Today I pasted three screenshots of a 1791 South Carolina deed into Google AI Studio, and the resulting transcription was so good, I almost didn’t have to change anything. The deed spanned three pages, so I simply took three screenshots and pasted them one at a time into the same conversation, with the prompt to “transcribe and keep line breaks.”
Google AI Studio is a free tool for anyone to try Google’s AI model, Gemini. The latest and most powerful version of Gemini is 2.5 Pro. Google AI Studio is a web-based tool primarily for developers to prototype and test Google’s Gemini AI models, but it’s also simple enough for enthusiasts to explore and experiment without needing to write code. I’ve found that this simple interface is the most accurate way to transcribe handwritten documents. Accessing Gemini 2.5 Pro in the Gemini app sometimes produces less accurate results, probably due to the system prompts that guide Gemini’s answer in that application.
Gillison – Reeves Deed, 1791
Here is an example of a deed I transcribed today using Gemini 2.5 Pro via Google AI Studio:
Anderson County, South Carolina, Mesne Conveyance A: 367-369, James Gillison to Burgess Reeves, 24 June 1791; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS73-JH1K : accessed 21 July 2025).
Gemini 2.5 Pro’s Transcription:
This Indenture, made the twenty-fourth
Day of June, one thousand Seven hundred and ninety-
one, and fifteenth Year of American Independence,
Between James Gillison, of the State of South Caro-
lina, Pendleton County, of the one Part, and Burgess
Reeves, of the State and County aforesaid, of the
other Part – Witnesseth, That the said James Gillison for
and in Consideration of the Sum of Fifty-four Pounds Sterling
to me in Hand paid the Receipt whereof is hereby fully
acknowledged by the Said James Gillison, Hath bargained
and sold, and by these Presents doth bargain and sell,
make over and confirm, unto the Said Burgess Reeves
his Heirs and Assigns for ever, All that Plantation or
Tract of Land containing Two Hundred Acres, situate
in Pendleton County, on the North Side of Great Rocky
Creek, a tributary Stream of Savannah River, and
granted to the above-named James Gillison the sev-
enteenth of October, one thousand Seven hundred
and eighty-five, by his Excellency William Moultrie
Esquire, Governor and Commander in Chief in and over
Said State – recorded in Book ZZZZ, Page 114, and hath such
Shapes, and Marks, Buttings and Boundings, as will more
fully appear by a Plat thereof annexed to Said Grant, To
have and to hold Said Tract of Two Hundred Acres of Land
with the Appurtenances thereunto belonging, clear of all In-
cumbrances whatsoever – To have and to hold the Said Tract
of Land and Premises unto the Said Burgess Reeves, his
Heirs, Executors, Administrators, or Assigns, against him the
Said James Gillison, his Heirs, Executors, Administrators, or
Assigns, do and will for ever warrant and defend the
Title of the aforesaid Tract of Land unto him the Said
Burgess Reeves, against the Claim or Claims of any Per-
son or Persons whatsoever – In Witness whereof the Said
James Gillison hath hereunto set his Hand, and affixed
his Seal, the Day and Year first above written.
Signed, Sealed, and delivered in Pre- } James his E G Gillison
sence of us Blake Mauldin, } Received the Day and Year
John Harris, Stephen Willet. } within written, from the
within-named Burgess Reeves, Fifty-four Pounds Sterling
it being the full Consideration therein Specified.
Blake Mauldin Jas. his I G Gillison
mark
South Carolina, Pendleton County – Personally
appeared before me Blake Mauldin, and made
Oath on the Holy Evangelists that he was present
and Saw James Gillison Sign, Seal, and as his Act and
Deed deliver to Burgess Reeves the within In-
strument of Writing, for the Purposes therein men-
tioned – also saith on Oath that Gillison Signed the
Receipt for the consideration Money – and that
John Harris and Stephen Willis were Witnesses
with himself.
Sworn to before Elijah Browne, J.P. } Blake Mauldin.
Accuracy Review
I reviewed the deed with the original and the only things that were incorrect were:
- in the first instance of James Gillison’s mark, E G was transcribed rather than I G, although the mark was technically not an I or an E, but a mark that resembles an I with a dash through the center.
- in the first instance of James Gillison’s mark, Gemini missed the “mark” notation below the IG.
Other than these two small things, I couldn’t find any errors or things to fix, except perhaps spacing for readability. The line breaks were all correct and it kept the same spelling as the original as far as I could tell. Until Gemini 2.5 Pro, ChatGPT, Claude, and previous versions of Gemini had more errors. This is highly accurate and useful for genealogists who are making transcriptions of deeds relevant to their genealogical research objectives for use in research notes and reports.
Accurate Handwritten Text Recognition with AI
It’s exciting to see that we are finally reaching a point where AI transcriptions of handwritten text are highly accurate! Of course, this relies on clear images of legible text. If you use a poorly imaged or illegible document that’s hard for you to read, AI will struggle to read it as well.
If you try putting a handwritten document into Google AI Studio, compare the transcription results with the original and share how accurate it was in the comments!
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Thanks for the note!