Category Archives: Other

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Using Artificial Intelligence for Genealogical Research

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AI is rapidly becoming a research assistant to innovative genealogists. If you are already using AI in your genealogy efforts or are just curiously interested, you should read this blog post by James Tanner. James is a retired lawyer who volunteers at BYU and FamilySearch. He is an interesting writer and a stickler for finding valid sources for our ancestors.

Did you know that Google’s Gemini has access to all the information in the FamilySearch Family Tree except for living people and some restricted records? James uses Gemini Pro in this post. He had Gemini itself help write the prompt he eventually used. I was quite impressed and a bit intimidated, but at the same time, anxious to start experimenting.

Give this post a read and then start messing around with your very own Research Assistant.

https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2025/12/can-gemini-3-do-valid-genealogical.html

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Believe It or Not

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As you adjust your clocks this Sunday, don’t forget to check your ceiling fan. Ceiling fans move air differently depending on their rotation.

When spinning clockwise, the fan pushes air upward, while a counterclockwise spin pushes air downward.

With the colder months quickly coming up, reverse your fan to spin clockwise at a low speed. This generates an updraft that gently pulls cool air upward and pushes the warm air that naturally rises to the ceiling back down along the walls and into your living space.

Circulating this warm air helps keep your room evenly heated, allowing your furnace to work less and lowering heating bills.

Check it out here in Detroit.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2025/11/01/why-youre-supposed-to-reverse-the-way-your-ceiling-fans-spin-when-you-set-the-clocks-forward/

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Ken Nordtvedt Has Passed

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The following was posted by David Vance in the ISOGG group in FaceBook today. As one of Ken’s acolytes back in the early days of Y-DNA Haplogroup I research, I feel compelled to post some links about his works. Ken helped guide me through testing of individual STRs and SNPs before autosomal testing was even available.

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The early pioneers in genetic genealogy in this group will remember Ken Nordtvedt, who I just heard passed away earlier this month at 86. His Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Nordtvedt) has already been updated.

While his contributions far exceeded genetic genealogy, in our field he was an early innovator in more accurate Y-DNA TMRCA algorithms back when most of us were still fan-girling over Bruce Walsh’s original 2001 paper on the subject. Ken’s Interclade TMRCA methodology is still the basis for the SAPP tool TMRCAs and have held up remarkably well over the decades.

But more than that, Ken was a major force in analysis and discovery in the I haplogroup for many years.

RIP and thank you to one of our departed visionaries and a giant upon whose shoulders we stand.

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See also https://genarchivist.net/showthread.php?tid=2028

Jim Robeson,
I1a-M253 > DF29 > CTS6364 > S4795 > S4767 > S4770 > Y13495/Y13016 > Y29634/S4774 > A13294 > FTA86767