Join me on Saturday June 20th to discover how to organize, preserve, and share your family history with powerful, user-friendly software. Explore features, reports, charts, and tools to manage your research effectively. To book your place go to the Society of Genealogist webpage: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox
Do you use a genealogical software program to organize and store your family history information?
If you are
still looking for the right one, or even if you have a program on your computer
that you like working with, you may be interested in hearing about Legacy
Family Tree Genealogy Software (Version 10).
Legacy is a robust software system that
allows family historians to easily compile, track, preserve and share
information about their ancestors. In addition to storing basic data about
individuals and families, users can illustrate the information in many types of
chart formats, create reports about people, families and whole family lines,
and create heirloom family history books.
I will be presenting my thoughts about the program, based on my own experience, in a talk to the Society of Genealogists on June 20, 2026. You can find out more by booking your space on the SoG website. https://portal.sog.org.uk/Event/view/2387628
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 11th
century to well into the 16th 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 17th
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.
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.
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 |
|
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.
