Ancestry’s New AI Record Explore Feature ​Explore Ancestry's Records with AI! Ancestry has just come out with a new AI records feature, a few days ago, that allows you to further explore your ancestor’s records, using AI technology, that further enhances your family history experience!  Records Available with This Feature (For Now) Census Records (1900-1950) WW I & WW II Draft Cards How to Get to Ancestry's AI Record Explorer From your already saved sources on your Ancestor Profile page When viewing records from the search function Currently in BETA Mode This feature is new ..read more

AI in Genealogy: Copilot and Gemini OCR for Obituary Transcriptions and Anaysis! Are you using AI to help generate transcriptions, extracts, or abstracts for and/or understand your genealogical documents? I have been testing and using AI for many things in my genealogical world this past year. I have tested out and used various AI platforms for different tasks, as some work out for certain tasks better than others. I recently tested out generating transcriptions and using OCR for historical documents, from my family history, in Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. Some turned out better than ..read more

MyHeritage Updates March 2024: Share DNA Results with a Collaborator! You can now share your DNA results with collaborators at MyHeritage! MyHeritage has now added the much-needed option to seek advice and guidance from others, by securely sharing your DNA results with a collaborator. By inviting others to view your DNA results, and become a member of your family site on MyHeritage, collaboration has never been easier!  Benefits to DNA Collaboration at MyHeritage Solve a family mystery Break through brick walls Find long-lost relatives Find biological parents or other family members ..read more

FamilySearch Updates March 2024: Historical Records Full-Text Search FamilySearch has just added new, experimental products to the FamilySearch Labs, with many using AI! One of these new features is a historical record full-text search, powered by AI, where you may unearth hidden discoveries in historical records that have never been searchable until now! As of now, there are only 2 collections included in the experimental FamilySearch Labs for this feature, U.S. Land and Probate Records and Mexico Notary Records, with more being added soon! Not only does it generate a full-text search, bu ..read more

AI in Genealogy: Microsoft Copilot for Historical Photos! Are you using AI to help generate descriptions for your family history photos? I have been testing and using AI for many things in my genealogical world this past year. I have tested out and used various AI platforms for different tasks, as some work out for certain tasks better than others. I recently tested out generating descriptions for historical photos, from my family history, in Microsoft Copilot. Some turned out better than others. Check out a few of the results below and see how you can use AI in your genealogy! AI Historical ..read more

MyHeritage: New Ancestor Profile Pages! MyHeritage has just revamped their ancestor profile pages for your family tree, making it way easier to work on each ancestor in your family tree, with everything right at your fingertips! From the new MyHeritage profile pages, you can not only work from an extremely pleasant page with a new, updated modern look with soft, pleasant colors, but you can now access everything that you could possibly need to work on for that particular ancestor, all from the same page!  What's Included in the MyHeritage Ancestor Profile Page Details Facts & Det ..read more

RootsTech 2024: World’s Largest Family History Event Wrap-up RootsTech 2024: World’s Largest Family History Event Wrap-up ​ If you don’t know what RootsTech is, it’s the largest family history and genealogy event, around the world, of the year, celebrating family! RootsTech has certainly done it again! That was a fantastic, fun-filled 3 days! They seem to top themselves each year! The RootsTech 2024 event, hosted by FamilySearch, has finally come to an end, but the learning has not. Did you know that you can still access RootsTech? Not only can you access almo ..read more

Lutheran Germans to America: The 1831 Odenwald Emigration Group's Perilous Journey The 1831 Odenwald Emigration Group In 1830, Johann Adam Tracht organized an emigrant group from Odenwald, Germany of about 150 family, friends, and neighbors that got together to flee high taxes, military conscription of their sons, and expensive land, among other reasons, who were bound for Hancock County, Ohio in America. Most of them were farmers, including my ancestors. They originally wanted to set sail in 1830 but couldn’t make the voyage until 1831.  My German Immigrant Ancestors in this Emigration ..read more

Celebrating My African American Genealogy Connections with the BYU Relative Finder In honor of Black History Month, I thought I’d check out my African American genealogy connections in the BYU Relative Finder. I have a list of 47 connections, which you can see below. Take in mind that BYU uses your FamilySearch World/Collaborative Tree to generate the connections, in which most of us know that the results would then be only as accurate as what others have connected to the World Tree. ? My BYU Relative Finder African American Connections-1 My BYU Relative Finder African American Con ..read more

Ancestry Updates February 2024: AncestryDNA’s New, DNA Tools & Features, Paywall Ancestry has been slowly rolling over everyone, for quite a while now, who does not have a paid subscription to Ancestry or AncestryDNA to new, basic AncestryDNA features, now included with their DNA kits. Since it was little by little at the beginning, not all had noticed. They have now, officially, moved the majority of FREE DNA tools and features behind a paywall, making many quite unhappy. Just what can you get with the purchase of an AncestryDNA kit, now? What has moved over to their new, AncestryDNA Pl ..read more