Serious Genealogical Research and AI - Are they Compatible?
I remember being skeptical when DNA first became popular as a genealogical tool, and I admit I was skeptical when AI was being suggested as a new genealogical tool.
Because there are so many unresearched and casual family histories posted on the Internet, I wondered if there was any way I could find AI helpful in my research?
I decided to put AI to the test on my 5th great grandparents, John and Sophia Yerkey, who have been a brick wall for years. I had acquired many Ancestry DNA matches on that line, but with 150 years of West Virginia ancestors and many family marriages among cousins and siblings, those matches could have happened anytime in history. So unfortunately, DNA wasn't producing any helpful clues.
Sophia was my continuous direct maternal ancestor through my mother, my maternal grandmother, my maternal great grandmother etc. to my 5th direct maternal great grandmother. Hoping to find something on her history, I did the mtDNA test which uses the direct maternal line, somewhat similar to the male y-DNA test. I came up empty handed as far as any genealogical help. My matches only had traced their ancestors to more recent relatives, born long after mine. So, I still had questions about both John and his wife Sophia born in the mid 1700's.
Over the years I had collected a few clues about John, my 5th great grandfather. He was easier to research since we can follow males through deeds, tax lists, census records. I had practically nothing at all on his wife, only the dates of their children's birth and that the children were born in Maryland. From 1791 when the family arrived in what became Harrison County, West Virginia, I had a fairly complete continuing history but nothing about their Maryland history or their ancestors.
What kept me interested in this line was the possibility that John was a Hessian soldier and was captured at the Battle of Trenton. The possibility of John Yerkey being a Hessian soldier was in a write-up by Leo F. King published on 26 November 1935 in "The Telegram" a Clarksburg, (Harrison county) WV newspaper. The writer stated "John Yerkey settled west of McConkey, about two miles from Good Hope. Yerkey was a Hessian soldier and was captured at the battle of Trenton by John Patton, who settled about two miles southwest of Good Hope on lands now owned by Leeman Maxwell. John Patton served under George Washington in the Revolutionary war and is said to have crossed the Delaware with Washington." Because this was a simple narrative about settlement in the area and not a family history as such, I felt this information was fairly believable. I was also able to find that John's descendants had continued to live in the area so I could make the connection and consider this might be an important clue.
I continued to gather and save data as I ran across it in researching other ancestors who lived in the area, but I figured if John was born in Germany, it might be a dead end search for him.
This week, I decided to put AI to the test. At first I got typical "Internet" answers, but as I added maps, history and documents, the answers became more specific. AI was even able to translate some documents from a Maryland Lutheran church, written in German. Language was not a barrier for AI. AI went to places I had not gone and filled in some blanks and answered several questions I had. Finally, it pulled together a timeline showing me what was believable and probably accurate, as well as pointing out some problems such as the Americanization of names. I feel really confident now of the marriage in Maryland of John and Sophia and that the births of their children is accurate. Also AI gave me a continuous history of the locations of Hessian prisoners after their capture. One problem I had was that the John Patton in the story did not seem to match quite right with a John Patton responsible for the prisoners in the war. AI pointed out their were 2 men, one was higher ranking and probably in charge while the other John Patton was a private. However, that John had a responsibility guarding prisoners and would have been more likely to form a friendship and have brought John Yerkey to Harrison County.
I am sharing my AI experience because I was surprised to find it was far more helpful that I had guessed it would be. So, like DNA, I now plan to put it in my genealogical "tool box".
Give it a try?
