Thank you for introducing me to this. I received a manuscript from the University of Arkansas of my 4gt-grandfather's journal he made on his trip to California as a 49-er. I will use this to transcribe it. Question: Do the pdf's have to be OCR'ed before it works?
@FamilyHistoryFanatics18 күн бұрын
I don't believe so. If they have OCR it helps. But I don't believe it's a must. If you have any questions, reach out to Kindex support. They'll help you. I've very impressed with their responsiveness
@kindexorg16 күн бұрын
Great question! Before I answer, I must clarify that as far as we're concerned, "OCR" has to do with typed text, and "HWR" has to do with handwritten text. These two services, technically speaking, are radically different in their recognition. If your journal is handwritten, OCR-ing your journal is a worthless endeavor (unless it simultaneously has printed text throughout it). In fact, your journal's best friend would be Kindex. In short, PDFs do NOT have to be OCR'ed before uploading into Kindex. Because there are so many OCR services, and each vary in their extraction quality, we discovered it was best to let our Auto-Index Service work its magic and ignore embedded OCR in files. We found our service performed better than nearly every traditional OCR service tested-especially Adobe Acrobat's OCR service! Herein lies an important technical difference between a Kindex OCR extraction and an Adobe OCR extraction: whereas Adobe embeds the OCR extraction into the PDF, Kindex does not. But that's not a bad thing-as long as your PDF remains on Kindex and is Auto-Indexed (and refined by you), Kindex provides your grandfather's words a software vehicle that can communicate with the entire world (than within a single file alone). I hope this helps!
@steveydirp9927 күн бұрын
Wow. Can't wait to try it! So glad you are back!❤
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
It's really amazing. It's good to be back.
@Cynthia_G-NC27 күн бұрын
Your description of Kindex makes me very excited to try it. The notion of indexing items that are not typed or OCR gives a great potential for several types of collections I have. Boxes of letters from 1900 to 1950. Family photos, scanned but not indexed. A cassette recording, transferred to mp3, of an interview by my French grandfather, and more. I'm glad you addressed your compensation of Kindex. Makes your very positive review of it seem honest. I'm excited to follow-up.
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
You have a lot of valuable information that would benefit from this service. And yes, I wanted to be honest about the compensation. I accepted the year of the archive service but all the transcriptions were paid for by me. That way I could tell you whether I liked or not. So yep, these are my honest opinions.
@bloubaker642425 күн бұрын
I had never heard of Kindex - thank you for introducing me to a new tool!
@FamilyHistoryFanatics24 күн бұрын
You're welcome! It's been a game-changer for me!
@stephaniewarrix998827 күн бұрын
This was a very interesting video! Thanks for sharing this great tool with us!
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
My pleasure. Glad you enjoyed it.
@moodymeixner374527 күн бұрын
Great information! So excited to check out Kindex
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
Please do and then tell me what you think.
@DanaLeeds26 күн бұрын
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
You're welcome!
@IowaKim21 күн бұрын
What would be nice, is when the AI writes text that it "thinks" is being said or is guessing, make that text red in color so that you could visually scan to cross check. Call it a "Certainty" level, maybe something that the user can tweak like, if the AI is 80% certain that word is correct, then it isn't marked in red, but if the AI is 20% certain, make the text red for checking. As the user, you could request that the certainty level is 60% or below, put that text in red. Does this make sense?
@kindexorg19 күн бұрын
Yes, it DOES make sense. This will be especially helpful with handwriting, where the accuracy isn't as stellar as audio and OCR. We'll likely implement this in times to come, but TBH you'll be surprised at Kindex's accuracy with HWR.
@FamilyHistoryFanatics18 күн бұрын
That's a great suggestions and I am happy Cathy is monitoring comments for feedback.
@FamilyHistoryFanatics18 күн бұрын
And I concur that I was very surprised with how accurate Kindex was for transcribing audio and handwriting.
@feliciagaffney199827 күн бұрын
Not related to Kindex, but I'm excited and have to share! Using the FamilySearch full search AI, I found school records for my current project family for 1856 tonight! I love it! Had no idea these types of records were even out there! Better yet, it confirms for me one of the daughters of the family. I thought I had her as an adult... but I wasn't 100% positive. Now, I can be. 💜 Sounds like Kindex can be helpful with some of my document transcriptions! And save ne some time. That will be nice. I found one document last year with the laziest handwriting... the words looked kinda like drawing waves on the paper. Letters were barely formed. A testiment to our brainpower to be able to recognize anything that looks like words... and yet, I think I got it almost all done. I'm curious what Kindex may make of it. Ha!
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
I'm curious what Kindex would make of the squiggles as well. Congrats on the School Records. Woo-hoo!
@GypsyArt26 күн бұрын
You just saved me 20 Years of my life! and at nearly 58 yrs of age that's 20 years I can spend doing other things with genealogy other than transcribing haha :-). I will be giving Kindex a go with the intent of staying with it.😁
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
Awesome. Glad I can give you back your life!
@kindexorg19 күн бұрын
Feel free to sign up today before RootsTech!
@MaryFayeKecko27 күн бұрын
Kindex does sound like an awesome program, however I would gladly pay for such a program with the organization ability you describe that is downloadable and where everything already lives on my own computer. Another great video btw, thank you!
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
I can understand that desire. Kindex wouldn't solve the computer-based indexing quest you're seeking. I wonder what would.
@cathyc672526 күн бұрын
Thank you!!!
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
My pleasures. Thanks for all the comments.
@jgar982726 күн бұрын
Any idea if it can transcribe Spanish, Latin, Polish?
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
With the audio, the preferred language is English but they've said to try out Spanish, French. As for the written word, I haven't heard of an English preference. I would reach out to Kindex directly to get a formal answer, but I believe they're working on foreign languages in handwriting recognition if they don't have the ability already.
@jaimejewell968626 күн бұрын
what was the translating tool for hand writing?
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
The document translating tool is for both printed text and for handwriting!
@cathyc672526 күн бұрын
Can I link what I put on Kindex to my Ancestry tree?
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
Yes, you can link that to Ancestry so long as you have a public Kindex archive.
@kindexorg19 күн бұрын
Whether you have a PUBLIC or a PRIVATE archive, any transcription can be shared with your Ancestry tree. How so? From Kindex's "Share" screen (once a record has a complete transcription), via the "Copy Link" option. Once selected, the link is copied into your clipboard and the URL of the "share" page can then be pasted (or distributed) anywhere, such as in social media posts, emails, or texts. Sharing this link makes that page a public-facing link to that original record (and it's
@cathyc672526 күн бұрын
I have 2 large Civil War Pension Files that I cannot upload completely to Ancestry. They are too large. This could transcribe them and make them fully available, rather than the partial files I uploaded. Right? That's why I'd like to have a link to them from my tree.
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
I didn't run into size restrictions but I did individual images. Reach out with your specific question to sales@kindex.org and see what they have to say about file size uploads. But yes, once you have the file indexed, you can link that to Ancestry so long as you have a public archive.
@cathyc672525 күн бұрын
@ Thanks! You rock!
@kindexorg13 күн бұрын
Cathy: indeed Kindex can transcribe your Civil War pension files! To my knowledge, there are earlier pension files almost fully handwritten, and then "typed" pension files which are more form-like. The former is sure to transcribe with greater accuracy than handwritten text within forms-although pension files seem to be simple enough in their content you may be pleasantly surprised at Kindex's accuracy. Whenever a transcription is inaccurate, you or your Collaborators may edit the text to make it 100% accurate. One customer reported our Auto-Index Service speeds up their normal transcription process 10 times. Within the time they used to transcribe 1 record from scratch, they're now completing 10 (by merely correcting what our Auto-Index Service reads). Presently, Kindex Archive plans are distinguished as "Public" or "Private". If your Archive plan is "Public", your pension files could be made "fully available" to non users-both the original record you upload and its derivative transcription! If your Archive plan is "Private", and you want to make some records public, you may copy the link from the transcribed record and make it "fully available" on Ancestry, FamilySearch, social media, email, text, etc. As the reader selects the link, they'll be able to see just that record. In other words, we provide users shareable links to distribute whichever record(s) they choose, to enable public sharing regardless of the Archive plan. I hope this helps!
@junebutka657127 күн бұрын
Thank you for sharing. Not sure I am ready to learn AI tools. I’m a nervous nellie
@kindexorg27 күн бұрын
What about AI makes you nervous?
@junebutka657127 күн бұрын
@ learning a tool always makes me nervous in my old age.
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
Honestly, what I love about these tools is I don't have to write any prompts at all! I simply click a button, pay the fee and the tool does all the heavy lifting for me. Since I know you write your family stories, given you're a long time fan of both channels, you'll love the transcription field that's as easy to edit as all of your text documents for your stories. It really is incredibly simple. Play around with it. You will be so impressed.
@junebutka657125 күн бұрын
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Thank you. I will try at some point. Watching my Fees at this stage.
@kindexorg19 күн бұрын
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Furthermore, Kindex houses them all into one shareable, editable, collaborative, backup-able, Archive.
@whychromosomesmusic576626 күн бұрын
Not sure if I would ever use this tool. I do have tons and tons of hand written notes in spiral notebooks for genealogy. I would wonder if another statement might be: "If you can't read your own handwriting then neither can Kindex." ;-) I remember in high school (1970s) I would hand in my paper and the teacher would say, "That's a good rough draft." And I said, "I already did the rough draft. That's the finished paper." And she was like, "Oh no! I can't read that!" And now at age 64 it isn't any better. In fact i think it's worse! lol. I would wonder if Kindex can transcribe Latin. That is a pretty common language for a number of locations including documents in the US. I do some translations of the Latin documents but I translate most of them to Italian. I find it easier to just read the documents in Italian than try to translate them into English anyway. Sorry to hear about your hearing problems. I'm getting increasing loud 'crickets' in my ears. Somebody told me that is called tinnitus. It started out faint but it's loud enough that I can hear it with the TV on. Most of the time I don't notice it but if I'm quiet enough then I do. I was in the military and had to listen with headphones on. My first day at one duty station I put the volume where it was comfortable and I could hear it but my trainer kept asking me what was said and I had to tell him so finally he said, 'I'm sorry. I have to be able to hear that." And he turned the volume up. So I'm pretty sure after three years of that [1980s] my hearing is probably impaired and it's catching up with me.
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
My hearing problem is something I've lived with since I was a wee babe. So I'm used to it. But do have your hearing checked. I have worn hearing aides for almost 40 years. They have come a long way in terms of technology.
@prayersthatwork27 күн бұрын
Any advise that you can share on how I can obtain info on Baroness Elizabeth Monteagle-Morley Tresham... just recvd an ancestry leaf naming her as my 11th generation great great grandmother. She was born in Northhamptonshire during the 1500s. Ive searched Google but results are vwry high level. Thanks 🌸🌺💝🇬🇧🇺🇸
@FamilyHistoryFanatics26 күн бұрын
That specific of a person. Nope. Sorry
@Nanakinsz27 күн бұрын
Holy wow! About that Backup Zip file ... what manner of file format/s is in there?
@kindexorg27 күн бұрын
Kindex provides two archive backup files: a ZIP of all uploaded originals (JPG, PDF, PNG, M4A, MP3, and MP4), and an XLS of all textual data you append to each record (creator, date, provenance, place, transcription, etc.). Presently, the "transcription" text in the XLS is provided in HTML format, both because of its origin and because HTML preserves any formatting made in the text editor (strikethroughs, underlines, superscripts, etc.). IF an HTML derivative of your transcriptions is annoying, each transcribed record has a "Share" screen where you may generate completed records as PDF. You may also copy and paste the transcribed text into a local text editing program. I hope this helps!