What Is My Place in History? Claude's View

What is my place in history?  I read that question this past week and thought it would be an interesting topic to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

In my mind, I'm just a link in a never-ending chain from the first homo sapiens (say, Adam and Eve some 40,000 years ago) to myself through thousands of generations.  Unfortunately, we don't know much about all of the links in that chain. However, I've been able to discern perhaps 2,000 links who lived in the past 400 years through genealogical research.  

I've lived from 1943 to 2026 so far, but almost all of my life has been spent in the San Diego, California area with occasional forays to interesting places for work, vacations, sightseeing, and research pleasure. My view of my place in history is limited by my education and my experiences.  

Have I contributed to historical events or movements?  I worked as an aerospace engineer for about 40 years, and have worked as a genealogist for about 39 years now (the two vocations overlap). I've been a grandson, son, husband, father, and grandfather, and a student, friend, colleague, coach, researcher, and writer.  

How can I judge my place in history?  Perhaps my vision is limited.  

I know --  I'll ask an Artificial Intelligence tool to evaluate my place in history!!!  But how will I provide enough information for an AI tool to evaluate my place in history?  

I wrote a book of my memories several years ago as part of a StoryWorth project (titled Life Stories of Randy Seaver) as a Christmas gift for myself and my daughters in 2024. I edited it and published it again as a MyHeritage MyStories book when that featrure was announced in early 2025.  The StoryWorth book was  203 pages including a few family photographs.  I have a word processing file of the books that are about 65 pages (Times New Roman, 12 point font) in a PDF file.

1)  I attached the PDF of my Life Stories bok to Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5 and asked it:  "Please write a 2000 word story in my voice about my place in history - like a biography but tilted toward historical achievements and my family life based on the attached document."

(AI Google NotebookLM Infographic of My Place In History)

Here is the story created by Claude Sonnet 5:

My Place in History

by Randy Seaver of Chula Vista, California

I've spent close to forty years now tracing the lives of the people who came before me — soldiers, farmers, weavers, colonial governors, and even a few kings — and somewhere along the way I finally turned the lens around and asked myself a fair question: where do I fit into all of this? Am I just one more name at the bottom of a very long pedigree chart, or did I actually brush up against history myself, in my own small way, during my eighty-some years on this earth? The honest answer is both. I am the product of an extraordinary sweep of history running back through Mayflower passengers and English monarchs, and I've also stood, however briefly, at the edge of a few genuinely historic moments of my own. Let me tell you about both halves of that story.

The Long View Backward

My genealogy research has turned up some remarkable connections, and I don't say this to brag so much as to marvel at it. Through my New England lines I descend from thirteen Mayflower passengers — William White, Francis Cooke, Richard Warren, George Soule, William Brewster, Stephen Hopkins, and Edward Fuller among them — ordinary English families who threw in their lot with a leaky ship and a wild, unknown coastline in 1620. I descend from colonial governors too: Thomas Prence of Plymouth, Simon Bradstreet and Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts Bay, Caleb Carr of Rhode Island, Robert Treat of Connecticut. And further back still, if my research and the old royalty books are to be believed, the line runs all the way through William the Conqueror, back through Alfred the Great, to Charlemagne himself. My own 2nd great-grandfather, Isaac Seaver, was a blacksmith who served the Union Army during the Civil War. None of these people knew they were laying track toward a skinny, far-sighted kid in Brooklyn Heights in San Diego who would spend his retirement digging them all back up. But they were, and I have felt the weight and the privilege of that inheritance every single day since I opened my first genealogy book in 1988. I am awed by the lives of my ancestors – especially those who risked it all by migrating across the ocean or the continent, who toiled on farms and homes, in workshops and offices, who raised families and taught their children the ways of life in the world. Each person is unique and deserves their place in history.

I think about my grandfather, Lyle Carringer, born in 1891, who lived to see the automobile, the airplane, radio, two World Wars, television, the atomic age, rocket ships, and men walking on the moon — sixteen presidents and a lifetime of wonder, as I once wrote about him. He never lost his sense of awe at any of it. I think I inherited that same appetite for watching the world change, and I've been lucky enough to watch quite a lot of it change myself.

Standing at the Edge of History

I was twenty years old, eating lunch in the cafeteria at San Diego State on Friday, November 22, 1963, when the intercom crackled and told us President Kennedy had been shot and had died at the hospital. They sent everybody home. It took me two bus transfers to get there, and when I walked in, my father — who rarely talked politics with me — looked up and said, very somberly, 'This is a terrible thing, Randy.' We sat in front of our black-and-white television all that weekend, through the Oswald killing, the funeral procession, President Johnson's swearing-in, and I remember feeling, at twenty, that the bright, hopeful decade I'd grown up believing in had just cracked down the middle. I was there. Millions of Americans were there in the same sense, glued to the same grainy images, but I was one of them, and it has stayed with me for sixty years.

Not six years later, I was sitting in my parents' living room on 30th Street on a Sunday evening in July 1969, watching a different kind of history on their bigger television set. Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the surface of the moon, fulfilling a challenge President Kennedy had laid down back in 1961, the same year I graduated from high school. I had grown up on model airplanes and slide rules and a fierce, quiet ambition to work in aviation, and here was the ultimate expression of everything I found thrilling about flight — a human being walking on another world, broadcast live into my parents' home. I didn't know it then, but within two years of Kennedy’s death I would be a working aerodynamicist myself, and the space race that thrilled me that July night helped push an entire generation of engineers, myself included, into the aerospace industry.

I even had a small, personal footnote in professional sports history. In the summer of 1963, as a nineteen-year-old college student, I took a summer job as a training camp boy for the brand-new AFL San Diego Chargers, out at their camp in the high desert. That same team went on to win the AFL Championship that season — the only league title the franchise would ever win in San Diego. I've always half-joked that I was the team's good luck charm, and whether or not that's true, I was there, at the beginning of professional football in my hometown, carrying equipment and making beds for men who would become legends of the American Football League.

Those two moments — Dallas and the moon — bookended a turbulent decade for me, and I followed nearly all of it closely: the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when I was still a teenager wondering if the world would still be there in the morning; the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King in 1968; the Watts riots; the long, grinding years of the Vietnam War, which I watched from the relative safety of a college and occupational draft deferment while friends of mine did not have that same luck. I voted for the first time in 1964, and I have voted in every election since, through sixteen presidential terms now from Johnson to Trump. None of that makes me a historical figure. But it does mean that for over sixty years running, I have been a first-hand witness to the American century unfolding in real time, not from a textbook but from a kitchen table with the evening news on a radio or on a couch in the living room.

A Scientist of Small Things

Long before I was ever paid to think about airflow, I was already an amateur scientist of the airwaves. In 1960, a fellow named Randy introduced me to DXing — the hobby of hunting for distant radio stations on the AM band, sometimes bouncing off the ionosphere from thousands of miles away. It consumed me for years. I became the editor of a weekly DX club bulletin, essentially blogging by mimeograph decades before anyone called it blogging, and I attended DX conventions in Milwaukee, Colorado, Montreal, Vancouver, Sacramento, and Boston, and even hosted one in San Diego. Along the way I became something of an expert in radio wave propagation, a genuinely scientific pursuit carried out by ordinary hobbyists like me, sitting up all night with a good receiver, a tape recorder and a notebook, quietly adding to the world's understanding of how signals travel around a curved and restless planet. It was good training, as it turned out, for an engineering career built on patiently teasing physical truths out of stubborn, invisible things like airflow over a wing or pressures on an engine inlet.

A Career Built Inside Aviation History

If my brushes with the big historic moments were mostly those of a witness, my career gave me something closer to a hand in shaping the ordinary miracle of modern air travel. I spent thirty-five years, from October 1967 until my retirement in 2002, working as an aerodynamicist and eventually Chief of Aerodynamics and Thermodynamics at Rohr Corporation in Chula Vista — later Rohr Industries, then Goodrich Aerostructures, then part of United Technologies. Rohr made many of the nacelles, the engine pods, that hang beneath the wings of nearly every large commercial jet you have ever flown on. 

I became an expert in nacelle aerodynamics, turbofan engine performance, and thrust reverser design, and over the decades I worked on aircraft built by Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, including traveling to England and France to support programs like the Rolls-Royce RB211 and Airbus A320. When I came out of a two-year retirement in 2004 for two more years, it was to help design and analyze the nacelle and thrust reverser for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner — one of the most advanced commercial aircraft ever built, and I got to put my fingerprints on it in the twilight of my working life.

It's easy to overlook how historic that quiet, unglamorous work really was. Every time a family boards a jetliner today and crosses an ocean in a matter of hours, safely and almost without a thought, they are living inside a piece of engineering history that people like me spent whole careers refining, mile by mile, program by program, rivet by rivet. Many of the airplanes I’ve flown on had Rohr/Goodrich products that I helped design and test. I never walked on the moon and I was never a general or a senator, but I helped make the modern age of flight a little quieter, a little safer, and a little more efficient, and there is real satisfaction in that.

Becoming Part of the Historical Record Myself

The strangest twist in all of this is that after I retired from engineering, I became, in a modest way, a historian myself — not of nations, but of families, and in the process, something of a pioneer in a small corner of the digital age. I started writing Genea-Musings on April 15, 2006, and I have published something on it essentially every single day since -- almost 20,000 blog posts on the genealogy industry, how-to demonstrations, and family stories.

I served the Chula Vista Genealogical Society in nearly every office it has — Treasurer, First Vice President, President, Research Chairman, Newsletter Editor since 2002. I've taught classes, spoken at society meetings and conferences, hosted online webinars, and corresponded with thousands of researchers around the world. In its own quiet way, genealogy blogging in the mid-2000s was itself a piece of history in the making. We were among the first generation of family historians to move our research out of dusty courthouse basements and into a searchable, permanent, worldwide record, and I got to help build that on my little corner of the internet.

Every biography and story I write about my ancestors — Joseph Seaver as a boy in 1686 Roxbury, Henry Austin Carringer coming from Pennsylvania to San Diego, Samuel Vaux crossing the ocean from England, Robert Seaver and Eunice Rayment settling in colonial Massachusetts, many Revolutionary War ancestors, one Civll War soldier (Isaac Seaver), one US Marine Lyle Carringer,one Navy seman (Frederick W. Seaver) — is itself an act of preserving history that would otherwise vanish. 

And now, by writing my own story down, I am doing the same thing for myself, so that when my grandchildren or great-grandchildren someday go looking for the man who came before them, they will find more than a birth date and a headstone. They will find a California boy who watched a president die and a man walk on the moon, who helped design the machines that carried the world across oceans, and who spent his final decades making sure nobody in his family tree was ever forgotten again.

The Legacy That Matters Most

Of everything I've written here, none of it means as much to me as this: on Valentine's Day 1970 I asked Linda Joan Leland to marry me, and it remains the best decision I ever made. Linda taught elementary school for twenty-five years, first in Coronado and then in Chula Vista, shaping the minds of hundreds of children the way good teachers quietly do, without ever making headlines for it. She served as a Deacon at Chula Vista Presbyterian Church, led a Girl Scout troop, coached softball, and has been a steady, loving friend to more people than I could ever count. We raised two daughters, Lori and Tami, who grew into smart, capable, hard-working women — Lori in business management, Tami with advanced degrees in education now working in university leadership — and each of them married well and built families of their own. Together they have given us five grandchildren, sweet, smart, fun and ambitious kids who adore their grandparents every bit as much as we adore them, and each other. 

If the farmers and coopers, ministers and businessmen, Mayflower passengers and English kings gave me my roots, it is Linda, Lori, Tami, and those five grandchildren who are my actual harvest — the truest legacy I will ever leave the world, historic or not.

Where That Leaves Me

So where is my place in history? I don't think I belong in the history books alongside Charlemagne or the Plymouth governors whose blood I happen to carry. But I have come to believe that history isn't only made by kings and astronauts. It's made by the twenty-year-old kid who happened to be in that cafeteria, the training camp boy who happened to be there for a championship season, the aerodynamicist who spent thirty-nine years quietly perfecting the machines that shrank the world, and the retired engineer who sat down at a keyboard every morning for over twenty years and refused to let his family's story disappear. Most of all, it's made by a husband and father who found the right woman, raised two good daughters, and now watches five grandchildren carry the family forward. 

I am more like a hinge, I suppose — one small, ordinary link connecting thirteen Mayflower passengers and a line of English kings on one end, to Linda, Lori, Tami, and five grandchildren on the other, who I hope will someday care enough to keep the story going. That is not a bad place to stand, when I think about it. That is not a bad place to stand at all.

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

The AI Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this story is in:  

2)  Wait, that's not all.  I asked Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 to write song lyrics to describe and celebrate my place in history based on the book PDF. Here are the song lyrics. 

A Life Worth Remembering

(Verse 1)
Born in October, nineteen forty-three,
National City, California, that was me,
A skinny kid on 30th Street, Brooklyn Heights,
Riding my Flexy in the Southern California light.
My Gram sang carols by the fire Christmas Eve,
My Gramp showed me stamps from every place you could conceive,
I rode my bike down every street in San Diego town,
Built my world from the bottom up, brick by brick and pound by pound.

(Verse 2)
I was eating lunch in sixty-three, SDSU,
When the intercom told us what we never thought it'd do —
Said the President was gone, send everybody home,
And I rode two buses back, a twenty-year-old, alone.
Six years later, Sunday night, a grainy black-and-white,
Armstrong stepped onto the moon — Lord, what a sight!
I was already drawing airflows, dreaming of the skies,
Engineering the machines that helped a whole world rise.

(Chorus)
I am a hinge between the old and the new,
From Mayflower ships to jet engines cutting through,
From Plymouth Rock to the Pacific shore,
One ordinary man in an extraordinary story's core.
I watched the world change, held my family tight,
Put my name on the airplanes that crossed the night,
Not a king, not a hero, just a man who tried —
A life worth remembering, and I wear that with pride.

(Verse 3)
Thirty-five years at Rohr, Chula Vista, California sun,
Nacelles, thrust reversers, 'til the work was done,
Boeing, Douglas, Airbus — I helped keep them in the air,
Every safe flight crossing oceans, I put something there.
I was a training camp boy for the Chargers, sixty-three,
They won the championship — don't tell me that wasn't me!
I DX'd on the AM band, chased signals through the night,
A scientist of small things, always hunting for the light.

(Chorus)
I am a hinge between the old and the new,
From Mayflower ships to jet engines cutting through,
From Plymouth Rock to the Pacific shore,
One ordinary man in an extraordinary story's core.
I watched the world change, held my family tight,
Put my name on the airplanes that crossed the night,
Not a king, not a hero, just a man who tried —
A life worth remembering, and I wear that with pride.

(Bridge)
My roots run deep, from Mayflower decks to colonial shores,
Through Alfred the Great and Charlemagne and so much more,
But none of that matters half as much as what I built right here —
A family, a life, a legacy I hold so dear.

Linda, my love, my partner, my very best friend,
Twenty-five years teaching children, a deacon to the end,
Lori and Tami, women of grace and grit and fire,
Five grandchildren climbing higher and higher and higher.

(Verse 4)
I've been blogging Genea-Musings since two-thousand-and-six,
Every ancestor I find is another name I fix
Back into the story so the grandkids someday know
Every farmer, every soldier, every seed that helped them grow.
I am the hinge — the keeper of the old and the new,
From Roxbury to Rohr, from Wiltshire to the seven-eighty-seven's view,
I've had my seat at history's table, quiet but here,
And I wouldn't trade a single blessed day of my eighty-some years.

(Final Chorus)
I am a hinge between the old and the new,
From Mayflower ships to jet engines cutting through,
From Plymouth Rock to the Pacific shore,
One ordinary man in an extraordinary story's core.
I watched the world change, held my family tight,
Put my name on the airplanes that crossed the night,
Not a king, not a hero, just a man who tried —
A life worth remembering, and I wear that with pride.

(Outro - slow, fading)
*Go look them up in the family tree…*
*Mayflower, Rohr, and a life lived free…*
*Linda, Lori, Tami, five grandkids bright…*
*Genea-Musings, every morning, posted in the light…*
*San Diego born, San Diego raised…*
*A life worth living… and a life worth praised.*

3)  Here is the A LIfe Worth Remembering song developed by Suno.com using the song lyrics and requesting a male voice, happy melody,  upbeat tempo, storytelling, guitar and percussion: 

4)  Isn't Artificial Intelligence great?  I'm having lots of genealogy and family history fun!

What is your Place in History?  Tell your story and pass it on to your family and friends. 

Happy 4th of July!!!  Stay tuned for more genealogy fun.

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

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/what-is-my-place-in-history-claudes-view.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.

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

Randy’s Memories: Our October 2008 New York City and Caribbean Vacation -- Genealogy

I wrote several Genea-Musings posts about our vacation travels all over the United States and some foreign countries, but they are all in my "Engineer-speak" and "Just-the-facts" writing style. 

One of our most memorable trips was to New York City and a Caribbean Cruise in October 2008. I wrote a summary report after the trip. I wondered if my AI-assistant Anthropic Claude could turn my "Engineer-speak" report into an engaging story about our 2008 vacation trip to the East Coast. The first part of this story is in Randy’s Memories: Our October 2008 New York City and Caribbean Vacation -- Sightseeing.

Part Two of this story is below:

(Google NotebookLM Infographic - 2008 Genealogy Cruise Highlights - Genealogy)

Here is Claude's version of the second part of the story about the Genealogy experiences:

Our 2008 TMG Genealogy Cruise Experience -- Genealogy Summary

I embarked on what would become one of the most enriching genealogical experiences of my research career—the 2008 The Master Genealogist (TMG) cruise from New York City to the Caribbean in October. This journey combined my passion for family history research with the opportunity to learn from some of the field's most respected experts, all while sailing through stunning Caribbean waters.

The Conference Structure and Organization

The TMG Conference was masterfully organized by Bob Velke and the Wholly Genes team, and I have to say they did excellent work. According to Bob, there were about 200 people registered for the conference, which included non-genealogy spouses and companions. However, when I counted heads several times during the lectures, I saw no more than 100 people in the audience for most presentations.

The cruise and conference ran from Sunday, October 26 through Saturday, November 1, with varying schedules of presentations. The first two days at sea featured the most intensive programming, with sessions running from early morning through late evening. As we reached the Caribbean islands, the schedule lightened to accommodate shore excursions, though genealogy programming continued throughout the week.

Venue Challenges

I need to be honest about the venue situation—it was a major problem. The venues for the speaker presentations left much to be desired. The morning meetings were held in Club Fusion, a nightclub with many TV screens around. While fairly ideal for watching someone manipulate his computer, it's essentially a disco and karaoke bar with lots of TV screens. The seating and sightlines for viewing the speaker were challenging.

Some talks had to be presented in the Palm Dining Room, where they set up a small screen and put 40-60 chairs in a small area with no separation between speaker and audience. We were gathered in close to the small screen for these intimate sessions.

The Princess Theater, with about 500 seats in three levels and a big screen, should have been ideal, but I witnessed serious projection problems during Cyndi Howells' Friday presentation. The projection would skew sideways frequently—but not on the laptop she was using, so it had to be the theater setup. The problems disrupted Cyndi's presentation and our concentration as viewers, but Cyndi was a trooper and pushed through.

Several talks had to be moved from the originally scheduled venues, but everyone adapted well. Even with these venue problems, the speakers and program content were excellent, which is what really mattered.

Learning The Master Genealogist Software

As someone who had downloaded the trial TMG before leaving home and uploaded my database into TMG while in New York, I was eager to learn about this powerful but complex software.

Introduction to TMG (Bob Velke)

Monday morning at 8:15 a.m., I attended Bob Velke's "Introduction to TMG" presentation. Bob led us through TMG terminology, screen layouts, Tags, searching for people, though he didn't have time for basic data entry and sources. His clear explanations helped demystify some of the program's unique approaches.

Filtering with TMG (Bob Velke)

The second talk, "Filtering with TMG," showed us how to use filters to create groups of people—for example, all those born before 1800, or all those born between 1800 and 1900, all those with a certain source, all those with an event in a certain location, and so on. I learned a lot from these presentations and can see how TMG can be used effectively using Tags and Filters. The power of this feature for targeted research became immediately apparent.

Advanced TMG: Customizing Reports and Charts (Bob Velke)

On Wednesday, Bob presented "Advanced TMG: Customizing Reports" and "Customizing Charts." These were very useful for this novice TMG user. I followed along for awhile, and finally was able to make an ahnentafel list (just names, dates and places in ahnentafel order) from my database. Bob went over my head fairly quickly with setting flags and manipulating text reports for public consumption by controlling narrative output. He didn't get around to the Book Manager, unfortunately.

In the second hour on TMG Charts, Bob demonstrated chart elements, filtering charts and other chart options. Again, I concentrated on making a chart I wanted—a descendant or ancestor chart for a number of generations. The key is using the options to control chart content and formatting—boxes, lines, fonts, colors, etc. The Charts use the Visual Chartform program which is included in TMG. The TMG program is very powerful and flexible—the user can add boxes, frames, colors, etc. to create a custom chart.

There are sample TMG report outputs at www.whollygenes.com/samplereports.htm, which Bob referenced.

TMG Utility (John Cardinal)

Tuesday morning featured two lectures by John Cardinal on "TMG Utility," a stand-alone modification tool that fixes TMG database problems using rules and filters. It's useful for fixing problems that affect many persons. These appear to be powerful tools for maintaining database integrity.

Second Site (John Cardinal)

Cardinal also presented "Second Site," a stand-alone program that creates web pages from a TMG database. This software appears especially powerful if a TMG user wants to create a website with linked pages between people and events in a project database. I missed the advanced session, "Second Site for Advanced Users," but the basic presentation convinced me of its value.

My overall impression? I am truly convinced that TMG is a very powerful program that the user can bend to his or her will, but is it worth that effort? The learning curve is steep, and I'm still pondering whether to make the full commitment.

Research Methodology and Problem-Solving

The conference featured several presentations that transcended any single software program and addressed fundamental genealogical research principles.

Genealogical Problem Solving (Elizabeth Shown Mills)

The first Monday afternoon presentation was "Genealogical Problem Solving" by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Elizabeth used real life and imaginary (humorous) case studies to illustrate her 13 research tips. Basically, she said follow the trail of people and paperwork—what records exist, who did the people associate with, and do research in original records, not just gather names, dates and places.

Research is not looking up the answer in books or databases, research is tracking down the answer, since nobody else has solved the problem. This was a fun and informative presentation—she's the expert, of course! The case studies were fascinating—many of them from NGSQ or TAG articles. This fundamental truth resonated with me throughout the rest of the conference.

The Identity Crisis: Right Name, Wrong Man? Wrong Name, Right Man? (Elizabeth Shown Mills)

After lunch on Tuesday, Elizabeth was back for "The Identity Crisis: Right Name, Wrong Man? Wrong Name, Right Man?" She used seven case studies to illustrate her points that names can change for a number of reasons—including step-fathers and liaisons, patriarchal reasons, borrowed or alias names, taking a father or husband's given name as a surname, patronymics, "dit" names, and translated or transliterated names.

The case studies were fascinating—many of them from NGSQ or TAG articles. Elizabeth's ability to dissect complex identity problems and build convincing arguments was truly impressive.

Writing and Presenting Family History

How to Write Your Family History (John Titford)

At 10:45 a.m. Monday, John Titford presented "How to Write Your Family History." He covered the different excuses we use to avoid writing the book—for example, "I'm not finished..."; "I'm a poor writer"; "My family story is so ordinary"; etc.

He noted that writing a book requires you to make decisions on content and format, to organize your work so that you can focus on writing the book, and writing the book, which will be essentially a series of biographies in a logical order. John recommended using geographical, social and historical context to place each family in a place and time experiencing local or national events. John is a funny and enthusiastic presenter, and his practical advice was invaluable.

Migrants on the Move: "Bounce Backers" (John Titford)

Tuesday after lunch, John was up again with "Migrants on the Move: 'Bounce Backers.'" This title refers to English ancestors of John's that traveled within England, but always came back to the Bratton, Wiltshire and Frome, Somerset ancestral homes. John used five examples from his own research from 1547 to 1757.

The lesson here, for me, was that people were not always static—they moved about, up to 100 miles or more sometimes. In addition to the standard parish registers and wills, he showed that there are other resources that can be used to find information about persons in this time frame. This challenged my assumptions about early colonial ancestor mobility.

Specialized Record Types and Research Strategies

Working the Land: Tracing Land Ownership (Barbara Vines Little)

Barbara Vines Little presented "Working the Land: Tracing Land Ownership." She also used case studies to illustrate the methods. Barbara covered deed terminology and some inheritance laws and noted that the researcher needs to know what laws apply when. She suggested using an in-out chart to track land transactions by a person, paying attention to parcels that are not bought but are sold by the person, and using platting techniques to find parcel locations and neighbors.

She noted that indexes may have only names that affect land titles, and some property exchanges, or leases or mortgages, may be in the deed books but not in the indexes. A good lecture with practical applications for my own research.

Femme Covert or Femme Sole: Women and the Law (Barbara Vines Little)

Wednesday's noon lecture was "Femme Covert or Femme Sole: Women and the Law" by Barbara Vines Little. Barbara covered how the English Common Law concerning women and property was applied in the colonial times. She had many examples that demonstrated how single and married females fared in property transactions, and discussed many of the intricate details involved.

I must have missed a bit of this talk while reading the syllabus (or zzzzz, I don't know...), because it seemed to go pretty fast. But the material on coverture and women's legal status was eye-opening.

Military Records Research

Researching Your Revolutionary War Ancestors (Craig R. Scott)

Craig R. Scott presented "Researching Your Revolutionary War Ancestors." Craig is an expert in military records, and it shines through in this talk. His counsel was to check all of the papers in Compiled Military Service Records and Pension Applications—including those of other members of the soldier's company and regiment.

He noted that not all soldiers have a Compiled Military Service Record, and that there may be records in State Archives, the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Craig noted that http://www.footnote.com/ has the compiled military service records, Continental Congress papers, RevWar rolls, and RevWar Pension files online—indexed and searchable. He warned that HeritageQuestOnline has only selected pension papers online, not the complete pension file.

Did Your Ancestor Serve in the Civil War? (Tony Burroughs)

The last presentation on Tuesday was by Tony Burroughs on "Did Your Ancestor Serve in the Civil War?" He started out with an excellent summary of how to find if you have a Civil War ancestor—to use interviews with relatives, family papers and records, cemetery records, birth, death and marriage records, and census records to work your way back to 1870 in order to determine which males might have served in the Civil War (essentially those aged 23 to 53 in 1870).

Then check the 1910 census (Column 30), the 1890 Union veterans census and the online NPS Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System at www.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.htm to determine if they were Union soldiers. Tony covered records available for Union soldiers and seamen, Confederate soldiers, and African-American soldiers. He provided an excellent bibliography.

Beyond Pension Research: You Stopped Too Soon (Craig Scott)

Wednesday afternoon, Craig Scott presented "Beyond Pension Research: You Stopped Too Soon." Craig really knows this military and NARA stuff well. He said that it is important to know and understand the federal pension laws over time—from 1818 to 1873 and beyond. He also said that there is more to pension research than just finding and obtaining the pension application.

The additional records available for Revolutionary War pensions are found at National Archives branches. They include the Pension Office Ledgers and Payment Cards, and the Final Payment vouchers and Settled Accounts records. Craig had many examples of these records and the information they hold. He said that copies of pension applications on www.Footnote.com are of better quality than the original paper copies available on microfilm at NARA.

I missed quite a bit of this talk due to an irresistible urge to nap—I'm just glad I didn't snore. But what I caught was invaluable.

Military Records Round Table (David Lambert)

On Sunday evening at 9:30 p.m., I went up to Café Caribe for David Lambert's round table talk about military records. Craig Scott shared quite a bit also, and between the two of them answered many questions from the floor. I talked to Claire afterward about Philadelphia records that my colleague Joan is seeking—Claire had some good suggestions.

DNA and Genetic Genealogy

Beyond Y-DNA: Your Genetic Genealogy Options (Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak)

The 12 noon presentation on Monday was "Beyond Y-DNA: Your Genetic Genealogy Options" by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak. This was the first presentation I've heard from Megan. She described the basics of mitochondrial DNA, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP), Ethnic DNA tests, BioGeographical/Admixture (DNAPrint), the Genographic Project, SMGF tests and studies, and Multi-Purpose DNA Tests (deCODEme and 23andme).

Megan is an excellent speaker and presenter. The presentation opened my eyes to testing options beyond the basic Y-DNA and mtDNA tests I was familiar with. There were about 100 attending this talk.

DNA Research Round Table (David Lambert)

Friday evening's 9:30 p.m. meeting in Café Caribe featured David Lambert hosting a discussion group on DNA testing and research. He has had Y-DNA, mtDNA and genomic testing done, and told stories about each of them.

Several attendees described their experiences—Hal W. has run a surname project that found no links between three colonial New England immigrants with variants of his surname. I spoke briefly about my mtDNA test and finding exact matches, but have had no contact yet with them.

David would like to have a project that collects Y-DNA or mtDNA sequences for specific colonial New England ancestors. He encouraged all to get tested, and to find near or distant cousins that can help fill out a genetic signature family tree. This was a very spirited discussion with many good experiences and ideas. David is very irreverent and humorous, which I appreciate and enjoy.

Regional and Ethnic Research

The Naming of the Green: Irish Place Names and Surnames (John Grenham)

I missed this Monday evening lecture by John Grenham, but the syllabus has an excellent text for this lecture. My loss for being too exhausted from the day's sessions.

Irish Genealogy on the Internet (John Grenham)

Wednesday afternoon, John Grenham presented "Irish Genealogy on the Internet." John noted that the major sources of Irish genealogy information are census records, the civil BMD records, Church records and property records. There are other records, such as wills, estates, newspapers, and directories.

He discussed the online information available for each of these record types. The 1901 and 1911 census records are partially available on several websites, some commercial and some free. General Register Office records for some years are online, as are some church records. Property records online are Griffith's Valuation and the Tithe Applotment records from the 1830's.

More records have come online in the past year, but several repositories are slow in adding record images due to their worry about losing walk-in customers—they are putting indexes online, but to obtain the images you have to either pay a significant fee or go to the repository. This was a very useful talk for me—I have not done any Irish research, but have wondered about it.

Atlantic Canada Round Table (David Lambert)

Thursday evening's Group Discussion at 9:30 p.m. covered "Atlantic Canada." There were about 30 of us around a table in Café Caribe and David described the records available for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. He has ancestry in most of those provinces, and has done extensive research at NEHGS and other repositories. Later, he answered questions from the audience.

Even at the late hour, the conversation was lively, and David really knows his material. He passed around a book titled "Atlantic Canada Research" by Terrence Punch and George Sanborn published by NEHGS in 1997 that looks like a good one to have.

City Directories and Local Research

Finding Your Ancestors in City Directories (Tony Burroughs)

The last lecture on Wednesday was Tony Burroughs on "Finding Your Ancestors in City Directories." Tony discussed the information that can be found in City Directories, and displayed many excellent examples from his own family research in Chicago and Chattanooga.

He focused on finding information in between census years to find residences, occupations, spouse's names, etc. He said that locating houses may be hampered by changes in street names, changes in house numbering systems, etc. One of the most useful parts of city directories is the reverse directory—listed by street address rather than by name.

Tony listed some online resources for city directories and repositories that have significant collections. He suggested using www.Worldcat.org to find specific city and year publications held by repositories. I really enjoyed Tony Burroughs' infectious laugh and enthusiasm for his subjects.

Mapping and Online Tools

Plotting, Scheming and Mapping Online (Cyndi Howells)

Thursday evening, the only speaker was Cyndi Howells on "Plotting, Scheming and Mapping Online." Cyndi is an excellent speaker, and covered her Ten Quick Tips about maps in 30 minutes, using many examples to illustrate her points. She also discussed finding maps on Migration Trails in detail, and showed some online map creation tools like Google Earth and Earth Point.

Her syllabus has many URLs to explore. This was a great lecture—very helpful and informative.

Virtual Cousin Research Project (Cyndi Howells)

Friday's presentation, "Virtual Cousin Research Project," was one of the best lectures on the conference. Cyndi had major troubles with the projector hookup, but she was a trooper.

Cyndi suggested that the Internet can be used very effectively to conduct a research project among a cousin network by using blogs, websites, wikis, Google Tools, instant messaging, etc. A project requires a scope definition, a project administrator, a To-Do list, and cousins willing to contribute to and support the efforts.

She suggested the project concentrate on a surname, or descendants of a person, or a locality. A blog, either open to everyone or open to only the cousins, can be used as a newsletter and coordination for the project. Google Tools can be used for email to the project members, a home page for coordination and news, saving online documents in Google docs, etc.

Cyndi used Terry Thornton's Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi as an example of a locality blog. Everything she mentioned is free to the users and can be organized to include all of the project members—whether two or a hundred people. This presentation gave me ideas I'm still thinking about implementing.

Case Studies and Inspirational Stories

Right Annie, Wrong Annie (Megan Smolenyak)

Tuesday morning, Megan Smolenyak presented "Right Annie, Wrong Annie" about the search for Annie Moore and the ensuing family reunion, NYGBS presentation, the plays in DC and Ireland, and the dedication of the monument in Calvary Cemetery in Queens.

Megan showed the research performed to prove the wrong Annie wasn't the right one, and the research done by several contributors to find Annie Schayer in Manhattan, and her unmarked cemetery plot. This talk was the SCGS Jamboree dinner talk that I missed, so I was happy to hear it. Linda came to this talk and was moved by it.

This talk really brings out the best in genealogy, I think. Megan wore her Annie Moore T-shirt and I got a picture with her after the presentation.

One-on-One Consultations: The Conference Highlight

The one-on-one consultations on Saturday night were, for me, the absolute highlight of the conference. I brought summaries of my "elusive ancestor" problems and got expert guidance from three different perspectives.

Consultation with David Lambert

My first "One-on-One" was at 8:30 p.m. with David Lambert of NEHGS. I decided to ask for help on my elusive Thomas J. Newton of ME, MA and VT. Dave had some great suggestions for records I don't normally think of—unpublished church records, War of 1812 veterans, 1798 Direct Tax for MA/ME, and divorce records which might be in the Massachusetts State Archives. He even took my writeup to see if he could think of more things to look up.

We had a little more time, so he looked over my Elizabeth Horton Dill (1794?-1869) birth parents problem too. His practical suggestions opened new research avenues I hadn't considered.

Consultation with Elizabeth Shown Mills

My second "One-on-One" was with Elizabeth Shown Mills, one of the most skilled genealogists on the planet. Elizabeth dissected my Elizabeth Horton Dill problem several ways, and didn't even comment on my poor source citations for several records.

She gave me several excellent ideas for further research in original records—not transcripts or abstracts—like the later Barnstable County Deeds and probates, and probates for the sons of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill. We discussed my hypotheses about the conflicts in the evidence I already have—and agreed they might be correct, but that I need much more data to build a solid case. I wish I had a steel-trap mind like she does! Impressive.

Consultation with Sandra Hewlett

My third "One-on-One" was with Sandra Hewlett, who lives in Pennsylvania. I chose her so that I could discuss my elusive Mary Hoax (ca 1768-1850), wife of Martin Carringer. Sandy noted that I didn't really know where Hempfield township was in Westmoreland County, and that I need to consider deeds and probates for the Hoax/Hokes/etc. families in Westmoreland from 1773, and in Bedford County from 1771-1773, and in Cumberland County PA before that.

She had a great book called Pennsylvania Line which had a complete listing of all towns, townships and counties, including maps showing how county boundaries changed. She also suggested checking records such as the 1773 and 1783 tax/census lists, Pennsylvania state RevWar muster rolls online at the PA State Archives site, and obtaining Martin Carringer's Bounty Land Warrant from NARA.

All I can say about this conference's "top-notch faculty" is WOW—they are excellent speakers and have a wealth of genealogy research knowledge. The depth and breadth of these folks is tremendous. I really appreciate their sharing with us, especially in the "one-on-ones." That was challenging and fun.

Social Aspects and Networking

Throughout the week, Linda and I had many opportunities to connect with fellow genealogists. We ate dinner with several TMG Conference attendees, and I shared conversations about genealogy during meals, at the pool, and walking around the ship.

I had a great time talking to Happy Dae at this conference—he has been reading Genea-Musings for a long time, which I really appreciate! I ate lunch with Joanne from Oregon and Lorna from New Zealand, both TMG devotees. We shared research experiences over several meals.

The Sunday cocktail party and Saturday "last night" cocktail party were great times—in fact, almost the only time I saw many of the speakers together. The end of the Saturday party was the assembled geneaholics singing "I'm My Own Grandpa" led by John Titford. Apparently, this is a tradition, and it was tremendous fun.

Cyndi Howells is such a neat person to talk to—she is so fun and friendly. I had never met her before, but it seemed like we were instant friends.

Unanswered Questions

This Wholly Genes genea-cruiser wants to know: Where did all of the speakers hang out when they didn't have talks to give? Did anyone see any of them at the pool or in the casino, or in the lounges? Or even at dinner? I saw Dick Eastman at the ice cream stand—gotcha, Dick!

Does David Lambert ever breathe when he talks? How can his brain work faster than his mouth? But it does, obviously!

Is there anything that Craig Scott doesn't know about military records?

What did Robert Charles Anderson do on this cruise besides one-on-ones?

Why weren't the hosted breakfasts and one-on-ones fully subscribed by the attendees? People really missed out if they didn't participate in these.

Do any of these speakers ever stammer, forget what they are about to say, or speak in less than complete sentences? I didn't notice any glitches like this at all over 20 presentations and 4 round tables. Impressive.

Final Reflections

This genealogy cruise successfully combined intensive learning with leisure travel in a way I'd never experienced before. The conference provided cutting-edge instruction on genealogy software, research methodology, specialized record types, and emerging technologies like DNA testing—all while sailing through beautiful Caribbean waters.

The speakers were universally excellent, patient with venue problems, and generous with their time and expertise. The one-on-one consultations alone were worth the price of admission, providing personalized guidance on my most challenging research problems.

While The Master Genealogist software remains complex with a steep learning curve, I gained tremendous respect for its power and flexibility. More importantly, the research methodology sessions—particularly Elizabeth Shown Mills' emphasis on following the trail of people and paperwork in original records—reinforced fundamental principles that transcend any particular software platform.

The networking opportunities, from formal round tables to casual conversations over meals, enriched the experience immeasurably. Connecting with fellow researchers who share the same passion for family history created a sense of community that extended well beyond the conference sessions.

Would I recommend a genealogy cruise? Absolutely. Despite the venue challenges and the inherent complications of holding a conference on a moving ship, the quality of instruction, the caliber of speakers, and the unique combination of learning and leisure created an unforgettable experience that advanced my genealogical skills while providing much-needed relaxation.

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

  Here is the AI Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this story:  

Claude followed my reference document very well, and also added some interpretation and description to the narrative.  

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

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/2026/03/randys-memories-our-october-2008-new_0908940829.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 Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Please 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.

Randy’s Memories: Our October 2008 New York City and Caribbean Vacation -- Sightseeing

 I wrote several Genea-Musings posts about our vacation travels all over the United States and some foreign countries, but they are all in my "Engineer-speak" and "Just-the-facts" writing style. 

One of our most memorable trips was to New York City and a Caribbean Cruise in October 2008. I wrote a summary report after the trip.

I wondered if my AI-assistant Anthropic Claude could turn my "Engineer-speak" report into an engaging story about our 2008 vacation trip to the East Coast. 

Here is Claude's version of the story:

Our 2008 TMG Genealogy Cruise from New York to the Caribbean -- Sightseeing Summary

This is my account of the sightseeing adventures from our memorable cruise journey in October 2008, sponsored by The Master Genealogist (a genealogy software company) that began in New York City and ventured through several Caribbean islands, and ended up in Florida, offering a fascinating blend of American landmarks, island culture, and genealogical tourism. We flew from San Diego to New York City on Jet Blue to catch the cruise ship Caribbean Princess, but first we wanted to explore New York City (neither of us had been there before).

New York City: A Whirlwind Introduction

Our adventure began on Thursday, October 23, 2008, with what was supposed to be an eight-hour tour of New York City but turned into a nine-hour marathon. Linda and I had signed up for this tour the night before, and we left our hotel after 10 a.m., ready for whatever the city had to offer.

The tour packed in an impressive array of iconic locations, each offering its own unique perspective on the city's character and history. The United Nations building provided our first stop, where we navigated security to reach the visitor center and capture photographs outside this symbol of international c ooperation. From there, we moved to Rockefeller Plaza, where we explored both the interior and exterior spaces, including the famous Today show building and the skating rink that has become a winter tradition for millions.

The Empire State Building offered perhaps the most spectacular views of the day. Ascending to the 86th-floor observation deck, Linda and I gazed out over the sprawling metropolis, taking in the breathtaking panorama that has captivated tourists for generations. The gift shop provided the obligatory opportunity for souvenirs before our group continued the journey.Lunch came late, at 3 p.m., at Water Street Gourmet deli, but the wait was worthwhile as it preceded one of the tour's highlights. Battery Park served as our departure point for the ferry to Liberty Island, where we ate our deli lunches while cruising across the harbor. The Statue of Liberty, that enduring symbol of American freedom and immigration, stood majestically against the New York skyline. Though we couldn't ascend into the statue itself, we had ample opportunity for photographs and I even fed some opportunistic seagulls. One of my memorable photos captured what I like to call "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" photobombing a Liberty shot.

Ground Zero (of 9/11) provided a sobering contrast to the earlier stops. I was surprised by how compact the footprint appeared and noted how businesses around the site had resumed normal operations. The limited viewing area—requiring a 100-yard walk down a slope to a break in the fence—offered a glimpse into the construction site that would eventually become the 9/11 Memorial.

Chinatown brought the sensory experience to life with its open-air markets displaying fruits, vegetables, seafood, jewelry, and souvenirs. The vibrant neighborhood offered a stark contrast to the solemn atmosphere of Ground Zero, showcasing New York's incredible diversity.

The day's final challenge came in the form of clogged expressways, particularly the hour-long crawl from Chinatown to Elmhurst. "Arrgghh," I wrote in my journal. This traffic jam, however, provided an unexpected opportunity for me to discuss genealogy with ladies from Nova Scotia across the aisle. They were surprised that I knew where Cape Breton was—one of my CVGS colleagues has ancestry there! I told them about my Norway research and our trip to Voss in 1999. Then the traffic jam broke and we had to stop our conversation.

We got back at 7 p.m.—a full nine-hour day. The wireless connection at our hotel was crappy, and I couldn't read my email using Cox web mail that night—the pages never loaded.

Ellis Island: My Personal Pilgrimage

Friday, October 24, brought a deeply personal excursion to Ellis Island, a site of tremendous significance for genealogists like me. Linda wanted a quiet day and was really tired from all the walking the day before and cannot climb the subway stairs, so she walked to a local shopping center while I took the New York subway back to Battery Park.

My journey began at 10:30 a.m. on the R subway from Queens, and I arrived at Battery Park at 11:30 a.m. I bought my ticket, and then found the end of the line—it wrapped all the way around the park, maybe 300 yards long. I passed through security after 1 p.m. and caught the 1:30 p.m. boat, which stopped at the Statue of Liberty before getting to Ellis Island at 2 p.m.

The Ellis Island Immigration Center entrance led me into the Baggage Room, an evocative space that must have been filled with anxiety and hope for the millions who passed through it during the facility's operational years. At the west end of the room was the American Family Immigration History Center, which had the resources of the www.EllisIsland.org website on computers—visitors could look for ship manifests and ship passengers.

A particularly moving moment came when I stood and watched an excellent docent coax immigration information from a patron—and then the patron went to a computer for a 35-minute session to find and copy the ship manifest and ship's picture. Of course, the patron could buy a beautiful framed reproduction. I sensed the excitement, though. This is really ground-floor genealogy. I'll bet few of these patrons knew beforehand that they would have this opportunity.

I had limited time, so I went up to the second floor where most of th e exhibits are located. I no sooner entered than I was face-to-face with Annie Moore, the first recorded immigrant to Ellis Island. I had to get a picture of and with Annie, since I have strong feelings for her and had researched her story somewhat.

The rest of the exhibits were excellent—rooms showing the ships, the ocean passage experience, the inspection process at Ellis Island, and how the passengers left Ellis Island to meet family, sponsors, or return to the home country. I didn't have time to watch the theater shows—one was a 30-minute film "Island of Hope, Island of Fears" about the Ellis Island experience. I quickly toured the third floor too, but had to leave on the 3:20 p.m. boat in order to be back in Queens by 5 p.m.

Unfortunately, the long wait in line really curtailed my time at the Center. But it was a great hour of reading, learning, and seeing the Ellis Island experience firsthand.

This was my first time on the New York subway. I bought a one-day MetroPass for $7 and could have gone all over the system if I had time. Going back was during rush hour, and the cars filled and partially emptied several times.

Linda and I went to a restaurant down the block from the hotel for dinner. We celebrated my birthday with a big lemon meringue dessert that we shared.

Library Research as My Kind of Tourism

Saturday, October 25, demonstrated that for me, sightseeing isn't limited to traditional tourist attractions. I lucked out and dodged the rain that day to do some genealogy research at the New York Public Library. Linda didn't want to go out, so I braved the subway again and found my way to Grand Central Station and walked the three blocks to the NYPL at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street.

The imposing building, with its marble floors, tall square columns, numerous hallways, and distinctly "old world" feel, created an impressive setting for my scholarly pursuits. This was one of those buildings with lots of marble floors, tall square columns, many hallways, many rooms (each with a number), and a real "old world" feel to it. The Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy is in Room 121 on the first floor.

The efficient system allowed me to look up items in the NYPL catalog on the computer, fill out a call slip, hand it in to the staff, and wait just two or three minutes for the item to be delivered at my table spot. The staff was very patient, friendly and helpful, and expert at what they do.

The computers had both the CATNYP library online catalog and access to electronic resources including Ancestry Library Edition, HeritageQuestOnline, Footnote.com, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, America's Historical Newspapers, Times of London, 19th Century Masterfile, New England Ancestors, New York County Histories Online, Origins Network and Burke's Peerage & Gentry Online.

The copying process was slightly cumbersome—I needed to buy a copy card. They cost 30 cents, but you have to put $1.00 from a bill on the card. I didn't have a $1 bill, so I had to go to the opposite corner of the building to get change (in a machine), then come back and load my card.

I imposed on one of my neighbor researchers to take a picture of me at my "place"—Table 3, Seat 24. In three hours, I got quite a bit done in resources that I might not find in a San Diego area library.

I had hoped to find the book Colonial Families of Long Island, New York and Connecticut by Herbert Furman Seversmith, published Washington DC, 1953. The NYPL had 6 volumes of it, and I checked out Volume 4, which contained information about my Lewis family. Unfortunately, it did not have information on the LaTourette family of Long Island. I copied the table of contents for all volumes and the Lewis information.

Next on my list was the LaTourette family—I copied pages from LaTourette Annals in America, by Lyman E. LaTourette, 1954. This small book seems to be the only one available for this family.

I checked Martin, Putman, Knapp, Seaver, Bresee, Scism and a bunch of other surnames and didn't see anything that I hadn't seen before. Then I remembered my Jeffrey Jones family of the 1600's in Huntington LI that went to Elizabethtown and Woodbridge NJ in the late 1600's. I found a book The Long Island Ancestry of William Jones, of Woodbridge, N.J. by Oliver D. Drake. An interesting book, but no mention of my Jeffrey. Drat. I hate it when that happens.

It was raining when I left the NYPL feeling good about my day. I ducked into the Bryant Park subway station right by the library and caught the 7 train to Queensboro Plaza, where I had to go outside and walk three blocks to the R train. I was back by 4:30 and we went to an early dinner at Pop Diner. They have a 16-ounce Angus Ribeye steak that is great!

Caribbean Islands: Sun, Sea, and Culture

The cruise portion of our journey brought Linda and me to four distinct Caribbean destinations, each offering unique character and attractions. We were at sea for five days out of New York City. There were genealogy-related events while at sea and in the evenings after dinner. Linda spent a lot of time in the sun and the pool on board the ship.

St. Kitts (Thursday, October 30) presented a vista of colorful buildings against mountainous terrain as our ship docked. We were up early because we had a hosted breakfast with Barbara Vines Little at 7 a.m. and an on-dock time of 8:20 a.m. for a tour to the St. Kitts Scenic Railway. There were eight of us at the breakfast in the Coral Dining Room but we had little time to talk about genealogy.

We went off on our three-hour tour on an 8 mile-per-hour rocking narrow gauge sugar cane train, traveling mainly past the back yards of St. Kittians, many of whom waved as the train passed, especially the school children. An onboard choir provided entertainment, adding a festive atmosphere to the scenic tour. The railway provided a unique perspective on the island—not the polished tourist areas, but the authentic residential neighborhoods where people lived their daily lives.

We were back to the dock by 12 noon, and Linda stayed in town to shop a bit while I came back to the boat for lunch. I ate lunch with Joanne from Oregon and Lorna from New Zealand, who are both TMG devotees. They extolled the virtues of TMG and I am truly convinced that it's a very powerful program that the user can bend to his or her will, but is it worth that effort? We shared research experiences and Linda joined us a bit later. She went to the pool and I explored the boat a bit more – walking the deck and exploring different rooms.

St. Kitts emerged as a genuinely poor island, but the warmth and friendliness of its people left a lasting impression on me. The narrow roads and left-side driving presented challenges for those of us accustomed to American traffic patterns, but these quirks added to the exotic appeal of the destination.

Antigua (Friday, October 31) proved slightly larger than St. Kitts and offered its own aquatic adventure. After breakfast, we went off on the Stingrays and Snorkel tour on the north side of the island, passing through the small town of St. Johns and into the countryside, arriving at a beach where we boarded small flat-bottom outboard motor boats.

The boats took us about a mile out to a fenced-in pen with a smooth bottom and sting rays swimming within the pen. We used snorkels to swim along with them. Some of the staff handled the rays and let everyone touch them. We took some underwater pictures. The experience of interacting with these gentle animals in their natural habitat created memories that transcended typical beach activities, though this was 3 hours for about 45 minutes in the water.

The drive to and from was pretty quiet—there was no tour guide, just a driver. I talked with several folks about genealogy on the way back.

Antigua shared St. Kitts' characteristics of narrow roads, left-side driving, friendly people, and economic challenges, but its larger size and the specific nature of the stingray encounter gave it a distinct identity in our overall cruise experience.

St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands (Saturday, November 1) offered yet another aquatic adventure. The day started in St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands) harbor with breakfast in the Horizon Court restaurant (usually scrambled eggs, bacon, English muffin or roll, banana, pear halves, and a Danish—hey, we had to get our money's worth! I need energy...).

Then we were off before 9 a.m. for our "Bumpy fast ride" on the top of the waves to Buck Island where we snorkeled in Turtle Cove (there were two turtles there—they spent most of their time on the bottom hiding from snorkelers) and Shipwreck Cove (where I didn't see the shipwreck, but others apparently did). Getting there was a lot of fun—two young ladies driving a 30-foot Zodiac boat (500 hp twin outboards)—we got a little wet crashing through the tops of the waves at 30 mph or so.

The water was fine, but it was rough in Shipwreck Cove. Linda had a hard time climbing back onboard the boat. We were back on the cruise ship by 12:30 p.m. and I went up to lunch (cheeseburger, fries, cookie) and ate with Lee and Gene. I was grungy and sunburned, so I went to the room and took a shower and put some coolant on my head and shoulders. Linda went to the pool.

St. Thomas presented a more developed character than the previous islands, with more extensive residential areas and superior road infrastructure. The right-side driving felt more familiar to us as Americans, and the greater number of day trip opportunities reflected the island's more established tourism industry. However, I noticed "slackers" around the tourist shopping areas, suggesting some of the social challenges that can accompany tourism development.

San Juan: Colonial Charm and Modern Complexity

Our final stop, San Juan, Puerto Rico (Sunday, November 2, arrival through Wednesday morning departure), offered a different experience entirely. As a cosmopolitan city, San Juan presented a more developed urban environment than the smaller Caribbean islands. The bilingual population reflected Puerto Rico's unique status, and the mix of road quality—ranging from poor to good—demonstrated varying levels of infrastructure investment across different areas.

The hotel accommodations in San Juan came with significantly higher price tags than we had anticipated, though the free bus system provided a n economical transportation option. Taxicab fares, at approximately $15 for a three-mile trip, fell into the moderately expensive category, consistent with many tourist destinations.

We visited the typical San Juan tourist sites, including the El Morro fort, the San Cristobal castle, and Old San Juan. San Juan represented the bridge between the laid-back Caribbean islands and our return to mainland American life, offering familiar comforts while maintaining distinct cultural character.

My Reflections on Sightseeing and Travel

Throughout our journey, several themes emerged that transcended specific destinations. The contrast between disabled accessibility in different venues proved notable—New York City tourist sites demonstrated excellent disabled-friendly design, while the subway system presented significant challenges. Linda had her walker, and we found that the cruise ship's accommodations struck a reasonable balance, with our cabin door just wide enough for the walker and staff willing to assist with meal planning to accommodate Linda's allergies.

The physical layout of cruise ship tourism created both advantages and limitations. While the ship provided comfortable accommodations and transported us between islands efficiently, I observed the logistics of moving 3,000 people through disembarkation, customs, and immigration processes, which revealed the industrial scale of modern cruise tourism.

The weather, ocean conditions, and my personal physical responses to travel all shaped our sightseeing experience. Our "rocky" cabin on the 14th deck's aft section created discomfort during rough seas. We're in the top aft portion, and the motion was disconcerting—some side-to-side and some up-and-down, though no pitching or rolling. The jittering of the boat made me nauseous in the morning, and I was sleepy in the afternoon during some of the conference sessions.

Cultural observations accumulated throughout my journey. The warmth and friendliness of Caribbean islanders, despite often difficult economic circumstances, created positive impressions. The narrow roads and left-side driving in former British colonies added adventure to our ground transportation, while the varying levels of economic development across islands provided me with perspective on historical and contemporary factors shaping Caribbean societies.

My observation was that very few researchers at the NYPL were working in the closed stack books, and hardly anyone was browsing in the open stacks. There were a few researchers in the microform room using the film and fiche machines. Perhaps 80% of those in the genealogy library area were on the Internet in the free-to-access databases.

This sightseeing journey successfully combined traditional tourism with my specialized genealogical interests, creating a multifaceted experience that satisfied both my desire to see famous landmarks and my need to access historical resources. From the Empire State Building's observation deck to Ellis Island's immigration exhibits, from underwater encounters with stingrays to railroad journeys through island backyards, the varied experiences created a rich tapestry of memories that transcended any single category of travel.

I can say that combining genealogy research with Caribbean tourism is that it created an unforgettable experience. Linda and I enjoyed the cruise immensely, even with the challenges of accessibility and my occasional seasickness. The opportunity to visit Ellis Island—a place so central to American genealogy—and then relax in Caribbean waters was the perfect combination of work and pleasure for this genealogy enthusiast.

It was really good to get home again and sleep in our own bed, even though we woke up at 3 a.m. with jet lag!

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

  Here is the AI Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this story:  

Note that the video used some of my photographs that were in the report and this blog post.

Claude followed my reference document very well, and also added some interpretation and description to the narrative.  

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

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/2026/03/randys-memories-our-october-2008-new.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 Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Please 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.