RLP 359: Belle Carpenter and 1875 Divorce

This podcast episode focuses on the 1875 divorce case of Belle Carpenter and John W. Carpenter in Dallas County, Texas. Diana discusses discovering the divorce case while researching her ancestor, Isabella Weatherford. She shares how a newspaper article led her to find the court documents and describes using AI to transcribe and analyze the case file. They talk about the details of the court case, including Belle's accusations of cruel treatment and abandonment, John's response, and the final court decision. They talk about the process of using AI transcription tools and how accurate they are becoming and the process of generating a timeline using the AI transcription.

Listeners learn about 19th-century divorce proceedings and women's legal standing in post-Civil War Texas. The episode covers the key events of Belle and John's short marriage, Belle's accusations against her husband, and the legal steps taken to obtain the divorce. They also discuss how AI tools are now capable of transcribing and analyzing historical documents. They cover how the AI generated a blog post about the court case. The discussion includes details like the date discrepancy on the marriage certificate and the challenges of collecting court costs.

This summary was generated by Google Gemini.

Links

“Until Death Do Us Part… Or Five Weeks Later”: A Tale of Marital Woe in 1875 Dallas – Belle Carpenter vs John W Carpenter - https://familylocket.com/until-death-do-us-part-or-five-weeks-later-a-tale-of-marital-woe-in-1875-dallas-belle-carpenter-vs-john-w-carpenter/

Sponsor – Newspapers.com

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Research Like a Pro Resources

Airtable Universe - Nicole's Airtable Templates - https://www.airtable.com/universe/creator/usrsBSDhwHyLNnP4O/nicole-dyer

Airtable Research Logs Quick Reference - by Nicole Dyer - https://familylocket.com/product-tag/airtable/

Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide book by Diana Elder with Nicole Dyer on Amazon.com - https://amzn.to/2x0ku3d