To edit or not to edit? Disclosure is the answer

Salt Palace 2026

In today's news, the prompter and motion capture provider of AI creation, Tilly Norwood, is receiving death threats. An interesting point the prompter makes is that "Tilly is famous. I'm not. That's wonderful. Fame is a horrible thing." Death threats definitely add credence to the "fame is a horrible thing" posit. Norwood's prompter also makes the point that since the AI is the famous one, she doesn't have to do things like Botox to preserve youthfulness. Altering one's appearance was a recent discussion I had with Ilya at The Family Vault (an AI Agent and cloud storage) booth at 2026 RootsTech. Ilya questioned why disclose using AI for photo regeneration when people edit photos with Photoshop or even that many women wear make-up and that's editing their looks? I've been mulling this over ever since RootsTech! In the Genealogy Community, it is actually an asset to be older. When I became active in genealogy at age 31, I actually had genealogists be dismissive towards me due to my youth. Some genealogists wear make-up and some don't; it's not a field where appearance is judged like it is with celebrities. I have noticed that make-up tends to help when on Zoom meetings or on stage because the bright lights tend to wash out facial features. Unlike with AI use, there's no need to disclose I'm wearing make-up because it's quite obvious and visible. Of course I didn't think of this at the time I was chatting with Ilya - the case for disclosure lies with whether editing can be detected or not. Make-up is visible. Tinting old photos is visible. AI photo regeneration is not visible (at least to the naked eye). Read more here on the Coalition for Responsible AI in Genealogy's "Protecting Trust in Historical Images" position statement.

The Gamechanger: Using FamilySearch Full Text AI

My FamilySearch Stats

Several weeks ago, my husband asked me what I was working on. I replied that I was working on my genealogy and his response was, "Why? I thought you were done." Now to a genealogist's ears, that's a funny remark because all genealogists know that we will never be completely "done" as there is always something to work on in the family tree. Granted, I did the vast majority of my computer tree research in the early 2000's and then pivoted to DNA research. The only time since that I have conducted traditional genealogy research was when I had the opportunity to do in-person research at archives like the Daughters of the American Revolution Library, the Clayton Library in Houston, and the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, etc. etc. But the reason I now have a laptop in front of me in the quiet hours of early morning and late at night is thanks to FamilySearch.org implementing Full Text AI Search. In 2025 alone, I broke through an Irish ancestor's brickwall that we had thought would never be broken considering the difficulty imposed on research by the Four Courts fire in 1922 and I found another ancestor during his "lost years" in another county. In my mind, FamilySearch Full Text AI is the best thing since sliced bread! So if you're into family tree research, and you have not tried it, you need to and I will tell you how I get good results. But first, I highly recommend you have already connected to a tree in FamilySearch. For most people just starting out, that usually just entails connecting yourself to your parents and sometimes grandparents and the tree is usually already built out. And if you are not familiar with FamilySearch, it is entirely FREE! As you can see on my stats graph on the right, the huge spike in 2025-26 contributions (which is mostly records I have attached) is thanks to Full Text AI. Connecting yourself in a tree makes for ease of navigation, and will connect you to cousins at "Relatives at RootsTech."

To start your first Full Text AI search, log in to FamilySearch.org - then go to the top menu and click "Search" on the upper left menu, then click on "Full Text". When the box comes up, enter your ancestor's name in quotes, e.g.: "Rody Kennedy" then the place they lived "South Carolina" and a year range (I usually make mine a little broader than their birth year and death date). Then submit. Sometimes, especially with a common name, I will add another name related to that ancestor in the "Keyword" box above their name, for example, his wife "Ellen" and that will narrow the results down. Putting the name in quotes works much better than using a plus sign as I have tried both but I learned about the quotes from this video on FamilySearch AI which I highly recommend. This video is not only excellent for learning about this tool, but Colette Hokanson includes great general AI info as well. After you found a document that matches your ancestor, you can download a JPG of it and a PDF with or without a transcription. Be sure to proofread the transcription and correct errors before attaching to your ancestor's profile. I leave or add the words "Generated from AI summary" or "Generated from AI transcription" for disclosure purposes. Sometimes, genealogists like myself have already attached the record and it will show you if it has been attached, but do click and verify who the record was attached to. I recently attached a will of a friend of my ancestor who had named her in his will. You can also correct spelling errors by clicking the little pencil icon at the top right corner of the transcription box.

I have to say, I am deeply grateful to FamilySearch for implementing this AI Search function as it has allowed me to find records that I never would have found in my lifetime otherwise. On my very first trip to the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City in May 2023, I wasted an entire day of my life there looking for my Bohemian Great-Grandfather, August Bauman (wife is Josefa Engel) in the microfilms. When I could not find these two needles-in-a-haystack, I resigned myself to waiting for human volunteers to index these records for a kingdom that no longer exists (Bohemia that is). While these European collections have not yet been added to the AI searchable collections, I now have hope they will be and I will find them.

RootsTech 2026 is almost here and one of the exciting things about RootsTech is all the company announcements and new products/features. You can attend RootsTech online for FREE - sign up here and be sure to add lots of great AI sessions to your watch list including the session on "Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Genealogy in 2026".