Fellow Family History Sleuths,

This month offers quite the mélange genealogy-wise. In addition to some of my ponderings on the role of AI in genealogy, you'll find Statue of Liberty Barbie, a pair of newspaper resources – not new, but modified or expanded – that will especially benefit those of African American and/or Catholic ancestry, the identification of a Syrian-American WWII hero, my quiet means of venting about that tired Ellis Island myth, a new Jewish roots TV series, and a non-genealogist who finally "gets it" after a trip to Ireland. Here's hoping that one or more of these items sparks your interest and helps you research or understand your own roots better!

See you in August!

The Role of AI in Genealogy

Photo Credit: Samuel Huron under Creative Commons license

The Future of Family Trees: How AI Kinship Recognition is Revolutionizing Genealogy – This article has a byline on it, but sounds as if it were written by AI. The site is all about AI, and my guess is that they practice what they preach and use it to pump out AI-friendly articles. That said, there's no question that AI will completely alter the world of genealogy, and yes, that could contribute to another level of democratization.

I guess my concern is the current state of AI where it still gets so much wrong, and yet, it's easy not to notice if you don't carefully consider the results it hands you.

Even before AI entered the arena, we were already at a stage where poor research often outshouts accurate – if only because so many copy others' trees without looking at a single record or questioning any aspect – and I fear this will amplify that tendency.

I run into this all the time, but the experience that still stands out in my mind is discovering that everyone had one of Hillary Clinton's grandparents wrong. That may sound trivial, but at the time, she was the most scrutinized woman, perhaps person, on the planet, and yet, no one had troubled to be sure. So fully a quarter of her story was wrong, as were many who thought they were related to her.

And we're impatient, aren't we? I don't see people waiting until tried-and-tested genealogy AI tools arrive. We'll all just jump on the first few that are released and touted.

This I can predict with confidence: The premise of one or more of the early tools will be to find your famous relatives in seconds, and should any of them be integrated with sites that host online trees, the error rate will soar to fresh, new levels. Few will know, and I doubt many will care.

The end game will be to market customized medications and other products (I'll leave aside darker thoughts for now), and those involved will tell themselves that the mistakes will be rendered unimportant by sheer volume. And maybe they'll be right.

I've been a genealogist most of my life so have celebrated and adopted, as well as weathered and tolerated, countless changes, but I'm bracing myself. This article – whoever or whatever wrote it – is correct to describe what's coming as a revolution, and we're already in it. Hold tight.

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Genealogy Roundup, July 19

Statue of Liberty Barbie

Discover Enslaved People in the Newspapers – Interesting approach! I hope other newspaper collections will borrow this idea.

Sudbury student graduates from same school 100 years apart from great-grandmother – Keeping it in the family!

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Genealogy Roundup, July 12

Photo Credit: C. Spencer van Gulick under Creative Commons license

Adam Canaday, Driving Change at Colonial Williamsburg – “When I first started coming to Colonial Williamsburg, I would see a bunch of my cousins because, you know, everyone in Williamsburg is related to one another,” laughed Canaday, “but, that made it real easy to get familiar and come out of my shell.”

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Genealogy Roundup, July 5

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Thomas, G.) – Welcome home, Pfc. George Benjamin Thomas. Honored to have researched your family. As it happens, I submitted the research for this Syrian-American hero exactly 10 years to the day ago.

Emergency! Everybody to Get From Street! – Ah, no. Alan Arkin. My Slavic family has loved him ever since his "The Russians Are Coming" days. "Emergency, everybody to get from streets." And "Little Miss Sunshine." One of the best ever. Rest well, Sir. Your memory is an absolute delight.

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Genealogy Roundup, June 28

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Entire DNA of Pompeii Victim 2,000 Years Ago Sequenced by Scientists – 👀🧬

We’re cousins but also genetically brothers due to this rare phenomenon – Fun with DNA! 🧬 (h/t Dick Eastman)

Catholic News Archive Adds 14 More Years of the Catholic Standard & Times to Its Digital Collection – Good news for those researching American Catholics. (h/t Dick Eastman)

OK, whose great-grandfather is this?:

Dreaming Ancestors – This is taking me back to when I was a kid and wrote a story about why leaves turn colors. This AI story crafting tool is targeted to kids, but I wanted to try it out, so requested a tale about a genealogist whose ancestors appears in her dreams to help her solves crimes both past and present.

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Genealogy Roundup, June 21

Photo Credit: Verne Becker under Creative Commons license

In Ireland, I learned what life was like for my kin. (But sleeping in a castle was more fun) – Ms. Moloney explained she’d learned a long time ago to take things slowly when revealing the past to her clients. “Every family has skeletons in the closet. I try not to shock, I have to be careful about that.”

Army base in Louisiana sheds Confederate name for a Black war hero – Pleased to have had a chance to speak about WWI hero, Henry Johnson.

Was just asked to share this in one of the genealogy groups I participate in and thought it was worth re-sharing here because somehow this frustrating myth never seems to go away! 😆🤬😆

Camryn and Milo Manheim to lead off premiere of new Jewish-themed genealogy TV series – Another genealogy TV series headed our way! 📺

How to plan a genealogy trip to connect with your roots – Whoa, is this right? Ancestry's (ProGenealogists) roots travel services start at $3,000/day?! Time for some of us to increase our rates, eh?

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