tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post954434204635673547..comments2024-03-21T19:08:05.737-07:00Comments on Genealogy's Star: Can Genealogists Be Replaced by a Computer Program?James Tannerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-79025881987720737082018-05-12T08:34:43.918-07:002018-05-12T08:34:43.918-07:00That is the problem, it is difficult to tell if I ...That is the problem, it is difficult to tell if I am serious or not. :-)James Tannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-7547111549172535232018-05-12T08:33:51.106-07:002018-05-12T08:33:51.106-07:00Well, yes and no. People aren't infallible eit...Well, yes and no. People aren't infallible either. I do agree with what you say about record availability, but that is a different problem than accurately using existing records. James Tannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02989059644120454647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-32895393258639057512018-05-12T01:27:08.707-07:002018-05-12T01:27:08.707-07:00Oh, come on, James! You cannot be serious ... As w...Oh, come on, James! You cannot be serious ... As well as the instances of human contact that you mention (e.g. interviews), there are many sources that have not been digitised, and there always will be. Even if you're only considering information that's online -- which equates to "genealogy" for many -- then it's still a no; compiling a family history requires an appreciation of historical context and family context. I hope that we're not simply talking about matching the context associated with discrete data items, such as dates, names, and locations. Finally, it has to be written up -- and if you're suggesting that software can write up my research in an entertaining way for human consumption then I must resort to a family initialism: ROTFLMAO!Tony Proctorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18330460400737261264noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-77849100164053188112018-05-11T22:42:02.919-07:002018-05-11T22:42:02.919-07:00I am afraid your conclusions fail as they are base...I am afraid your conclusions fail as they are based on the supposition that all the relevant data is available to the computer program in a form it can read.<br />This obstacle is the one which has been obstructing individuals for centuries; the records being preserved but unobtainable, however humans are more adapt at overcoming such obstacles than computers.<br /><br />If we disregard the above and are simply comparing a computer program analysing the same group of records as a human then things begin to fall in favour of the machine, but again it depends on many variables regarding the programming.<br />The computer would have to run a program that can differentiate the difference between a parish register and a Bishop’s Transcript or trickier an original parish register and an Elizabethan copy of it or even a later copy of it. Some English parishes have as many as 5 ancient copies or more of the original register or parts of the register (many humans also fail to address this).<br />Then we have to take into account Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwriting Recognition Software (HWS) & Intelligent Word Recognition (IWR) etc then we are getting to the stage where computers can read text but such software is not infallible and will fail leading to false assumptions.<br /><br />Therefore the answer to your question is in certain circumstances a well designed computer program could replace a human genealogist however in real life conditions the genealogist will outperform the computer by a large factor. <br />Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14661609230878792638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1527613590529958801.post-32717512637422124072018-05-11T17:49:26.220-07:002018-05-11T17:49:26.220-07:00I would need DNA evidence. In some cases DNA may ...I would need DNA evidence. In some cases DNA may be the only convincing proof available. I started paying for YDNA tests whenever I could find a cousin who would take the test a long time ago. So far we still don't have a large enough database to prove or disprove anything. You know who does the My Heritage DNA don't you? KayeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com