Using Voice Recognition in Genealogy: Names and dates and places

Over the years, I have used voice recognition software off and on, always hoping that it would become the solution to quickly entering information so that I could avoid typing. Most recently, voice recognition software has become ubiquitous with smartphones and apps such as Siri and Google Assistant or one of the many other such programs. For example, when I get a phone message on my iPhone, the message is automatically transcribed into text.

Significantly, all three of the major operating systems from Microsoft, Apple, and Google include a voice recognition program. Unfortunately, the availability of more sophisticated voice recognition software is limited to only one major program called Dragon Naturally Speaking for Windows and Dragon Dictate for Apple OS X both from Nuance.com. I say unfortunately because the operating systems programs lack any significant editing capabilities and there appear to be no other programs competing with the expensive programs from Nuance.com.

Because I see a distinct advantage in using voice recognition for a lot of reasons, I keep upgrading my copy of Dragon Dictate even though the upgrade prices seem outrageous.

Now, supposing that you have spent your money on purchasing a voice recognition program such as the ones from Nuance, how well do they work? This has been the issue since the beginning of the development of voice recognition software by IBM many years ago. In fact, Nuance.com is the present developer of the voice recognition software originally developed by IBM. However, IBM is still in the market and is selling Watson Speech to Text as an API add-on for software developers.

Two factors severely limit voice recognition: words that sound the same but are spelled differently and background noise. For genealogists, the real challenges are names and places. Most of the text that we deal with contains a fair amount of both. The programs usually get dates correct.

How well does an expensive commercial program such as my version of Dragon Dictate do with names? Here are some examples. Here is a list of five names from my ancestors:

• Samuel Linton
• Marinus Christensen
• Adeline Springthorpe
• Margaret Turner
• Sarah Foscue

Here is what I get when I read these names using Dragon Dictate:

• Samuel Benton
• Marina's Christiansen
• Adeline spring Thorpe
• Margaret Turner
• Sarah Foster you

There is a way to train the program but it would be extremely tedious to try to enter thousands of names. Switching to places, here are five place names, again, from my ancestors.

• San Bernardino, Los Angeles, California, United States
• Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, England, United Kingdom
• Brookfield, New South Wales, Australia
• Whittlesey St Mary & St Andrew, Cambridgeshire, England
• Toquerville, Washington, Utah, United States

Here are the same place names entered using the voice recognition software:

• San Bernardino, Los Angeles, California, United States
• Ramsey, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom
• Brookfield, New South Wales, Australia
• Whittlesey St. Mary and St. Andrew, Cambridgeshire, England
• Tocqueville, Washington, Utah, United States

The second best looks superficially correct. However, the errors are not so noticeable and would take more time to correct than it would take to retype the list. Here is what I get up I try to say Huntingdonshire several times.

• Lincolnshire
• Huntington Shire
• Huntingdon Shire
• Huntington

All in all, the place names come out much better than the names of the people. Even though the text has a high degree of accuracy using voice recognition, it is imperative that any text dictated be carefully edited. Here is an example of some text from a biography. I will mark the typos after I dictate the text.

Thomas Parkinson was born on December 11, 1830, in Cambridge Shire, England, the second son of James Parkinson and Elizabeth chattel. His father, James, was born in the not-too-distant hamlet aforesaid, Huntington Shire England and was also a farmer, as was his father before him. Students of English history no way to wealthy economic struggle in the 1830s and 40s, especially for the tenant farmer. Until that time agriculture have been the nation's mainstay, but with industrialization the best a man could hope for was steady work.

Here is the edited version of the same text.

Thomas Parkinson was born on December 11, 1830, in Cambridgeshire, England, the second son of James Parkinson and Elizabeth Chattle. His father, James, was born in the not-too-distant hamlet of Farcet, Huntingdonshire, England, and was also a farmer, as was his father before him. Students of English history know only too well the economic struggle in the 1830's and 40's, especially for the tenant farmer. Until that time agriculture had been the nation's mainstay, but with industrialization the best a man could hope for was steady work. 

When I am dictating using voice recognition, I usually watch what is entered very carefully and make corrections as I go along. However, you can see why some would conclude that using the program is not worth the effort to train and edit it. 

However, as voice recognition software becomes more ubiquitous it is entirely possible that it will become more accurate and therefore more useful. Right now, but still has a ways to go.

The Impact of the US Civil War on Genealogical Research

I continually find those who are researching their ancestors to be almost entirely unaware of the history of the time period when they lived. As I have noted several times previously, this is likely a result of the lack of real history being taught in U.S. public schools today. If your ancestors lived in the United States during the time period between 1861 and 1865, then their lives were probably dramatically influenced by the U.S. Civil War (aka War between the States).

Although the total number of casualties of the Civil War is subject to dispute, the most common estimates put the number at around 1.5 million. The 1860 U.S. Federal Census put the total population of the country at 31,443,321. According to some calculations, 2% of the country or 620,000 men lost their lives. Total casualties were over 1.08 million. But what is also pertinent to genealogical research is the vast movement of populations and the loss of records.

Here are some of the major actions in the war that might well affect your own ancestors:

1. Sherman's March to the Sea

Here is a map of the campaign that is known as Sherman's March to the Sea:

By Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5856078

If your ancestors had property anywhere in the area covered by this map, they probably suffered some loss due to the Union Army's and more specifically by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's "Scorched Earth" policy.

What are the genealogical consequences:

• Loss of life
• Loss of property
• Displaced population
• Loss of record through the burning of courthouses and other repositories

2 Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Here is a quote from General Philip Sheridan about the consequences of the battles for control of the Shenandoah Valley:

Sheridan proudly inventoried his takings from the Valley to Grant after the campaign, “435,802 bushels of wheat, 77,176 bushels of corn, 20,397 tons of hay, 10,918 beef cattle, 12,000 sheep, and 15,000 hogs”(6). This list doesn’t include the vast reduction in productivity in the area that would prevent the area from being self-sustaining and profitable for some time after the campaign. The Shenandoah Valley campaign represents the changing tide of the war when the Union army discovered the effectiveness of ravaging the land, which brought them much military success but absolutely devastated the landscape. 

See Brady, Lisa M.. Environmental History and the American South : War Upon the Land : Military Strategy and the Transformation of Southern Landscapes During the American Civil War. Athens, GA, USA: University of Georgia Press, 2012 quoted on Fighting-the-Earth.leadr.msu.edu

3. Overall damage done by individual war campaigns and battles

Here is a map showing the location, by county, of the major battles.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35637

A careful researcher will take all of these issues into account while research almost anyplace in America during wartime. My own ancestors, the Sidney Tanner family, were living in San Bernardino, California and moved to Beaver, Utah as a result of the Utah War or more commonly called the Utah Expedition of 1857-1858, shortly before the Civil War. One of the prominent future Confederate Generals, then a Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston led the U.S. Troops on their invasion of Utah. He was subsequently killed at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862.

These seemingly random ancestral moves sometimes turn out to be much less than random when put in historical perspective. 

What if the records are wrong? Another genealogical nightmare

For the past six months, I have been looking at historical documents for about eight hours a day. That is a lot of documents. One thing that I see is that those people who created all these records didn't get all the information right all the time. I see lots of inconsistencies, misspellings, and writing that defies being deciphered. I also see two records from the same source with different information about the same event.

The answer to the question in the title is that you should never rely entirely on one record. Just because you find one record about an ancestor does not mean that you are through looking. Granted, as you go back in time or do research in some countries, one record may be all you can possibly find, but for research in the 21st, 20th and most of the 19th Centuries, the number of records kept mandates that you have a high probability of finding more than one and usually a larger number of records about any one family.

When I talk to people who despair about finding any records or any more records, I almost always find that they have no idea how many different records could be available. For example, in the United States, I just noticed that Val D. Greenwood has published a fourth edition of his book, The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy.

You can buy a copy on Amazon.com or maybe find one in a library as soon as the libraries purchase new copies. I have mentioned this before, but reading the earlier edition of his book is what got me started in understanding genealogy and how to do research. One thing I can say about the book, even though as a missionary in Annapolis, Maryland, I will have to wait to buy a copy, if you read this book and understand what it is saying, you will be a much better genealogist.

In every country of the world, there are some records that help genealogical research even if those records are oral traditions passed on from generation to generation. The real work of a genealogist is finding those records and preserving the information. If you can't think of any more categories of records to search, then start reading a good handbook of genealogy such as the one highlighted above.

MyHeritage Introduces a DNA Matching Filtering System

New Filtering System for DNA Matches

MyHeritage.com has taken a major step in helping those who take DNA tests for genealogical purposes to understand what the results mean. Here is a screenshot of my own results that shows part of the newly presented and organized information.

This is a clear step towards the goal of showing a suggested common ancestor. Unfortunately, on a few of the people who are classified as Extended Family have trees on MyHeritage that give me any idea how they might be related to me.

You can read about all the features added in this blog post, "New Filtering System for DNA Matches." The post also has step-by-step instructions.

Technology and Family History: A Perfect Match

James Tanner-Technology and Genealogy: A Perfect Match

Well, I am back doing webinars for the Brigham Young University Family History Library.  You can see my latest addition above. But the wonderful folks at the BYU FHL have been uploading videos all along while we have been digitizing records here in Annapolis, Maryland at the Maryland State Archive. If you want to read about our FamilySearch Mission, you can see my posts on my other blog, Rejoice, and be exceeding glad...

Check out all the new videos on the BYU FHL YouTube Channel. Here is a screenshot of the Channel page with a link to the Channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7hqNOQt-2AfeVEpDuc7sCA/featured

I have webinars planned for July and August and on into the Fall. Check the BYU FHL website for the schedules. 

Reclaim The Records Challenges the New York Department of Health Over Ancestry.com Priority

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Ganz-v-DOH.pdf

In a somewhat complicated lawsuit involving a claim by Reclaim the Records (reclaimtherecords.org) against the New York State Department of Health, there are allegations that the state agency gave preferential or fast treatment to a request by Ancestry.com for public records to add to Ancestry's database, while at the same time failing to provide the same service to the non-profit Reclaim the Records organization.

The lawsuit seeks to obtain records from the New York State Department of Health concerning the transaction with Ancestry.com. The link in the caption of the screenshot above is to a copy of the full petition. Essentially, the request for records under the Freedom of Information Law filed by Reclaim the Records took more than a year to process while the request made by Ancestry.com produced the records in about 3 months.

Initially, the New York State Department of Health also told Reclaim the Records that they would need to pay $152,000 to obtain copies of the New York State Death Index. Here is a link to a detailed account of what Reclaim the Records did to obtain the Index to New York State Deaths (Outside of New York City) 1880-1956. 

It will be interesting to see how the Ancestry.com request was handled.

The issues raised by this legal action extend into the area of the monetization of public records whereby government agencies around the world try to make money from the information they have collected from individuals and families. I suggest you may wish to subscribe to Reclaim the Records' newsletter and support them in their efforts.

FamilySearch Adds 135 Million Records from Denmark, Finland, and Sweden

If you have ancestors from one of these three Scandinavian countries, you can benefit from this huge new collection of records. Here is a quote from the announcement from FamilySearch.org. 

SALT LAKE CITY (26 June 2018), FamilySearch announced today the availability of its newest record collections—135.4 million free digital historical records from Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. These new collections were digitized in partnership with MyHeritage and the National Archives of Denmark and Finland and can now be accessed at FamilySearch. 

The freely searchable collections are comprised of church records, including birth, marriage, and death records, confirmations, moving-in and moving-out records; court; tax lists; examination books; and more. 

“The new collections will provide a better research experience,” said Whitney Peterson, FamilySearch International collections specialist. “Uniquely identifying ancestors from these countries can be difficult due to the frequency of common names [the use of patronymics]. Before now, our vital indexes have provided broad but incomplete coverage. These new, complete collections will make it easier to find and track your ancestors.”

Again, quoting from the announcement, the new records include the following:

Denmark

• 55.1 million new records added
• Census records (1834-1930).
• Church records (1686–1941; record images only)
• Land records of Denmark—deeds and mortgages (record images only)
• Probate records—Denmark estate records (1436–1964; record images only); Probate indexes (1674–1851).
• Denmark civil marriages (1851–1961)
• Denmark, Copenhagen civil marriages (1739–1964; indexed 1877–1964)

Finland

33.4 million new records added
Finland church census and preconfirmation books (1657–1915)
Tax lists of Suomi-Henkikirjara (1819–1915).

Sweden

• 46.9 million new records added
• Sweden household examination books (1880–1920).
• Church books (Kyrkoböcker) from Kopparberg (1604–1860), Örebro (until 1860), and Östergötland (1555–1911).

Read the entire announcement here: https://media.familysearch.org/familysearch-adds-135m-new-records-for-denmark-finland-sweden/