An original scan, with today's parcel lines drawn on top by us.
No Source, No Sentence: How We Use Primary Records and Keep AI Honest
AI helps us read old records, write first drafts and make our videos. People direct it, and the records come first. These are the rules we hold ourselves to, on this site and on our YouTube channel.
The three labels you'll see on screen
An AI transcription of handwriting or old print. Treat it as a draft until a person checks it.
A drawing made from what the surveyors wrote, not a picture of the place.
Our six evidentiary rules
- No source, no sentence. Every fact carries a numbered citation, or shows the original scan with its plat, page, date and archive.
- Labels say what you're looking at. We use plain labels on screen:
- “Original [year] map; modern parcel overlay”
- “Machine reading; not yet checked by a person” for AI transcriptions of handwriting
- “Reconstruction, drawn from survey notes; not a photograph” for drawn maps
- Precise words about people and treaties. We call 1850s claim holders “first federal patentees,” and we name the Native bands and people, such as the 27 Chapanafa (Marys River) Kalapuyans named in Zybach 1999, the treaty dates and the sovereign nations of today, such as Grand Ronde and Siletz.
- Rights are cleared one item at a time. We check permission before we publish any third-party photograph, panorama or oral history recording.
- The record is kept apart from argument. Library videos present the record neutrally. When an advocacy video makes an argument, it reads the record first.
- Review is credited honestly. We say Dave, Bob or an outside reviewer approved something only after they have seen the actual work. Research methods: Dr. Bob Zybach.
Historical research, not title or boundary advice.
How each video was made
Every video description carries a “How this video was made” block that names the voice (Dave Sullivan's own, or an AI clone of his voice from a script he wrote and approved), the date of the screen recording, the sources of the maps and records, and whether any AI imagery was used. When a video uses synthetic voice or imagery, we mark it as altered or synthetic content on YouTube.
Your Private Files Stay Yours
When you upload management plans, family letters, oral histories, or title records to your Land File, they are used solely to build your reports and research plan.
- Private by default: We never publish your uploaded documents or family photos.
- Never used to train public AI: Your private uploads are isolated to your Land File.
- Clear labels on your uploads: When AI transcribes a handwritten homestead letter, summarizes a forest management plan, or extracts dates from a document you uploaded, it carries the label “Machine reading; not yet checked by a person” until the text is checked against the original scan.
No private file material goes to any AI provider that trains on what we send. In this release that means one provider, Anthropic, through its paid API, on terms that forbid training. Read the full privacy page.
This site is part of America’s School Trust Library. Read its independence statement.