Blog
There’s an AI for That: Transcribing Handwriting
Despite what you might have heard, there is progress being made on anything an AI can help with, including handwriting-to-text. In this blog post, we will cover just a few of the AI tools available for transcribing images of handwritten documents into text. The conversion can be done using digital images created by scanning or photographing handwritten documents. Transcribing documents (or important parts of documents) is a thing that I always recommend. Reading a document is passive. The motion of writing or typing a document forces...
read more“There’s an AI for that”
With the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) tools available, have you considered how many tasks in genealogy might be made easier with its use? A type of AI is used to make suggestions based on your previous purchases. Search experiences are beginning to incorporate AI. AI tools can be used in the creative process to invent images and content. AI is already incorporated into many tasks already done in genealogy, such as translation and indexing. In upcoming blog posts, we will explore a few ways that genealogical tasks that can...
read moreIn Memoriam: Sharon Gumerove
This past year the frequency of blog posts slowed as I processed the loss of my best friend since 8th grade, Sharon Gumerove. You might have seen her name gracing the dedications in my books, acknowledging her unwavering support of my efforts, especially in website and editing services. Being from different boroughs in New York City, we might not have met had it not been for us attending what could be considered a magnet school, Hunter College High School. Our adventures could easily fill a book. We were part of a team publishing a...
read moreShake That Family Tree Event
On 14 October 2023 the Howard County Genealogical and Historical Societies and the Howard County Public Library System organized the “Shake That Family Tree” event at the Miller Library in Ellicott City, MD. This was intended as a beginner-level event, but there was certainly great information for all the genealogists who attended. I was delighted to have been invited to host a table about military research and my books. All day long there were interesting talks, and a room full of tables with representatives from local...
read moreBack to School: Genealogy Style
When autumn comes, we think of going back to school. Genealogists are always learning, and webinars are a great way to do that. Presentations give us information, introduce us to new techniques or provide a new way of looking at our research. These resources in the blog post offer great classes and more. The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library hosts the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) and has many recorded webinars available on its YouTube Channel. You can even send them an email if you have a...
read moreChatGPT Shared Links
NOTE: DO NOT ENTER PRIVATE OR SENSITIVE DATA INTO ChatGPT. Your data is used for training, and is reviewed by OpenAI to verify that content complies with their policies and safety requirements. Data may be used for training purposes. ChatGPT has a new feature, and it’s pretty nice! Next to the name of the chat there are buttons to edit the name of the chat, share the chat and delete the chat. Now you can share your chats via the click of a button. When you share the chat, anyone with the link will be able to see...
read moreArtificial Intelligence: Google Bard vs. ChatGPT
It is inevitable that similar AI tools will be compared. This blog post takes a look at comparing OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard. When Google Bard was asked how it was different from ChatGPT, it answered that its training data contained images, that it could access the internet, and that it was a more general AI rather than a text-generating AI. Bard also told me that while ChatGPT was creative, it was more creative. Google Bard has an interesting approach to answering prompts. Unlike ChatGPT, its training and knowledge does...
read moreGenealogy and AI: Google Bard
Although Google Bard states that it removes personally identifiable information when using conversations to improve the model, DO NOT INCLUDE PERSONAL INFORMATION IN YOUR CHATS. This week I spent some time working with Google’s challenger to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Google Bard is a Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), and I was working on the day that Bard began to bring images from Google Search into its results. Bard advertises that it helps you plan, solves complicated problems and supports your creative process....
read moreChatGPT and GEDCOM Files
Before I was a professor, I was a flight test engineer. My love of testing systems goes back to my early days working in a lab during college. My particular gift was always find a way to “break” hardware or software through use. My desire to investigate the use of ChatGPT in genealogy has definitely coincided with my enjoyment of testing. In this blog post, I take a look at what ChatGPT knows about GEDCOMs, how it builds one and how it can create a narrative when given an individual’s data formatted in a GEDCOM. The...
read more5 Ways to Use ChatGPT to Research an Ancestor
You may have been wondering how ChatGPT can help with genealogical research. This is a first look at using ChatGPT for research about a specific ancestor. For simplicity our conversation focused on where to find information, rather than on more complicated topics. ChatGPT held its own in our conversation, and was a pleasant companion and offered answers based on its training. You can view our other posts about Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence and Genealogy and Getting Started with ChatGPT for when you are ready to try...
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