Testing MyHeritage’s Scribe AI

MyHeritage recently released their software process to transcribe old documents called Scribe AI. This is a subject I have been interested in for years, having written about it here and in some articles, and made it part of several presentations. My blog posts: Reading and Transcribing Old Handwritten Documents: Transkribus; FamilySearch Full-Text Search ... and other AI processes for reading old handwritten documents; FamilySearch’s Full-Text Search Exploration Revisited.

Using AI in searching for and transcribing old records is probably the most useful aspect of the new technology. Simply improving writing techniques or results using the assistance of programs such as ChatGPT is interesting but does not advance anyone’s knowledge of their family history or use of old documents.

Scribe AI is another program that allows one to quickly transcribe old handwritten records. Some that I have experimented with or used include FamilySearch’s Full-Text Search, Ancestry’s Document Transcription Tool, Microsoft’s CoPilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. And, of course, I have laboured over my own transcriptions having gained some expertise in reading old handwritten documents over the past several years.

The available options for AI uses have varying degrees of success, dependent on the quality of the writing, the age of the document, the handwriting style, the type of preserved record and the language used. As the tools become more widely used, the results will undoubtedly get better. Each program improves as it is used to transcribe more documents and “learns” how these documents are created.

So how did Scribe AI stack up in my testing?

I have recently been reviewing the history of Dunwich, a lost town along the east coast of Suffolk. It was a vibrant commercial hub for hundreds of years from before the Norman Conquest in the 11^th century to well into the 16^th century. All during that period, the coastline was being eroded away by waves, currents and storms in the North Sea.

Hundreds of buildings, including many churches have been destroyed. In most cases, the records of people who lived there were also lost. One set that has been preserved are the baptism, marriage and burial registers for St. Peter Church from the time of the Reformation to the middle of the 17^th century when the church was abandoned. The last vestige of the building itself went into the sea in 1697.

Some family history websites have indexes of these old records, but nowhere are the actual images of the registers published. The Suffolk Archives has a microfilm copy of the register, but the original document is now at the British Library.

I engaged a genealogical consultant to photograph the document which is amazingly complete except for much of the middle of the book which was seriously water damaged. I am now going through the entries to transcribe the information and see what I can learn about the history of the people who lived in Dunwich before it was gone forever.

I selected one page from the 1654 marriage register and uploaded it to the MyHeritage Scribe AI site to see how it would look at the document.

Apart from some spacing and capitalization issues and the older style spelling (e.g. “marriage” instead of “marriage”) used by the writers, the result was quite good. If we discount these differences, there were only 11 errors (highlighted in yellow) in 322 words (3% error rate). The unfortunate part was that they were almost all surnames. That would not be unusual considering we are looking at names we are not used to seeing but it does emphasize that these are exactly the things we should pay careful attention to. By the way I tested the document with Transkribus and the error rate was 16%.

An interesting aspect of the Scribe AI process is that, in addition to the transcription, they also provide notes on: the historical context of the document; details mentioned including those of principal individuals and associated individuals; key findings; and suggested next steps.

Among those next steps are good reminders about searching historical record collections for the named people, consult local archives for more information about the area, look for wills and probate records and investigate local area histories.

I also had Scribe AI look at a page of baptisms from 1539 to 1542. These are reasonably clear, compared to many other pages in the register so I was hopeful that the AI transcription would be helpful.

It was! Compared to my transcription, there were 11 errors (highlighted in yellow) out of 420 words. I ignored some old-style spelling and some spacing problems. The errors were split between most names (25 last names and 3 forenames) and dates (17). The Roman numerals gave Scribe a bit of a problem.

The baptism transcription test result also included many notes about historical context, details mentioned, key findings and suggested next steps. Among those suggestions were to have a look at other parish collections on MyHeritage, particularly marriages, keep in mind spelling variations in surnames and checking probate records.

In my limited tests, the results of Scribe AI were very good. I am sure doing more, and inputting corrections to the errors I found, the results might improve. I did try a page that was severely water-damaged, and it had, predictably, poor results. It did remind me that much of the page was illegible, though.

I recommend using Scribe AI for any old documents you might want to have transcribed.

I also recommend you continue to use FamilySearch’s Full-Text Search to find those old documents and use their transcription process. You might want to copy those documents to MyHeritage’s Scribe AI and compare the results.

Frosts, Freezes and Fairs

On December 11, 2025, I had the distinct pleasure of listening to a talk by Ian Currie speaking to the London Westminster & Middlesex Family History Society, about Frost Fairs and Freezes.

Ian led us through an entertaining and fact-filled summary of major cold events in Britain, including some of the periods when the Thames and other major rivers froze over. The subject was particularly of interest to me in my research of weather and climate changes and how they affected families and communities.

The talk was recorded but only available to society members for a short time. What came to light for me, though, was a publication by Ian titled Frosts, Freezes and Fairs: Chronicles of the Frozen Thames and Harsh Winters in Britain from 1000AD. The book was published by Frosted Earth in 1996. It is relatively short – 89 pages – but a marvelous summary highlighting cold winters in Britain over the past millennium. It contains many high-quality reproductions of images showing frost conditions: formal artwork, newspaper clippings, drawings and photographs.

My great regret is that I did not find the reference when I was doing my own research into Mother Nature’s impact and the Little Ice Age (I blame it on a less than complete Google search.). I have written and presented talks about these subjects extensively over the past several years, including about many of the most severe frosts detailed in Ian’s book and talk.

As with many publications, many decades old, the availability of the book is somewhat limited. I purchased my copy from Thrift Books Global LLC, mainly because it offered quick delivery. It is available from Amazon and a few other notable book sellers.

If you want to know more about London’s history, especially events that occurred during the Little Ice Age, then this would be a fine addition to your library.

The Cost of Doing Genealogy

 Nothing is free! That adage also applies to family history pursuits.

Whatever information we seek or use as family historians is available because of hundreds of volunteers’ or paid-for hours were spent in searching for it, in many cases transcribing it and providing a means of presenting it for others to read and use.

One of the groups of volunteers is the Online Parish Clerks (OPCs), of which I am one. In one of my earliest blog posts in 2013, I stated that: The tasks of OPCs are primarily to compile reference material for their adopted parish or parishes in the form of transcripts, extracts, abstracts, indexes and copies of original records. Data is collected from as many sources as possible, emphasizing both local history and genealogy. Many OPCs maintain websites where data may be stored for browsing or source references may be listed. I also published an article about OPCs in the Summer 2012 quarterly journal of the Utah Genealogical Association.

Over time much of the data that OPCs uncovered was published in major commercial sites and was available through paid subscriptions.

Today, many of us serious family researchers use both free and commercial sites. We might have our own subscriptions or use the facilities of family history society offices or public libraries to access the databases.

·         FamilySearch was established by the LDS Church that has put enormous amounts of information on their free site. This is still a primary place for all genealogists to visit.

·         I have full access to the data through subscriptions from the major commercial providers: Ancestry, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, Newspapers by Ancestry, The Genealogist and The British Newspaper Archive.

·         To obtain other data and documents for which fees may be required, I regularly use the UK General Record Office, National Library of Scotland (for maps), ScotlandsPeople,. The Box Plymouth (formerly the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office), The National Archive (UK) and a myriad of other local record offices, private companies and family history societies around the world.

·         I currently have memberships in six family history societies (there have been more in the past) from which I can obtain information about people and communities relevant to my studies and hear talks from local epxerts.

·         I have been known to spend several hundred dollars a year on books and documents, in hard copy and digital form.

·         I have used the services of professional consultants who are experts in certain localities or specialties.

·         I currently have two genealogy magazine subscriptions (there have been more in the past) to aid in my studies.

·         Over the past 15 years I have signed up for dozens of courses, conventions and presentations to keep up with new research ideas and techniques. It is always useful to hear from specialists in various aspects of studies or geographic areas. The many courses I took with Pharos Tutors really gave me a solid base in family history research. Subscriptions to Legacy Family Tree Webinars and Family Tree Plus give me ongoing access to talks and articles about many specialty subjects.

Over the past five years, I have spent, on average, $2,600 per year on sourcing family history information:

Wayne’s Annual Genealogy Expenses
Category	Five-Year Average
Commercial Subscriptions	$1,450
Periodicals Subscriptions	$200
Books, Documents, Consultants	$550
Society Memberships	$280
Courses, Webinars	$120
Total	$2,600

 It is not convenient or possible for me to access any of the sites I use from anywhere but home. Occasionally the major commercial sites offer a few days to access certain types of data for free but never the whole of their inventory at the same time. So, if I want to continue to work as a genealogist, basically full-time, I must spend the money.

I am fortunate in having been able to earn income over the years from publishing books and articles, making presentations and providing research consulting services. These funds have been used to offset my subscriptions and purchases of material in the form of books, magazines and documents. On balance, over the past five years at least, I have been on the financial plus side, thankfully, although never enough on its own to “pay the rent”. That was not the case for the previous decade when hobby expenses greatly exceeded revenue.

I recognize that not everyone who spends their leisure time researching their ancestors will be able to afford or easily access the data that I do. Joining family history societies, particularly where ancestors may have lived, or using libraries may greatly assist people in connecting with online sources as well as experts who can help. There are many free websites where basic data can be found. And watching for those occasional days where free access might be available from the major commercial sites can prove valuable.

Ultimately there are not many ways around paying for information, though.