🌳 Family History & Genealogy
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Discover, preserve & pass on your family history

Modern, mostly-free tools to research your family's story, tell it well, and make sure it lasts, explained in plain language, for all ages.

This isn't about replacing Ancestry or FamilySearch. It's about everything around the edges: reading the records you couldn't, telling the story in a way people will actually enjoy, and making sure a lifetime of work doesn't quietly vanish on a forgotten hard drive.

🔎 Techniques Use AI to read old handwriting, translate records, break through brick walls, and turn a few facts into a real story. 🧰 Technology A plain-spoken, regularly-updated list of the tools: what's genuinely free, what's worth paying for, and what to skip. 📦 Preserving & passing it on Make a book, save the voices, store it so it lasts, and make sure your family can actually find it one day.
📄 The one-page take-home sheet Everything that matters here, on a single sheet you can keep by the computer: the one rule, where to start, and every prompt from the class. Read or print it · download the PDF. It is the handout from Jan's class, free to print for your own group.
✋ Try it yourself: bring one thing The hands-on exercises from night two of the class. Bring an old photo, an obituary, a handwritten letter or record, three facts about someone in your tree, or just your memories, and copy the prompts from here.
⚠️ One rule underneath all of it AI predicts what is likely. It does not verify what is true. It can read a record in seconds, and it can also invent a name, a date, or a whole "source" with total confidence. Treat everything it gives you as a helpful lead, then check it against the original record. Never cite the AI. Cite the record.

New to AI altogether? Our companion Getting Started with AI guide walks through the very basics first. Not a genealogist, just have a closet full of pictures? Start with Your Photos.