Texas State University Project Utilizes AI to Decipher Centuries-Old Andean Historical Records
Texas State University (TXST) is leading a research initiative, "Sondondo Valley. Population and Territory in Rural Andean History," that employs artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze digitized Peruvian parish records from the 18th to early 20th centuries. This project, funded by a $23,400 Research Enhancement Program grant from TXST's Division of Research, aims to overcome the historical challenge faced by researchers in connecting scattered handwritten records of baptisms, marriages, and burials. Historians previously found it nearly impossible to trace the lives of individuals and families over time due to the sheer volume and disorganization of these documents. The TXST team, including graduate students Vamsi Krishna Samavedam and Sneha Tulshiram Nitnaware, is developing computational programs to interpret these records. These programs are designed to identify when multiple entries, such as a baptismal record, a marriage record, and a burial register, belong to the same individual, even with inconsis...