Tag: Robert Allen Sumrall

Some Notes on the New FamilySearch AI All-Text Search Tool

August 1, 2025

In my posting here two days ago, I noted that this past April, the quarterly newsletter of the Tuscaloosa County Alabama Genealogical Society published an article I had written discussing the new FamilySearch all-text search tool. The article was entitled “A.I. & Genealogical Research: FamilySearch Full Text” and was published in Roots and Branches 50,2 … More Some Notes on the New FamilySearch AI All-Text Search Tool

Family Stories and Surprising Ways New Documentation Can Confirm Them: The Story of Robert Allen Sumrall and Margaret and Catherine Ryan

August 6, 2024

Or, Subtitled: “May her soul rest in peis.” This posting tells a story. It tells a story about a story, one told to me in my formative years. It also tells a story about how sudden genealogical surprises can either confirm or disprove our long-cherished family traditions. So that we do well to keep ourselves … More Family Stories and Surprising Ways New Documentation Can Confirm Them: The Story of Robert Allen Sumrall and Margaret and Catherine Ryan

Family of Valentine Ryan and Bridget Tobin of County Kilkenny, Ireland, and Grant County, Arkansas: New Information

April 1, 2021

Or, Subtitled: Things Are Seldom Quite as Simple as One Would Like in Genealogical Research, Are They? Throwback Thursday they call it, right? This posting is a throwback to a series of posts I did in April 2018, which began with this posting entitled “In Memory of Valentine Ryan, Born in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, Feb. 23, 1810, … More Family of Valentine Ryan and Bridget Tobin of County Kilkenny, Ireland, and Grant County, Arkansas: New Information

“In Memory of Valentine Ryan, Born in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, Feb. 23, 1810, Died Feb. 22, 1881. Erected by his son Patrick Ryan”: Irish Roots of Ryan Family, Grant County, Arkansas (1)

April 12, 2018

In two previous postings in my series about Patrick Ryan (here and here), I’ve shared a few pieces of information about Pat’s Irish roots. As I told you in those postings (the first link has a copy of his baptismal record), his parents were Valentine Ryan (1810-1881) and Bridget Tobin (1818-1873), who married 21 September 1836 in … More “In Memory of Valentine Ryan, Born in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, Feb. 23, 1810, Died Feb. 22, 1881. Erected by his son Patrick Ryan”: Irish Roots of Ryan Family, Grant County, Arkansas (1)

Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (8)

April 7, 2018

I’m floundering a bit as I try to draw to a close this series of postings about Pat and Delilah Rinehart Ryan and their pension applications for Pat’s Civil War service and injuries. The problem is that the deeper I reach into the treasure trove of information this file contains, the more connections I’m spotting … More Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (8)