Book Review: Genealogy in Reverse

Have you ever wanted to look at the playbook that someone who specializes in finding living descendants has created? Have you wondered what resources a researcher would employ online and in the real world? Have you wanted to use such a playbook in your own reverse genealogy efforts? Within its 54 pages, Genealogy in Reverse: Finding the Living lets you have your own copy of concise notes written by Ms. Passey. She does this professionally and her impressive credentials include working as a subcontractor in the important genealogical work involved in repatriating the remains of WWII service members.

I have a cybersecurity certification in ethical hacking, and my favorite phase of the process is reconnaissance. Although DNA is not a part of the hacking methodology (yet), and the goals are different, the skills I have learned have assisted me in finding heirs and helping a museum find living descendants of a person that they planned to honor. These efforts made me curious about seeing that playbook, too.

The methodology and guidance for finding the living that are presented in the book are based on sound principles. Those principles are shared with the reader. There are instructions and screenshots for importing and exporting family trees between Ancestry.com and Legacy Family Tree Software, and how to split off a separate tree in Legacy Family Tree Software. The use of online databases and websites is part of the process, as is research at real-world locations. The value of newspapers is shown; helpful details may be tucked within their pages. Suggestions about contacting living people are also included. The final chapter contains a brief anonymized repatriation case. 

The book is intended to benefit all levels of genealogists. To make the most of the tools, methods and guidance introduced, I would recommend that a genealogist be comfortable with the individual parts of the process. It would be beneficial for a genealogist to be comfortable with using online family trees and/or a family tree software program of their choice, have a little experience with newspaper research, and a good understanding of DNA types and testing plans.

The book can be found at: https://genealogical.com/store/genealogy-in-reverse-finding-the-living/

Note: A review copy was provided by the publisher.

NCGS Fall Conference 2025

Recently I had the pleasure of presenting at, and attending, the North Carolina Genealogical Society Fall Conference 2025. The Conference was very well planned and organized at a wonderful venue with great food. As much as I appreciate the reach of virtual presentations to give presentations at many places far from where I am based, it was nice to be with a group of genealogists, learning and chatting.  

At the Conference, I presented sessions about Military Research and Artificial Intelligence (AI). When speaking about military research, I always customize my presentation to include finding military records for the location of the audience. North Carolina has great resources, both in person and online!

With a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering, I am always reaching deep into the technology of AI to learn its inner workings, and to then share an understanding of how it works and how to use it. As a graduate school professor in cybersecurity, and having tested computer code used on military aircraft for years, I also have a perspective about what we should be concerned about and what can go wrong.

What was also fantastic about the Conference was that people could attend the lectures virtually. The NCGS members and technical staff streamed the presentations and recorded them for attendees to watch later. I knew everything was working when questions from online viewers came during the lectures and insightful questions via email were waiting when I returned to my hotel.

Even though my research in North Carolina is limited to a few months during WWII at Camp Davis, I did attend J. Mark Lowe’s presentation, “Creating North Carolina Local and Regional Locality Guides.” (Mark’s smile is even bigger in person!) The presentation definitely had information that I will carry forward to the places where I do research. I will never look at detailed maps the same way again.

I attended another terrific presentation about using DNA to solve maternal surnames by Kate Penney Howard. Jon Smith’s workshop about using AI for creating locality guides certainly shifted my mindset from the free form text I have been using, and his tips about using Gemini in Chrome tabs were game changers. Thankfully the presentations were recorded so that I can enjoy Diane L. Richard’s presentation about Researching Your Ancestors as Kids. (Diane and I share an educational experience: Go RPI Engineers!)

The beginning-to-intermediate artificial intelligence presentation I gave on the first morning may have provided a warm-up for Steve Little’s intermediate artificial intelligence presentation. It is always interesting to see how other genealogists are using AI tools, and how its use is gaining acceptance. Promise to keep checking your output and stay sensitive to privacy concerns!

Thank you to everyone who planned and worked on making the 2025 North Carolina Genealogical Society Annual Conference such a great experience, to the audience members who shared their time with me, and all the other instructors and attendees for a rewarding and fun time!

Recent AI Developments

Have you been following the latest in AI?

One thing I always guarantee during my presentations is that AI models will change! There have been changes to ChatGPT’s video generating model, Sora. As a result, I don’t see Sora anymore when I login to my Plus account on ChatGPT. Now I have to login separately to use Sora. Part of the change is that Sora 2 is now available! Pro users can use it now, but as a Plus user, it may be a while before I get a chance. You can read about the new video model at: https://openai.com/index/sora-2/

An AI ‘actor’ known as Tilly Norwood has been provoking Hollywood. She is a purely AI-generated character coming from Xicoia, the AI division of Particle6. You can watch her, and a cast of AI-generated characters in a sketch written by ChatGPT: AI Commissioner | Comedy Sketch | Particle6

When exploring the world of copyright and artificial intelligence, you may want to check out the U.S Copyright Office’s 3-part Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence that can be viewed and downloaded at https://www.copyright.gov/ai/ Purely AI-generated content is not protected by copyright. There has to be a human contribution.

AI copyright infringement lawsuits continue, with the latest one being Warner Bros. Discovery against Midjourney, an AI image generator. You can read about it at:  https://apnews.com/article/warner-bros-midjourney-ai-copyright-lawsuit-dc-studios-b87d80d7b4a4dfdcf0ee149d30830551 This article describes how this AI can output images that violate copyright.

Meanwhile, some lawsuits are drawing to a close. Although a judge stated that Anthropic AI training a model using authors’ material was fair use, the problem was that it used pirated versions of the books for that training. Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle this copyright infringement lawsuit, but the court will need to approve this settlement. If approved, the authors of over 500,000 books will each receive about $3,000. You can read an NPR article about it: “Anthropic settles with authors in first-of-its-kind AI copyright infringement lawsuit” at https://www.npr.org/2025/09/05/nx-s1-5529404/anthropic-settlement-authors-copyright-ai.

NCGS 2025 Fall Conference

Will I see you there?

I am excited to be invited to present in person and online!

On Friday, I will be presenting Ancestors, AI, and Prompt Engineering.

On Saturday, I will be presenting a Crash Course in Researching Ancestors in the US Military.

There are great speakers, and great talks, Friday and Saturday. There is also an optional Beginner Day on Thursday, featuring four lectures just for beginners!

Researching Morning Reports

Have you every heard that you should be using Morning Reports?

A book has finally arrived to show how you can travel back in time through locations and events, day by day, with a U.S. Army soldier or organization during WWI or WWII military service.  With Morning Reports, you can overcome and potentially go beyond burned Army personnel files! Pursue references for a specific soldier, then leverage daily records when not named or identified.

This book introduces techniques for locating Morning Reports and what is and is not included. WWI and WWII formats are described in detail, with examples allowing the reader to experience the WWII Morning Report language and abbreviations by utilizing the web, Fold3 (WWI) and the NARA catalog (WWII). The reader will discover tips for locating elusive reports and strategies for working around missing records. Useful case studies combine reports across parts of a military organization and place a soldier into the context of history.

This book contains a bonus chapter about the daily reporting for other branches of the military!

Historians will find the search techniques and pointers to additional records useful as they track a soldier or organization through a world war.

Our new book is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Using-U-S-Morning-Reports/dp/B0FPBDVN9M

If you are interested in having Dr. McMahon speak at your society about Morning Reports, or other presentations, please contact us: https://aweekofgenealogy.com/contact-us/

Topics at: https://aweekofgenealogy.com/presentations/

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