New York State's Progress on Releasing Historical Records

We have some great news from the State of New York.

No, they are not fulfilling genealogy requests of birth, marriage, and death records.

The Assembly and Senate both passed bills to amend the mental hygiene law to designate certain records as historical, thus allowing access to records if the subject has been deceased for at least fifty years.

Pending paragraph added to the mental hygiene law (§33.13) of New York

The next step is for Governor Kathy Hochul to either sign the bill into law, or to veto it.

Advocacy must continue to advise the governor's office on the importance of accessing these records for genealogical purposes.

Follow Ryan Thibodeau for additional updates and information.

I first became aware of this plight through the blog The Inmates of Willard.

Old Dutch Vanderhoef House of Clifton, New Jersey

The Vanderhoef-Westervelt House in Clifton, Passaic County, New Jersey sits in Weasel Brook Park. I visited on June 6, 2026.

Jody and Angie standing at the door of the Vanderhoef House

The original part of this structure was supposedly built around 1720 by Gysbert Vanderhoef. The nearby brook powered a grist mill.

Plaque affixed to exterior wall to the left of the front door.
Inscription: About 1720
Gysbert Vanderhoef
built here this house and
the second saw and grist mill
in Passaic County
Claverack Cahpter, D.A.R.
Nov 6, 1940

The original structure was expanded and modified over the centuries. The interior, as viewed through the windows, looks completely modern. The inside is not open to the public, but in consolation, if you want to see a replication of the interior of an 18th century Dutch home, this is not the place.

My pictures never do justice to the subject, but I think you can see the reddish brownstone from the local quarries.

By 1720, as Gysbert was building, New Jersey had been newly formed by uniting East and West Jersey. The map below is from 1748, or decades after Gysbert built his tiny house. I placed the yellow dot in the area that I think the house is in. Today, Clifton is a city in Passaic County. When Gysbert lived in this house, this area was not known as Clifton or Passaic County.

Map of New Jersey circa 1748
I added the yellow dot to show the location of the Vanderhoef House on Weasel Brook
Map at David Rumsey dot com

In a book about Vanderhoofs by Wilson V Ledley (1913-1978), he places Guysbert Van Der Hoef (1692-1758) as a son of Jan Cornelise Van Der Hoeven. Jan was born about 1648 in Holland and immigrated about 1661 to New Amsterdam, New York with his mother, Geertje VanFulpen, and siblings. Jan was my 8th great grandfather. Guysbert/Gysbert was my 7th great granduncle.

Excerpt from the book
New Netherland Families. Vanderhoef Family. The First Five Generations.
Author- Wilson V Ledley.
You can view this book on the Internet Archive.

The Vanderhoofs relocated from New Amsterdam to Albany, New York, 150 miles north. This must have been an arduous journey in the 1600s. Some descendants then relocated south again to northern New Jersey/East Jersey in the late 1600s/early 1700s.

According to a book, History of Passaic and its Environs, Gysbert Vanderhoef received land from his father-in-law, John E Vreeland. The area was described as lot number 9 of Weasel Division. Gysbert conveyed the property to Gerret Gerritse on May 1, 1736. Where is this deed? New Jersey State Archives hosts a searchable database index, Early Land Records, 1650-1900s. I don't see a listing for Guysbert/Gysbert Vanderhoef and this property.

Where was Weasel Division in the early 1700s? Bergen County was east of the Hackensack River, but later encroached west, but not past the Passaic River. Acquackanonk was in Essex County. I think this was where the property was. Does anyone know of documentation and maps for this area and time period?

Excerpt from the book History of Passaic and Its Environs
mentioning Gysbert Vanderhoef and the Weasel area (now in Clifton)

To place a building on the National Register of Historic Places, an application and supporting documentation must be submitted to the National Park Service. The paperwork for the Vanderhoef House is online, though it is marked "Draft." Was this structure not accepted for inclusion on the Register?

How can we find these older land records for East Jersey and New Jersey?

More ONeil Cousins

We have another set of potential ONeil cousins.

Two people who are second cousins to each other share DNA with my father and his three siblings.

The common ancestors of these DNA matches are Andrew O'Neil, born about 1798 in Ireland and his wife, Bridget Goodfellow, born about 1798, possibly in County Cavan, Ireland. They settled in New York City in the late 1840s.

1855 New York State census, New York City
Household of Andrew ONeil and wife, Bridget.

In the 1855 New York State census, Andrew and Bridget resided in New York City with their five children, ranging in age from 12 through 22: Michael, Peter, Andrew, Margaret, and Patrick. Note that Michael O'Neil had been in the city for 11 years, while the rest of the family was present for six.

To work up these DNA connections, you need to find descendants of this couple in the DNA database. But- even if this couple has descendants in the DNA database, the connection is distant, so no detectable and reportable shared DNA may exist.

ONeil is a popular Irish surname with a variety of spellings. Over half a million people lived in New York City in 1855. (Today about 8.5 million people reside in Manhattan.) Tracing the marriages, children, grandchildren, and so forth of ONeils is tricky.

Margaret ONeil married Bartholomew Neville. When she died in 1907, she was widowed and childless. She left behind a will that was probated in Kings County, New York. From this will, we find out that she had another brother, Terence. He was not with the family in the 1855 census. More about Terence later.

Excerpt of will of Margaret Neville (born ONeil) (1842-1907).
Proved November 19, 1907 in Kings County, New York.

"Second. I have not mentioned my
brother Terence O'Neil's name in this Will
nor made any provision for him herein, for
the reason that I consider him well enough
provided for with his own property and poss-
essions."

Andrew O'Neil died in 1868. He was originally buried in Jersey City at Saint Peter's Cemetery in Section G South, plot 14. In 1885, Andrew, other O'Neils, and Murphys were removed to Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York. (The Newark Archdiocese maintains an electronic database of burials at Find A Loved One Search.)

A brief notice of the death of matriarch Bridget appeared in the local paper The Sun in 1885. She was described as a "native of county Cavan, Ireland."

Obituary of Bridget O'Neil from the newspaper The Sun in New York City, July 4, 1885.
Note: July 4, 1885 was a Saturday. The obituary states she died on Saturday, July 3.

"O'NEIL. - On Saturday [Friday], July 3, Bridget O'Neil, aged
84 years, native of county Cavan, Ireland.
Funeral to take place from her late residence, 87 Washington st., on Monday, July 6."

Maybe Bridget's husband, Andrew ONeil, was also from Cavan. Some records survive for County Cavan in the 1800s. I looked for Charles ONeil and Catherine Brougham, the supposed parents of my third great grandmother, Mary Neil. I found a marriage record for Patrick Neal and Cath Brogan from 1824 in Urney Parish. Could this have been Mary's parents? More research is needed. Maybe the name is more commonly spelled Brogan and not Brougham.

Marriage of Patrick Neal and Cath Brogan in Urney, County Cavan.
August 18, 1824.
Witnesses Patrick Brady and Petra??? Brogan.
Collection at Ancestry

Summation

My line:
Mary Neil (later O'Neill), born about 1830 in New Jersey, later Ireland.
Daughter of Charles O'Neill and Catherine Brougham of Ireland.

Potential relatives number 1:
Hugh ONeil, born about 1834 in Ireland.
His wife, Margaret ONeil, born about 1838 in Ireland. Daughter of James O'Neil and Margaret.
Settled in Washington.

Potential relatives number 2:
Andrew O'Neil, born about 1798 in Ireland. His wife, Bridget Goodfellow, born about 1798, possibly in County Cavan, Ireland. Settled in New York City.

More on Terence ONeil

To trace Terence ONeil, we cannot stop at the records available at Ancestry. Additional documents were filed to probate Margaret's estate. Some are available at FamilySearch.

Probate Administrator Records for Kings County, New York.
Available on FamilySearch.org Image Group Number 004362601.

"Administrator Records" provide several pages listing names and addresses of Margaret's relatives. Terence ONeil, her brother, lived at 153 Steuben Street in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Below is Terence's death certificate from 1910 and a picture of his gravestone in Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.

Death certificate of Terrance O'Neill, died June 16, 1910
in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey.
Father- Andrew. Mother Bridget.

Holy Name Cemetery, Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey
O'Neill gravestone in Block M
March 30, 2019

This DNA connection was only recently brought to my attention in the current year, 2026. Yet the dates on the records of Terence is from 2019.

Why did I gather this information seven years ago? Because Terence's son, Andrew Leo ONeill (1863-1941), married into my mother's family. My mother is not an ONeil descendant, but she has cousins who are.

Terence's third great granddaughter is among my DNA matches. She and I are third cousins, once removed on my mother's side. We share a segment of DNA. Ancestry does not report shared DNA between her and my father.

Note that Ancestry does not provide you a list of everyone who shares DNA with you. Both testing parties would need to upload their DNA files to GedMatch to check for shared DNA. Not finding someone listed as a DNA match at Ancestry does not mean that you don't share DNA.

ONeil DNA Cousins

Have relatives of Mary Neil (1830-1898) been identified among the DNA matches at Ancestry?

Mary Neil, or Neill, or ONeill, was my great great great grandmother. She was born around 1830. On the record of her first marriage in 1847 to my third great grandfather, Calvin Cook (1826-1889), names of parents were not recorded. The names of her parents are from the record of her second marriage to Nicholas Keating (1825-1898) in 1892: Charles ONeill and Catherina Brougham. Mary's death certificate from 1898 only provides her mother's first name, Katie.

Only the names of Mary Neil's parents are known.

In contrast, Calvin Cook's ancestors are well-plotted at this point in my research. As a bonus, this was an intermarrying group with lots of descendants. As a result, I have hundreds of DNA matches who trace back their ancestry to the ancestors of Calvin Cook: Wiggins, Peer, Post, White, Vanderhoof, Stegers, Young, Hopler, DeMouth, Muller, etc.

Ancestors of Calvin Cook, mostly from Morris County, New Jersey.
They intermarried. Their descendants share more DNA because of this intermarrying.

DNA Strategy

This is the strategy for identifying relatives of Mary Neil amongst the DNA matches:

Mary Neil and Calvin Cook have around fifteen descendants in the DNA database at Ancestry. Use of the "Shared Matches" feature (only available for an additional monthly subscription) finds other relatives. These shared matches might be connected through Calvin Cook OR Mary Neil. If the shared match has ancestry amongst Calvin's ancestors, then the connection is probably not through Mary Neil.

A few people do not share matches with the Calvin Cook Morris County ancestry. These are potentially related through Mary Neil's ancestors.

One of the problems is that we are working with tiny segments of DNA that trace back at least six generations. If we land in Ireland, there are few written records to demonstrate a relation.

DNA Matches of Interest

We will look at three people who match descendants of Mary Neil and Calvin Cook, but do not match anyone in the Morris County group. There are more matches who fit this scenario, but they have cryptic usernames, no trees, private trees, scant trees, and do not answer messages.

All three matches share less than 20cM of DNA with my group, or about one small segment of DNA. This indicates that the relation is likely third cousin or more distant.

The sorting feature places the DNA match's matches at the top. (Also a paid feature.) This is such a helpful mechanism for figuring out how relations relate to one another.

We will label the three matches as Person 1, Person 2, and Person 3. Person 2 and Person 3 are siblings. Person 1 turned out to be their second cousin.

Their common ancestors are Hugh ONeil (1835-1888) and Margaret ONeil (1838-1906) of Ireland and Washington, United States. (Washington became a state in 1889.) Person 1 descends from their son George. Person 2 and Person 3 descend from their son Charles.

Household of Hugh ONeil and his wife, Margaret, in the 1880 census.
Washington Territory, United States of America.
Children: Evelena, Minnie, John, Charles, Francis, George, and Kate.

Having the same surname as Mary Neil is great, but this is a common Irish surname and means little until we have paper documentation. Spoiler alert: we do not have any records connecting them at this juncture.

Hugh ONeil was a veteran of the Civil War. He died in 1888, the year before Washington became a state. His death record was a line in a ledger book. His parents were not listed.

Margaret ONeil died in Oregon in 1906 while visiting her children. Her death certificate provides the names of her parents as James ONeil and Margarete, last name unknown by informant, G W ONeil.

Death certificate of Margaret O'Neil.
Died March 15, 1906 in LaGrande, Union County, Oregon.
Collection online at Ancestry

Was Margaret also ONeil? The records of her children provide no other surname. Some of their records are easily viewable online, such as marriage, death, and Social Security Death Index. No surname other than ONeil or ONeill was given for their mother.

Yet her memorial page at Find A Grave provides Cook as her birth name. Hmmm.

Find A Grave memorial page for Margaret ONeil (1838-1906)
Buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Walla Walla, Washington.
How was her birth name of Cook found?

Cook is a common name. My Cook ancestry is Dutch, not Irish. The name was Van Der Koeck.

Future Research

More DNA connections will appear with new leads.

More records will find their way in an easily accessible format online.

I'd like to see Brougham turn up amongst the matches.

Wedding Book from 1901

Thank you to the person who sent me this marriage book from 1901. (She found me through this blog. She was cleaning out an old desk.)

The marrying parties were Louis Kraus and Christine Zoeller. They married January 21, 1901 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey. A letter was inside the book, providing additional details. The letterhead was that of First German Reformed Church at 31 Blum Street in Newark. This church is called Second (West) Reformed Church on the Old Newark website.

Letter inside the book. There was no certificate of marriage within the book.

First German Reformed Church

31 Blum Street, Newark, New Jersey

Frederick Steinmann, Pastor

May 5, 1930

To whom it may concern

This is to certify that the

attached Certificate of Marriage

is a true copy of the record

left by the Rev C Girtanner.

Frederick Steinmann, Pastor

Louis Kraus (1879-1930) was the son of Edward Kraus (1859-1902) and Helen Benz (1860-1931). Christine Zoeller (1885-1957) was the daughter of Anna Elizabeth Stieber (1848-1929) and Louis Zoeller (1851-1919). They are buried at Woodland Cemetery in Newark.

Reverend Carl Girtanner was the pastor from 1884-1918 according to the Old Newark website. Frederick Steinmann (1897-1992) was the pastor from 1927-1966.

If anyone would like these physical objects, please message me.

This is similar to an item that I received from the wedding of my great grandparents, Howard Lutter and Ethel Laurel Winterton. They were married in Newark in 1910.

Cover of wedding book of Howard Lutter and Ethel Laurel Winterton, 1910

The Death Certificate My Scanner Would Not Copy

Genealogy rule: make digital copies of all records, mementos, pictures, letters.

(And make backup copies.)

The death certificate for my recently departed paternal aunt was issued by the local town. The document was printed on 8 1/2 by 14 inch legal-size paper, which is awkward to store and scan.

New Jersey certificate of death
Issued May 2026

I have an older, no-frills scanner that is too short for fourteen inch documents. I tried a newer, more sophisticated scanner that could accommodate legal size paper. The scanner refused!

Modern New Jersey death certificates contained security features that some scanners detect and block from copying. Sometimes these security features cause the word "VOID" to appear faintly in scanned images. I would have been satisfied with such a result, but this scanner refused to scan the document at all.

Example of "VOID" appearing if document is copied

An iPhone 17 ultimately captured the image.

New Jersey offers a "certification" of a death record for genealogy, which can be copied; however, the Social Security number and causes of death are redacted. I prefer unredacted records when possible.

Precursor to New Jersey's Modern Archival Preservation

From the newspaper Elizabeth Daily Journal of Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey. Published February 26, 1917.

HISTORIC PAPERS NOT PRESERVED

Important N. J. Documents “Lost, Strayed or Stolen.”

TRENTON, Feb. 26.—While the State of New Jersey, one of the original thirteen colonies which formed the organization of the United States, is rich in historical lore, she is sadly lacking in the preservation of the documents and records which tell the story of the commonwealth’s career, according to the report filed to-day with Governor Edge and the Legislature by the Commission on the Condition of Public Records of the State of New Jersey.

Senate Bill No. 248, introduced by Senator Stevens of Cape May, providing for the establishment of a department of public records, is recommended for enactment to cure the situation which now exists.

The report to the Governor says such valuable public records of the State as the original grants of land in New Jersey, many of the original journals of the General Assembly, Provincial Congress, Constitutional Convention of 1776, messages and official correspondence of Governors, petitions to the General Assembly, court dockets and minutes, town and township records and other manuscripts of priceless value are in private possession. In many cases they have been abstracted from the official files of the State, sometimes by high public officials of other days. Some have been thrown out of public offices as junk by careless and ignorant officials. Others have been given to the relatives of public officials through their last wills and testaments. They have been mutilated and destroyed for personal gain.

"Again," says the report, “many of these valuable historic records have been floating around the auction houses of the country for the past seventy years, sold and resold, and the spoils of the plunder divided between the auctioneers and the marauder. These conditions are startling and shocking to the sense of mankind in this age of civilization. They should be immediately stamped out for all time.”

Three Governors of the State, Voorhees, Fort and Fielder, at different times in their administrations have been forced to command private interests to turn over to the State rare old papers of record which were about to be sold in auction rooms in the larger cities.

No less abominable, however, is the condition of the public records of certain municipalities of the State, says the report. The cities of Perth Amboy and Burlington have no records for the first 250 years of their incorporated existence and the records of many of the other municipalities are in practically the same condition.

For centuries nearly every European country has systematically preserved its public records and many of the States of the Union have or are doing the same.

One of the most glaring features of our ancient records has been their abstraction, a practice in vogue for more than a century, and the investigations of the commission finds that a large portion of them are now held and controlled by private interests, to the exclusion of citizens of this State who are by law entitled to a gratuitous examination of them for legitimate purposes.

One of the records retained in a private family are the original grants- leases and releases- given by James, Duke of York, to the territory and government of the Province of New Jersey, and of East and West Jersey, respectively, accompanied with nearly 200 kindred papers. This family resides in an adjoining State.

The report says that more than a century and a quarter ago a certain official of one of the most important records offices of the State abstracted nearly all the records of his office upon his retirement, his successor doing the same, when he retired sixty years later. “These papers are now held intact by their respective descendants residing in New Jersey,” says the report, which adds, "the present head of the family is willing that they be turned over to the proper State authorities.”

Some sixty years ago the original memorials, petitions and other communications presented to the Provincial Congress were possessed by a particular family in Virginia, who then turned them over to certain private interests in New Jersey, where they now remain. The Federal Government borrowed military records of the Revolutionary War to use in settling pension claims, and has never returned them. Many public records have been mutilated in order to obtain autographs. The commission was told it would be charged $1 a day to examine certain records held by private organization, yet the papers belong to the State.

The bill advocated by the report provides a non-salaried commission of three to supervise the work of preserving the records.

Newspaper article transcribed above.
Click to enlarge.

My Darling Little Rabbit

Marion with her father, Clifford Lutter.

My aunt Marion received the letter below from her father, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980). It is dated January 16, 1962. For context, Clifford was residing in the family home in Newark, New Jersey. His wife, Beulah Cook (1921-2003), and children were staying in Florida with Beulah's sister. This was not a vacation. The family eventually reunited in Newark. "Grandma" was Clifford's mother, Ethel Laurel Winterton (1891-1962). She died two weeks after this letter was written.

Howard is Marion's brother. He either did not go with his mother to Florida or had made his own way back to New Jersey.

Letter written from Clifford Lutter to his daughter, Marion

January 16, 1962

My Darling little Rabbitt

I was very thrilled to get your nice letter. I am feeling quite well. I have a slight cold, which makes me cough a little bit, but other than that it doesn’t bother me. I am glad to hear that you are having a lot of fun.

I am sure that you are making some nice new friends, and that they all like you.

Grandma is not feeling well. She is very sick. I told her that you had gone on a vacation trip, so she said that she hopes you are enjoying yourself.

Howard and I miss you and Mommy and the boys very much. It is very quiet here now. We do things to keep busy. We cook our supper, and do the dishes. Howard washes his clothes and irons them.

He is also working in the Twin Store, up on Broadway. He gets ten dollars a week. Isn’t that a lot of money?

There was a little bird sitting on the window sill this morning. I asked him what he wanted, and he said that he was looking for you. I told him that you had taken a vacation trip, so he said he would see you when you came back. He said to tell you that Albert was asking about you. I gave him some bird-seed and he flew away with them.

Oceans of love

Daddy

Picture of Ethel Laurel "Laura" Winterton and her son, Clifford Lutter.
Ivy Haven Nursing Home, Newark, Essex County, New Jersey.

Revolutionary War Resources in New Jersey

On Saturday, April 18, 2026 I attended an all-day presentation entitled "Revolutionary Roots" hosted by the Monmouth County Genealogy Society. The location was at the Visitor Center at what is now Monmouth Battlefield State Park in Freehold and Manalapan, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

The Battle of Monmouth was fought during the Revolutionary War on June 28, 1778.  Friends of the Battlefield reenact annually.

On this field in what was known as Monmouth Courthouse
many people died in 1778 fighting over the newly formed country called
The United States of America

Here are my takeaways from the presenters:

1. New Jersey's inhabitants were not overwhelmingly in support of one side or the other. From a research standpoint, this means that you need to check records of those who supported the British and those who supported the newly formed United States. Records of Loyalists are located across the pond in The United Kingdom's National Archives, Canada, as well as the United States. In New Jersey, those who sided with the crown were called "volunteers;" Stryker compiled their information into a book.

2. Monmouth County maintains digital archives. Below is an example of a page of confiscations on their website. A trial would have preceded this order to confiscate.

Order to confiscate property of Thomas Thorn for aligning with the King of Great Britain
January 6, 1779

3. New Jersey kept created its own records about activities during the Revolutionary War. 

a. While federal pensions became available to certain soldiers in 1818, New Jersey granted its own pensions to soldiers in some circumstances. These were official Acts and are recorded with the rest of the Acts (Laws) of the legislative term.

The New Jersey State Legislature could enact an Act
to provide a pension to a veteran of the Revolutionary War

b. New Jersey Council of Safety Records 1776-1778 are digitized online at this site on the New Jersey State Archives website. They include testimonials of those aligned with the United States testifying against Loyalists.

In the papers included below, William Imlay of Upper Freehold, Monmouth County, testified on April 12, 1777 that two individuals, Jesse Woodward and Richard Robins, took his property for use in the British service.

William Imlay's deposition against Jesse Woodward.

William Imlay's deposition against Richard Robins.

c. For those whose property was damaged, lost, or stolen, a claim could be submitted. You can search this collection on the Archives' website, but copies of claims are $5 by mail. The claims were not paid.

Search page of Revolutionary War Damage Claims
New Jersey State Archives
You can select a file to receive a paper copy of the contents.

d. Taxes were paid during the War. You can view them at the Archives' website. The names of towns might seem unfamiliar and some counties might appear missing, but this is because these are from the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Paying taxes during the Revolutionary War could qualify that person as a Patriot, making a descendant eligible for membership in Daughters of the American Revolution or Sons of the American Revolution.

Tax ratables in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey for the year 1779.
Page 1.

Thank you to all of the participants and presenters who made this educational experience possible.

Using ChatGPT for Genealogy

I've been using ChatGPT to aid various aspects of genealogical research and writing. I'm learning as I go and thought I'd share some observations at this juncture.

I subscribe to the Plus Plan, which is $20 per month. There is a free version and a more expensive Pro Plan. I do not have these other plans, so I do not know what the results would be with the free or Pro plan.

My ChatGPT is geared towards me and what I have told it I am seeking. The same question that you pose within your profile would probably yield different results in mine.

Technical Help with Blogging Platform

Since August 2010 I have been using the Blogspot platform. One of the purposes of writing here is to attract people researching the same historical figures. Google no longer indexes every page, causing entire articles on particular people to be hidden from search results. In addition, I have been unable to alter information in tabs, delete them, or add new ones.

I have not found a solution through ChatGPT. It suggested adding headers through the formatting options. This does not seem to help.

I am exploring publishing on other platforms.

Review of Writing

ChatGPT can review my writing and offer suggestions about flow, grammar, and overall impact. I have inquired about specific sentences that sound awkward; ChatGPT offers rewording that is clearer.

I clarify that the purpose of the writing is genealogical. This is important for the tone. Writing on this genealogical blog is vastly different from business or legal writing. You need to inform ChatGPT about the goal of your particular piece of writing.

Revising Pictures

MyHeritage began offering photo revisions years ago.

ChatGPT can also revise pictures. I asked it to fix older pictures. ChatGPT took liberties with the pictures, adding items and features that were not present.

Original picture of Ethel Laurel Winterton (1891-1962)
Probably her high school graduation circa 1909

Colorized and fixed by MyHeritage

Colorized and fixed by ChatGPT
The blemishes were erased.
Note that the diploma in her hand was changed to a rose!

Answering Genealogical Questions

The continued lure of researching past people lies in figuring out their connections, locations, and dates.

ChatGPT cannot find all the documents about someone, analyze them, and spit out the answers.

ChatGPT can find sources on the internet and offer general genealogical rules.

Below is the inquiry I made for Ruben Bishop who died in Morris County, New Jersey in 1829. ChatGPT found the index of death notices online, which connected Ruben to Connecticut.

---------------------------------------------------

Me: genealogy research question. Ruben Bishop died in Morris County New Jersey in 1829. His will named brothers Calvin, Luther, Miles, and Abner. I do not have their ages or places of residence. Presumably they died after Ruben died in 1829. Are there any mentions of these people on the internet?

ChatGPT: Short answer: very little shows up online (as of now) for those specific brothers by name, but there are a couple of useful clues and leads—including confirmation of your Ruben and context that may help you push further.

What does show up for Ruben Bishop

One solid hit:

• An early Morris County death notice index includes:
  “Bishop, Reuben (Woodbury, CT)… Sept. 11, 1829… Doctor… of Bottle Hill.”

This is important because it:

• Confirms death in 1829 (matching your will)
• Ties him to Bottle Hill (now Madison, Morris County)
• Suggests he was originally from Woodbury, Connecticut

👉 That Connecticut connection is a big clue—it suggests the brothers (Calvin, Luther, Miles, Abner) may not have remained in Morris County or may appear in Connecticut-origin families.

---------------------------------------------------

Citations

I find genealogical citations challenging. You should provide the title of the document, database, film number if applicable, custodian, and information about online location. It's a layered approach.

The guide for citing genealogical sources is Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

The articles here on this blog are not formal writings for publication in journals, so I try to not delay publication here caused by fixation on proper citation format.

I've been asking ChatGPT for citations specific for use in genealogy, as opposed to Chicago, MLA, or APA. I provide an online link if available. ChatGPT looks at the webpage and returns suggested citations.

Creating Family Tree Diagrams

I need family trees to illustrate the relations among the people I write about. Sometimes I screenshot from Ancestry or Family Tree Maker. Often this is insufficient to show all the people needed to illustrate a point. I have created my own tree diagrams in Microsoft Paint. Now I use Canva. This is time consuming.

Family tree diagram created by me in Canva

I asked ChatGPT to create a family tree diagram of the children of Jonas Long and Elizabeth Merrell. I typed everyone's names and dates. I asked for and received revisions. This is pretty good for a few minutes of work on my end.

Family tree diagram created by ChatGPT

Creating Maps

I asked ChatGPT to create a map of three towns in New Jersey. The Plainfields share borders, but lie in three different counties. I wanted a map that clearly showed these three towns. The map created by ChatGPT was inaccurate.

Map of the Plainfields in New Jersey
Map on the left from New Jersey Department of Transportation
Map on the right from ChatGPT

Handwriting

ChatGPT can transcribe handwritten documents. Wow!

Difficult words might be revealed.

It's not perfect.

ChatGPT's transcription of the above portion of this document:

---------------------------------------------------

This Deponent further saith that he saw the said
Woodward at [Aikens?]    on the Evening of the same Day
where he heard him boast that he had disarmed
sixteen or seventeen of the Rebels — and farther the
Deponent saith not.

[signed] William Imlay

Sworn in Council of
Safety 12 Janry 1777
Before me —

Wm Livingston Prest.

---------------------------------------------------

I informed ChatGPT of errors.

Me: "Aikens" is "Trenton"

ChatGPT: Thank you — that reading fits the handwriting and the context much better. Here is the corrected portion:

This Deponent further saith that he saw the said
Woodward at Trenton on the Evening of the same Day
where he heard him boast that he had disarmed
sixteen or seventeen of the Rebels — and farther the
Deponent saith not.

This is an interesting Revolutionary War-era deposition. The reference to General Howe is almost certainly William Howe, commander of British forces during the New Jersey campaign.

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Me: "with the enemy on" is the phrase inserted between lines

ChatGPT: Yes — that insertion makes the sentence read much more naturally. The corrected passage would be:

This Deponent further saith that he saw the said
Woodward at Trenton with the enemy on the Evening of the same Day
where he heard him boast that he had disarmed
sixteen or seventeen of the Rebels — and farther the
Deponent saith not.

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Me: The month is April, not January

ChatGPT: Good catch. The attestation at the bottom should read:

Sworn in Council of
Safety 12 April 1777
Before me —

Wm Livingston Prest.

William Livingston was serving as president of the New Jersey Council of Safety at the time.

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Translations

ChatGPT can translate from one language to another.

I uploaded the death notice for Charles Loihle (1822-1891). The print is a bit smudged and is difficult to read for English speakers because the typeface is German Fraktur. This German notice appeared in the New Jersey Deutsche Zeitung, while an English notice appeared in the Newark Evening News.

Death notice of Charles Loihle.
December 11, 1891.
New Jersey Deutsche Zeitung, Newark, New Jersey.
Jody's German transcription is in the upper left; Jody's English translation on the right.

ChatGPT and I went back and forth as we did with William Imlay's deposition from 1777. The mishaps were with names, which I knew because of my knowledge of this family, but ChatGPT did not.

The other miss was in the first line with the word "hiermit." This can be translated as "hereby," but the sentence is still lacking a verb in the second position. ChatGPT offered the word as "machen," meaning to make or to do in English. I asked about this discrepancy. ChatGPT offered that the phrase is actually "machen wir hiermit" or "geben wir hiermit," but this was shortened as was typically seen in German newspapers of the time.

To fully appreciate the information in these death notices, one would have to be familiar with German vocabulary, grammar, and newspaper print of 135 years ago. ChatGPT definitely helped with this.

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Me: The word on the first line is unclear to me. Instead of "machen," it could be "hiermit." What do you think?

ChatGPT: I think you are right. Looking closely at the first sentence, the wording is much more consistent with the standard German obituary formula:

„Verwandten und Freunden machen wir hiermit die traurige Nachricht …“

or more idiomatically:

„… geben wir hiermit die traurige Nachricht …“

The blurry word after “Freunden” does not really resemble machen in Fraktur. The visible letter shapes fit hiermit better — especially the tall initial h and the clustered middle letters.

So the opening likely reads:

Loihle.—Verwandten und Freunden machen wir hiermit die traurige Nachricht, daß unser geliebter Vater …

English:

“To relatives and friends we hereby announce the sad news that our beloved father …”

That is a very typical 19th-century German newspaper death notice formula.

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Conclusions

ChatGPT holds great potential as a resource for researchers seeking to locate records, organize research, translate languages, and create images. It is far from perfect and not a substitute for critical thinking.

I hope that this article gives you ideas to try with ChatGPT.