Chronicle Makers (Page 2)

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The Making Log: The Running Record of How You Work a Research Problem

A Making Log: dated entries recording what a family historian set out to find, what they did, what AI did, and what they kept, for one ancestor research project.

Research Brain: Your Research and Your Thinking, in One Folder

A Research Brain is the project folder for one research project: your records, your brain dump and your Making Log, kept where your AI tool can read them.

Woodcut image of a hand holding a historical document.

The Find/Work Test: Why AI Invents Records for Family Historians

AI invents records because of the request, not the tool. The Find/Work Test is one question family historians ask first: find something, or work on it?

Woodcut image of five books sitting on a shelf, each with a different cover and design.

The Forms of Family History Writing

Try the Five Forms exercise to see which style of family history writing you drift towards. The chronicle is the sixth form and a new one for family historians.

What's New in AI for Family Historians: Q3 2026

The everyday frontier AI models got better on their own this quarter. What changed in Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini for family historians, July to September 2026.

Wood cut image of a robot head with a red X through it on the left. On the right a wrench and a screwdriver crossed over each other. AI is a tool in family history, not a collaborator

I Stopped Calling AI a Collaborator. Here's Why.

I called AI a collaborator for two years and then stopped. The word was telling family historians their own research and writing belonged to something else.

Woodcut image of a fountain pen with green ink correcting a handwritten page.

AI as Your Writing Coach for Family History

AI can coach the family history you have already written, without writing a word of it for you. What a coaching pass returns and why it works.

Typing into a genealogy site's search box — family historians, not AI agents, run the search.

AI Agents Can't Search the Record Sites for You

MyHeritage and Ancestry both barred AI agents from their sites in 2026. What the terms actually say, and what AI is genuinely useful for at the search box.

A finished family history next to a pile of research papers.

What a Finished Family History Actually Looks Like

A finished family history is one a reader has read. Not a complete tree, not exhausted sources — a chronicle someone who is not you has actually read.

Three woodcut letter blocks of the letters AIM with a wood chisel and shavings in front of it.

The AIM Framework: How Family Historians Stay in Charge of AI Research

AIM is the Chronicle Makers method for working with AI on family history research: Assess, Interact, Measure. It replaces "trust but verify."

A wood cut image of a kitchen pantry shelf, well stocked, with jars, tins, sacks

The Full Pantry Problem and How It Keeps You Stuck

You have enough to write. The Full Pantry Problem is the gap between having enough and believing it, and it hits the best-researched family historians hardest.

AI's New Voice Mode: Talk Your Family History Onto the Page

ChatGPT and Claude's new live voice mode lets you talk instead of type to write your ancestor's story faster.

Woodcut of a workbench holding an unfinished hourglass and a scatter of shavings — the Making Process is the record of how a family history got written.

Frameworks

The Making Process: The Path From Your Records to a Finished Chronicle

Your making process is the path from the records you found to the chronicle your family reads. Documenting it as you work is the practice.

Woodcut image of a boundary marker and surveyors equipment on a cleared ground.

Frameworks

The Soundness Standard: When Family History Research on an Ancestor Is Finished

The Soundness Standard defines when research on one ancestor is finished: searched to the records that exist, written down, honestly defensible.

Wood cut image of a mobile tablet showing a list of people with a checkmark next to one of them.

Safety and Privacy

AI and Privacy: What to Think About Before You Paste

The privacy question in family history is not really about AI. It is about whose material goes into your tool, and what it does to the tool.

Wood cut image of a balance scale with an X on one side and a ink well with a quill on the other.

Writing with AI

Is It Cheating to Use AI to Write Your Family History?

Is it cheating to use AI to write your family history? No. Cheating needs a competition with rules and you never entered one. Here's the real answer.

Chronicles

Five Years at the Head of the Table: A Texas Rancher's Quiet Authority

The chronicle of Clyde B. Keele, a Burnet County, Texas rancher whose character a new son-in-law learned across five years of Saturday lunches — told through two unforgettable afternoons. By Mark Gillin.

Wood cut image of a retro vending machine with a robot face on it and a card coming out of the slot at the bottom.

Research with AI

AI Can't Give You the Answer (That Was Never the Point)

AI can't hand you the answer about your ancestor, and that was never the point. How the Full Pantry changes what AI does for genealogy.

Wood cut image of a magnifying class with a check mark in the middle.

Frameworks

The Research Quality Check: How to Know Your Research Is Ready to Become a Story

The Research Quality Check is the five-check standard family historians run on their research before writing an ancestor's story.

Wood cut image of a moth on top of an open book with an hourglass sitting beside it.

AI Tools

You Don't Need Claude's Fable Model for Genealogy (Yet)

Claude's Fable model is remarkable, and family historians don't need it. Here's what actually gets your daily genealogy work done.

Chronicles

Francis Day: A Patriot of the Piedmont

The chronicle of Francis Day, a Patriot who fought in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. Written by his descendant John Day.

AI Tools

What's New in Google Gemini for Family Historians: January–June 2026

Summary of the newest features in Gemini AI for family historians, highlighting the most useful features and what to avoid.

AI Tools

What's New in ChatGPT for Family Historians: January–June 2026

A summary of the changes to ChatGPT from January to June of 2026, focused on what matters for family historians using it for research and writing.

Wood cut letters spelling out July 2026 next to the symbol for Claude AI.

AI Tools

What's New in Claude for Family Historians: January–June 2026

Summary of the key updates to Claude AI by Anthropic for family historians, included memories, visual skills, and Claude Cowork.

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