Tools
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AI-Powered Genealogy: Free Tools and Tips for Your Family History Journey
As I prepare for my October 4th, 2025, presentation at the Shepard of the Valley (Minnesota) Genealogy Society, I’m excited to share the conductor-and-braid metaphor—humans and AI working in harmony to uncover your past. With over 50 years in software engineering and 30+ years in genealogy, I’ve crafted a set of free resources to help beginners and experts researchers alike. “Genealogists hit brick walls. Records fade, languages confuse, stories get lost. AI can help—but only if guided well. These free resources are designed to put you in the conductor’s seat as you braid human insight with AI speed.” These handouts, born from my ethics-driven approach, are now available for you to download…
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The Revolutionary Impact of AI on Genealogy and Historical Research
Introduction By way of full disclosure, I have created this paper using various AI models to provide information, context, and source citations. In a sense, that makes this work self-referential. Clearly, this paper is one which will require re-working as time, events, and progress proceed. The information in this field/realm is not stagnant. In fact, it is quite dynamic. In recent years, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the fields of genealogy and historical research has brought about transformative changes. AI-powered tools are enabling researchers to tackle challenges that were previously daunting due to the vastness and complexity of historical records. This paper explores the current applications of AI…
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Prune & Share Family Tree Branches
Introduction Genealogists and family historians often need to extract specific branches from their Ancestry family tree for research, collaboration, or sharing with relatives. Unfortunately, Ancestry does not provide built-in tools to easily extract partial branches/limbs of their online trees into GEDCOM files. However, by using GRAMPS, a powerful free genealogy software, users can effectively prune family trees and extract specific branches. Additionally, Family Echo provides a simple way to view and share these extracted sections. This approach is simple, cost-free, and helps genealogists manage their data more effectively. The Process Step 1: Export the Full GEDCOM from Ancestry Step 2: Prune and Extract a Branch Using GRAMPS Step 3: Upload…
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Amazing and unexpected resources
I suppose many of you, like me, live in Communities offering library services. Also probably like me, you have not really thought of your local library when you are stumped for new affordable (meaning Free) Genealogy Research resources. Well this week while helping take care of my grandsons by watching riveting episodes of Disney Kids shows and web surfing, I stumbled upon a previously unvisited Douglas County Library webpage. By that I mean, I never had landed on that page before. You would think that a web link entitled Research might have ‘jumped out at me’ before, but it never did. Or if it did, I don’t remember having seen…
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Presenting family genealogies on the web
Presenting readable, genealogical information, data, and stories is a complex challenge. It seems to me that people’s lives ought to be expressed as more than family trees, dates, and lineages. I have been struggling with this problem for quite a while. Perhaps you have as well. Over the years, I have noticed a few ‘special’ difficulties in making this type of information, useful, accessible, easy to find not to mention human. The major problem areas, for me, have centered around the following: genealogical data & stories can run deep & wide (they may, and often do, involve a lot of data from many locations, sources, and media) genealogical data/ information…
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The Former German Provinces & Missing Persons Search
If you, like me, research and search for family through the area of West Prussia (Westpreussen)- East Prussia (Ostpreussen) and Pomerania (Pommern), these sites will be of interest. I have also listed all these sites on the links page of ManyRoads. (Please Note! the links to external webpages are in the headers themselves and they appear before the individual site descriptions, when one exists.) If you are looking to find information on missing relatives from the Second World War, these sites are most helpful: DRK-Suchdienst (German Red Cross Tracing Service) The German Red Cross Tracing Service has always been on the side of those in need and by taking this…
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Polish Archives
For those interested in such things, a number of ‘online’ Polish Archives have recently come to my attention. They include: Archiwa Panstwowe- State Archive in Poznan Archiwum Archidiecezjalne w Poznaniu (Archidiocese of Poznan Archive) Genealogical Society of Great Poland “Gniazdo” Although many of these site pages offer English translations, I find the translated documents to be only marginally easier to use than the Polish original pages (and my Polish is limited to the ever present and marginally accurate Google Translate). Nonetheless, these archives look to be a very positive resource and representative of a very hopeful trend! Should you know of other online Polish Archives you believe we should share,…
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Rituel du Diocèse de Quebec
If you are performing research in Quebec, the Rituel du Diocèse de Quebec may prove useful in providing clues regarding the name or names of your ancestors. To quote the PRDH: Among Catholics, choice of first name wasn’t left to chance or parents’ imagination. On the contrary, the church liked to control the attribution of first names to ensure that on the day they were baptised, children received the name of a saint who would guide them throughout their life. In the Rituel du Diocèse de Quebec, which laid out the rules to follow for writing baptismal, marriage, and burial certificates in Quebec, Monsignor de Saint-Vallier stipulated, “The Church forbids…
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“Dit” Names
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Finding German War Dead
If, like me, you seek relatives who fought on the German side of a war, you might have experienced difficulty in finding information about these forebears. One of the most useful online services I have encountered in this area is the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (link below). It is through the wonderful efforts of the Kriegsgräberfürsorge that I have been able to find information about two of my great-uncles, who lost their lives in WW1: Adolf Senger Albert Senger and three cousins who died in WW2: Willi Wedhorn Egon Recht Erich Recht To quote the Kriegsgräberfürsorge site: The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. is a humanitarian organization which is charged by…
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“Un-German” German Names
Last evening, my wife and I watched a documentary on Poland, it covered the Gdansk (Danzig)- Szczecin (Stettin) area in particular. Baltic Coasts – Hidden Treasures: Explore the coastline from Vistula Lagoon via Gdansk Bay to the sandy beaches and steep cliffs of Pomerania and West-Pomerania. The reason for this post involves what I learned from one of the featured individuals, a talented young Photographer; his name- Michal Szlaga. Looking at his name never made me think of German descent or Germanic heritage but then the announcer pronounced his name and it was Michael Schlaeger / Schläger (exactly). You can imagine my surprise. I certainly would never have pronounced his…
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Understanding the German Past
German Genealogy is not much different from any other genealogy. You really need to have a plan as you begin your research, especially if you are unfamiliar with the region/ area or time period. Never assume that one locale looks like or offers information or data in the same as another. Each area, region or time frame offers its own unique idiosyncrasies, its own information. German research is really no different in this regard from other places; it is not the US or Canada and the available data is different from that commonly available in North America. Having said all that, this posting is more of a concrete example on…
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Finding German Genealogy Data
So where are the best places to find German Genealogy data? I hear this question, or something similar, often. Perhaps it is because I am an American that I notice, but it seems most Americans I hear from expect to find German Genealogical record keeping and data ought to mirror that in the US. Unfortunately, they do not. A number of historical factors impact the quality and type of genealogical records to be found in Germany today. What follows are a few points regarding German history that merit understanding: A number of fairly destructive wars ran over German lands. These wars not only destroyed people and buildings, but also innumerable…
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German Name Spellings
For those unfamiliar with, or simply wishing to learn more about, conducting German/ Prussian genealogical research this is my second posting in a series on the topic of German-Prussian Genealogy Pointers. One of the greatest difficulties people have with researching Germanic family members involves name spellings. This is especially true for those English speakers. Over the centuries, Germans who emigrated into English speaking lands have either tried to spell their names in ways that would be pronounced correctly or had assistance with their name spellings upon arrival or ‘later’ in Census takings. This ‘help’ has lead to numerous challenges in finding the right folks in the old homeland (Heimatland). Here…
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Frieda Senger- Cyrillic Conversion
As many of you are aware, I have been trying to decipher a Russian document that Soviets created as justification for sending my grandmother into a Gulag following WW2. To help me with my sleuthing, I have found and used the following tools: Russian letters & script Russian online keyboard Automatic Cyrillic Converter My grandmother’s document may be viewed here: Frieda Senger -Suchdienst & Soviet Records. What I did to help me in my search was to carefully look at the Cyrillic script and attempt to define each letter using the script as presented on the site at item 1 above. Once I found (or thought I found) the script…
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GPS & Genealogy
Should genealogy rely on GPS data? When I recently heard the query, it gave me pause especially since people seemed pretty agitated over the point. I have to admit, it does seem that the value of GPS data is a point worth pondering, at least for a little while. It is probably worth noting that commercial GPS is really only about 10 years old and is primarily a US national system for establishing global location. To quote the ever popular Wikipedia: GPS is owned and operated by the U.S. Government as a national resource. Also, there are at least two competing and one non-competing GPS system online or soon to…
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Genealogy & PC Operating Systems
Which Operating system is best? Mac, Linux, Windows? Well aside from the inaccuracy of the phraseology in the above query, this is a question I often see discussed, debated, and fought with religious fervor. Truth of the matter is quite simple. Use the operating system you like best- for me that means Linux. For you, well, you get to to pick. However, when making the choice of one operating system over another, people seem to believe they are forced to leave everything about their previous (or simply another) operating system behind. In the genealogy space that often means, a move to Mac or Linx from Windows confounds people as to…
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Heimatsortskartei & a true history
By the end of WW2, the destruction of Germany was nearly total. Almost every city had been leveled; the remnants of families were scattered all over Germany, Europe, North and South America. Everyone had lost family members or friends. According to Wikipedia losses in the Third Reich were: Country Population 1939 Military deaths Civilian deaths Jewish Holocaust deaths Total deaths Deaths as % of 1939 population Austria 6,653,000 261,000 58,700 65,000 384,700 5.8 Germany (within 1937 borders) 69,310,000 4,456,000 700,000 to 2,284,000 160,000 5,316,000 to 6,900,000 7.7 to 9.9 Ethnic Germans from other nations 7,292,000 601,000 200,000 to 886,000 801,000 to 1,487,000 11.0 to 20.4 Soviet citizens in the German…
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Technology Advantages
Technology can and should be an crucial adjunct to your genealogical efforts. As a matter of fact, I contend that no effort is complete, nor can your genealogy efforts be fully effective, without effective technological support. The support can be as simple as using a word processor or as complex as writing large databases to manage and maintain your data, documents and images. As I am sure you are aware, today’s technology options are both extensive and cost effective. They can even be free. As a web developer and genealogist, I, personally, rely almost exclusively on OpenSource technologies. To give you a rough example of my software costs, I will…
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“Photo” Enhancements
Getting a good picture from an aged image is crucial to developing and maintaining a good family history. Unfortunately as you look around ManyRoads, you’ll notice countless images that ought to be fixed. Aside from being a tad lazy, the skills required to accomplish this effort are significant and confusing. Much like the Document Enhancement posting of several days ago. We need to find a good image processing environment. I use the Gimp (an open source toolset that runs under Linux among other operating systems). Many Windows users employ Adobe Photoshop, the pre-eminent tool kit (but pricey). Numerous additional options are listed on About.com. Because I do things by hunt…
