Three new webinars

Join Michael for one or more of these three exciting presentations!

We will focus on a genealogically responsible way of using Perplexity.ai. This site can be your research assistant, and we’ll walk through personal aand practical examples from Michael’s own research

We will not be discussing creating images or fiction in this presentation.

Our focus will be on responsibly using Perplexity as a virtual research helper.

We will look at:

·        What Perplexity is.

·        Genealogy document and problem analysis.

·        Image searching.

·        Transcribing documents and records.

·        The free version of Perplexity



Live on 9 June 2025 at 8:00 pm eastern.

This is an AI chat different from the others—join us and find out! Perplexity includes online sources for information in its responses and is much less likely to make up data or hallucinate. It will give you sources---which will need to be evaluated, but at least you’ll have them. Perplexity is more like AI combined with a search engine.

Registration for the live session is limited!

Options

·        Attend live for $18. Handout included—via Zoom.

·        Pre-order recording and handout for $11 (sale price!)

Live on 11 June 2025 at 8:00 pm eastern.

This session will provide a brief overview of what is on Fold3.com (mainly military records, but will instead focus on how to navigate material on the site and the site itself, how to browse images, how to perform searches, downloading of images, and problem-solving strategies.

Options:

·        Attend live for $18. Handout included—via Zoom.

·        Pre-order recording and handout for $11 (sale price!)

Live on 10 June 2025 at 8:00 pm eastern.

This site allows searchers to perform a variety of searches for individuals who received federal land patents. This session will briefly discuss what federal land patents are and how they were obtained. The bulk of the presentation will focus on how to query the database, what various search options are offered, performing geographic searches, interacting with and downloading images. The session will conclude with a discussion of non-patent images on the site including tract and survey books.

Options:

·        Attend live for $18. Handout included—via Zoom.

·        Pre-order recording and handout for $11 (sale price!)

US Land Records Class

With Michael John Neill

A 4-week course

live attendance suggested but optional

lectures are not streamed

This class will cover an overview of US land records, a discussion of land deeds in state land states (where property is in metes and bounds), a discussion of federal land states (where property is described using the rectangular survey system), federal land records, and problem-solving.

This class will have four sessions and an introductory session. Students will download and listen to lectures, handout, and do homework/problems before the discussion session on that content the following week. The discussion session will not be a repeat of the lecture but will be time for students to ask questions regarding the content and go over the homework/problems as a group.

Students will be encouraged to submit their homework, but it will not be graded. Student-submitted work will be (with permission of student) shown anonymously to the class during the discussion so it can be discussed and used as a springboard for additional discussion.

We will use Google Groups for communication outside of Zoom meetings. Those with an aol or yahoo email address may wish to have a Google email address for this purpose.

Pre-requisites

There’s not really a pre-requisite for the class other than an interest in learning about land records for genealogical research. That said, experience with vital records, probate records, and a few years of general genealogical research is recommended.

Registration is $60 and is limited. Students will be able to replay lectures as often as necessary—even after class is over (but only for their personal use). Zoom meetings will be recorded for those who cannot attend, but they will only be available for one week after the last session.

Schedule:

8 June 2025 at 6:00 pm central. Introductory session (optional) outlining class via Zoom.

15 June- 6July at 7:30 pm central. Discussion sessions.

All presentations are made by Michael John Neill. Michael has been an active genealogical researcher, writer, and lecturer for over thirty years. He has sponsored research trips to Salt Lake City, Ft. Wayne, and RIchmond and gives lectures on a variety of topics.