iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I wrote "...in Kansas City" 🍖💙 in an email. Gmail flagged it as a potential error and suggested "inconsistency." 😱

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

The Cumbria FHS is hosting a family history conference in late July celebrating 50 years of service to the community.

cumbriafhs.com

CFHSv3.50 - Jubilee

Events Jubilee Conference

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I think I have my two John Rider/Ryder men living in a tiny Yorkshire village separated. Some of their same-named children, not yet.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

My husband has 3GGAunt named Bridget McCabe. She was born in Killashandra, County Cavan in 1828 and died in Austin, Minnesota in 1898. I thought she was two people for a while because she was called Delia. I didn’t know that was a common nickname. We have a daughter Bridget, too.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Yes, it’s VA. But a year! I submitted appeals for my requests in August but no response to those yet.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Yes. There are guidelines for a timely response but according to USCIS, they can’t comply as the volume of request has increased exponentially. NARA is better set up for archiving and processing the requests for copies, imho.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

I thoroughly enjoyed this season. Thanks for another interesting set of episodes.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

I submitted a request for my father’s and grandfather’s BIRLS File in December 2024. I have only received an acknowledgment that they received one request. Nothing since.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Reclaim the Records previously made an appeal to keep USCIS from increasing prices significantly. When I submitted, the cost was US$65 each for a search and for the record. I think USCIS did increase prices but not as much. www.reclaimtherecords.org/about/activi...

reclaimtherecords.org

Reclaim The Records vs. United States Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) and their "Genealogy Program" - Reclaim The Records

In which we explain to USCIS in great detail and with many examples why they’re horrible at mailing grandpa’s records, and why they charge you too much when they finally do

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Reclaim the Records, a non-profit, has filed suit against the USCIS for not responding in a timely manner. My request several years ago took months to get the (expensive) record. They and other government officials do appear to be slow-walking anything that has to do with immigration.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

I registered yesterday. See you there. I participated in #MyColorfulAncestry back in the day. My cousins enjoyed seeing the charts I made for them—a big win there!

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Yes, exactly. WE do the research work and, for example, have AI do a needed side-task that takes us an hour to do. Even after spending a half hour checking and correcting its output, we’re still a half hour ahead. AI can be useful but we must understand what it can do fairly well and what it cannot.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Treat AI like a newly hired research assistant. Give the AI program tasks like summarize, transcribe, or look for gaps. Like with a new-hire, you must verify the work performed and then explain why and where it missed the mark.

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Reposted by Ruth Phair Mason

Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

It is clearly deeply annoying for a sociopath when a human collapses nearby and distracts attention from him.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

It’s back. I just went to my Feeds, and it was there I unpinned it and pinned again.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Mine is gone also. It was there last night.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

#GenHour #Ancestry Cumbria FHS, celebrating its Jubilee year, will host a three-day #FamilyHistory conference and fair from 29 July through 1 August 2026 at Carlisle. The website isn't updated yet but the information is on its Facebook page. More details coming soon.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

My Cumbrians lived in the Penrith and Appleby area although my 2xg-grandmother was a servant in Matthewman Donald’s house in 1851. I’ve only spent a touristy afternoon in Carlisle when I was in the area. It will be good to chat about family history in the area with those who know more than I do.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Watch out Cumbria and Yorkshire, and London, I’m coming back! #familyhistory #genealogy #ancestry #cumbriafhs

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Yes, thankfully we have the means in retirement. During our working years we lived far from our families so our leisure travels were mainly to visit our living relatives.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

It was an idea for an ancestry tour that started my truly working on family history. We decided to go to Ireland for our 30th anniversary in 2013. I thought, let me do some digging, and 16 months later, we drove across Ulster visiting a good mix of ancestral, historic, and tourist locations.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

#Genealogy #FamilyHistory In a late night foray into Full Text Search last week I found a couple items that confirm suspected relationships. Sometimes it’s fun to just go in and throw things at it and see what pops up. #AncestryHour

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

#AncestryHour, I’ve been researching speakers for my local genealogy society. For our regular 2026 meetings, I’ve engaged a speaker on researching Revolutionary War soldiers (my folk were still in their old countries) and have contacted a couple more. Our quarterly webinar series is nearly set.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

I was thinking James Norton as the printer; he’s in everything now. Maybe he’s better suited to playing the local lord.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

With a teenaged servant and an unmarried male lodger also in the house, I can see so many plot lines.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Oh how I wish the border offices kept more of their crossings records. At least I have newspaper articles about my maternal granddad visiting family only 100 miles away but across the border. Also, some of grandma’s southern Ontario cousins went to Michigan for work.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Glad to hear! A few years ago, I was in a non- #genealogy writing-your- #familyhistory class and one student—who didn’t dabble in genealogy—corrected the Louisianan instructor who said that her ancestors arrived at New Orleans in the 1700s, stating that “all immigrants came through Ellis Island.” 🤷‍♀️

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

In my limited experience, many Americans have a Canadian connection and are surprised when they find it.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

I don’t think it’s rare. My four grandparents entered at Canadian-American land borders between 1893-1917. Two were born in Canada to immigrants, one lived in Canada but was born elsewhere, and one traveled through Canada as part of the journey to the US. #genealogy #familyhistory #ancestry

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

It searches the full text instead of an index. BNA/Findmypast’s newspaper OCR transcriptions look like they use a fairly early OCR. I imagine they are waiting for not-so-early AI software to re-run the pages. That would be a huge (!!) cost but—I know there are many hits I’m not seeing.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

And yes. I just confirmed a relationship in an 1893 will; William Shannon bequeathed CDN$200 to his “niece Mary Ann Cox.” I had suspected he was her mother’s brother for at least 10 years, even before I found her mother.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

I have not used it much since it first was announced and found items I already had. I know they have been adding more record sets and I should see what’s there now.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Every year during RootsTech season, I look at my celebrity connections and do a bit of pruning. We all know the story: A noble lady went to the fells of the northern Pennines to baptize a child and left him behind with her namesake. No, that’s not unusual at all.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Yes. I found an Irish couple’s home. The wife’s older family member’s headstone said “Native of Keenagh Co. Longford.” And the husband’s nephew, who emigrated later and to a different country, had an obituary that mentioned Keenagh. That couple were married in Keenagh.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Reclaim The Records has some advice to appeal if you’re next of kin. See www.birls.org/updates At the moment, it seems they think it’ll take a few more years to resolve (again).

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

The NGS Conference is next May at Fort Wayne so there is another chance to visit. #GenHour

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

She was a laundress, an ag labourer, and spend her final days in St. Anne's Almshouse. Her name was Ann Dixon McIntosh and she must have been well loved to have such a beautiful stone. I was able to visit her every day for a week last summer. She remains top of mind. #genhour #genealogy 3/3

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

She rests forever at the far back of the St. Lawrence churchyard in Appleby overlooking the Eden River. She was born nearby in Dufton; she was the wife of the blacksmith on the Cantray estate near Inverness; she was widowed and brought her children to England. #genhour #genealogy 2/3

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Nine years ago today, a volunteer in the Cumbria FHS fulfilled a request for a photograph of my 3xGGmother's tombstone, which almost certainly was carved by her grandson-in-law, a talented stonemason and sculptor. #genhour #genealogy 1/3

Gravestone with ornate knobs extending from a triangular top.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Thank you. I didn’t know that group existed. I am looking for the parents, birthplace, etc. for a John Rider/Ryder who married in lower Wensleydale in 1800. I’ve tried to place him in Coverdale but all their John Riders of an appropriate age are accounted for. #genealogy #familyhistory #upperdales

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

If you have the opportunity to attend her accompanying presentation, take it. I enjoyed it a few months ago.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I received @janetfew.bsky.social’s book, A History of Women’s Work, last week on its debut in the US. I was traveling so I first saw it last night. I plan to read it on a cross-country flight this weekend. It looks very promising. #genealogy #familyhistory

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I had said they should index names. I’m not going back to look but I meant fewer fields like BNA. I use Newspapers dot com on free weekends mostly to gather American DNA match info; my too few ancestors in the US are better represented in Chronicling America and state historical societies.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Truly bad label on my part. I have trawled through dozens of indexed articles to find my guy among others of the same name, time, location. I don’t know if each article is about my stonemason, a solicitor, or the other stonemason, until I open it. Is it a reasonably exhaustive or exhausting search?

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I asked if they should index the event date and location but I don’t propose that they should. I’m wholly in the document-the-article camp: Names, event type, publication date, publication place (like BNA). The researcher must evaluate the article, not the index, to determine if it is relevant.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Raising awareness is good. Not everyone can afford to buy every birth certificate or to view every parish register entry we should. Every hobby has expenses. If we want to be a good golfer or a genealogist, we have to invest in education and equipment. Databases and archives et al are our equipment.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Yes, the lazy researcher’s work may be copied but I can’t stop it. I can counter it with logical evaluations in my public tree when it affects my ancestors (e.g., same-name conflict resolutions) so that some, sadly not all, viewers can readily see which researcher’s work is more trustworthy.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Your example is worse than I imagined. I stand by my comment—index what it is and require the researcher to evaluate it. When a researcher’s work is mostly based on indexes and transcriptions, it is unreliable and they should be A. ignored or B. gently educated. If they disregard B., revert to A.

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Ruth Phair Mason @phairmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Should Ancestry include the date and location of the event described in an article when it indexes a publication? Indexing two places and dates—one of each for the publication and one of each for the event—might also be misunderstood and transposed. I don’t want to lose the newspaper elements. Hmm.

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