Pennsylvania

My Introduction to ChatGPT

Today, I was introduced to the power of ChatGPT by my grandson who is an IT professional. He is convinced that it is an important demonstration of the power of artificial intelligence (AI). “ He signed into it on his iPhone and asked me to suggest a question to ask. I suggested: “What is Pymatuning

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Andrew Betts and His Two Wives Named Catherina/Catherine

My fourth great grandfather was Andrew Betts, born about 1755 and died in 1823. I have attended Betts family reunions in the past and we often visited his grave marker in the State Line (Betts) Cemetery near Jamestown, Crawford County, Pennsylvania. That gravestone states that his wife was Catherine Sherbondy. I recently received a message

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Genealogical Crime Mysteries – A New Genre

I have been involved in genealogical research for about 25 years. For the last half dozen years, I have been using DNA testing to find relatives. I also enjoy reading detective novels. When I set out to write this review of The Chester Creek Murders, by Nathan Dylan Goodwin, I discovered that there is a

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Grandpa Scheppelmann’s Naturalization Papers Now Online

A few years ago, I discovered that August Scheppelmann, my late wife’s grandfather, made a journey back to his hometown of Nienburg, Germany in 1922. This occurred when I was looking for his original immigrant arrival in 1897. I posted about this second voyage and you can read it at http://www.collectingancestors.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1026&action=edit One interesting fact included

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More About My Revolutionary War Ancestor: Matthias Flaugh

Earilier, I posted about my ancestor Matthias Flaugh, who served in the German Regiment under General George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. In that posting, I included some information gleaned from a German newspaper article. Here is the link to that earlier post: http://www.collectingancestors.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=296&action=edit Today, I will post a transcription of the entire article

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Huskonen Family Oral History by Mary Jane Dingman Huskonen 1970

This oral family history was recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in 1969 or 1970 at the home of Wallace and Mary Jane Huskonen, 6644 Hawthorne Dr, Brecksville, Ohio. Speaking was Mary Jane Huskonen (born Dingman, known simply as Mary) with comments by her son, Walfrid. Mary made the recording for her granddaughter Karen who

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Distant Cousin was LDS Pioneer

This morning (22 Jul 2018), I received an email from FamilySearch that I had a Pioneer Relative. When I clicked on the provided link I learned that this ancestor was Jacob Gibson, born 01 Jan 1814 in West Fallowfield Twp, Chester Co., Pennsylvania. I immediately searched to see if I had him listed in my Huskonen-Dingman-Van Court-Scheppelman

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My 2017 Year-End Letter to Relatives and Friends

December 2017 Greetings from Brecksville, This is the toughest year-end letter I have ever written. My trusted proofreader is not available to give her stamp of approval. It has been seven months since MJ passed away after a lengthy period of declining health. Fortunately, she was able to spend her last days at our home

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Ohio Veterans Grave Registration Database Now on Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com recently added the collection Ohio, Soldier Grave Registrations, 1804-1958. The original data comes from the Graves Registration Cards Collection, Ohio History Connection, Columbus, Ohio. Ohio History Connection is the current name for what used to be known as the Ohio Historical Society. This database contains grave registration cards for soldiers from Ohio who served

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Is Fayetta’s Death Date Wrong on Her Headstone?

If you want an example of a unique combination of given and family names, I would offer Fayetta Salome Flaugh as a good example.Nearly 20 years ago, I attended a meeting of the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group Greater Cleveland (CAGG for short) to learn about genealogy database programs. Several members were demonstrating features of the

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