A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) & ChatGPT at Ancestry - How it's Used & What's in Store in 2023

[@saraschneider6781]

Don't really care much about A.I. I just want the grandparent Sideview to be launched.

[@AncestryAimee]

That would be pretty terrific! Can't wait! (But that is generated by A.I.! 😊)

[@saraschneider6781]

@@AncestryAimee huh interesting. I thought it would be purely since based.

[@sr2291]

What is grandparent sideview?

[@AncestryAimee]

@@sr2291 Good question! We are hoping they divide DNA matches into your four grandparents - right now they divide your by your parents. It would make DNA match work much easier.

[@charlesdavis2165]

@@AncestryAimee That would be incredible!

[@leighbratcher1998]

Really enjoy listening to Crista, her enthusiasm is contagious.

[@AncestryAimee]

Completely agree! She was so much fun to interview!

[@familyhistoryenthusiast]

Amazing!

[@nanabeccareading]

Brilliant and inspiring ❤

[@AncestryAimee]

Thank you!

[@barbarabrann6217]

With city directories so many names are not recognized by the old OCR software and aren’t transcribed in order to correct them. I wonder if they have plans to rescan the directories using the better software of today to not only increase the number of records in each directory but to make them more accurate. I have found many pages in the directories where only a handful of names have been transcribed on that page.

[@AncestryAimee]

Oh yes Barbara! That would be wonderful. Hope you’re listening Ancestry.

[@johnbrennan9778]

Best AI function would be to search thru the people in our tree who were born in Europe (for example) and died in America (for example) and search the passenger lists for what ship they came across on. The search could be shortened by census data in each country to determine accurate search data to look at. Adding another relative is nice, but having ship data or even naturalization or citizenship certificates are awesome!

[@AncestryAimee]

Love it! Ancestry are you listening??

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

@AncestryAimee, I find it hard to believe you're old enough to have 40 years of searching under your belt. I have about 57 years in, but I'm 70 now (started in 1966).

[@AncestryAimee]

You’re sweet. I started when a teen. But thanks for the complement!! 😁

[@donnanorth7324]

What is AI? I read about it with great interest 20 years ago. An example I remember is the mechanic. Lots of people can name all the parts in an engine and point them all out. But few people excel at solving why that engine isn't running correctly. They asked the mechanic what his thought process was to solve a problem. A bit of that would be 'the carburetor was blowing air, rather than sucking it', which means we can exclude a big list of systems, and now focus instead on the timing of the engine, based on the mechanics memory and experience. AI is just code that mimics the way humans solve a problem. That was 20 years ago. Now the AI devours the text it finds on the internet.

[@AncestryAimee]

Love it!

[@valdaritter8159]

I am very irritated with AI. I see a lot of marriage record abstracts... not primary records.... I see marriage records that when I say this is the record I want, it gives me the bride info and her parents, but not the groom or the marriage date, so I have to go back to what is there and write it all down and then manually add it. Kids who are stepchildren are listed as if biological as Census do, but I had the most awful time to try to get that child hooked up with the correct parent. And just the other night I had a City Directory, which was an abstract... could not see if there were other family members listed. Spelling errors that I can read clearly....I used to fix them on Ancestry as I went along but I don't anymore there are too many. There are so many records that are NOT primary anymore and why is that? And the price of Ancestry...and then the add-on of the Newspaper... WOW. I have started looking for other options.

[@AncestryAimee]

It depends on the collection. There are frequently multiple marriage collections for example. Sometimes it’s indexed info from a FamilySearch record (by agreement). At least when you have the indexed record you know to keep digging. But it is expensive. FamilySearch is a great free option for records but it’s a community tree. You can use Ancestry for free at local libraries and FamilySearch libraries as well.

[@marilyncarey7957]

I would love to be able to apply handwriting technology or script recognition to individual records in my collection. For example I have a five page prerogative will written in 1818 in Devon England (including a 2 page codicil written after nephew Thomas Ridd pi**ed off Uncle Francis Ridd) which has loads of names and relationships if I could only work them out. It’s written in old English legal script and has taken nearly 3 weeks to transcribe about 95% of it - to have AI do that in seconds, and confirm that what I have already done is correct, would be amazing!!!
The will came from Ancestry and so far is the only link to Uncle Francis, who was extremely rich, but had no living issue and whose death was among the missing pages of the bishops transcripts held by Family Search. The will and a possible baptism are the only things I have to go on but I think this will would tie together, or sort out, several families - who all called their kids after their relatives! Thank goodness Uncle Francis had one great grand nephew called Reuben among the Francis, Thomas, Williams, and John’s 🤪

[@AncestryAimee]

Yes! I think we will get there! Try inputting the transcript in ChatGPT like Crista talked about. I wonder what would come of that.

[@marilyncarey7957]

@@AncestryAimee thanks. I’ll give that a go. Now I just have to get chatgpt. Sigh. More tech to learn. With luck it will stave off dementia for another week or two 🤦🏼‍♀️

[@LogicAndReason2025]

One improvement that Ancestry's AI needs is in the DNA ThruLines. I find a lot of errors. Perhaps if Ancestry's hints for children, could be as helpful as hints for parents. The Geneanet Community Trees Index is somewhat helpful, but severely lacking in accuracy and info. Perhaps Ancestry could add a single tree like WikiTree to reference.

[@AncestryAimee]

Interesting. The Thrulines is because of bad trees. I’m not sure what they can do… but maybe.

[@CarltonGajadhar]

When are we going to be able to print our trees and reports. Been asking for too long. 😢

[@SheNiteOwl]

I would love to cover a wall with my Ancestry tree printed out.

[@AncestryAimee]

Yeah. I’m the meantime, can download your tree either but taking the GED file and then putting it in any genealogy program or purchase Family Tree Maker and sync your tree.

[@leannwilson2668]

I can already do that 😅

[@davidirwin1549]

I'm waiting for the day when AI can start building family trees in the sense that you may have a brick wall on say a GG Grandparents biological family for whom you have no info on and AI would begin to search all your matches and their trees as well as perhaps automatic DNA Painting to determine who and what that biological family might be for your GG Grandparent that you were never able to determine due to a lack of records.

[@AncestryAimee]

Yeah. My brother-in-law works for FamilySearch and he says the same thing. I would want AI to use records though not trees. I don’t trust trees! 😜

[@davidirwin1549]

I know what you are saying but when you get back to the early 1800's for a lot of lines trees are all you have.@@AncestryAimee

[@suellenw561]

Most (all?) genealogy sites ask that living people's info be kept private but I''ve seen my family members in newspaapers & year books for the world to see. Why? Shouldn't those same privacy standards be applied there?

[@AncestryAimee]

Good question! Public records are out there like newspapers and yearbooks, but tying that person in a family tree is a bit different and quite frankly it’s a liability to the hosting company (like Ancestry). Privacy standards in most instances are set by the state in regards to which records can be out there.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

ChatGPT might be useful someday, but not for me. It won't let me have an account because I don't have a cell phone. You'd think they would verify by regular phone or email like other companies do.

[@AncestryAimee]

Didn’t know that.

[@LogicAndReason2025]

Given how complicated is can get, AI may be the only way to untangle the mess. Hopefully DNA combined with AI, can decipher the road-blocks and out of wedlock births. I've got about 30k people on my tree so far, and I have a very hard time keeping track of all the connections.

[@AncestryAimee]

Wow!

[@LogicAndReason2025]

Hopefully, since it reduces labor costs, AI can lower the subscription price?

[@AncestryAimee]

That would be nice! 😀

[@kosovoiskosovoproductions7001]

AI is a really cool, if not kinda concerning, tool for genealogy. I think we'll always need humans to make inferences and connections but I wonder how much a computer could spit out 🤔

[@AncestryAimee]

Agreed. I think we will need humans to sort through things. I'm most excited about indexing capabilities. But I've heard it said a global tree could be built with records at some point. Who knows!

[@staynavytom2963]

How do we get an AI rendition after we have reviewed the census record and added info to our tree? I like the AI writeups.

[@valdaritter8159]

OK, now you are on DNA.... I have a question... each time my "update" is sent to me, it is different. Why is that? My father's side is half Scotland and half German (research), but that is not what my last update showed. It confuses me.

[@AncestryAimee]

Great question! Your ethnicity changes as more people test and they improve the results. But it still isn’t always right.

[@charleneblake1146]

AI Is involved in enough of our lives. I don't want it in my ancestry stuff.

[@AncestryAimee]

I’m sure you aren’t alone in that thought.

[@ValorieZimmerman]

too late!