07 March 2024
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As RootsTech 2024 launched, MyHeritage reached the 20 billion historical record marker – an achievement accomplished in the same year that the company is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Established two decades ago, MyHeritage swiftly grew to become an international genealogy company with a global audience, and is the home of many pioneering developments, notably many of which are harnessing the power of AI, such as the MyHeritage AI Biographer and AI Record Finder. The provision of a growing collection of records however is still central to the MyHeritage purpose, as evidenced by the launch of OldNews.com.
OldNews.com
OldNews.com by MyHeritage doubles the quantity of newspapers pages previously available via MyHeritage and notably includes many newspapers collections from European countries, and OldNews.com is available in 11 languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
The OldNews.com pages are searchable by keyword, name, place, date using OCR (optical character recognition) technology though there is not seemingly available an index of the newspapers or periods covered yet. In the near future AI will be being employed to match newspaper details, such as the names of people found in obituaries to the family trees of MyHeritage users. OldNews.com newspaper clues will also be provided as notifications to MyHeritage users.
OldNews.com is available via a 7-day free trial, with a standalone subscription to OldNews.com (US$99 per year, with 25% discount in the first year), or with the new MyHeritage Omni plan (see further details below).
AI Biographer
In the first two months since AI Biographer has launched 100,000 biographies have been generated. AI Biographer allows you to create a Wikipedia like entry for any of your ancestors, including historical context, photos and footnotes, citing where the genealogical facts in the biography have originated. Consistency issues are also flagged up in each biography aking for a useful itemisation of details to be double-checked. Biographies may also be downloaded as pdf files. AI Biographer is viewable when in the Family View of your Family Tree on MyHeritage. Note that AI Biographies may be generated for deceased members only of your family tree.
AI Record Finder
AI Record Finder is the World’s first conversation-based search engine for historical records and is currently in Beta mode. “Think of it as a ChatGPT for genealogy,” explains Vice President of Marketing at MyHeritage, Erin Godfrey. “It’s your personal virtual assistant,” adds professional genealogist Jana Helstein. “It has one goal: finding all the records available through MyHeritage for the ancestor you are researching.” Chat with the AI Record Finder to begin your search, entering the name of your ancestor, and any other details you have; to refine your search follow the prompts and suggestions made by the Record Finder. AI Record Finder is located in the Research menu on MyHeritage.
MyHeritage Wiki
MyHeritage Wiki is a new online encyclopedia for genealogy and DNA, launched late in 2023. Categories currently include: genealogy research by location, genetic origins, naming traditions, primer on historical records and how-to guides. Contributors are invited to join – you will need to set up a separate Wiki account and the details of contributors will be cited. myheritage.com/wiki
DNA at MyHeritage
This summer the number of DNA ethnicities will increase from 42 to 80 on MyHeritage, allowing for my precise geographical insights to your ancestral origins in centuries past. Be sure to keep an eye out for future developments.
New MyHeritage Omni membership
The MyHeritage Omni membership is one of the ways in which you may access the OldNews.com newspaper collection and includes:
- OldNews.com
- MyHeritage features and content
- Geni.com Pro plan
- Thousands of webinars on Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
To view the Family Tree RootsTech 2024 round-up please see: https://www.family-tree.co.uk/news/rootstech-roundup-2024