Top AI Breakthroughs for Genealogists in 2024

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The Family History AI Show

The Family History AI Show recently discussed "the year's top AI breakthroughs for genealogists," analyzing what we genealogists can do now at year's end which we could not on January one.

Steve and Mark presented their list: 

#5. Chatbots Learn How to Reason (OpenAI’s o1-preview)  

Because it is still in "preview," this does not have widespread use yet, but both hosts agreed that it will be great for multi-step big projects. 


#4. Content Creation Within Chatbots (Artifacts, Canvas) 

Work entirely inside the chatbot, not hopping over to Word, Excel, Photoshop, or other tools for parts of your project. Changes, additions and corrections can happen real-time, not over in another tab, enabling a sense of flow and ease.


#3. Collaborative Research Spaces (NotebookLM, Claude Projects, Perplexity Spaces)

Chat with and query your own written work, documents for use in your ongoing project, research plans, and collaborate with workmates and research buddies.


#2. AI-Enhanced Search (SearchGPT, Perplexity, Google)

Yes, some of the bots are catching up to Perplexity, which also continues to innovate. It truly is becoming an "answer engine" for researchers.


⚝ 

#1. FamilySearch Unlocks Handwritten Records

The unveiling of this new feature on FamilySearch.org was the thrilling highlight of last winter's Rootstech. After using this "experiment" the first time, I wrote Looking for a Needle in a Haystack? GAME CHANGER at FamilySearch. It has only gotten better over the year, not only more accurate, but more record sets are being added as they are ready. 

Full Text Search is one hundred per cent FREE to use, 24 hours every day, every day of the year. Be sure you keep track of any unsuccessful searches, and then try your search again at an Affiliate library, or FamilySearch Center where some restricted records are available. If you still can't find what you need, try again in some months. Just yesterday I learned that there are Canadian land records now available there!


According to the Chatbots

I asked ChatGPT "What do you think this year's top AI breakthroughs are for genealogists?" Answer:

"Enhanced Historical Document Analysis: AI tools are now better than ever at transcribing and analyzing old documents. For example, MyHeritage's advancements in handwriting recognition and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) have made it easier to decode handwritten records and digitize historical newspapers, even those in hard-to-read fonts like Fraktur.

"AI-Generated Family Narratives: Tools like Storied allow users to create AI-generated family stories by integrating genealogical data with creative AI. This makes presenting family histories more engaging, especially for younger generations.

"Photo Enhancements and Animation: MyHeritage continues to lead with tools like Deep Nostalgia, which animates ancestral photos, and the Reimagine app, offering photo restoration, enhancement, and coloring.
"AI-Assisted Research Suggestions: Platforms like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch are improving their AI-driven suggestion systems, which recommend records and connections based on your searches and DNA results, simplifying the research process for both beginners and experts.

"Time Machine and Story Visualizations: MyHeritage's Time Machine creates AI-driven visualizations of ancestors in period attire, while Canva and other platforms offer AI-enhanced tools for creating illustrated family history books.

"Multilingual Search and Translation: AI-driven translation and search tools are breaking language barriers, helping genealogists access records in foreign languages with improved accuracy. This has been especially impactful in translating records from German, French, and other non-English archives."

Anthropic's Claude gave many of the same answers, adding:

"Genetic Genealogy Advancements AI is helping to refine DNA matching algorithms, making it easier to identify genetic relationships, predict genetic inheritance patterns, and provide more nuanced insights into family lineages and genetic heritage."

I agree that there has been steady improvements here, but nothing game-changing.

Gemini had nothing new to add, so I asked Perplexity, which not only agreed with Steve and Mark, but linked to their podcast and a video with them and Dana Leeds, and said, 

"The most groundbreaking development appears to be FamilySearch's full-text search capability, which provides unprecedented access to vast collections of handwritten records. This breakthrough allows genealogists to search through previously inaccessible or difficult-to-navigate handwritten documents with ease."

Perplexity continues to impress! Try it yourself. 


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Send your stories to m.strickland@skcgs.org


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Valorie Zimmerman

Thanks to Steve and Mark for the inspiration, and ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity for their input. Bob and MaryLynn always help too. Thank you.

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