Facebook Serves Up Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

 A big hobby of mine is genealogy, although I've always said my pastime is marketing and sales. Recently there was a connection point between my observation of business and the use of AI and my use of research tools for genealogy. I came across a great facebook group called the Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

Check it out, the folks there are fellow family historians like myself and professional genealogists. The group is pushing the boundaries of what's possible with the technology for the pasttime. And if you think about it, this makes sense. Family historians spend their time digging into data. They have a set of unique problems that AI is tailormade to solve. 

Who better to analyse a group dedicated to AI for genealogy than ChatGPT, searching the web, here's what the Generative Engine came up with, and I edited slightly. 

🔍 Group Overview

• Name: Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Type: Private Facebook group with roughly 13,000 members facebook.com+9facebook.com+9stlgs.org+9

• Focus: Exploring how AI tools and technology intersect with genealogical and family-history research

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🧭 Core Purpose & Activities

1. Resource sharing – Members post about AI innovations for genealogy (e.g., summarizing records, transcribing documents)

2. Technical discussion – The group discusses various AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and CoPilot in the context of family-history use podcasts.apple.com+2rcgswi.org+2stlgs.org+2

3. Educational support – Users share presentations, webinars, and handouts (e.g., sources such as the St. Louis Genealogical Society’s handout on AI-assisted transcription and translation) stlgs.org+1rcgswi.org+1

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📌 Key Topics & Trends

• AI-powered document workflows:

  • Transcription of handwritten or audio files

  • Summarization of wills, deeds, obituaries

  • Translation of foreign or archaic language documents podcasts.apple.comrcgswi.org+1stlgs.org+1stlgs.org

• Extracting genealogical data:

  • Tips for using AI to identify names, dates, and relationships from scanned records facebook.com+1m.facebook.com+1podcasts.apple.com+4stlgs.org+4facebook.com+4

• Reviews of AI tools:

  • Comparisons and real-world performance of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, and other LLMs on research tasks podcasts.apple.com

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🗣️ Community Interaction

• Turns shared by members to promote relevant group resources and third-party events

• Posts link out to external educational content, including podcasts (e.g., The Family History AI Show) and PDF guides on AI use in genealogy m.facebook.compodcasts.apple.com+1stlgs.org+1

• Conversations appear lively and practical, focusing on tools that help with transcription, summarization, translation, and data extraction from historical documents

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📝 Synopsis

This is a highly specialized, tightly focused private community dedicated to helping genealogists adopt AI technologies in their research workflows. With around 13,000 members, the group serves as both a resource hub and a support network:

• 💡 You’ll find: The latest AI tools, peer discussions, real-world use cases, and step-by-step guides

• 🎧 Content includes: AI tool reviews, research strategies, webinars, podcasts, and practical handouts

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🧭 Ideal Audience

• Genealogists (amateur to professional) with an interest in incorporating AI into document analysis and family-history research

• Users curious about leveraging transcription/translation, record summarization, and metadata extraction using large language models and related tools

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✨ ChatGPT's Final Thoughts

The group is an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to explore how AI can revolutionize the tedious and time-consuming aspects of genealogical research. However, because it’s private, you’ll need to request to join—likely with some moderation or vetting—to access full discussions and shared resources.