The latest annual report highlights how TNA is not just a consumer of technology; it combines traditional custodianship with the development of new technologies to preserve, interpret, and share its vast collections. Organized around three themes—Collections & Archives, Digital & Data, and Conservation & Heritage Science—it showcases partnerships, community collaborations, and innovations in optical character recognition, handwritten text recognition, and AI-driven approaches, to make records more accessible and relevant.
Of particular interest for family history:
- The Material Culture of Wills, 1540–1790 project, using handwriting recognition to reveal everyday lives and possessions in early modern England,.
- Digital initiatives, such as Project Odyssey and AI-driven text recognition tools, enhance access to historical documents and metadata.
- Public engagement programs, such as “Weather in the Archive,” connect archival materials with environmental and historical themes that are relevant to genealogical storytelling.