The Ancestor Research Inventory: Everything You Know About One Ancestor, in One Document
he Ancestor Research Inventory holds everything you have found on one ancestor in one document you own, in plain files any AI tool can read.
The Ancestor Research Inventory™ holds everything you have found on one ancestor in a single set of plain files you own. This page is its permanent home.
Right now your research on an ancestor is scattered. Some of it sits in a tree on a subscription platform, some in a folder of downloads, some in three notebooks, and a surprising amount of it is in your head. The platforms will hold your tree for as long as you keep paying, on their terms, in their format. Online trees are unable to state: here is everything I found and did not find on this person, here is what it shows, here my reasoning for any conflicts, and this is the journey of how the research was collected.
The ARI is that document. One inventory per ancestor.
What the ARI is
The ARI is a format which structures the research you have. It is in markdown text, readable by a person in fifty years and by any AI tool today. Not a database, not an app, not anyone's platform.
An Ancestor Research Inventory contains seven sections, always in this order.
- Index. The identity page. Who this person was and the settled facts about them, each one traceable to a source. This page is the front door.
- Timeline. The life events in order, each tied to what establishes it.
- Sources. The records examined, one file each.
- Conflicts. The contradictions found, and what is resolved or still open.
- Research log. The chronological history of the research, including what was searched and not found.
- Research Journey The researcher's own account of doing this work, built from the Making Log kept during the research. The only section written in first person.
- Research Quality Check. The check that was run on this research, with its result.
The ARI and your family tree
A family tree stores conclusions: names, dates, and the links between people. The ARI stores those conclusions with the reasoning attached — the records, the conflicts, the log, the check.
Your tree tells the next researcher what you decided. Your ARI shows them how you knew. Both have a place, but only the ARI can be handed on, showing, in-detail, all the research completed.
Where an inventory gets built
Inside Chronicle Makers, members build their inventories with tools that do the assembly: pulling the timeline out of the sources, formatting the citations, catching the claim that never got a record attached. What comes back is yours to update as needed.
What happens to the files you upload
To build an inventory, the tool has to read your files. Here is where they go, how long they stay, and who controls each place.
| Where | How long | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Your report download on the Chronicle Makers tools site | 7 days | Chronicle Makers |
| Your uploaded files, inside the system that runs the tool | 7 days | Chronicle Makers |
| The AI model | Up to 30 days, then deleted. Never used for training. | The model provider and Chronicle Makers |
Download your report as soon as it is ready. After seven days, the only copy is the one on your own computer. Nothing you upload goes into a database, a tree, or anyone else's product.
Where the ARI fits
The ARI is one of three connected standards, and each answers a different question.
The Ancestor Research Inventory is the concluding standard report for your research project. The Research Quality Check is the check you run on it. The Soundness Standard is the definition of finished that makes a clean check mean something.
After that, an ancestor whose research is sound is an ancestor you can write, and the STORI Method™ is how that story gets made.
Ancestor Research Inventory (ARI)™ · Chronicle Makers · Denyse Allen · chroniclemakers.com/ancestor-research-inventory/ · First published September 2026.