Handwritten Records for Genealogical Purposes & Using AI for Genealogy

The Zoom meeting of the Windham County Genealogy Interest Group took place on Saturday, February 21. The topics of “Working with Handwritten Records for Genealogical Purposes, presented by WCGIG member, Lynne Snyder, and & Using Google’s Gemini AI for Genealogy,” presented by Wayne Blanchard.

Please see descriptions below on the presentations:

“Working with Handwritten Documents for Genealogical Purposes”
Using real-world examples written by or about Vermonters, resources were examined for reading old (or poor) handwriting. Also presented were transcription tips and techniques: using context to decode content, short-and long-term publication decision-making, and using additional resources to add depth to your final result.

Lynne Snyder has been immersed in genealogy and local history since childhood, with longtime Vermont ancestry in Windham and Franklin counties. She holds a Certificate in Genealogical Research (Boston University, 2016) and is a past attendee at the National Institute on Genealogical Research (now Gen-Fed).

Using Google’s Gemini AI for Genealogy:
Gemini can be a useful virtual genealogy assistant. Wayne Blanchard uploaded images of handwritten documents and asked for a transcription. Not only was Gemini able to “read” the documents with its handwritten text recognition, but it then provided its own prompts that were helpful suggestions for further research.

Using information it found and additional facts that he provided, Gemini was able to produce a narrative of the person’s life, a timeline of the family, a family group sheet, and a narrative map of where family members moved. In addition it could generate proper citations for footnotes in a document that summarized the research. In this presentation he shows how the conversation with Gemini unfolded to give new insight into an ancestor

The Windham County Genealogy Interest Group meetings are free and open to anyone. The next one will occur on Saturday, April 18, 10:30 to 12:30 on site at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, Vt. and on Zoom.

Please pre-register using this link, https://bit.ly/WCGIG-2026.

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