Helen Tovey repor ts on news from the world of genealog y. Do you have a stor y to share? Please email helen.t@family-tree.co.uk
From the ever-increasing use of AI for generating and indexing content, to the production of printed publications and boots-on-the-ground family history tours of a lifetime, RootsTech 2024 showcased a huge range of genealogy companies and projects from around the globe. Note: The news pages in this issue of Family Tree cover some of the technology, AI and DNA developments, and are more US-focussed than usual, due to RootsTech.
AI innovations
The past few years have seen machine learning and AI increasingly enlisted by genealogy companies and the last 12 months has seen the pace of change only grow. For instance, Storied employed AI to transcribe and index the 1950 US Census in less than six months: https://wp.storied.com/pr/unlocking-the-secrets-of-the-1950- census/. (AI was also used by Ancestry in a joint venture with FamilySearch to work on the 1950 US Census in 2022, completing the project with an innovative algorithm that could read handwriting (as opposed to typescript), even on old and damaged pages). In recent months, the use of AI by Ancestry to create new newspaper indexes that can infer possible relationships, and its use by MyHeritage to help you search for records (like a ChatGPT for genealogy) and write ancestor biographies, indicate further innovations and applications of AI in the genealogy world.
Ancestry’s ‘Stories & Events Index’
2024, the AI focus is on newspapers – across Ancestry, MyHeritage and Storied, each of which offer newspaper collections as either standalone or
