Using AI to Enhance Your Genealogy Research

 

Genealogy has always been a rewarding challenge, but now AI technology is helping us make new discoveries faster and more easily than ever. Here are some beginner-friendly, low-cost AI tools you might find helpful as you explore your family history!

Genealogy has always involved patience, detective work, and digging through mountains of records. Today, AI (Artificial Intelligence) can make parts of that process faster and even reveal connections we might otherwise miss. Here are a few exciting ways AI can help family historians:

Photo Enhancement and Colorization:

AI-powered tools like MyHeritage's Photo Enhancer or Colorize can sharpen old blurry family photos and even bring them to life with realistic colorization.

DNA Matching and Interpretation:

Some DNA services now use AI to analyze your DNA matches and suggest likely relationships (e.g., AncestryDNA’s ThruLines or MyHeritage’s Theory of Family Relativity). These tools can propose how you and a match might be connected based on shared matches and family trees.

Record Searching and Hints:

Platforms like Ancestry.com and MyHeritage use AI to automatically search for records that may match your ancestors. Instead of manually hunting, you’ll get "hints" based on name, location, and dates.

Transcription Help:

Reading old handwritten documents can be tough. AI-driven transcription services like Transkribus can help read and transcribe historical handwriting, saving you hours of effort.

Storytelling and Summarization:

New AI writing assistants (like ChatGPT!) can help you turn dry lists of names and dates into flowing family narratives—perfect for writing family histories that future generations will want to read.

Smart Record Suggestions:

FamilySearch’s AI tools will often suggest similar records, even if the spelling is a little different—helping find ancestors you might otherwise overlook due to indexing errors.

Keep checking this blog for continued ideas for using AI in your genealogy

Ancestry testing AI to aid in your research

 

Ancestry AI Assistant

The Ancestry AI assistant is in a testing phase (called “beta testing”) and hasn’t yet been widely released. Because it’s in a testing phase, Ancestry AI assistant may change based on feedback. 

Frequently asked questions

 

What is the AI Assistant?

The AI Assistant is a new beta tool provided by Ancestry that uses artificial intelligence to assist you with Family History and DNA-related questions and research. It can answer general Family History and DNA-related questions, offer suggestions, and guide you through your research based on information from our help content.  

 

How can I use the AI Assistant?

Please visit the DNA pages (like origins, matches, and traits) to view the AI Assistant (in the bottom right). Tap the  icon to open the AI Assistant. You can select from a list of popular questions (based on the page you're viewing) or enter your own questions using the chat interface.

To view additional information about using AI go to: https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Ancestry-AI-Assistant?language=en_US

 

Let's Get You Started !!

 

Has the genealogy bug hit? If you're considering your family's genealogy, here are some great steps to begin your journey !!

📚 Step 1: Start with What You Know

• Begin with yourself and work backward.
• Record names, birth/marriage/death dates, and places.
• Talk to relatives—they’re goldmines of information! Ask for family Bibles, old photos, documents, obits, and stories.

Tip: Use a pedigree chart or family group sheet to keep track of names/dates.

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🌐 Step 2: Use Free Online Tools First

Start with free resources before diving into subscriptions:

• FamilySearch.org (by the LDS Church) – Completely free, with a huge global database.
• FindAGrave.com – Gravestone photos, cemetery records, sometimes obits or family links.
• USGenWeb.org – State and county-level genealogical projects, often overlooked but super helpful.

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🧭 Step 3: Use Paid Sites If Needed

These are worth it if you hit a wall or need to dig deeper:

• Ancestry.com – Massive database of census records, military, immigration, and more.
• MyHeritage.com – Great for international records.
• Newspapers.com – Fantastic for obituaries and old news clippings.
• Fold3.com – Military records and history.

Pro Tip: Libraries and Family History Centers often give free access to these paid databases.

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🧬 Step 4: Consider DNA Testing

If you’re curious about biological lines or have brick walls:

• AncestryDNA or 23andMe – Huge databases and strong cousin-matching tools.
• FamilyTreeDNA – Good for deeper Y-DNA and mtDNA analysis.
• GEDmatch – Upload raw DNA from any site to find matches across platforms.

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🗂️ Step 5: Organize Your Findings

Use software or online trees to stay organized:

• Family Tree Maker
• RootsMagic
• Gramps (free and open-source)
• Or build your tree online with Ancestry, MyHeritage, or FamilySearch.

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🕵️‍♀️ Step 6: Focus on One Branch at a Time

Once you hit a roadblock, move to another family line. You’d be surprised how solving one branch opens up another.

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🌍 Step 7: Go Local

• Courthouses, churches, cemeteries, and local historical societies have treasure troves of documents.
• Join a local genealogy society—they often have member-only databases and experienced researchers to help.

 

150 Years Later, a Family Bible Comes Home

 

At the Reunion of the Kimball Family Association (KFA) held in August 2023, a Kimball family Bible from the 1800s was reunited with direct descendants of the people whose births, marriages, and deaths had been carefully recorded on its pages. Over 150 years after John H. Kimball (1827-1917) began memorializing his family, the Bible was returned to the hands of his great-granddaughter and great-great-grandson.

In February 2023, I was contacted by an astute member of the KFA who had seen a posting on Facebook from someone offering a Kimball family Bible to anyone who wanted it. Member Dorothy Greene contacted me to determine if the KFA would want it. As a genealogist with the KFA, I replied, “Of course!” Dorothy then arranged for Jane Wescomb, the gracious donor, to mail the Bible directly to me. Apparently, Jane had found the item in a box of books she had recently purchased and realized that the Bible needed a good home. When the Bible arrived, I found the carefully packed, leather-bound study Bible to have been well-kept—it would have been a treasure for any family. I eagerly opened the Bible to discover its genealogical secrets!

Additional story at: 

https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/150-years-later-a-family-bible-comes-home?utm_campaign=The%20Weekly%20Genealogist%20&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_IIIgVNUKsPP9Y4acwT9_ZBmXVlORO6Rrjf9Fb60O76qigKoGWd1jqId25ikUnfzDGFRjWI89vnYKF4YYbdmhypy-g7A&_hsmi=335806362&utm_content=335806362&utm_source=hs_email

Tiny URL: https://tinyurl.com/nms7v3be

A Few Books to Add to Your Genealogy Library

 To assist and enhance your genealogy research, the following books come highly recommended by like-minded researchers.

Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, Vol. 1 - Augusta County

Information is extracted from the original court records in Augusta County 1745-1800

ThrifyBooks (tiny URL): https://tinyurl.com/mu4wmcnz 

Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America

Charles Knowles Bolton 

Originally published in 1940, this book offers a systematic treatment if the migration of the Scotch and English from the north of Ireland in the New World. Appendixes include lists of ships from Ireland arriving in New England between 1714-1720, including existing vital records of towns in Ulster, families and more.  

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Irish-Pioneers-Ulster-America/dp/0880823119

Early Western Augusta Pioneers (Virginia) Including the Families of Cleek, Gwin, Lightner and Waewick, and many related families, by George W. Cleek

Amazon: (Tiny URL): https://tinyurl.com/4atbvu83

Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, With Reminiscences Illustrative of the Vicissitudes of its Pioneer Settlers by Joseph Addition Waddell

This series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page while digitally enhancing the quality of the aged text.

Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Virginia-Reminiscences-Illustrative-Vicissitudes-Settlers/dp/B0091Z373C

Roots Tech - 2024 Online

 

Don't forget - Rootsweb 2024 is LIVE! RootsTech begins Thursday, February 29, and goes through Saturday, March 2, 2024. 

Register and view events at https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/ There will certainly be something you will want to see/learn. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday choices begin at 10 am EST. and it's FREE !! 

https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/?fbclid=IwAR0tQLg9oCsx5_IThRcpC1siEmGMIPXIB5kUbK4X8HMwa4MATfQK9a13zC4&lang=eng

A look back during the Texas Revolution

 

Special thanks to Traces of Texas for permission to post this interesting article on the Texas Revoluton

Being that we are now in the high holy days of the Texas Revolution, the Texas Quote of the Day is in regards to the infamous Runaway Scrape: "We had been several days without any news from the army, and did not know but that our men had been massacred [at the Alamo]. News was carried at that time by a man or boy going from one neighborhood to another. We had heard that the Convention had passed a declaration of independence, and elected David G. Burnet president, and Sam Houston commander-in-chief of the army. On the 12th of March came the news of the fall of the Alamo. 

A courier brought a dispatch from General Houston for the people to leave. Colonel Travis and the men under his command had been slaughtered, the Texas army was retreating, and President Burnet’s cabinet had gone to Harrisburg. Then began the horrors of the “Runaway Scrape.” We left home at sunset, hauling clothes, bedding and provisions on the sleigh with one yoke of oxen. Mother and I were walking, she with an infant in her arms. Brother drove the oxen, and my two little sisters rode in the sleigh. 

We were going ten miles to where we could be transferred to Mr. Bundick’s cart. Father was helping with the cattle, but he joined us after dark and brought a horse and saddle for brother. He sent him to help Mr. Stafford with the cattle. He was to go a different road with them and ford the San Jacinto. Mother and I then rode father’s horse. We met Mrs. M — . She was driving her oxen home. We had sent her word in the morning. She begged mother to go back and help her, but father said not. He told the lady to drive the oxen home, put them in the cow pen, turn out the cows and calves, and get her children ready, and he would send assistance. We went on to Mrs. Roark’s, and met five families ready to leave. Two of Mr. Shipman’s sons arrived that night. They were mere boys, and had come to help their parents. 

They didn’t go on home; father knew that Mr. Shipman’s family had gone that morning, so he sent them back for Mrs. M — ‘s. It was ten o’clock at night when we got to Mrs. Roark’s. We shifted our things into the cart of Mr. Bundick, who was waiting for us, and tried to rest till morning. Sister and I had been weeping all day about Colonel Travis. When we started from home we got the little books he had given us and would have taken them with us, but mother said it was best to leave them. Early the next morning we were on the move, mother with her four children in the cart, and Mr. Bundick and his wife and negro woman on horseback. He had been in bad health for some time and had just got home from visiting his mother, who lived in Louisiana. He brought with him two slaves, the woman already mentioned and a man who was driving the cart; and, as Mr. Bundick had no children, we were as comfortable as could have been expected. 

We had to leave the sleigh. Sister and I had grieved all the day before about Colonel Travis, and had a big cry when our brother left us. We were afraid Mrs. M — would be left at home. We had a fresh outburst of grief when the sleigh was abandoned, but had the satisfaction of seeing Mrs. M — and her children. Mr. Cotie would not go to the army. He hauled five families in the big blue wagon with his six yoke of oxen, besides negroes, provisions, bedding, and all the plunder the others could not carry." ----- Dilue Rose Harris 

“The Reminiscences of Mrs. Dilue Harris," in The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, January 1901. Shown here: Dilue Rose Harris, courtesy the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic site.