In our extended family, a group of cousins work together to bring the stories of our shared Irish immigrant family, as well as the families they left behind in Ireland, back to life. In the chain migration of a family unit, the older siblings often come first, with others following. In the family unit from which most of us descend, the oldest siblings traveled to the US first, followed by the widowed mother and all the younger siblings, traveling after the death of their father. A shared goal is to bring the stories of our shared Irish immigrant family back to life. Ships’ manifests are great ..read more

As you know, this blog reviews. It is probably time to review webinars! Or at least one webinar that I found incredibly interesting which shared very insightful resources. The webinar was “A Lonely Voyage: Finding Irish Immigrant Women in the United States” given by Elizabeth Hodges, an expert in Irish and Irish American Studies. Elizabeth Hodges is a Senior Genealogy Library at the Allen County Public Library, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is the home of The Genealogy Center. You can read about her and the other librarians who are genealogists at: https://www.genealogy.acpl.lib.in.us/about-g ..read more

Have you wanted to learn more about Artificial Intelligence? Recently I gave a talk about Using AI for Genealogy, and shared some of my sources for education about AI. You can find out more about the talk  and if you want to learn from a genealogist who is a professor with a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering, you might consider having your group book it. There are many resources available to learn how to get started with generative AI, and some ideas for using it in genealogy. Among them are posts on this blog . NOTE: DO NOT put any sensitive information into any AI tool. The fir ..read more

Thanks for such a warm reception at the Western New York Genealogical Society this past weekend. It was a pleasure to be talking about “Using AI for Genealogy” as part of their year-long fiftieth anniversary celebration, conducted over Zoom. At least fifteen states and two countries were represented in the audience. The lecture was for people who have not already used AI tools but wanted to learn about them and how to start, AND for those who were already using the tools to share ideas about how to be more effective and expand their use. It took over a day to obtain the ChatGPT data export th ..read more

With the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) tools available, have you considered how many tasks in genealogy might be made easier with its use? A type of AI is used to make suggestions based on your previous purchases. Search experiences are beginning to incorporate AI. AI tools can be used in the creative process to invent images and content. AI is already incorporated into many tasks already done in genealogy, such as translation and indexing. In upcoming blog posts, we will explore a few ways that genealogical tasks that can be done more efficiently with AI. We will look for ways AI ..read more

This past year the frequency of blog posts slowed as I processed the loss of my best friend since 8th grade, Sharon Gumerove. You might have seen her name gracing the dedications in my books, acknowledging her unwavering support of my efforts, especially in website and editing services. Being from different boroughs in New York City, we might not have met had it not been for us attending what could be considered a magnet school, Hunter College High School. Our adventures could easily fill a book. We were part of a team publishing a science fiction fan magazine in high school and college. We d ..read more

On 14 October 2023 the Howard County Genealogical and Historical Societies and the Howard County Public Library System organized the “Shake That Family Tree” event at the Miller Library in Ellicott City, MD. This was intended as a beginner-level event, but there was certainly great information for all the genealogists who attended. I was delighted to have been invited to host a table about military research and my books. All day long there were interesting talks, and a room full of tables with representatives from local history and genealogical societies who were eager to share information ab ..read more

When autumn comes, we think of going back to school. Genealogists are always learning, and webinars are a great way to do that. Presentations give us information, introduce us to new techniques or provide a new way of looking at our research. These resources in the blog post offer great classes and more. The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library hosts the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) and has many recorded webinars available on its YouTube Channel. You can even send them an email if you have a question. The Midwest Genealogy Center at Mid-Continent Public Library offers a var ..read more

NOTE: DO NOT ENTER PRIVATE OR SENSITIVE DATA INTO ChatGPT. Your data is used for training, and is reviewed by OpenAI to verify that content complies with their policies and safety requirements. Data may be used for training purposes. ChatGPT has a new feature, and it’s pretty nice! Next to the name of the chat there are buttons to edit the name of the chat, share the chat and delete the chat. Now you can share your chats via the click of a button. When you share the chat, anyone with the link will be able to see what you and the AI chatted about, up until the time that you generated the lin ..read more

It is inevitable that similar AI tools will be compared. This blog post takes a look at comparing OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard. When Google Bard was asked how it was different from ChatGPT, it answered that its training data contained images, that it could access the internet, and that it was a more general AI rather than a text-generating AI. Bard also told me that while ChatGPT was creative, it was more creative. Google Bard has an interesting approach to answering prompts. Unlike ChatGPT, its training and knowledge does not end at 2021. It can go out and get content from the web to gen ..read more