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Prairie Roots Genealogy

@prairiegenealogy.bsky.social
87 followers 91 following 100 posts

Prairie Roots is the alter ego of Janelle, who is passionate about #midwest #michigan #scottish #irish and #frenchcanadian #genealogy and is learning more every day. Still under construction as a genealogist and a human. PrairieRootsGenealogy.com

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Megan Smolenyak @megansmolenyak.com · 01/08/2026
It's not your imagination. Genealogists aren't the only ones struggling to get records that used to be fairly easy to obtain from the federal government . #genealogy link.propublica.net/view/5f0a06b...
link.propublica.net
“They just let the whole Privacy team go,” a now-former FOIA specialist at OPM told me by email in February 2025, referring to public records office staff. The specialist was cut the next day.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Family Tree has a great writeup about what you should know about AI as a family historian. I appreciate their clear acknowledgment of not just benefits but also dangers of AI. If you are going to use AI, read this and make sure you understand the full picture. familytreemagazine.com/resources/so...
familytreemagazine.com
A Genealogist's Guide to Artificial Intelligence - Family Tree Magazine
This article explores what artificial intelligence (AI) is and how it may affect the world of genealogy. Plus, find tips for using AI for genealogy projects.
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Emily Hunt @emily.space · 17/06/2026
In spot tests I've done, I see this happen *all of the time*, such as with my own papers. The LLM would often rather hallucinate a male scientist than get my name right. 🤷‍♀️ It's kind of unsurprising that models trained unscrupulously on the entire internet are misogynistic
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I've really been slacking on using Bluesky lately, but hello! Lately I've been busy with client work and gave two presentations in the last month. I've also done a bunch of writing on my blog: www.prairierootsgenealogy.com/blog What's new with you?
prairierootsgenealogy.com
Prairie Heart Genealogy Blog | Tips, Resources, & Family History Stories — Prairie Roots Genealogy
Educational genealogy articles, beginner guides, and research tips from Prairie Roots Genealogy.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
The Great Lakes area is one of my main areas of focus - and where my family tree has been concentrated for hundreds of years now (primarily in Michigan, but also Ontario, Quebec, Ohio, Indiana, and of course Wisconsin where I live now). How about you all?
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
For a few years in the early-20th century, if you wanted to drive a car in Prince Edward Island, you were out of luck. The vehicles made people scared to go to the markets and churches. So...the province banned them completely. This is the story of the PEI car ban. 🧵 1/9
Black-and-white vintage photograph from the 1910s showing a group of five people riding in an open-top early automobile on a narrow dirt road. The car has large round headlights, spoked wheels, and a license plate reading "5 N.J. 5". The driver is at the front right, while four passengers—three women in wide-brimmed hats and light dresses and one man in a suit—are seated behind. Dense foliage and bushes line the left side of the road. The photo has visible scratches and wear from age.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
I swear that I keep saying things like "I just have to get through [deadline, event, specific date, etc] and then things will calm down" and yet... things haven't calmed down all year. Might be my fault for trying to do two careers at once, travel occasionally, and have a regular life. Sigh.
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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
It’s important not to get caught up in pastoral fantasies that before various technologies we didn’t have many of the same struggles concerning power and equality, but it’s likewise essential to recognize that industrial “progress” involved an era of machines ripping off the hands of child workers.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
I have a talk this Saturday with the Irish Genealogical Society International - Irish Migrations to Canada! It's a topic near and dear to my heart, given that all of my Irish ancestors who came to North America settled in Canada! If you're interested: www.irishgenealogical.org/eventListing...
irishgenealogical.org
Irish Genealogical Society International - Activities
The Irish Genealogical Society International is dedicated to helping you discover your Irish heritage and ancestry. Visit us for assistance with your family history.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Headed to Salt Lake City to visit the FamilySearch library with a genealogy group this fall. I've already started a list of materials I want to see. Any other tips or tricks from the #genealogists out there?
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
This seems like a good thing: share.google/SCpOtqWNyYSQ...
share.google
The Internet Archive just became an official U.S. federal library
The new status means archive users gain access to a trove of government documents.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Neat! share.google/M6PHvdkAppUP...
share.google
Why 18th-Century Americans Were Just as Obsessed With Their Genealogy as We Are Today
People living in British America and later the nascent United States recorded their family histories in needlework samplers, notebooks and newspapers
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Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Historians: this is a worrying development. Historians use the Hansard to analyze what was said in parliamentary discussions. If the Hansard is subject to editing out things that are politically unacceptable at the time, we (and future historians) have a problem.
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Dr. Sabrina Mittermeier @smittermeier.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
I did this before in German but I guess today is a good day to compile English resources on why AI isn‘t actually intelligent and also a real danger: 🧵
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Claire Bradley @cbgenealogy.ie · 30/06/2025
With all the media coverage today of @virtualtreasury.bsky.social releases, it might be a good time to watch my talk about it from #Rootstech this year. www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech... #IrishGenealogy #GenHour #AncestryHour
familysearch.org
FamilySearch.org
Discover your family history. Explore the world’s largest collection of free family trees, genealogy records and resources.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
For those of us #genealogists who do Irish research, this is exciting: share.google/XEAClzi6akUb...
share.google
Pioneering project releases more lost Irish records spanning 700 years
Newly restored material from vast archive destroyed in civil war takes in Anglo-Norman conquest and 1798 rebellion
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Starting my first institute today with virtual GRIP's course Beyond Digging Deeper: Sources, Methods, and Practices. Very excited for an intensive week of learning!
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
I thought this article was such a fascinating link of anti-DEI efforts, genealogy, and academia. I thought it was interesting as a discussion of how descendants of enslaved people feel when they learn of their ancestors. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...
theguardian.com
Harvard hired a researcher to uncover its ties to slavery. He says the results cost him his job: ‘We found too many slaves’
When the extent of the university’s involvement with slavery was unearthed, a scholar tracking descendants of enslaved workers was suddenly fired
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
I'm pretty anti-AI, although I'm seeing some societies and genealogists use it in interesting ways. I always feel like such a curmudgeon about it, but as someone who values both creativity and our planet, AI is in direct conflict with those things. Curious how others in genealogy feel about it?
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Findmypast @findmypast.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
The legacies of 68 million women, including your ancestors, could go unrecognised in history, with census records labelling them as ‘unoccupied’. But what does this mean for the women in your family? Delve deeper ⬇️
buff.ly
Forgotten voices – the contributions of 68 million women are unrecognised in historical records | Blog
The legacies of 68 million women, including your ancestors, could go unrecognised in history, with census records labelling them as ‘unoccupied’.
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Kathleen Lenihan @kathleenlenihan.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
This 🧵 highlights the importance of family history. Remembering our own family’s struggles helps us understand the challenges people face today. My first American ancestors arrived as refugees fleeing famine in 1847. How were they any different from many current immigrants? #genealogy
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The Silver Unicorn Bookstore @silverunicornbooks.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Step 1: Read this Vanity Fair piece. Step 2: Buy @greenwell.bsky.social's book, which is out tomorrow: silverunicornbooks.com/item/Vus7kAU... Step 3: Probably get a punching bag or something, because this book is going to make you justifiably angry.
silverunicornbooks.com
Bad Company by Megan Greenwell | The Silver Unicorn Bookstore
Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Going to be doing my first genealogy talk later this year. I've presented many times in my other professional life, but I'm curious if the #genealogy pros here have any tips or things they learned from their early presentations?
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Love this kind of project - hope folks who might be able to participate are aware of it!
intermountainforensics.com
Tulsa DNA Project | Tulsa Identification Project | Intermountain Forensics
Intermountain Forensics is honored to assist the City of Tulsa in identifying victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. A number of massacre victims were buried in unmarked graves. As part of an import...
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
www.forbes.com/sites/abigai... I thought this was an interesting analysis of the 23 & Me situation.
forbes.com
23andMe Bankruptcy Affects Marginalized People Who Didn’t Share DNA
The 23andMe bankruptcy puts the privacy of 15 million customers in the spotlight. But millions who didn't give their DNA, including marginalized groups, are also at risk.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
This is me trying to force some accountability for my to-do list for today: 1. Transfer my photography files to a backup harddrive and make folders online only in Dropbox to save my overloaded laptop HD. 2. Gather the key docs I need for my #genealogy class assignment and get my file set up
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
I have nothing to do this weekend in terms of commitments so my to do list has a lot of research and writing on it! (Plus finally getting started on my website design) What about you all? Any fun #genealogy plans?
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Tracie Boyle @boylegenealogy.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
There’s a lot of bad info and misleading commentary out there, so here’s one view shared by many genealogists. Also, while deleting your 23andMe data is a personal choice, in my opinion, the sensitive info people share on social media is much more valuable to bad actors. reason.com/2025/03/26/w...
reason.com
Why I'm not deleting my 23andMe genetic data
Various corners of the media and internet are hyperventilating over the alleged genetic privacy implications of the imminent Chapter 11 bankruptcy of the
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Clint Smith @clintsmithiii.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
A few years ago I visited the National Museum of African American History & Culture with my grandparents. When we stepped out of the building my grandmother kept repeating the words “I lived it. I lived it. I lived it.” She’s still here. That history is still in her bones. You can never erase that.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Genealogy puzzle: I finally found a client's 3x great grandmother via death certificates and obituaries so now I'm trying to track her down in the census. But there's a puzzle here that I'm struggling with. Going to use initials to explain:
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Hard at work today at the Irish Genealogical Society International's Irish Heritage Day 2025! A marketing chair's work is never done (but tonight when it is, I'll be cheering with some whiskey)
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
#genealogy folks: If you could sit down with one of your ancestors for a while, who would it be and what would you want to ask them?
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Women Also Know History @womenknowhistory.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
At Women Also Know History, we know that women make history every day of the year. This Women's History Month, we want to take the opportunity to celebrate the women whose scholarship enriches the historical profession and expands our knowledge of the past. womenalsoknowhistory.com
womenalsoknowhistory.com
Women Also Know History
Expert Historians. Women Also Know History is a media and curriculum tool for promoting and connecting the work of professional women historians to other scholars, journalists, and anyone looking to l...
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Timely find: "[public archives] are treasures of so sacred a character, that the public enemy who wantonly devotes them to the flames is... branded as a barbarian; and of so priceless a value, that no money could purchase them of the poorest state in the union, or replace them when once destroyed."
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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Absolutely overwhelmed to be in the presence of the first-ever printed book to use the Cherokee syllabary, the Cherokee Constitution of 1827. At the American Antiquarian Society.
Picture of the pamphlet, with the bilingual text of the preamble in double columns, English and Cherokee
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Attending a new member meeting with @apgenealogists.bsky.social President and team members - so neat to see so many others in a similar boat of going from hobbyist to pro and so many different areas of focus.
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Newest arrival in my collection of random family history things - a photo post card of my great great uncle's business with a 70' milk bottle proclaiming our surname! Probably from the 1930s or 1940s (I don't know much about cars so I'm basing that on the buildings and the type on the back)
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Someone should've warned me how much genealogy requires spreadsheets 😂
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Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) @apgenealogists.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Join APG on 2 March for a FREE webinar about the importance of the U.S. National Archives in our profession and how YOU can effectively engage with legislators to support archival access. Open to all; register at bit.ly/4hPJXRg. This presentation is underwritten by Civil War Records.
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Jane Wilcox @janeewilcox.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
If you haven't already signed the petition to protect access to NY's vital records, please do so by 1pm Eastern today (2/11). www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/blog/call-ac...
newyorkfamilyhistory.org
Call for Action Regarding Access to New York State Vital Records | New York Genealogical & Biographical Society
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Reclaim The Records @reclaimtherecords.org · 06/02/2025
Have you checked out our brand new website, all about the AWFUL proposed legislation that got snuck into New York's proposed budget, which would destroy public access to birth, marriage, and death records -- and even the basic indices? Well, you should. www.nysvitalrecords.org
nysvitalrecords.org
NYS Vital Records Info
What is Being Proposed in the FY 2026 NYS Budget? Closing off access to New York State birth records for 125 years, marriage records for 100 years, and death records for 75 years, replacing today's wa...
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Jan Murphy @packrat74.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
#genealogy #FamilyHistory #RecordAccess #NewYork Upcoming deadline to speak out against new rules for Vital Records access in New York State (and NYC before consolidation). Act before February 11th! More details in next skeet. www.legalgenealogist.com/2025/01/28/c...
legalgenealogist.com
Call to action: New York!
Speak out on records access It's starting again. Every so often, records access -- particularly access to vital records -- goes on the chopping block. And access to these critical records for family h...
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Am I missing something about GRIP registration? It should be open and yet I'm not able to register. Help #genealogists #genealogy
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Michelle Bates (The Criminal Genealogist Podcast) @criminalgenie.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
I feel even more so today than ever before, our history is important to research and document. Citizen historians, genealogists, and family history buffs, it is time to go to work! #genealogy #genealogist #history
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Yikes. On top of all the other governmental things I'm worrying about, now genealogy is impacted too? www.reddit.com/r/Genealogy/...
reddit.com
From the Genealogy community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the Genealogy community
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Yesterday I got the DVD of records I'd requested using this database, and learned a ton more about my mom's father's service. It was faster than I expected, and now I have a list of others to look for and request.
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Jan Murphy @packrat74.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
#genealogy Lots of great advice here. 👇
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Jan Murphy @packrat74.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Tagging this for the #genealogy feed. #FamilyHistory
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Photo history is a specialty of mine, particularly photographic methods/styles and women & children's clothing. I can mostly help with men's clothing too but I'm best with women's. And because photography and collecting vintage cameras is one of my hobbies, I know a lot about photo formats!
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Prairie Roots Genealogy @prairiegenealogy.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
At my day job, we have a PhD historian on staff and basically since the day I started, we've been friends. Had dinner with her last night and picked her brain about organizing archival material, which is a passion for her, and it was great in general to talk research with someone who *gets it*
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