TECHNOLOGY TUESDAY ~ Using AI to transcribe old probate records

Image created by ChatGPT

We all are aware that AI is and has been being used in genealogy for some time now. 

Whether you’ve embraced it or avoided it, is a personal decision.

I like to explore new technologies as they are available and have been tinkering with AI for about a year now. 

What I’ve been doing is nothing compared to other genealogists who have jumped in whole hog with both feet. A good example of that would be our friend and blogging guru, Randy Seaver of Geneamusings.  If you want to see what he has been experimenting with I encourage you to visit his blog. He has an entire section/tab devoted to this subject.

For my part I have used it to transcribe some obituaries and probate records and to create a few images. I used both ChatGPT and CoPilot for those tasks. With excellent success.

This week I used ChatGPT to transcribe a handwritten probate from 1745, for my paternal 7^th great grandfather, Richard Everett. Please click here to see a post about this ancestor.

Here is what the probate record looks like.

(Please click on any image to enlarge it)

First 2 pages of probate record for Richard Everett - 1745

What I found was that I’m getting better at using this tool.  Better at asking the questions in a way that gets me the results I am looking for.

I began by uploading the first double page of this probate and asking “please transcribe this document exactly.”

ChatGPT asked a question about layout, I answered and got my transcription. 

However, as I read through it (which is critical so that we can catch errors or hallucinations).

General definition of hallucinations when referring to AI  

“AI hallucinations are incorrect or misleading results that AI models generate. These errors can be caused by a variety of factors, including insufficient training data, incorrect assumptions made by the model, or biases in the data used to train the model.”

There was a phrase that AI used over and over in the transcription, that did not appear in the original document.  I then asked this – 

“can you please re read this document and remove the words "sheeps for life" as that phrase does not appear in the document. Try to read the document again and do a better job of transcription”

Much to my surprise (because I haven’t done this process a lot) Chat did what I asked and the next version was nearly perfect.

I was then asked if I wanted a full cleaned transcript of all pages as a continuous document, including OCR that is searchable.

I answered that I would love that.

Here is a portion of the text from the image above, created by ChatGPT.  I found a couple of errors and will make the corrections as necessary.  But, what a time saver this is for us.

That was done and then I was asked – “Would you like me to create a genealogical abstract and analysis next — summarizing heirs, relationships, property, and inferred family structure (standard NEHGS-style abstract)? That would make it ready for citation or inclusion in a compiled genealogy.”

Again I said yes.  And I was truly amazed at the summary Chat created for me. 

This entire analysis is 5 pages. But, what a way to summarize what was in this will, including relationships.  

I'm so impressed!

🕮 Genealogical Abstract & Analysis

CONCLUSION – I am convinced that I will continue to use AI as my virtual assistant in my research. I hope you will give it a try.  And, please do let me know if you do.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl
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