Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:
It's Saturday Night again -
Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!
Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to:
1) Did one (or more) of your ancestors have a "different" occupation? If so, try to find out more about that occupation in Steve Little's "Sam the Digital Archivist" custom prompt using the free ChatGPT4 artificial intelligence tool. Click on the "Exploring unique ancestral occupations?" button and tell "Sam" in the "Ask anything" box to define and/or describe the occupation.
Here’s mine:
I followed Randy’s instructions to try out Steve Little’s “Sam the digital Archivist” on a collateral ancestor named Joseph McFall (1836-1908). He married Catherine Rose Davey in 1868 in Clark County, Indiana. In the 1860 and 1870 census records he was listed as a caulker. That is what I asked the bot.
“Joseph McFall (1836-1908) lived in Madison, Jefferson Co, Indiana in 1870. The census gave his occupation as a caulker. What was he doing?”
The exchange below is the second one I had with Sam. At first, I said he lived in Illinois, and being a caulker didn’t make sense to it. When I said I erred and it was really Indiana, this was its reply:
Ah, that changes things! Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana sits right on the Ohio River, so now Joseph McFall being a caulker makes a lot more sense—he was almost certainly working on boats.
Likely Work as a Caulker in Madison, Indiana:
- Shipbuilding & Repair – Madison was a major river town with steamboat traffic and a history of shipbuilding. Caulkers sealed the seams of wooden hulls to prevent leaks, using oakum (tarred fibers), pitch, or tar. Given the location, Joseph likely worked on steamboats or other river vessels.
- Dock & Wharf Maintenance – Caulkers also helped repair piers, docks, and wooden structures along the river.
- Construction Caulking – While ship caulking was likely his main trade, he might have also caulked houses and barrels as side work, sealing wooden structures from moisture and drafts.
Madison was a bustling Ohio River port in the 1800s, known for its shipyards, steamboat traffic, and trade industries. If Joseph McFall was a caulker there in 1870, he was probably involved in steamboat maintenance or construction, keeping the river economy afloat (literally).
🔎 Want to confirm this? You could:
- Check Madison city directories or newspapers for local shipyards around 1870.
- See if Joseph McFall worked near a boatyard or dock in later records.
- Find out if he had relatives in shipbuilding (sometimes trades ran in families).
- Do something else entirely? 🚀
There are great suggestions for me to search to learn more about a caulker and the shipbuilding and repair industry on the Ohio River. This also forced me to see on a map where Madison was. The Davey family lived in Jeffersonville across the river from Louisville and downstream from Madison. By 1880, the family had moved to Indianapolis and Joseph worked as a car inspector for the Jefferson, Madison, and Indianapolis Railroad.
You had a lot of success with Sam. I was asked to create an account so I just used regular AI to find my answer.
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