The Jewish Genealogical Society will host guest speaker Scott Genzer at its next Zoom meeting, March 22, at 7 p.m. -9 p.m. The topic of discussion will be "Using Facial Recognition to Identify Unnamed Ancestors."

Photographs have always been a genealogical challenge because, unlike more conventional sources such as vital records, they do not impart clear data. Most often we simply attach the picture to our trees and then leave it there. However in early 2019, Genzer developed a new technique that shows how to use facial recognition via artificial intelligence / machine learning methods to identify unknown people in photographs using large libraries of passport-like images currently available online. With facial recognition, genealogists can generate new clues with statistical probabilities from old photos that have never before been available. This presentation will be an elaboration and detailed demonstration of this technique previously published in the Fall 2019 issue of Avotaynu.

Scott Genzer is an amateur genealogist who has spent two decades researching his family tree, particularly his paternal branch from Mielec, Poland. During the day, he is a data scientist at RapidMiner, a software company based in Boston, MA. Scott lives in Norwich, Vermont, with his wife and two daughters.

Registration is required for this meeting. Visit eventbrite.com to register. A link to access the Zoom meeting will be sent a few days before the meeting.