artificial intelligence – The Family History Guide Blog

January 25, 2026

Why “Domain Knowledge” is the Antidote to AI Hallucinations

Note: This article appeared previously in the Genealogy’s Star bolg site. Not long ago, I found myself staring at a record review generated by a cutting-edge AI. It was fast, it was clean, and at first glance, it was impressive. But as I looked closer, I felt that familiar “genealogical itch”—the one that tells you something is fundamentally wrong even...

artificial intelligence/Research Comments: 0

October 12, 2025

Finding Records Lost Online in the AI Universe

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. FamilySearch.org‘s Full-text Search capability is an overwhelming change to way genealogical searches are conducted and may well modify or replace any current way of searching historical documents. At the heart of using a previously unavailable tool for genealogical research is an artificial intelligence supported handwriting recognition. Currently, the...

artificial intelligence/Country Research/Research/Technology

September 28, 2025

Full-Text Search and FamilySearch Records

At the end of August, FamilySearch released full-text search as a feature on their main website. In a nutshell, full-text search enables you to search for keywords in the actual text of the record, even if the record has not yet been indexed. Previously, unindexed records could be quite difficult to work with due to large amounts of scrolling or...

artificial intelligence/FamilySearch/Technology/What is new at The FHG

August 17, 2025

New: Welcome Video

We just created a new welcome video for The Family History Guide website. It’s short – about 90 seconds in length – and engaging. You can find it on our YouTube Channel, and we have added it as the first video in the “Inside the Guide” section of the home page (upper right). The video is also included below for...

artificial intelligence/Navigation/The Family History Guide Association/What is new at The FHG/YouTube

June 20, 2025

What AI Says about The Family History Guide

I recently asked Microsoft Copilot this basic question: “What Is The Family History Guide?” Here is the response I got: “The Family History Guide is a free, comprehensive learning system designed to help people explore and document their family history. It offers step-by-step guidance for using popular genealogy platforms like FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Findmypast. What makes it especially useful...

artificial intelligence/Technology/The Family History Guide Association/What is new at The FHG

June 1, 2025

Is AI Helpful or Merely Trivial?

Note: This article appeared previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. As a genealogist, there is a division between activities that help and support genealogical/historical research and those that are mere play-time diversions. AI is not my “companion.” AI is not going to help me with my daily schedule. AI is not going to improve the quality of my life...

artificial intelligence/Records/Research

April 27, 2025

New at FamilySearch: “Get Involved” Replaces User Indexing

You could say it’s the end of an era and the beginning of a new one – volunteer indexing of FamilySearch records came to a close on April 21, which means that record batches can no longer be checked out for indexing as they have been in the past. Why the end to traditional indexing? First, a bit of background...

artificial intelligence/FamilySearch/Records

March 9, 2025

Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Genealogy at RootsTech 2025

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. See CRAIGEN.org The Coalition for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Genealogy will have a panel discussion at RootsTech 2025. The presentation will take place Friday in Ballroom B at Salt Palace and will also be live-streamed at 4:30 p.m. MT. There is a link for submitting...

artificial intelligence/RootsTech

July 28, 2024

Take a Look at FamilySearch Labs

Note: This article appeared previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/The current experiments in FamilySearch Labs include: Merge Analysis View: Understand the nuances of a merge from a tree person’s change log. Expand your search with Full Text: Unlock hidden discoveries in historical records that have never been searchable until now. Family Group Trees: Gather your family into...

artificial intelligence/FamilySearch/Research

April 28, 2024

New Goal in The Family History Guide: Artificial Intelligence

Over the past year, and especially in the past few months, artificial intelligence in genealogy has been a hot topic. RootsTech 2024 featured a number of presentations and videos on the topic, including a three-part series from James Tanner. We are excited to announce a new Goal for The Family History Guide: “Learn about artificial intelligence.” It’s included in the...

Ancestry/artificial intelligence/Learning/MyHeritage/What is new at The FHG

The Family History Guide Blog

Category: artificial intelligence