A calm, practical guide for using AI without letting it derail your research.
🔍 1. Keep AI in the “Safe Zone”
Use AI only for tasks that don’t affect the accuracy of your tree.
- Transcriptions — word‑for‑word text from handwritten or printed records
- Translations — turning foreign-language text into English
- Summaries — pulling out names, dates, and places
- Brainstorming — ideas, search strategies, or questions to ask
If a task requires interpretation, conclusions, or connecting people, keep it human.
⚠️ 2. Never Accept AI’s Genealogy “Facts”
AI can sound confident while being completely wrong.
Reject any AI output that includes:
- Unverified relationships
- Invented dates or events
- Nonexistent record collections
- Sources you cannot locate
If you can’t find the record yourself, it doesn’t exist.
📚 3. Verify Everything Against Primary Sources
Your safest workflow:
- Compare AI transcriptions to the original image
- Confirm translations with dictionaries or human help
- Cross-check names, dates, and places manually
- Use archives like FamilySearch, Ancestry, Drouin, or civil registers
AI can assist your eyes — but not your conclusions.
🧭 4. Watch for Red Flags
Discard AI output immediately if you see:
- A perfect, tidy narrative
- A timeline that doesn’t add up
- A record set you can’t locate
- A “source” that leads nowhere
- A suggestion that contradicts known history
- A claim that feels too convenient
Your intuition is a research tool. Trust it.
🧪 5. Test Before Trusting
When AI gives you information:
- Ask it to show the exact text
- Ask where the record is located
- Ask for the archive, collection, and image number
If it cannot provide specifics, the information is unsafe.
🧱 6. Keep Your Tree Protected
Your genealogy tree is fragile. Guard it by:
- Adding only verified facts
- Keeping AI-generated notes separate
- Labeling AI suggestions as “unverified”
- Avoiding merges or connections based on AI output
- Saving original documents first, interpretations second
Your tree should never depend on AI.
🧘 7. Maintain a Skeptical Mindset
AI hallucinations happen even when you tell it not to.
Your mantra:
“AI is a tool, not a genealogist.”
Use it for language barriers, not lineage building.
🌿 8. Use AI for Creative Extras Only
Safe creative uses:
- Featured images
- Genealogy-themed graphics
- Blog post drafts
- Checklists and worksheets
These enhance your work without touching your research accuracy.
⭐ Final Rule
If AI gives you a detail you cannot verify in a real archive, throw it out.
Your ancestors deserve truth, not guesses.
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