Ancestors and Algorithms: AI for Genealogy

If you have a brick wall ancestor with a common name; a William Harrison, a Mary Smith, a John Thomas this episode will change how you research forever. In Episode 33 of Ancestors and Algorithms, host Brian walks through a completely upgraded FAN Club cluster research workflow that goes far beyond what was covered in Episode 16. The FAN Club method, coined by renowned genealogist Elizabeth Shown M...

"All the Irish records burned." Every genealogist with Irish ancestry has heard this warning and most have believed it long enough to stop searching. In Episode 32 of Ancestors and Algorithms, host Brian shows why that warning is not the whole story. In a live AI-assisted genealogy research session, Brian traces his own Irish ancestor, Caitlin Flanagan, born around 1831 in County Clare,...

What happens when your ancestor filed a homestead claim, worked the land for a decade, and then vanished from every surviving record? In Episode 31 of Ancestors and Algorithms, Brian follows the trail of a Volga German family who filed a homestead entry in Rush County, Kansas in 1877. They built a house, dug a well, broke forty acres of Great Plains prairie, and raised five children on the America...

Every genealogist eventually asks the same questions. How do you know when you have enough evidence? How do you decide which record to trust when two documents disagree? How do you turn years of family history research into a conclusion that holds up against scrutiny? The Genealogical Proof Standard, developed by the Board for Certification of Genealogists, has answered those questions for serious...

Have you ever searched for an ancestor in a newspaper database and found nothing, even though you were certain the information had to be there? You are not searching wrong. You are searching with the wrong strategy. And in this episode, that changes. Episode 29 of Ancestors and Algorithms is a full AI tool showdown: Perplexity vs. Claude, head to head on the same newspaper research challenge. Same...

He arrived at Ellis Island in 1912 as Salvatore Maranzano. He reappeared in the 1920 Census as Samuel Martin. Eight years of silence in between, and three years of searching by his granddaughter had turned up nothing. In Episode 28 of Ancestors and Algorithms, we follow this real listener case from start to finish and show you exactly how three free AI tools, Perplexity, Gemini in Google AI Studio...

For millions of African American families, the search for ancestors hits a wall at 1870. Before that year, the federal census did not list enslaved people by name. They appeared only as ages and numbers in slave schedules, as property in estate inventories, as entries without identity. The 1870 census was the first time most formerly enslaved African Americans were documented by name in any federa...

If you have been sitting on a pile of DNA matches with no idea how to make sense of them, this episode was made for you. Episode 26 of Ancestors and Algorithms tackles one of the most requested topics since the show launched: can you actually use artificial intelligence to help decode your DNA results without putting your family's genetic privacy at risk? The short answer is yes. But the HOW...

Discover how to find Australian convict ancestors and track family across international borders using free AI tools. Perfect for genealogists researching British, Irish, Scottish, or Australian family history. What You'll Learn: Track transported convicts from Britain to Australia (1788-1868) using AI-powered research techniques that work for ANY international genealogy challenge, German ance...

Have you ever stared at a stack of genealogy documents knowing the answers are there, but unable to find them? That was me with a 47-page probate file from 1892. Three years I avoided it. Then I discovered Google NotebookLM, and twenty minutes later, I finally understood why two of my ancestors never spoke again. In this episode, I'm teaching you everything about NotebookLM for genealogy rese...

Learn how to transform dry genealogy facts into compelling ancestor biographies using free AI tools. This complete AI writing tutorial teaches genealogists step-by-step how to use Claude, Perplexity, and ChatGPT to create family histories people actually want to read—without inventing a single fact. What You'll Learn: In this 35-minute genealogy AI workshop, discover the three-part system for...

Three John Smiths. Same parish. Same occupation. All married to women named Mary. Which one is YOUR ancestor? If you research English or UK family history, you've hit this genealogy brick wall: multiple people with identical names in the same small community, and parish registers giving you almost nothing to tell them apart. This episode shows you exactly how to solve this using AI tools. THE...

The Soldier Who Came Home Different: Using Free AI to Uncover PTSD in Civil War Records A Union soldier survived three years of brutal Civil War combat, witnessing battles where 30% of his regiment was killed or wounded. He came home physically unscathed. But something broke inside. His hands trembled. Thunder sent him into hiding. He woke screaming from battle nightmares. His wife said, "He&...

Struggling to read your ancestor's handwriting? Spent hours squinting at impossible cursive in Civil War pension files, wills, letters, or family Bible records? Google's new Gemini 3 AI achieves expert-level handwriting transcription at 1.67% error rate—and it's completely free. In this comprehensive 35-minute tutorial, discover how to transcribe historical handwritten documents in...

Discover how AI signature analysis solved a 120-year-old genealogy mystery involving identity theft, mining deaths, and desperate immigrants in Pennsylvania coal country. This complete tutorial demonstrates using free AI tools—Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and ChatGPT—to analyze handwriting, compare documents, and uncover hidden family secrets. THE MYSTERY: Two property deeds, same name, same land—b...

She had six children, a 33-year marriage, and witnesses who knew her as Mrs. Hoffman. So why couldn't this Civil War widow prove she was married? In this heartbreaking case study, we dive into a 173-page pension file that reveals how one missing piece of paper destroyed a family—and how FREE AI tools helped me uncover the devastating truth behind rejected widow pension applications. What You&...

What if you could search through 2+ BILLION genealogy records in 30 seconds instead of spending hours browsing page by page? In this complete tutorial episode, you'll discover FamilySearch Full-Text Search—a free AI-powered tool that's revolutionizing how genealogists find their ancestors. This game-changing feature uses artificial intelligence to read handwriting in over 7,757 collectio...

Discover how to use the FAN Club method (Friends, Associates, Neighbors) combined with free AI tools to extract entire census neighborhoods into spreadsheets and find missing relatives. In this complete tutorial, I share exactly how I found my German immigrant ancestor's missing brother hiding five houses away on the 1910 census—after he'd been invisible for 115 years. What You'll L...

What if you could trace your immigrant ancestor from their American death certificate all the way back to their exact birthplace in the old country—in just six hours? In this complete case study episode, I share exactly how I did it using four AI tools strategically. This isn't theory. This is a real research journey I completed last week, tracing German immigrant Heinrich Mueller from his 19...

Staring at hundreds of DNA matches with no idea where to start? Wondering if AI can help solve your genealogy DNA mysteries? In this groundbreaking episode of Ancestors and Algorithms, discover how to safely combine DNA results with AI chatbots to revolutionize your family history research—without compromising anyone's privacy. What You'll Learn in This Episode: This comprehensive guide...

Are you using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity for genealogy research? AI hallucinations—when artificial intelligence confidently generates false information about your ancestors—represent one of the biggest dangers facing family historians today. Groundbreaking research from OpenAI published in September 2025 finally reveals WHY large language models make up plausible-but-false family histo...

Feeling overwhelmed by Perplexity AI? You're not alone. Most genealogists have heard about this powerful AI research tool but don't know where to start—or they've tried it once, got confused by all the buttons and options, and went right back to their comfort zone. But what if I told you that Perplexity AI could become your most powerful genealogy research tool? That it could help y...

Discover how to use Claude by Anthropic for genealogy research in this comprehensive 40-minute tutorial. Learn to create living research plans with Artifacts, write compelling ancestor biographies, analyze complex documents, and choose the right Claude model (Sonnet 4.5, Sonnet 4, Opus) for your family history needs—90% available on the FREE plan! WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE: Master Cla...

Master ChatGPT for genealogy research in 2025! This complete AI family history guide teaches beginners to advanced users how to leverage ChatGPT's powerful features—Projects, Canvas, Pulse, and Deep Research—for ancestor discovery and breaking genealogy brick walls. Discover how to use ChatGPT (the world's most popular large language model LLM chatbot with 200M+ users) as your AI genealo...

Conquer Handwriting Transcription with AI: Transkribus Complete Beginner's Guide for Genealogists Finally decode impossible ancestor handwriting! Join Brian on Ancestors and Algorithms as he conquers his own Transkribus intimidation and walks you step-by-step from complete beginner to confident user. Perfect for genealogists who've been avoiding this powerful AI handwriting recognition t...