What if the next breakthrough in your family tree was buried in an old newspaper? In this exclusive webinar, Maya Geier from MyHeritage reveals how AI is turning millions of historical newspaper pages into powerful, structured genealogical records. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the technology, see real examples of obituary extraction, and explore how these innovations are changing the way we connect with our past.
In this engaging Legacy Family Tree webinar, Uncovering the Past with AI: How MyHeritage Extracts Historical Records from Newspapers, MyHeritage product manager Maya Geier takes viewers behind the scenes of the company’s groundbreaking AI-driven efforts to transform historical newspapers into searchable, structured genealogical records. She reveals how OldNews.com, launched in 2024, now hosts over 400 million pages from around the world, enhanced by MyHeritage’s custom-built OCR and advanced entity extraction technology. These tools not only read faded, century-old print but also interpret context, infer missing information, and connect names, dates, places, and relationships—turning unstructured clippings into rich, actionable records seamlessly linked to family trees. Geoff, the webinar host, adds a personal dimension with a live demonstration that leads to a meaningful new discovery about his great-grandfather’s life.
Key takeaways from the webinar:
AI-powered transformation of newspaper research: MyHeritage’s proprietary OCR pipeline achieves market-leading accuracy for historical newspapers, overcoming challenges like degraded ink, antique fonts, and damaged pages. Advanced AI models then identify genealogically relevant articles—such as obituaries, birth and marriage announcements—and convert them into structured, searchable records complete with inferred dates, locations, and relationships.
From mentions to meaningful discoveries: Structured data enables automatic record matching to existing family trees, saving researchers hours of manual work. AI-generated summaries allow users to quickly assess an article’s relevance without reading lengthy text, while interconnected records reveal family connections that might otherwise remain hidden.
Global reach and growing coverage: To date, more than 15 billion structured records have been extracted in multiple languages, including English and French, with German and Spanish collections underway. MyHeritage aims for global coverage, expanding record types and refining tools to make historical newspaper research faster, more accessible, and more impactful.
To experience the full power of these innovations—and perhaps uncover surprising details about your own ancestors—view the complete webinar replay. You’ll see exactly how OldNews.com and MyHeritage’s structured records work together, watch Maya’s detailed walk-throughs, and follow Geoff’s real-time discovery that connected his great-grandfather to a 1921 community road-building effort.
For genealogists eager to dig deeper, the webinar’s accompanying syllabus offers additional tips, search strategies, and resource links. Exploring these materials alongside the full recording will equip you with the knowledge to turn overlooked clippings into valuable, documented chapters of your family’s history.
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I joined the webinar after it started but what I did listen to was exciting. I will definitely watch it again.
very clearly defined and demonstrated options and benefits.
Excellent information. I’ve been doing genealogy research since 1980 and to have access to the old newspapers obituaries births marriages in a searchable way is very helpful and will add so much documentation and validity to information that I previously had. In addition it will give me so much more.
Very informative So glad Geoff looked for his relatives. I have Old News but haven’t had much luck, but now I am anxious to try with the new information. I will watch webinar again. Thank you
Wonderful webinar. So well explained by Maya. AI is such an amazing tool for finding information. Thank you
Having used two competing newspaper websites, based on this webinar, I am inclined to give Old News a try.
Very useful information and examples from Maya, plus a bonus live demo from Geoff. Glad to hear there will be a handout to follow.
Good info was found