3. Hospital or medical facility
4. Enumerated elsewhere under a badly misspelled surname
5. Accidentally omitted from the household
6. Temporary separation from Frederick (possible, but there would ideally be supporting evidence such as directories, newspapers, or later records)

A research strategy I'd recommend

Since you already know the Leominster household, I would proceed in this order:

1. Read every page of the enumeration district containing 90 Main Street.
2. Search all Massachusetts census entries for women named Alma born 1882 ±3 years.
3. Search all Richmond siblings and their households.
4. Search hospitals and institutions in Worcester County.
5. Review 1939–1941 Leominster city directories.
6. Search local newspapers for Alma, Bessie, or Mrs. Frederick W. Seaver during 1939–1940.

I asked ChatGPT5 what the "miss rate" was for the 1940 U.S. census,  It said that the overall undercount for the USA was 5.4%, the rate for New England was in the 2-4% range, and the rate for genealogists looking for a specific person was in the 5-10% range.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/07/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-are-your.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 X, Facebook, 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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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Farthest Flung Ancestor

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) Our family trees contain historical persons who came from places all over the world.  Each of our ancestral lines came from somewhere.

2)  Can you identify your Farthest-Flung Ancestor (FFA)?  Who in your ancestral tree came from the most geographically distant place from where you live now? What brought them (or their descendants) to where your family ended up?

3)  Share your information about your Farthest Flung Ancestor  in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this idea.

Here's mine:

I don't know exactly who my Farthest Flung Ancestor is.  I live in Chula Vista, California, USA (near San Diego), and my ancestry is 100% European to my knowledge (although I may have an indigenous North American if my DNA ethnicity estimates are correct, but that's closer than Europe).  I have identified ancestors who were born in the British Isles, France, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland.  Some of my candidates:

• Jacob Spengler (1618-1664) of Schoftland, Switzerland, about 9,300 km from Chula Vista 
• Georg Dietrich Geringer (1645-1722) of Edenkoben, Rheinland-Pfalz, about 9,400 km from Chula Vista
• Theodorus Friednreich Houx (1725-1802) of Pflummern, Rheinland-Pfalz, about 9,300 km from Chula Vista.

The British Isles, France and Netherlands are all closer to Chula Vista that those German and Swiss towns.  

My wife Linda's Farthest Flung Ancestor is undoubtedly Jane (Whittle) McKnew (1847-1921) who was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, about 12,100 km from Chula Vista.

I used Google Search to tell me the distances "as the crow flies."  

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/07/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your.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 X, Facebook, 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.

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

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- A Name That Runs In Your Family

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: 

 It's Saturday Night again - 

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) We all have many names (given, middle, surname, nickname) in our ancestry, whether we know all of them or not. 

2)  Do you have "A Name That Runs in Your Family"  Is there a first name — or nickname — that keeps repeating generation after generation in your tree? Share the name, the pattern, and your best guess as to why it stuck.

3)  Share your information about your repeating name  in your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Thank you to Linda Stufflebean for this idea.

Here's mine:

My immigrant Seaver ancestor is Robert Seaver (1608-1683) (my 9th great-grandfather) who came from England on the ship Mary and John and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. I don't know his parents or siblings name or even where in England he came from.

Robert Seaver married late in 1634 to Elizabeth Ballard, but their first child came in 1640.  They named him Shubael *also "Shewball," "Subael," "Shubal," etc. in the records.  Google Gemini 3 gave me the origin and meaning of the name:

Shubael (pronounced shoo-bay-uhl) is a name of ancient Hebrew origin. In the original Hebrew, it is written as שׁוּבָאֵל (Shuba’el) or שְׁבוּאֵל (Shebuel).

The name is a combination of two Hebrew root words:

1. The Prefix: Derived either from shub (meaning "to return," "to turn back," or "to restore") or shaba (meaning "to take captive").

2. The Suffix: El, which means "God".

Because of these overlapping linguistic roots, Hebrew scholars generally translate the name to mean "Returned to God," "Restored of God," or "Captive of God".

I have no idea if Robert Seaver had a father, grandfather, brother, uncle or someone else with the name, but Shubael (my 8th great-grandfather) got it. 

• When he married Hannah Wilson in 1668, he named his third son Shubael Seaver (1679-1757), who married Abigail Twelves in 1704.

• Shubael and Abigail (Twelves) named their first son Shubael Seaver (1705-????), who married Mary Rogers in 1734.

• Shubael and Mary (Rogers) Seaver named their first son Shubael Seaver (1740-1826), who married Deliverance Hyde in 1763.

• Shubael and Deliverence (Hyde) Seaver named their first son Shubael Seaver (1773-1828), and married Sarah Pierce in 1799.

• Shubael and Sarah (Pierce) Seaver named their first son Shubael Seaver (1804-????), who probably died young and never married. 

Those SIX Shubael Seavers are the only men with that given name in my Seaver database.  It ran in the family continuously for 160 years.  

I need to add the name origin to my Biography of Shubael Seaver (1640-1730) in ABC Biography of Shubael Seaver (1640-1730) and Hannah (Wilson) Seaver (1646-1722) of Massachusetts.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/07/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-name-that.html

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

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The Genealogist's ABCs - An AI-assisted ChatGPT Poem and Song

 It was a whimsical request - sparked by something I saw on Facebook.  I asked OpenAI ChatGPT to "please write a poem about genealogy terms from a to z." And it did!

(AI Google NotebookLM Infographic - The ABCs of Genealogy)

Here is the poem created by OpenAI ChatGPT5:

The Genealogist's ABCs

A is for Ancestor, whose footsteps we trace,
B is for Birth records that establish a place.
C is for Census, where families appear,
D is for Descendants, spreading year after year.

E is for Evidence, carefully weighed,
F is for Family Tree, where connections are made.
G is for Genealogy, our favorite pursuit,
H is for Heirlooms that reveal family roots.

I is for Indexes that help us to find,
J is for Journeys our forebears left behind.
K is for Kinfolk, both distant and near,
L is for Lineage extending through years.

M is for Marriage, recorded with care,
N is for Namesakes found everywhere.
O is for Origins, countries and lands,
P is for Pedigrees branching like strands.

Q is for Queries we post when we're stuck,
R is for Records, the key to our luck.
S is for Sources that strengthen our case,
T is for Tombstones in a quiet place.

U is for Uncles whose stories survive,
V is for Vital Records that keep facts alive.
W is for Wills that reveal family ties,
X marks the signature when an ancestor could not write.

Y is for Years that we seek to restore,
Z is for Zeal, for we always want more!

From attic to archive, from courthouse to grave,
We follow the clues that our ancestors gave.
With patience and purpose, we search near and far,
For every old family has stories that are.

We gather the fragments, the dates, and the names,
The victories, mysteries, puzzles, and claims.
Then weave them together so future eyes can see,
The story of our family—our treasured legacy.

Some folks seek gold or fortunes untold,
While we seek records a century old.
A census, a deed, or a photograph's gleam,
Can make a genealogist smile and beam!

And then ChatGPT offered to write song lyrics for my blog post...I couldn't resist.

The Genealogist's ABC Song

(Verse 1)
A is for Ancestors, lives that came before,
B is for Birth records opening the door.
C is for Census, where families appear,
D is for Descendants through each passing year.

E is for Evidence gathered with care,
F is for Families whose stories we share.
G is for Genealogy, the joy that we know,
H is for Heirlooms with memories to show.

(Verse 2)
I is for Indexes helping us find,
J is for Journeys our forebears left behind.
K is for Kinfolk, both distant and near,
L is for Lineage cherished year by year.

M is for Marriages faithfully penned,
N is for Neighbors who turned into friends.
O is for Origins across sea and shore,
P is for Pedigrees growing evermore.

(Chorus)
Turn another page, search another tree,
Every little record tells a tale to me.
One more clue, one more name, one more mystery—
That's the happy life of a family historian!

(Verse 3)
Q is for Queries when puzzles remain,
R is for Records that reward every pain.
S is for Sources that strengthen our case,
T is for Tombstones in a peaceful place.

U is for Uncles and aunts we uncover,
V is for Vital records like no other.
W is for Wills that tell who got what,
X marks the signature when writing was not.

(Bridge)
Y is for Yesterday guiding today,
Z is for Zeal that won't fade away.
From courthouse to archives, from attic to sea,
Our family's story is waiting for me. 

(Final Chorus)
Turn another page, search another tree,
Every little record tells a tale to me.
Generation after generation faithfully,
We're preserving our family's history.

Though the years may pass and memories grow dim,
Every faded document still sings a hymn.
The names live on for all eternity—
That's the priceless gift of family history!

And the song The Genealogist's ABCs Song created by Suno.com using these lyrics, in an upbeat tempo, with guitars, folk style sing-along, is:

Isn't genealogy fun?  I really enjoy watching ChatGPT and Suno be much more creative than I can be.

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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/2026/07/genealogy-from-to-z-ai-assisted-chatgpt.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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