My mom recently introduced me to a new YouTube channel. It’s called Forgotten Lines, and its concept is that James, a professional genealogist, purchases pictures at an antique store and researches the people in the photo. Or he might visit a cemetery and research interesting tombstones he finds.

Anyway, I watched a couple of episodes and noticed James said something really interesting.  He said, “So, I called the library and asked the librarian . . .” Then he proceeded to state what he wanted to find. Lo and behold after he asked for help, the librarians produced some much needed information.

I read through some of the comments on those videos where he asked librarians for help and I saw that more than one person noted how they struggle to ask people for help. Their shyness or aversion to asking kept them from opening their mouths.

A few days later, I was in public and someone said something similar to me. “I find it difficult to ask librarians for what I need.” Which brings me to my point. Don’t be afraid to ask a librarian or archivists for help. Libraries and archives are service organizations. They’re meant to help people find and use the information preserved in their collections.

In my experience, most librarians and archivists are very friendly and want to help. So go ahead and ask. Sure, there’s always the exception to the rule. You might get someone who doesn’t want to help or is rude. But that is usually the exception to the rule. Mostly though, these professionals want to help you navigate their collections. So please, don’t be afraid to ask. Whether you ask by phone, filling out a contact form, or using the chat feature on a website, please use the services they provide so you can fully enjoy your research. Their professional help will make a world of difference in your search.

One last point. It’s easy enough for me to say, “Don’t be afraid to ask,” when in reality, many people have fears and anxieties that I am not experiencing. Asking can be difficult for some people and I realize that. For those of you with those fears, please know that asking for help can open up an entire universe of possibilities. I know from experience.

So instead of me saying “Don’t be afraid to ask,” let me say this—just ask. The librarians and archivists will do their best to help.

P. S. What I mean by asking for help is asking the librarians and archivists for help in finding what information they have in their collections. It’s up to you to do your own genealogy research after that.

I turned 50 yesterday. So Happy Birthday to me. It was in fact a fun birthday. My wife and children gave me presents, made me my favorite dinner, and we watched a movie together. When they handed over the goods, my wife even took some short videos of me opening the gifts. She said, “The kids are going to want to watch this in a year or so.” And they really will. I often find them lying next to my wife in our bed watching videos of good times we had in the past.

In other words, we made family history. We enjoyed being together. Being a family. And I loved it.

But now that it’s a day later, and I’m thinking about being 50, I realize I’m getting to be an old curmudgeon in some ways. You see, I like to keep tabs on the genealogical world. I try to keep abreast of things happening in the community. Trends, fads, skills, and more. I’m not the best at it because I like to spend time with my family and because I’m not a professional genealogist. So, I’m not always immersed in the genealogical realm.

One thing I’ve noticed that’s becoming more and more prevalent in genealogy is AI. (Yes, everyone has noticed how prevalent AI has become in every sphere.) But here’s where I’m feeling like a curmudgeon. I’m not fully accepting of AI in the genealogical community yet. There are a few things that AI is doing that I absolutely love. Family Search’s beta tool for full text search and recognizing handwriting is a game changer when searching for your long-lost relatives. Utilizing AI as a notetaker and for creating certain kinds of surveys, tables, and even generating ideas for more research can be helpful and less time consuming.

I get it. AI is a tool like any other tool. A tool that should be used. Sure. There’s a lot of arguments for the use of the tool that I agree with.

Unfortunately, when I start looking at social media, blogs, or videos that promote AI helping with genealogical writing and even some other tasks, my interest wanes immediately. I even cringed a little inside when I said AI could be used for creating tables just a moment ago. I understand how time-consuming certain tasks are. Especially writing. I understand the concept “time is money.” I understand how people often want to get on to the next thing on the list of things to do.

I also understand how fulfilling it is to write and create something on your own. I understand the peace of mind and confidence I get when I struggle through a task on my own. I also see how my thinking changes, how I learn, and how inspiration comes to me when I perform the task myself.

Like any other technology today, from the developer’s standpoint, part of the purpose of AI is to gain your attention. The tech companies are competing for your attention. The longer you spend on their platforms, the better it is for their bottom line. Never mind the impact they receive from gathering so much information because people are freely feeding them more data.

Now I’m not here to preach against AI. If I was, I’d probably bring up the controversies about energy use and water consumption. I am only pointing out that as I grow older, I’m a bit more interested in a return to the idea that the work itself is rewarding, that we can take pleasure in the job itself. That might make me a curmudgeon. If so, I will own it.

When it comes to writing of any sort, I like to sit down with a good old pen and paper and have a tactile experience thinking and writing. I enjoy the struggle and ultimately the creation. I enjoy the process.  What will happen if we automate the process of genealogy so much that we don’t enjoy the hobby/profession anymore? So much of family history is about kinship and identity and discovering the impact of family on our lives that it makes the process worth it, the process becomes a human experience. What happens if we strip genealogy of the human experience because we want something done or because it is easier?

I don’t know. I don’t have the answers.

But since I’m one day into 50 and starting my life as a bona fide curmudgeon, I think I’ve got plenty of time to struggle through and shape my ideas about AI in genealogy. But please, can we stop with the AI generated photos already?

P.S. AI tried to give me a number of suggestions on how to write this blog. I ignored them all.

If I made a grammar mistake, or if you didn’t like the blog itself, we’ll both live.

Photo via Andrew Neel

Once, when I was a student, a teacher had us create the bibliography for our papers two months before the first draft was due. Before I finished the assignment, I questioned, “Why are we doing this now? I don’t know what sources I’m going to use.”

Having never done it that way, I failed to see the reasoning of creating a bibliography, reference list, or source list first. Afterwards, I realized the power in the exercise. The same can be applied to reference lists in our genealogy. So my suggestion is to create your reference list as you grab the records during your search.

One game changing technique I’ve learned over the years is to find a record, save it, and create my citations in the reference list before I do anything else. This does a couple of things for me. First. It allows me to judge the scope of my research. I can see how many documents I’ve collected on a family member, a topic, or story. I can judge how much searching I've done in a matter of moments.

In other words, have I done a reasonably exhaustive search? A quick glance at your reference list (and research log) can help you determine exactly how much you’ve done, and maybe illuminate for you what other avenues of research you still need in order to solve your query, question, mystery. You might still have more tasks to complete, or you might see that you’ve almost exhausted every avenue of potential information.

Second. Creating a reference list first is a great guide for me to understand what kind of project I am going to work on with my sources.

Let me explain it this way. In life, we often have real people to converse with. In research we have a conversation with the documents and other sources we find. They start the conversation by making a statement. We respond to those statements in multiple ways. Are we going to write a report for a client? Write a case study? Create a family history book, a blog, a podcast, or some other kind of project? Seeing your reference list might be a determining factor in how you decide to respond to the sources you find. For instance, if I have 18 newspapers stories on an event in my ancestor’s life, I might want to create a book and focus it on that one experience.

But if I have one death certificate that tells me about a 12 year stay in one location, I might need to create a research plan to learn more about my ancestor’s time in that locale.

Doing enough research will help you define how you use your research. It helps us because our thoughts, ideas, and opinions will change the more information we consume on any particular topic. If I see a one-minute video on the life of an ancestor, I will have thoughts and feelings. Those thoughts and feelings will change if I watch a thirty-minute video of the same ancestor. Guaranteed. Because you have more information.

Anyway, I believe that the more you research, the more you will know what project comes next, because really, if you don’t plan to produce anything with your research, then why do it?

So, if you don’t create your reference lists first, why don’t you give it a try? See what happens. It might work wonders for your genealogy. Or who knows? You might do what I did and grumble over more homework. 

Hello Mississippi Genealogical Society,

First of all, our June meeting will be held on June 21^st and our speaker will be Heather Moore, Head of Special Collections at the Leland Speed Library at Mississippi College. Her presentation will focus on the records of the Baptist Historical Commission and utilizing church records in genealogical research.

Second. Friend of the Society and guest of our Winter Virtual Seminar, J. Mark Lowe, has resumed posting YouTube videos. Much of the advice he shared over the span of our seminar has come in handy for me in recent weeks, so you know I’m going to tune in and soak up a bunch of awesome tips and tricks. You can find his channel Kentucky Tennessee Research Associates here. Give his videos a perusal if you get the chance.

Third. This might be a little late to promote (thanks for the late notice, Mark), but both Mark and Society friend Dr. Deborah Abbott will appear tonight on the GenealogyQuickStart Channel on YouTube to play Password! This should be fun and entertaining if you can make it. You can catch that channel here.

Fourth. Membership Dues. It’s about that time of year for those who pay in person. We’ll be available to collect dues at the June 21^st meeting. Or you can pay online and get automatic updates when it’s time to renew again. Look at that, we’re moving into the 21^st century!

Fifth. Please be on the lookout for our member survey this week. The Society will shoot all members an email with the survey attached. This is a good way for us to understand your interests and craft programming and presentations that serve our society’s current membership. So please fill that out when you see it.  

Sixth. A few weeks ago, I sent out a call to arms. I invited all those who are willing and able to write a blog, a social media post, serve on the Board and more to volunteer to help the society in various ways. That call still stands. If you’d like to be more involved with the Society, please think about the opportunities at hand to participate. Or shoot us an email offering some help.

As always, thanks for letting me be a part of the genealogical fun here in Mississippi! I look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.

It’s that time of year. Schools and universities are nearing the end of the semester (or school year), finals and papers are due, and stress is a thing. During all this stress, there’s one thing that’s not in short supply. Yes, on college campuses there’s never a shortage of sermons about citing your sources.

What’s funny about citations is how many students get caught cheating and plagiarizing because they’re undereducated about how many tools are available to help them.

Some of them just go to Son of Citation or EasyBib, online generators that typically create more problems than they actually help. The savvier students will use programs like End Note or Zotero, both of which are fantastic and can truly help track your sources and cite those works.

Other students get in trouble because, despite their teacher’s sermons, they underutilize the library. If they’d use the library like their professors asked, they’d probably learn a multitude of small tips and tricks to help them tackle sources and citations. So what does any of this preaching about stress and the end of the year have to do with genealogy and genealogists?

Well, if you’re like those students, and need some help crafting a quick citation, I’ll show you one of the tricks I show my students. Are you ready?

Did you know that most library catalogs will create citations for you? All you need to do is look for the proper icons that will lead you to the promised land. They typically say something profound like “cite” on them, and you can grab what you need in seconds.

Here’s what it looks like on the Millsaps College Catalog.

Once you click that cite button, a smaller window emerges. It looks like this.

You can then select your citation style. It’s under the top arrow I’ve drawn on the second image. Once you select your preferred style, the citation will generate inside the gray window beneath your selection field. You can see it there with the middle arrow. The bottom arrow shows you where you can press a button to copy the citation. Then, “Bam!” you’re ready to paste it into your work.

To be fair, some public libraries with smaller budgets might not have a citation generator of this sort in their catalog. But many of them do. You’ll find generators like this in WorldCat, almost every academic library, and even inside databases that provide articles.

 I find myself grabbing citations all the time from the catalog. If for some reason I’ve returned a book to the library without creating a citation, I can always go back to the catalog and get one in minutes.

I’m in the camp that believes you should take the time to learn how to handcraft citations so you can truly understand how to utilize them. However, I also recognize that there are plenty of times when a quick generator like this is the way to go.

Wherever you stand on citations, please know there’s plenty of help out there for you to cite your sources without stressing too hard. I hope this one tip is helpful for your work. So go to genealogists! Cite your work! Revel in them!

Have fun and join us for our summer programming. I’ll see you here next week.

A nice gentleman stopped by the JB Cain Archives at Millsaps College this week. He wanted whatever he could find about the church he attended when he was young. So I pulled the records.

He pulled up a chair and began to read. Anytime he came across the name of a pastor or congregant, he started into a personal story of his youth, how he knew the person, what were they like and some other memories he could relate about the person. Some of them were small memories, such as, “Sis. So and So always sat in the third pew from the front on the right.” Others were tales about his family, such as an uncle who was appointed as the pastor of his church.

After the third or fourth story, I stopped him and asked, “Should I be recording this?”

He looked me straight in the eyes then. Red-rimmed. Watery with tears.

“No, I think I pretty much have it written down. Unless I find something new here today. I’ve been telling my wife for years we were going to come down to Millsaps and see what you got.”

“I was serious. I can record your stories if you’d like me to. It’s a good way to preserve them. Or I can just sit and listen as long as you need.”

“Listening is fine.”

He read more of the records. At every new name he stopped to tell me a story.

Finally, he finished. I walked him and his wife out of the building.

“Thank you,” his wife said. “You’ve been very kind.”

“I’m glad to help. I’ll let you know if we find anything more.”

“We’ll hope we can come again. He’s got surgery down this way next week.” Then she whispered low, and a little hesitantly. “Cancer.”

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and gave me an awkward smile. “It’ll be okay,” he said.

“Yeah, he’s already beat it,” she said.

But it didn’t stop me from wishing I had recorded his stories anyway.

Since this is the official blog of the Mississippi Genealogy Society, I thought I’d start posting some search hints and tricks that are specific to Mississippi. I also thought I’d start by promoting collections available at my day job.

Many of you know I am the College Librarian at Millsaps College. What many of you might not know is that Millsaps College is the home of the J. B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism. We are the official repository for the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Church and some of its antecedents here in Mississippi [1]. 

The archives is a great resource for those of you searching for your Methodist ancestors. My suggestion is to start by visiting our research guide located here. This research guide is a great place to find information regarding the collections found at the J. B. Cain archives but will also guide you to online access of the New Orleans Christian Advocate, the Mississippi Advocate, and more [3].

Recently, during our Winter Virtual Seminar, researcher J. Mark Lowe was impressed by the name index of Mississippians mentioned in the New Orleans Christian Advocate. The index was created by J. B. Cain, a prominent Methodist church historian whose work resulted in the creation of the archive.

However, the Christian newspapers aren’t the only noteworthy collections. If you peruse the various tabs and hyperlinks on the page, you will find lists of memoirs and obituaries of notable Methodist ministers, a list of church registers residing in the collection, and finding aids for the United Methodist Women’s Society and the Manuscript Collections of notable Mississippi Methodists[4].

If you’re looking specifically for a name of a family member who belonged to a particular church, you’d go to the church registers and records tab, scroll to the hyperlink that says Church Registers and Records, and voila! [5] A document providing the list of church registers in the collection will open. Then you can check to see if the church your ancestor attended is on the list. Once you've found the church you're looking for be sure to schedule an appointment with us to scroll through the church register in person.

The library and archive staff are willing to answer any questions you might have about the process. Please understand that the J. B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism is currently open by appointment only. If you want to schedule a visit, please email librarian@millsaps.edu.

Also, it's best to know that there are other genealogical resources housed in the Millsaps-Wilson Library. I just wanted to highlight some of the most used items from the J. B. Cain Archives today.

Other than that, I do hope this information is helpful to your search. Have a good week and I hope to get you more useful tips soon. 

P.S. Here's a classic view of the old archives reading room [6].

[1] Millsaps-Wilson Library. “The Archives.” Millsaps College, 2024. https://millsaps.edu/academics/millsaps-wilson-library/the-archives/

[2] Millsaps-Wilson Library. "J. B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism: Overview." Millsaps College. Hyperlink to an Overview of the resources found in the J. B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism is provided. Accessed 22 April 2025. https://libguides.millsaps.edu/methodist/overview

[3] Millsaps-Wilson Library. “J. B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism: Finding Aids.” Millsaps College. New Orleans Christian Advocate hyperlink is provided in blue lettering at the top of the page. Accessed 21 April 2025. https://libguides.millsaps.edu/methodist/indexes

[4] Millsaps-Wilson Library. “J. B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism: Finding Aids.” Millsaps College. The memoirs and obituaries and United Methodist Women’s Society hyperlinks are provided in blue lettering at the top of the page. Accessed 21 April 2025. https://libguides.millsaps.edu/methodist/indexes

[5] Millsaps-Wilson Library. “J. B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism: Church Registers and Records” Millsaps College. Accessed 21 April 2025. https://libguides.millsaps.edu/methodist/churches

[6] Millsaps-Wilson Library. "Reading Room at the J. B. Cain Archives of Mississippi Methodism." Photograph. 2017. Millsaps College Archives, Jackson, Mississippi. Accessed 2025. 

Right before Christmas, my family drove to Destin for a little getaway. My wife and I packed our swimsuits, towels, shorts, sandals, buckets, chairs, and a few extra clothes and made the trek to the little beach house my mother-in-law rented for our group. The weather was warm, not too humid, and the crowds were nonexistent.

We spent most of our time that week strolling the beach under the full moon, sitting in the hot tub, going on dolphin watching cruises in the gulf, and even swimming in the mid-December surf. We made memories with the family. Cousins played with cousins. Sisters shopped with sisters. And me? Well, I read a book. That’s what beaches are for, right? Beach reading?

Okay. Okay. I didn’t always read. Nope. One morning towards the end of our stay, I found myself at the beach house with Grandma—my wife’s mom. That morning, I kind of coerced her to sit down with me for an oral history interview. Family history style. The audio turned out perfectly and I was excited to hear stories of her parents, grandparents, and other tales from her childhood. I let her talk until the rest of the family broke up the interview when they came home for lunch.

Shortly after my chat with Grandma we came home. It’s then I decided to transcribe the interview and attach some documents pertaining to the folks she mentioned. Let me say this about my project—I fell straight down the genealogical rabbit hole. Like magic, I was no longer in our world but had hopped straight through the proverbial looking glass.

My hunt for documentation concerning the people, places, and other ideas Grandma mentioned led me to find stories the family (specifically my wife and mother-in-law) didn’t know. Some of these stories are tales straight out of a Zane Grey or Louis L’Amour novel. Others are of the romantic variety. (I hope to write a few of these stories down someday soon. Unfortunately I don't have time to tell them to you today.)

Either way, everyone has been so excited to hear the news about what I found and to make connections with those who’re no longer here. Most exciting to me was when my wife started sending me articles on aspects of the oral history interview she found fascinating.

In our time together, I’m not sure I ever remember my wife doing any kind of genealogy research on her own. But this time, after hearing her mom’s stories, she was interested to know more and went on a hunt. These experiences, our research, have led to great conversations with our children when we told them what we found. I do hope they catch the genealogy bug too. Either way, there are still more stories to discover, more memories to share, and more interviews to conduct. There are even more memories to make like those we made with the rest of the family in Destin.

Overall, that one interview with Grandma has led to several rewarding experiences for me. And none of it would have happened had I not interviewed her. It’s safe to say I can’t wait for the chance to interview her again. When I do, I’ll be sure to chat with other family members as well. So please, take this as a reminder to interview (and record) your family members. Spend some time picking their brains, listening to their memories, and enjoying the moment. Then afterwards you’ll research those stories and use them as a jumping off place for your hunt. Because trust me. Those interviews are where the magic happens.

Hello friends of the Mississippi Genealogical Society!

It’s April. Officially spring.

As the azaleas, tulips, roses, and flowers bloom, we move away from our fantastic Winter Virtual Seminar featuring J. Mark Lowe. Throughout late January and into March, members of the society sharpened their skills, worked on research in real time, and built friendships during our weekly meeting with this fantastic researcher. He even brought guests most weeks. Guests like the fabulous Dr. Abbott, who reminded us to Write Our Story first.

I’d like to take a moment and express my gratitude for the fun the two of them have brought to us the last month or so. Thank you. Truly.

That being said, now that we’re in the second quarter of the year, I’d like to put out a call for suggestions. Whether it’s a meeting topic, a presenter, speakers, workshop ideas or more, please send us a note with what you’d like to see from the society. This is your society. Your place to learn and grow as researchers and hobbyists in the genealogical field. Please help us become your go to place for all things genealogy in the state of Mississippi.

And if you want to donate your time and talents to the society, we’ll take that too. We’re currently in need of help running the zoom portion of our monthly meetings. Plus we need some awesome social media posts. And blog posts. We need more blogs than the few I put out on Tuesday afternoons. There’s so much to do and we want you to be a part of it all.

So this is your call to arms. Join us. Research with us. Give us suggestions. And if you’re new to Mississippi or genealogy, tell us about your family. We have a meeting on April 19 with Dr. William K Storey, author and Millsaps College professor. If you like what you see, pull up a chair and stick around a while. We always need new additions to the family.

On Sunday, a friend cornered me at church. She said, “Wyatt, I need to pick your brains for a minute,” and pointedly looked at two books she held in her hands. Both wore black covers and one had the date 1949 on it.

“How can I help?” I asked.

“My dad recently gave me these journals from my grandfather and great-grandfather. I figured I’d ask you what I needed to do with them before I do anything else with them.”

Now I know what she really meant was, “How do I preserve and take care of these?” And I answered that question immediately. However, before I went on my long and detailed rant about preservation and storage and washing her hands before she touched them and other standard archival practices I felt she needed to know, I should have said something else. I should have said, “Read them.”

First and foremost, I should have made sure that she planned to read them, not just assumed that she would. I should have expressed how important I think they’ll be to her and not because I think they’re important because of their age. You see, I don’t care how old they are. I don’t care if they’re from 1913 or 1949 or some other time (they are from 1913 and 1949). I mention this because sometimes people think age is what brings the value to items like these. Unfortunately, age isn’t what makes them important. I think they’re important because they’re from her family. And because of that, I truly hope she reads them. And treasures them. Those journals from her ancestors are filled with priceless words and thoughts. They’re also filled with the opportunity to feel the connection to her grandfather and great-grandfather in ways she never knew before.

Truly, how many of us who dabble in genealogy would love to have journals from our ancestors? I don’t have any. The closest thing I have is one letter from my grandfather. It’s actually not a letter. It’s a note he wrote when he annotated some sheet music for me. He wanted me to learn Stardust on the harmonica and took the time to arrange and annotate the song for me with his own arrangement. I never expected him to go out of his way for me like that. And in the end, his little note became tangible evidence my grandfather not only knew my name, but thought about me as well.

Photo from the author's personal collection

You see, it might have been easy to doubt whether or not my grandfather knew me. He lived at least 500 miles from me, had a good 20-30 other grandchildren (some of which I knew, others I didn’t), and he called every single one of us “pumpkin.” He said it in his quiet voice that almost sounded like mumbling. Every time he called me pumpkin, I wasn’t sure what to think because he called all of his grandchildren by the same pet name.

Then one day a few years later and after I grew a few feet taller, my grandfather learned I’d been dabbling in the harmonica. As someone who toured the local circuit of rest homes and office gigs with his harmonica group, this new knowledge excited him. We jammed. We learned new music. We both learned the Dances with Wolves soundtrack, which was popular at the time. We had a great time. It was our thing. Harmonicas became a special moment for someone like me, who grew up most of my life not really knowing my grandparents. You see, two of them died before I was born, the third died when I was 5, and the only remaining one resided 500 miles away. Growing up that far away from your grandparent makes you suspect when they start calling every kid around you “pumpkin.”

So after the jam sessions and the harmonica lessons died down, and my grandfather dropped me a note, one with MY NAME ON IT!, it dispelled all doubt on whether or not he knew my name. Plus it was beyond cool that he was thinking of me.

These days I wish I had more than one paragraph written in a shaky hand from my grandfather. Boy, what would I do for a journal or two? So, my friend, please forgive me if I gave you all the advice on how to preserve those journals without making sure you’re going to read them. But even more important, my friend, take it from me. Read them. Read them and appreciate the treasure you’re working to preserve.