In this episode of Research Like a Pro, Nicole and Diana discuss using AI to analyze tax records. Tax research involves a lot of data, and once you’ve extracted the data, analyzing it can be a challenge. Diana explains how she exported data from Airtable into a CSV file, and Nicole explains how she used Claude AI to create a table from the data. Diana provides an example of how she used the AI analysis...
2024 was the year the genealogy community embraced artificial intelligence as a useful tool for our work as genealogists and family historians. Nicole and I spent many hours learning and teaching about incorporating AI into our research flow. For this final blog post of the year, it’s only fitting that we look back at where we’ve come. Since we’ve written many blog posts and recorded many podcasts on AI, I’m providing a curated list. If...
In this episode of the Research Like a Pro Genealogy podcast, Diana and Nicole discuss the advancements in handwritten text recognition by large language models (LLMs), specifically Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Nicole shares her experience testing Claude’s transcription abilities with an 1829 North Carolina deed. She is impressed with the accuracy, noting that Claude even outperformed her manual transcription in some instances. Diana and Nicole then provide listeners with valuable tips for transcribing handwritten text using...
In this episode of Research Like a Pro, Nicole and Diana discuss Transkribus, a platform that uses AI to transcribe handwritten documents. They explain how Transkribus works, the benefits it offers for genealogy research, and how to get started using it. Diana and Nicole outline the transcription process, including uploading documents, choosing the right model, and reviewing the results. They also highlight advanced features like language models, Smart Search, and Super Models, which can improve...
As researchers, we often need to reference past research plans, reports, logs, documents, and locality guides. If you’ve done multiple phases for the same research question, you will have a lot of data to use moving forward. What if you had an AI assistant that could help you pull out specific information from your research and use it in various ways? If this sounds appealing, you can check out Projects on Claude.ai by Anthropic. Like...
Tax research involves a lot of data – land, property, associates, amount of tax paid, and more. You may be working with a run of tax lists for several years and dealing with several individuals in those tax lists. Once you’ve carefully extracted the data, the next challenge is analyzing it. I recently wrote about customizing an Airtable research log for tax research to match the headings in the Dallas County, Texas, rolls from 1847...
Nicole and Diana discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in report writing for genealogy research. They talk about the different roles AI can play, such as a coworker, creative assistant, tutor, and coach. Diana and Nicole acknowledge the challenges of using AI, including the need to track its use, fact-check responses, and maintain a personal writing style. Nicole shares how to use AI for various sections of a research report, such as...
Nicole and Diana discuss Diana’s recent project on Isabella Weatherford, demonstrating how she used both traditional methods and AI assistance to log her research effectively. Diana reviews the research plan she created using AI, including the objective to examine the economic and social conditions in Dallas County, Texas, in the early 1870s and their influence on Isabella’s life and marriage prospects. Diana followed the research plan, beginning with county histories. She used Claude, an...
In this episode of the Research Like a Pro Genealogy podcast, Nicole and Diana discuss the importance of research planning in genealogy and how AI tools can be used to assist in this process. They emphasize that a thorough research plan helps genealogists stay focused on their objectives, pick up where they left off if their work is interrupted, and approach problems systematically. The hosts break down the elements of a research plan, which include...
In this episode of the Research Like a Pro Genealogy podcast, Diana and Nicole discuss using AI in locality research, focusing on the Isabella Weatherford project. They emphasize the importance of locality guides in genealogical research, as they provide essential historical context, help researchers understand available records, and shed light on migration patterns and local events that may have impacted ancestors’ lives. The hosts explore how AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity can...