Old Mentz Heritage Center

The Old Mentz Heritage Center is the historical society for the towns of Mentz and Montezuma, and the village of Port Byron, NY

AI and Photo Identification – part 2

When we at Old Mentz Heritage Center take in photograghs. we scan them as 2400 dpi tiff files. The .tiff format is stable but dense and a typical cabinet card scan will be well over 100 mb in size. When I use in social media, I will run them through a image editor,...
Using AI to Examine Historic Photographs

Using AI to Examine Historic Photographs

We have thousands of photos in our collection, and if I were to guess, less than 25 percent are labeled or identified. Finding a labeled photo is certainly a treat, but most often, we are left guessing at who the person might be. If the photo is in a collection, that...

A Peck of Painted Portraits

Well maybe. But first, I would like to introduce you to Mrs. Frances “Fanny” Preston Root. She was the wife of Samuel Root and, like many of our central New York early settlers, she was born in Connecticut before moving to Port Byron, back in the days when it was...

Using AI in your Genealogical Research

Over the past few months, I have been taking a deep dive into how, and how not to, use AI for my research into my family history. It really is an immersive learning curve where you jump in the deep end and try to swim. In our January, 2026 Genealogical Gatherings at...

The Military Tract of Central New York

                Bernie Corcoran, Cayuga County GenWeb Co-coordinator will give a talk on Saturday, November 8, 2025, at 2 PM. The program is being sponsored by the Old Mentz Heritage Center and will be held at the Samuel Center...