Learn to use AI as your research and writing partner — not a replacement for what you already know.

You have years of research. Names, dates, census records, ship manifests, maybe a box of old photographs. What you don't have is a finished story.

AI can help you get there, but not the way most people think. It won't search Ancestry for you. It won't find your great-grandmother's maiden name. What it will do is help you understand the records you already have, put your ancestors' lives in historical context, and turn your scattered notes into something your family will actually read.

This free course teaches you the AIM framework — Assess, Interact, Measure — a simple method for using AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude in your genealogy research without sacrificing accuracy or integrity.

Five lessons. Each one is short, focused, and built around your real research. By the end, you'll have used AI to write a genealogical proof summary — the kind of rigorous analytical work most people think AI can't do.

No scare tactics. No hour-long webinars. Just the exact skills you need to start using AI as a thinking partner for family history.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

The AIM Framework

A — Assess: Know when AI helps and when it doesn't before you type a single prompt.

I — Interact: Learn to talk to AI like a thinking partner, not a search engine.

M — Measure: Verify what AI gives you and protect your credibility as a researcher.

Plus a capstone project where you'll use AI to write a real genealogical proof summary from your own research.

Lesson 1: What AI Actually Is (and Isn't)

AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are Large Language Models trained on text — not genealogical databases. They can't search Ancestry or FamilySearch. They can't look up your ancestors. What they can do is help you think through what your records mean, explain historical context, and help you write.

In this lesson, you'll learn what's actually under the hood, which AI tools are worth using (and which "genealogy AI" apps are overpriced wrappers), and why AI is a thinking partner — not a search engine.

Try This

Open ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. Pick one record you've had for a while but never fully explored. Paste it in (or describe it) and ask:

"What does this record tell us about this person's life that I might be overlooking?"

Notice how different that feels from searching.

Lesson 2: Assess — How Helpful Would AI Be Here?

Before you type anything into AI, ask: how helpful would it actually be for this task? This lesson introduces the first part of the AIM framework. You'll learn to quickly assess whether a task is a finding problem (use databases), an understanding problem (AI can help), or a writing problem (AI can help) — and why skipping this step is where most AI misuse begins.

You'll also learn about hallucinations — when AI invents plausible-sounding names, dates, and relationships that don't exist. If you didn't give it the information from a real source, don't trust anything specific it tells you.

Try This

Think about something in your research that's confused you — a record you don't understand, a migration pattern that doesn't make sense, an occupation you can't picture.

Ask yourself: Is this a finding problem, an understanding problem, or a writing problem?

If it's understanding or writing, AI can likely help. If it's finding, use your databases. If it's verifying, always check the sources yourself.

Lesson 3: Interact — AI as Your Thinking Partner

The quality of what you get from AI depends entirely on how you ask. This lesson covers the shift from treating AI like a vending machine to treating it like a thinking partner — and the specific prompt patterns that work for family history research.

You'll learn how to give context first, ask your real question second, and follow up in conversation. Plus the 5-Turn Rule: why longer conversations drift into made-up information, and when to start fresh.

Try This

Pick one ancestor you've been meaning to write about. Open ChatGPT or Claude and try this:

"I'm working on a family history story about my [relationship], [name], who lived in [place] during [time period]. Here's what I know from my research: [paste 3-5 verified facts]. Can you help me understand what their daily life might have looked like given this context?"

See what comes back. Ask a follow-up or two. Notice how it helps you think about your ancestor differently.

Lesson 4: Measure — Earning Your Trust

AI is a thinking tool, not a source. You wouldn't cite a conversation with a historian friend as evidence — AI works the same way. This lesson teaches you how to evaluate what AI gives you, spot hallucinations before they damage your credibility, and maintain the integrity your research deserves.

You'll learn the red flags that signal AI is making things up, the difference between general context you can reasonably trust and specific family claims you must verify, and how to attribute AI-assisted work honestly.

Try This

Take something AI helped you with (or use a response from Lesson 3). Go through the output and ask:

• What here is general context I can reasonably trust?
• What here is specific to my family that needs verification?
• What here feels suspiciously convenient?

Practice separating what's useful from what needs checking.

Lesson 5: Capstone — Write a Proof Summary with AI

Here's what most genealogists believe: AI can't do real genealogical reasoning. This lesson proves them wrong.

You'll use AI to write a genealogical proof summary — a structured analysis that establishes a family relationship from your documentary evidence. This is the kind of work professional genealogists do, and AI can be your partner in doing it well.

You'll classify your evidence (direct, indirect, and negative), assess your research completeness, and produce a proof summary that meets professional standards — all with AI as your thinking partner.

Try This

Pick a parent-child relationship from your research where you have at least 3-4 records. Use the proof summary prompt (Copy and paste from below) to walk AI through your evidence and write a structured analysis.

Review what AI produces: Did it classify your evidence correctly? Does the reasoning hold up? Is the conclusion appropriately confident?

Proof Summary AI Prompt

Copy and paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. Fill in the bracketed sections with your own information (delete what is there as a placeholder).

Note: This exercise uses simplified citations (record type, location, date, specific fact). These are not full Evidence Explained citations—they're shorthand to keep focus on the reasoning. You can expand them to proper citations later.

Ready to Go Further?

You've learned the fundamentals. You know how to assess when AI helps, interact with it effectively, and measure what it gives you.

The next step is building AI into your actual workflow and finish the stories you've been carrying around for years.

The Chronicle Makers community where family historians are using AI to finish their stories — not someday, but now.

Join Chronicle Makers →

Questions About the Course

Is this course really free?

Yes. No credit card, no catch, no upsell hiding behind lesson 3. All five lessons and the proof summary prompt template are right here on this page. Watch them, use them, and put AI to work on your real research.

What AI tool should I use?

I use Claude (by Anthropic) for most of my family history work, but everything in this course works with ChatGPT and Gemini too. All three have free versions — you don't need to pay anything to get started.

I'm not a tech person. Can I follow this?

That's exactly who this course is for. If you can type a sentence and paste it into a website, you can do everything in these lessons. No downloads, no installations, no coding.

How long will this take?

Each lesson is a short, focused video. Most people finish the full course in a weekend. The exercises you can work through at your own pace with your real research.

Will AI find records for me?

No — and that's covered in Lesson 1. AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are not connected to Ancestry, FamilySearch, or any genealogical database. They help you understand records, write about your research, and think through problems. Finding records is still your job (and your databases' job).

Can AI really help with proof summaries?

Yes. Lesson 5 walks you through it step by step. AI won't evaluate evidence for you — but it's an excellent partner for structuring your argument, classifying your evidence types, and drafting the summary. The research judgments are always yours.

I already use AI a little. Is this too basic?

If you're already using AI regularly for genealogy — writing prompts, verifying output, building workflows — this course covers ground you probably know. My workshop series or the Chronicle Makers community are better fits for intermediate and advanced users.

What's the AIM framework?

It stands for Assess, Interact, Measure — a three-part method for using AI well in genealogy research. Assess whether AI can actually help with your task. Interact with it as a thinking partner (not a search engine). Measure what it gives you against your real sources. The framework runs through all five lessons.