AI For Genealogy And Local History

Rural family history is uniquely fragile — much of it lives in the heads of one or two people in a community. AI tools turn long interviews into structured records you can hand down.

1. 1Record the interview on your phone with explicit consent
2. 2Use a transcription tool (many have free tiers) to get raw text
3. 3Paste the transcript into AI and ask for a cleaned version that keeps the speaker's voice
4. 4Ask AI to extract names, places, and dates into a structured list for cross-reference
5. 5Have AI draft a short narrative chapter based on the cleaned transcript, kept in the speaker's voice

AI can also help you cross-reference family records against census, courthouse, and cemetery records — but always demand citations and don't paste in living relatives' private details into chat tools without permission.