AWFHS | Genealogy Examples

🧬 Genealogy Examples

Practical examples of how Artificial Intelligence can support family history research.

What can AI help a family historian do?

Artificial Intelligence can act like a helpful research assistant. It can read information you provide, organise it, explain it and suggest questions you may not have considered.

It does not replace original records or careful research. Its value comes from helping you work through information more quickly and approach familiar records in new ways.

📄 ➜ 🤖 ➜ 💡
You provide the evidence.
AI helps you explore it.
💍

Understand a Marriage Certificate

AI can explain what each part of a marriage certificate means and identify useful clues for further research.

AI can help you:

  • Extract the names of the bride, groom, fathers and witnesses
  • Identify occupations, addresses and marital status
  • Explain unfamiliar terms or abbreviations
  • Suggest records to search next
Example prompt
“Explain what this marriage certificate tells me about the couple and their families. List the facts separately from any suggestions.”
✅

Check Facts and Inconsistencies

AI can compare information from several records and highlight details that agree, conflict or need checking.

AI can help you:

  • Compare names, ages, dates and places
  • Spot changes in spelling
  • Identify possible transcription errors
  • Separate confirmed facts from uncertain conclusions
Example prompt
“Compare these records and show which facts agree, which conflict and what evidence is still needed.”
📜

Transcribe an Old Will

AI may help turn a clear image or transcription of an old will into readable modern text.

AI can help you:

  • Transcribe printed or handwritten wording
  • Extract names of relatives and beneficiaries
  • Identify executors, witnesses and occupations
  • Summarise property, money and bequests
Example prompt
“Transcribe this will carefully. Then list every person mentioned, their role, any relationship and what they received.”
👥

Extract People from a Document

AI can examine a long article, journal, register or report and create a structured list of the people mentioned.

AI can help you:

  • Extract forenames and surnames
  • Identify relationships and roles
  • Record dates, places and occupations
  • Present the results in a table or spreadsheet-ready format
Example prompt
“Extract every genealogically significant person from this document and present the results in a table.”
🔁

Reduce Repetitive Work

AI is useful for monotonous tasks where the same action must be repeated many times.

AI can help you:

  • Reformat repeated notes
  • Standardise headings and descriptions
  • Split names, dates and places into separate fields
  • Create consistent summaries from many records
Example prompt
“Convert each of these entries into the same structured format without changing the original facts.”
🔍

Search Through Long Documents

AI can help locate relevant names, places, events and themes within a large document.

AI can help you:

  • Find references to a particular surname
  • Locate mentions of a village, church or occupation
  • Summarise relevant passages
  • Identify sections that need closer reading
Example prompt
“Find every mention of the surname Burton in this document and explain the context of each reference.”
📅

Build and Analyse a Timeline

AI can arrange known events into date order and identify gaps in an ancestor’s life.

AI can help you:

  • Calculate approximate ages
  • Highlight missing periods
  • Identify conflicting dates
  • Suggest likely records for each gap
Example prompt
“Create a timeline from these records, calculate the person’s age at each event and identify the most important gaps.”
🧭

Suggest New Research Avenues

AI can review what you already know and suggest sensible next steps.

AI can help you:

  • Identify missing record types
  • Suggest archives or record offices
  • Create a prioritised research plan
  • Explain what each suggested record might prove
Example prompt
“Review my research and suggest the next five records I should search, in priority order.”
📰

Analyse a Newspaper Article

AI can help explain an old newspaper report and extract useful genealogical information.

AI can help you:

  • Identify people, places and dates
  • Explain historical language
  • Summarise the event
  • Suggest records that could verify the story
Example prompt
“Summarise this newspaper article and list every fact that could be checked using other records.”
🏠

Compare Census Records

AI can compare households across several census years and show how the family changed.

AI can help you:

  • Track changes in address and occupation
  • Identify children entering or leaving the household
  • Spot changes in stated birthplace or age
  • Highlight possible missing family members
Example prompt
“Compare these census records and explain how the household changed over time.”
✍️

Write a Family History Narrative

AI can turn organised research notes into a readable family story.

AI can help you:

  • Create a clear narrative
  • Arrange events in chronological order
  • Add relevant historical context
  • Keep uncertain information clearly labelled
Example prompt
“Turn these verified facts into a short family history narrative. Do not invent dialogue, emotions or events.”
🗺️

Understand Places and Movement

AI can help explain how different places relate to one another and why a family may have moved.

AI can help you:

  • Compare parishes, towns and counties
  • Explain historic boundary changes
  • Identify nearby churches and registration districts
  • Suggest reasons for migration without treating them as fact
Example prompt
“Explain the relationship between these places and suggest what records may exist in each location.”

💍 Worked Example: A Marriage Certificate

Information on the certificate

Groom
George Burton
Bride
Mary Stirk
Date
27 September 1690
Place
Holy Trinity, Skipton
Groom’s abode
Kildwick parish
Bride’s abode
Of this parish

AI might help identify:

  • That “of this parish” usually refers to residence rather than birthplace.
  • That the groom and bride may have come from different parishes.
  • That banns, licence records or parish registers may provide more detail.
  • That baptisms of possible children could be searched after 1690.
  • That earlier baptisms or settlement records may help identify their families.
Important: The AI should not assume that either person was born in the parish where they were living when they married. That must be checked using other records.

🔁 Saving Time on Repetitive Tasks

Some family history projects involve repeating the same task hundreds or even thousands of times. AI can help prepare, organise or reformat this information.

Split names

Separate forenames, surname and title into individual fields.

Standardise dates

Convert dates into a consistent day, month and year format.

Create summaries

Produce short, consistent descriptions from many records.

Prepare spreadsheets

Arrange extracted information into clear columns and headings.

⚠️ What AI Cannot Reliably Do

  • Prove that two people are the same person
  • Confirm a relationship without evidence
  • Guarantee that a transcription is correct
  • Know whether every online source is accurate
  • Replace certificates, registers or original documents
  • Access subscription websites unless specifically connected
  • Understand unclear handwriting perfectly
  • Distinguish fact from family story without supporting evidence

Ready to Try It?

Start with one record or one research question. Explain what you already know, provide the information you want examined and ask the AI to separate facts from suggestions.

You can use the GeneAIlogy Prompt Builder or choose a guided recipe from the library.

🤖 Build an AI Prompt 🍰 Browse AI Recipes