My Fun With AI

Boy, I've been very bad about posting here, haven't I?  My only excuse is that I'm working (slowly, with many interruptions from life) on my Board for Certification of Genealogists application.  I have until November to put together no more than 150 pages of genealogical research in various forms. I find myself getting distracted easily, and this blog was just one more potential distraction.  I do intend to come back to it on a more regular basis, but for the time being, I probably won't post often. But I have to post about my online learning experience yesterday...

Artificial Intelligence.  It's the new thing.  New things often scare people, including me.  How will this new technology affect me?  Is it just a new way to mine my personal information? How trustworthy is it?  I don't think all of these questions have answers, yet, but yesterday I was lucky to attend a live webinar hosted jointly by the Anne Arundel Genealogical Society, of which I am a member, and the Howard County Genealogical Society:  AI and Genealogy: Trouble Ahead? presented by Thomas MacEntee, of Genealogy Bargains.

The presentation was excellent. Even though the title included "trouble ahead," Thomas really wasn't in the least bit alarmist about the use of AI in genealogy.  Quite the opposite, actually: he talked about the various different platforms - pros and cons and what having a subscription to each of them gave - over and above the free versions.  He also talked about some of the exciting uses of AI that are already in place: photo enhancement from MyHeritage, making DNA matches on any of the testing platforms, record set suggestions, and my absolute favorite, TRANSCRIPTION!  Whoa...honestly, that is part of what I've put off doing more of ever since the Covid Pandemic.  I was on a roll, then the pandemic hit and I found myself outside as much as I could be - creating new gardens, pulling out horrible English Ivy and other invasives, etc.  Then it was hard to get back into my previous rhythm, but if I can use AI to help me transcribe my enormous collection of 19th century letters?  I'm in. 

Thomas did point out the importance of checking the accuracy of the transcriptions.  I did a test run with a document I have in my computer and found that there were mistakes, but it's still faster than typing the whole thing on my own - especially when some of them are two FULL pages front and back with no margins. What it will mean is that the order I do things will change: instead of starting with typing a transcription, researching the people and places inside the letter, then scanning the document, followed by uploading it to my Letters database on AirTable, I'll scan, edit, research, then upload. 

The other helpful thing that AI can do for genealogists that I hadn't considered was to get a bit of social context on a time and/or place that you're researching.  As a test run, I asked one of the platforms he talked about, Perplexity, "What was life like in Botetourt County, Virginia in the early 1800s?"  Perplexity mined five different locations to provide some basic information: Two different pages on Genealogy Trails (1, 2),  Visit Roanoke, VA (3),  Botetourt County Website (4), and Iberian Publishing Company's Botetourt County Page (5).  That last one was new to me - Score!

Old Log House in Va.
"Old House in Va." (1918-1920),digital image, Library
of Congress, National Photo Company Collection
(https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016819584/)

You can also ask a follow-up to your previous question: I asked "What were houses like?" (it automatically knows that I'm expanding on my previous research unless I specifically ask a new question). I've been extensively using the Tax Lists for Botetourt County on FamilySearch, which have shown that the families I'm researching were far from wealthy:  a few horses (no more than five for any of the families I'm researching), rarely any enslaved people, and, in the case of the 1815 tax list which expanded on the property that was enumerated, to include furniture, watches, and even curtains, I learned that they were maybe downright poor.  No bureaus, so they probably hung their clothing on nails or something similar, only one or two cows; one family was lucky enough to have calico curtains, but not the others.  Anyhow, back to AI - I learned that farmers, like my Botetourt families, lived in one- to two-room log homes.  If they were more prosperous, they may have brick or frame homes. I got an additional five sources there (items 6-10 in the source list below). Some of these were completely new to me.

The other cool thing about this whole line of quesitoning was that Perplexity suggested additional related questions that I'll be exploring in more depth in the coming days.  All of this gave me new places to find information, to learn more about what the lives of my ancestors may have been like in the "frontier days" of early 19th century Virginia.

I'll end with a fun thing Thomas MacEntee did in his presentation, I asked Perplexity to "Write a poem about Genealogy in the style of..." I chose Robert Frost, and I have to say, I wish that I'd come up with the poem Perplexity generated!

The Branches of Our Family Tree

Two paths diverged in an ancient wood
Where our ancestors once lived and stood.
One branch twisted towards the setting sun,
The other climbed where morning had begun.

Through fertile valleys and mountains high,
Our roots reached out to span the sky.
From every trunk and limb now grown,
We trace the paths our kin have known.

Some blazed bold trails to lands afar,
While others followed a constant star.
Yet all the branches, gnarled and green,
Unite as one deep-rooted scene.

No twig too small, no leaf too spare,
But woven into this tapestry rare
Of kindred souls whose lives now show
The tree from which we all did grow.

So let us tend this family tree
With care and love, so all can see
How from diverging paths of old,
One mighty family tale's retold. (11)

 

Sources from Perplexity AI Search Queries:

  1. "History of Botetourt County, 1770-1773," Genealogy Trails, (https://genealogytrails.com/vir/botetourt/hist_1770-1773.html).  
  2. "Botetourt County Formation," Genealogy Trails, (https://genealogytrails.com/vir/botetourt/hist_formation.html).
  3. "History of Botetourt," Visit Roanoke, (https://www.visitroanokeva.com/region/cities-and-counties/botetourt-county/history/).
  4. Interestingly, Perplexity gave me a broken link to a Youtube Video!  However, it shows that it came from the official Botetourt County, Virginia Government website - and will hopefully be linked somewhere here: "History" Botetourt County, VA (https://www.botetourtva.gov/333/History).
  5. "Iberian Publishing Company's On-Line Catalog: Botetourt County Virginia," Iberian Publishing Company Genealogy Resources, (https://genealogyresources.org/Botetourt.html).
  6. Hill Studio, PC, "Architectural Survey of Botetourt County, Virginia (2008)," PDF, Virginia Department of Historic Resources, (https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/pdf_files/SpecialCollections/BO-059_Botetourt_Architectural_Survey_2008_Report.pdf).
  7. National Register of Historic Places, Multiple Property Documentation Form, "Prehistoric and Historic Resources of Montgomery County, Virginia," PDF, United States Department of the Interior, (https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/64500684_text). 
  8. Hill Studio, PC, "Historical Architectural Survey of Smyth County, Virginia (1995)," PDF, Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Roanoke Regional Preservation Office, (https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/pdf_files/SpecialCollections/SM-035_Historic_AH_Survey_Smyth_County_1997_HillStudio_report.pdf).
  9. "A collection of columns by Bristol Virginia historian Bud Phillips," Bristol Herald Courier, (https://heraldcourier.com/bhc-050914-bud-phillips/collection_c4b4ca30-d71f-11e3-8ad9-0017a43b2370.html).
  10. "Historic Walking Tour of Salem," Visit Roanoke, (https://www.visitroanokeva.com/things-to-do/tours/historic-walking-tour-of-salem/).
  11. “Write a poem in the style of Robert Frost” prompt. Perplexity, 11 April 2024, (https://www.perplexity.ai/).

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