Using Metadata for Genealogy

Thomas MacEntee
Jan 23, 2026
362 views
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About this webinar

Is your digital family history hiding in plain sight? Stop letting your hard work disappear into generic filenames like "IMG_0054.jpg." This video reveals the power of metadata—the digital equivalent of writing names and dates on the back of a physical photo. You will learn how to permanently embed stories, citations, and faces directly inside your files, ensuring that your research travels safely wherever your photos go. Watch now to transform your chaotic folders into a searchable, future-proof archive and guarantee that your ancestors' identities are never lost again.

* * * Author’s Note: I want to be transparent that this material – DESC Tech Tip – Using Metadata for Genealogy – was created in part with the help of an artificial intelligence (AI) language model – Gemini Pro 3. The AI assisted in generating an early draft of the article, but every paragraph was subsequently reviewed, edited, and refined by me. The final content is the result of extensive human curation and creativity. I am proud to present this work and assure readers that while AI was a tool in the process, the story, style, and substance have been carefully shaped by the author.

About the speaker

Thomas MacEntee is a guy with a love of punk rock music but also art history who somehow “fell” into the technology industry years ago. He left a lucrative tech career to pursue his love of family his...
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Comments (2)

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  1. DT
    Diane Telfer
    1 month ago

    You showed PDF on your opening intro slide but never talked about how to add metadata to pdf which I am not aware of a way to add tags and comments to. Is there away to add metadata to pdf files?

  2. DF
    Diana Faust
    1 month ago

    Thanks for this, Thomas - great idea to share the important info with next generations! I really need to get these images meta-data'ed!

    MAC USER, here - An even quicker way to open the Get Info window is: highlight the file in the finder window and type CMD-i - opens straight to the Get Info window, skipping a step - yay!

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