Not Too Wordy Wednesday: My Grandfather's Pocket Watch

I've never done a Wordless Wednesday post—and since I'm rarely wordless—this one is a "Not Too Wordy Wednesday" post!

My father told me my grandfather, Virgil Ray James (1901-1979), received this monogrammed Hallmark pocket watch from his father, Francis Asbury James (1875-1950), as a reward for reaching adulthood without smoking or drinking. Although I can't recall exactly, I believe it was for his 21st birthday. This would have been in 1922. It was passed on to my father, and he passed it on to my son. At 104 years old, it's a treasured James family heirloom.

Disclosure: I used ChatGPT to assist with a title and search description, and to check for grammatical or punctuation errors. All content is my own.

AI in Genealogy: There Are No Shortcuts

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more commonplace, it's important to remember—there are no shortcuts in genealogy. Let me repeat this: There are no shortcuts in genealogy! As a family historian, it is your responsibility—your duty—to review records thoroughly and carefully before deeming them accurate. Certainly, AI may be able to assist in locating publicly available records, but it is your job to confirm the validity of them.

This past weekend, I read an article titled "How AI Is Changing Genealogy and Bringing Old Family Records to Life" on Popular Archaeology. In the opening paragraph, it highlighted a site called Vestigee. This is an AI-based website, and I was curious to see the offerings. The features of the site are listed as:

• Family Tree Builder
• Colorization
• Enhance family pictures
• Translate document
• Resolution Enhancement
• Photo Restoration
• AI Animated Portraits
• OCR Text Extraction
• AI Family Portrait
• Facial feature origins
• Family video
• Animate family picture
• Import GEDCOM
• DNA Test Kits

At the bottom of the main page, there are also comparisons between this site and Ancestry, MyHeritage, Geneanet, Filae, FindMyPast, WikiTree, Archion and Heredis. It certainly gives the impression this site has a lot to offer. But not so fast! As I scanned the comparison for Ancestry, where Vestigee claims to be the #1 alternative to Ancestry, I noticed some of the photo tools I currently see available on Ancestry weren't reflected in the comparison. It also claims to be the #1 alternative to MyHeritage...and FindMyPast...and this is where I stopped looking at the comparisons.

It also shouts "Discover your ancestors in 2 minutes" when you reach the main page. Sounds amazing, doesn't it? But what exactly does "discover your ancestors in 2 minutes" mean? Can it return records for you to review in 2 minutes? Absolutely! But can it do all the hard work for you? Not a chance! In fact, the article says "This doesn’t eliminate the need for human verification. Family historians still need to examine original records and determine whether a suggested connection is genuinely relevant." It's a good warning, but how many of the people drawn in by a promise of locating an ancestor in 2 minutes are going to truly heed said warning?

I was going to try the 5-day free trial just to give it a fair shot, but after reading user reviews on Trustpilot, no way am I completing the sign-up process. At the time I checked, more than 25% of the reviews gave it one star, and the overall rating was 3.7 stars. Among the Trustpilot reviews I read, one recurring complaint came from users who said they did not realize their card would be charged automatically after 5 days. Some reviewers also reported being charged after they believed they had cancelled. The individual plan is advertised at $16.99 per month, billed annually. The cost comes to $203.88 per year. It could be worse, but it's a hefty price to pay for wanting to try a site out. And if you want a family subscription to share with up to 10 family members? The family plan is advertised at $83.94 per month, billed annually at $1,007.29. I'm shaking my head here (can you hear my brain rattling around?) 

Since I chose not to complete the free trial, I haven't personally tested Vestigee's family tree, record search, photo or AI tools. My observations are based on the information available on its website and the outside reviews I read.

I've shared previously, I have a lot of subscriptions. I have the All-Access Family plan with Ancestry and the Omni Plan with MyHeritage (among several others...but I won't bore you with the whole list). The cost for BOTH of these top-tier subscriptions—which include Newspapers.com Publishers Extra, Fold3, sharing Ancestry with 4 additional family members, all the wonderful photo editing tools on MyHeritage along with Scribe AI for transcription, access to OldNews, Geni.com Pro and full access to Legacy Family Tree Webinars—is still less than the cost of a family subscription at Vestigee. I can even toss in my American Ancestors digital subscription (with a nice long list of extra research resources included with it), and the total is still less than the cost of a family subscription at Vestigee. And let's be real...are you really going to share with 10 people and try to manage getting part of your money back from each of them? 

Getting back on topic, Vestigee claims to offer 40 billion records from 159 archives in 45 countries, along with 850 million photos. "We search over 40 billion records including birth certificates, marriage records, death certificates, census data, military records, immigration documents, and historical newspapers. Our database includes records from the US, Canada, Europe, and other regions worldwide." Clicking the "see all" button returns this list of data sources, but if you try to "explore" any of these, you need to sign up. I found myself wondering how many of these data sources consist of freely available record sets. Since I didn't sign up, I wasn't able to explore the collections further and can't answer this question. If many of the underlying collections are freely available elsewhere, I'd question how much additional value the service provides compared with searching those collections yourself or using AI to help locate potential online sources.

If it's photo tools you're after, you can use ChatGPT, Canva or the AI tools on the major subscription sites to help with photo cleanup and colorization. Ancestry has decent (but fairly basic) editing and enhancement tools, but if you have a MyHeritage subscription, you can already easily do animations and photo enhancements with their wide range of photo tools. Of the big subscription sites, MyHeritage has been at the front of the pack for several years when it comes to photo tools and use of AI.

Vestigee also offers a DNA kit for $68 (and it includes the first year of individual site access). After this, it renews at the individual subscription price. There's nothing about their DNA offering I personally find compelling. As with many other consumer DNA tests, you get your origins and DNA matches. While Vestigee says it has 2 million users, I couldn't find information indicating how many of those users have taken its DNA test. I also couldn't find information identifying the lab used to analyze the test. On the pages I reviewed, it's simply referred to as their "partner lab." With Ancestry, MyHeritage, FTDNA, LivingDNA and 23andMe, we're dealing with established names in consumer DNA testing. Vestigee was created in early 2025. I don't know about you, but I'd personally like to know just who's getting my DNA. Would you trust your DNA analysis to a 1 year old? Oops! I mean a 1-year-old company? I know I wouldn't!

So after all this rambling, I can only say "I won't do it!" I'd encourage anyone considering the site to carefully review the pricing, renewal terms, available collections and DNA information before signing up. I often add useful websites and tools to my Genealogy Toolbox, but Vestigee doesn't even come close to making the cut. When it comes to genealogy, AI has many wonderful uses. I embrace it and use it virtually every day. I know many others who use it as a part of their research and writing. But no matter how I slice and dice it, based on what I've seen, I just can't find enough value in Vestigee to justify the cost for my research. If you want to use AI for your research, use it carefully, verify its results and never treat it as a substitute for doing the research yourself. And now, I'm jumping down off my little soapbox, tucking it under my arm and scurrying off to jump into a pile of little green leaves on Ancestry.

Note: Prices, ratings and features referenced in this post were current when I reviewed the sites in August 2026.

Image by Lindsay_Jayne from Pixabay

Disclosure: I use ChatGPT to assist with a title and search description. I also used ChatGPT to review this post for clarity and to help distinguish my observations and opinions from claims I could not independently verify without signing up for the service. The content and all opinions are my own.

Summer on the Farm: Remembering How Our Ancestors Lived

As the lazy, hazy, hot days of summer wind toward autumn, I've been thinking about my ancestors and how they spent their summers. By and large, the vast majority of my ancestors were farmers from the mid-1800s to mid-1900s. We still have a few farmers in the family today, but times have changed dramatically. Farming isn't an easy life, and not many of my family follow in the footsteps of those who came before. A child's life on the farm was very different from life today. It wasn't a time for roaming around freely enjoying summer sun. Summer was a time for all the family members to work.

Many of the families of the past were large. Quite frankly, farmers needed bodies to do the work, and kids were a free source of labor. Summer was a time of grueling work, ensuring the farm was both productive financially and the remaining bounty could sustain the family until the next planting season. For the men and boys, fields of crops needed tending, fences needed mending, trees needed chopping, animals needed caring for. For the women and girls, laundry needed washing, mending/sewing needed to be done, eggs needed gathering, gardens needed weeding and food needed picking to put on the dinner table. Canning the harvest for use throughout the year was something most girls learned to do, but it's virtually a lost art form today. 

I fondly remember my mother working late into the night, aided only by the small light over the kitchen sink, preparing fresh produce and fruit to can or freeze. It was a skill she learned as a girl, and it served her well. It was not a skill I learned though. Sometimes, I wish I had. I still have one mason jar of tomatoes my mother canned. She gave them to me when I moved into my first apartment (almost 35 years ago). They moved with me to my house, and have lived in my cabinet ever since. Although long past being edible (I'd be terrified to even open the jar!), they still remind me of my mom. She may not have pursued employment outside of the home, but her efforts as a homemaker kept everything running smoothly. Our home was her "work".

Today, children might go to camp, play video games, chat online, hang out with friends...but only a few play outside. Food on the table comes largely by shopping at the local grocery, rarely by harvesting crops or livestock. Some families do embrace having a garden if they have space (or participating in a community garden). My parents always grew some of our food and I did occasionally help pick a few vegetables or berries, but it was never something I really enjoyed—and I never learned the finer points to carry the tradition on. Compared to generations past, many children now have (probably too much) time to do whatever they feel like doing. Chores are emptying dishwashers, taking out the trash, walking the dog or folding laundry—not chopping down trees, baling hay or milking cows. Far from countless hours of leisure, days on the farm were spent working sunup to sundown, seven days a week. Night wasn't a time for tv or hopping online, but a time to sleep and recharge for the next day.

No doubt, while there might have been a few hours for fun, most farm kids learned early the value and necessity of hard work. They learned early how to entertain themselves. They came from a different generation—indeed a different time. I recall my dad saying when he was in boot camp, you could easily tell the farm boys from the city boys. The farm boys had no trouble with the exercises and obstacle courses (often finishing first) and some even gained weight during the training because they had more food than they did at home. City boys often struggled far more than their "farm-grown" counterparts.

Whether true or not, his observations hit the nail on the head. Farm children grew up with physical activity and hard work. It was the norm for them. The lessons they learned as children, by watching and learning from their parents, helped prepare them for adult life. Whether they remained on the farm, or opted to take different paths in life, they knew the value of hard work. They taught themselves how to find fun and relaxation in the small moments of free time. 

As we head toward the end of another summer, I find myself thinking about the immense efforts my ancestors expended this time of year. I sit in my air-conditioned home with a laptop, internet and cable TV. Technology aside, my ancestors never would have "lounged around" as much as I do. I am definitely thankful for the lessons I learned from my parents. I have a solid work ethic, I'm fairly frugal and I'm loyal to a fault. But sometimes I wish I'd embrace more of the lessons they could have taught me. But I suppose as they watched the world change, they passed on the concepts they thought I'd truly need to know. It's kind of ironic how much I gain from researching my past. I definitely get excited about new discoveries, but I also feel a profound sadness so much of our history was passed down orally and has been lost to time.

Image by The_Northern_Photographer from Pixabay

Disclosure: I used ChatGPT to assist in titling and a search description for this post . All content is my own.