AI has the potential to streamline family history research and reveal exciting discoveries. Although able to generate impressive amounts of plausible text, it’s no perfect all-knowing expert. The companies make that clear up-front.

“ChatGPT can make mistakes. Consider checking important information.”

“Gemini may display inaccurate info, including about people, so double-check its responses.”

“Copilot uses AI. Check for mistakes.”

Mistakes cross the line to blatant lying, as I found when one of them produced a quote from an old book that supported my theory. When I checked the book, the quote was nowhere to be found. When confronted, the AI app eventually acknowledged the fabrication.

Just as you would in finding “facts” in a compiled family tree, always test AI information against primary sources so you can harness it responsibly for your family history.

Let AI do what it does best. Examples are:

Suggest record sources you may have missed.
Suggest outlines and drafts.
Summarize documents. TL/DR!
Transcribe faded documents using handwriting recognition tools.
Colourize old photos.

I also suggest treating it as a toy to learn about its burgeoning capabilities in these early days. It’s fun to get it to write poetry like this which it did when prompted  about the forthcoming total eclipse of the sun on 8 April.

Cosmic Tango

Sun and moon, celestial pranksters, Engage in their cosmic dance. Sun says, “I’m the center of attention!” Moon winks, “Hold my shadow.”

The sky dons its twilight cloak, Birds gossip, leaves gasp. Sun’s corona—fancy halo or bad hair day? Moon shrugs, “It’s all about perspective.”

Eyes squint through eclipse glasses, Hearts race like caffeinated squirrels. Totality arrives—a cosmic mic drop, And we’re left starstruck, craving more.

Sun reclaims its spotlight, moon sulks, But we? We’re forever changed. We’ll tell our grandkids, “I saw the sun blush!” And they’ll say, “Sure, Grandma. Pass the bananas.”

 

This year, the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, also marks the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force.  The Juno Beach Centre (JBC) is marking the occasion with a new exhibition “Rising to the Challenge: The Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War”.

If a trip to Juno Beach and other sites in the vicinity is on your bucket list, read the advice in 5 tips for travelling from Canada to the JBC in a more eco-friendly way. It mentions an Air Canada offer of a discount for travel to any destination in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Great Britain between 26 May and 15 June.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Tracing Your Marginalised Ancestors
By Janet Few.
New from Pen and Sword(Paperback)
This was also a talk at RootsTech on Day 2.

Toronto Public Library
The catalogue and search capabilities are restored.

Maps shape our lives – showing us not just where we are, but who we are
Don’t miss the comments.

Just Do It

No Leap of Faith
A timely LAC blog post

The Reverend Donald Alexander McKenzie passed away peacefully at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital on 24 February 2024 in his 91st year.

Don was ordained in the United Church of Canada in the 1950s and moved to Ottawa in 1975.  On retiring from the ministry Don worked as a consulting genealogical researcher especially interested in church and congregational histories.

The Ottawa Public Library catalogue lists 17 books he authored in its reference collections at the Main and Centepointe branches, many still available through Global Genealogy.

For years Don was a LAC regular at 395 Wellington Street, sometimes communting by bicycle, to abstract data in the microfilm room, and joining groups of fellow resarchers for lunch-time conversation in the firth floor cafeteria.

https://ottawacitizen.remembering.ca/obituary/donald-mckenzie-1089429407

This document, the official basis on which Parliament votes funds for the fiscal year starting 1 April, is now online here.

LAC’s upfront messages this year are:

Just announced at RootsTech, a new initiative from MyHeritage — digitized newspapers. Oldnews.com, a stand-alone subscription, just as newspapers.com is a separate subscription from Ancestry, is “the leading website for exploring historical newspapers from around the world.”

According to the company promo, the site gives:

Access millions of historical newspaper pages
A wide array of titles, from international newspapers to small-town gazettes
Historical newspapers from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Netherlands and many more countries
Extensive coverage of the 1800s and 1900s, from major world events to local news
Articles that were extracted and enhanced using AI technology
Millions of newspaper pages are added each month.

Available at launch, and for a 7-day free trial, are:

United States: 64,368,505 pages in 14,054 titles
Australia 24,430,061 pages in 1,705 titles
Austria: 13,545,808 pages in 627 titles
United Kingdom: 3,894,581 pages in 3 titles
Czechia: 1,796,938 pages in 81 titles
Germany Newspapers: 1,378,556 pages in 94 titles.
Netherlands: ?

I had early access and found:

There are many Canadian newspapers available, although it isn’t clear if they are in addition to those available through MyHeritage.

The London Gazette is the main UK newspaper available. It is also freely available at https://www.thegazette.co.uk/.

The Australian papers are a large set that includes various government gazettes, and much more. It looks like they derive from Trove?

The US, and perhaps other content may be derived from the now defunct Elephand.com/.

“Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd”

Although a medical appointment meant I missed a lot of the livestream, it didn’t concern me knowing that much would be available on replay.

I first tuned into the FamilySearch Tech Forum.

As anticipated, the focus was AI and the applications FamilySearch is making across various of its offerings. In particular, three sets of transcriptions of handwritten collections are now available, two US and one Mexican — US Land and Probate Records and Mexico Notary Records. We’re all hoping they get around to that handwritten record set we’ve been struggling with, the one we’re certain has elusive genealogy gold.

Go to familysearch.org and scroll down to FamilySearch Labs in the right-hand column.

There you’ll also find Family Group Trees, a way to “gather your family into a group, and see the same living tree and enrich your history with photos, stories, and sources.”

Mid-afternoon it was Ancestry’s turn with spokesperson Crista Cowan. She spoke about the Family Groups initiative, which appear to be quite similar to the FamilySearch Family Group Trees.

Crista also highlighted how Ancestry is scraping newspaper.com, initially for the US, to produce a Stories and Events Index. The files are huge, so there’s a seperate one for each state. The largest, Pennsylvania, U.S., Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index, 1800’s-current, has 1,768,049,707 entries. A search yields Name, Topic, Residence Date, Residence Place, Newspaper Title. You need a newspapers.com subscription to see the actual article.

Finally, Ancestry and partner sites have several specials available in connection with RootsTech. Check them out at https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/expohall/ancestry. You may need to be registered for RootsTech.

Findmypast is using RootsTech to profile a new cooperative project “Bringing to light British Home Children’s stories.” Read the release here.

The sub-head is “Between the 1860s and 1970s, over 130,000 children were sent to live in overseas dominions by the British government. Known as British Home Children, many of their stories have been lost to history.”

Where does the number 130,000 come from? Does it include those past school leaving age who should be termed juveniles, NOT children?

What is the basis for the claim that “Around four million people around the world are descended from a British Home Child?”

What is the basis for claiming the British government sent them?

Many were termed orphaned at the time as they had lost one parent. Losing both parents, which we think of as orphaned today, was not the definition at the time. Many youngsters found themselves unwanted when the surviving parent remarried. Many others where abused and neglected and found refuge with the organizations that subsequently arranged their move and settlement in Canada and elsewhere.

Those who call for an apology from the Government of Canada for its involvement should reflect of the young immigrants fate if they had not been helped and emigrated. My own grandfather lost both parents by the time he was age 10, and after leaving the London orphanage at age 14 is found as a coal miner (hewer) in South Wales where those as young as 14 are recorded doing the same work in the 1911 census. Would he have been better off on a Canadian farm? There’s no guarantee. Aside from death and taxes, very little is guaranteed in this life.

Perhaps the descendants, instead of seeking an apology, should acknowledge the circumstances at the time and thank the Canadian government for having provided a refuge, just as many of today’s refugees do.

Add your DNA result to MyHeritage for FREE

For each new DNA file uploaded this week (i.e. one that hasn’t been uploaded to MyHeritage in the past), the uploader will receive free access to all advanced DNA features, saving them the usual $29 unlock fee per file. This rare offer is valid for the next few days only, until 4 March 2024 at 11:59 p.m.

MyHeritage has 7.9 million DNA profiles in its database with a broad geographic coverage. You will continue to enjoy all MyHeritage DNA features for free, forever!

RootsMagic Offer

Save up to 50% on RootsMagic 9, Personal Historian, and Family Atlas.

RootsMagic is discounted to $20 US with the same conference discount as at the show online by visiting www.NotAtRootsTech.com. 

This offer is only available through Monday, 4 March at 11:59 pm MST.

As previously posted

Legacy FamilyTree Webinars

New members can get 50% off a Legacy Family Tree Webinar membership through Saturday ( 29  February  – 2 March 2024).

Also, Legacy software is available for $20 US (usually $34.95 US) through Saturday (February 29 – March 2, 2024).

I understand the discounts may already be available.
https://familytreewebinars.com/rootstech24/

The Guild of One-Name Studies held a seminar, “Working the Land,” last weekend. These presentations are freely available for two weeks.

Up With The Lark – Agricultural Labourers, by Ian Waller

All Roads Lead to Smithfield – Drovers and Cattle Dealers, by Ian Waller

How Agriculture Saved the Nation in WW1, by Cynthia Brown.