Opening the Door to Latin American Genealogical Research with Full-text Searches

Almost all the valuable genealogical records from Latin America such as parish registers and civil registration records are in a narrative format and have been very difficult to search. Notary records are seldom used for the same reason, they are usually entirely handwritten narratives. New handwriting analysis technology coupled with full-text searches are on the way to making the content of these handwritten documents more available to computer searches. The advent of full-text searches will have a tremendous impact on opening these records to researchers. This class will explain and demonstrate the advantages of this new technology. Participants of this session should have a general knowledge of how to research using the FamilySearch website. Resources for learning how to use FamilySearch can be found under Additional Experiences.