Using AI in Genealogy: A Helpful Tool… with Serious Limits

Genealogy is a discipline built on accuracy. One wrong assumption can unravel years of careful work. With AI becoming more common in research spaces, I wanted to see what it could realistically offer genealogists — especially those working with foreign‑language records.

What I discovered is that AI can be both a helpful assistant and a source of major problems.

Where AI Can Help

AI shines in a few very specific areas:

• Transcription help — It can produce word‑for‑word transcriptions of handwritten or printed text, even in languages you don’t read.
• Translation assistance — It can turn those transcriptions into English so you can understand the basics.
• Document summaries — It can pull out names, dates, places, and relationships for quick review.

These tasks are mechanical, not interpretive — and that’s exactly why AI performs them reasonably well. For language barriers, this can be a huge help.

Where AI Goes Wrong

Once AI moves beyond transcription and translation, the risks increase dramatically.

• False connections — AI may confidently link people who are not related at all.
• Invented details — It may create marriages, death dates, or events that don’t exist in any record.
• Nonexistent sources — It can fabricate entire record sets, archives, volumes, or page numbers.
• No real sourcing — AI often pulls from user‑submitted trees or unverified data without telling you.

Even when instructed not to invent information, AI may still hallucinate — and sometimes defend those errors instead of correcting them.

These aren’t small mistakes. They can waste hours of research time and send you down dead ends.

Conclusion

After testing AI in multiple ways, here are the guidelines I now follow:

• Use AI only for safe tasks
  Transcriptions, translations, summaries, brainstorming — yes. Facts, relationships, conclusions — no.
• Verify everything manually
  Always return to primary sources: parish registers, civil records, notarial documents, censuses, and original scans.
• Reject suspicious details
  If a record seems too tidy, lacks a source, or cannot be located in a real archive, discard it immediately.
• Stay skeptical
  AI will hallucinate even when told not to. Double‑check everything.

Bottom Line

AI can be a helpful companion for transcription, translation, and image creation, especially when working with foreign‑language records. But as a research partner, it is unreliable. It can produce convincing but completely fabricated information — wrong connections, invented events, and imaginary record collections.

Real progress still comes from careful, manual verification.

Treat AI as a curious but unreliable assistant. Use it for language barriers, not conclusions.

My Rating: 3 out of 10 for genealogy research reliability.

P.S. Yes, yes, I know this is my “author” blog, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’m prepping to write another book! Hmm, I can tell, some of y’all have already picked up the vibes! Smart darlin’s, my readers.

As I was revising my contest entry documentation, I realized I was actually writing a basic outline for my next book! Oh, I feel so blessed!

Anyway, as you know, the storyline may evolve into something else, but I suspect He’s already given me my next assignment. Praying I can finish it.

© 2026, Shirley Ulbrich, S. M. Ulbrich, Pages Alight. All rights reserved. On republishing this post you must provide link to original post.