GenSmarts - An Amazing Artificial Intelligence Research Assistant |
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How long might it take you to analyze your database of hundreds or thousands of names and generate thousands of useful paths for further research? Imagine being able to do it in a matter of seconds, complete with links to online sources for the required records! That's what GenSmarts can do for you. I was stunned when I downloaded the trial version and saw first hand how powerful a tool it is. Installation was quick and easy and the program automatically located my Family Tree Maker file. It analyzed my database of about 2,800 names in just 10-15 seconds. When completed, it offered me over 3,000 suggestions for follow-on research, some obvious, but many amazingly intuitive and not so obvious. But wait there's more...GenSmarts doesn't just identify holes in a database, it knows if the applicable records might be available online and then will take you automatically to the database search page, even filling in the blanks if you want. For example, say your database doesn't list a place of birth for your gg-grandfather, born in 1840. GenSmarts may recommend that you check out the 1880 census to get that information, providing links to various online sources. Besides the obvious online sources such as Ancestry.com, Familysearch.com and Genealogy.com, GenSmarts also can recommend dozens of other, more obscure sites, many of which are free to search. Once GenSmarts analyzes your database, you can then use different filters to focus on specific types of to-do items. For example, you can tell GenSmarts to only display free records...or only records which fill a gap in your data...or only to-do items on direct ancestors...or only records from a specific source...or only to-do items of a specific type (e.g. census, birth etc)...or any combination of the options to pinpoint exactly what you want to research. Wow. You can even use GenSmarts to prepare for a research field trip. Select the Allen County Public Library as the source for example, and then print a list of all the applicable records available there, including library reference and call numbers! The artificial intelligence aspect of GenSmarts is truly amazing. Not only does it give you recommendations, it tells you why it is making the recommendation! The reasoning is surprisingly intuitive and provides a lot of food for thought for further research. My review only scratches the surface of what this incredible software tool can do. Try it and watch how quickly you
start finding source documents you didn't even know you needed. |
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1. Introducing a Cemetery Data Spreadsheet! |