autoresearch-genealogy

$27

# Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/mattprusak/autoresearch-genealogy.git

cd autoresearch-genealogy

# Copy vault template into your Obsidian vault

cp -r vault-template/ ~/path/to/your/ObsidianVault/genealogy/

# Or copy to any markdown editor folder

cp -r vault-template/ ~/Documents/my-genealogy/

No package manager or build step required — this is a pure markdown/prompt project.

Project Structure

autoresearch-genealogy/

├── prompts/              # 12 autoresearch prompt files for Claude Code

├── vault-template/       # 19-file Obsidian vault starter kit

│   ├── Family_Tree.md

│   ├── Research_Log.md

│   ├── Open_Questions.md

│   ├── templates/        # Person, certificate, postcard, region, etc.

│   └── ...

├── archives/             # 24 country/region research guides

├── reference/            # 9 methodology documents

├── workflows/            # 7 step-by-step process guides

└── examples/             # 6 anonymized worked examples

Quick Start Workflow

Step 1: Seed your family tree

Open vault-template/Family_Tree.md and fill in what you already know, starting with yourself and working backward:

---

title: Family Tree

last_updated: 2026-03-19

generations_documented: 3

lines_active: 2

---

# Family Tree

## Generation 1 (Self)

- **Name**: Jane Smith (b. 1985, Chicago, IL)

## Generation 2 (Parents)

- **Father**: John Smith (b. 1955, Detroit, MI)

- **Mother**: Mary O'Brien (b. 1958, Boston, MA)

## Generation 3 (Grandparents)

- **Paternal Grandfather**: Robert Smith (b. ~1920, unknown)

- **Paternal Grandmother**: Helen Kowalski (b. ~1925, Poland?)

Step 2: Scan physical documents

Photograph or scan certificates, letters, postcards. Use the OCR workflow:

See: workflows/ocr-pipeline.md

Step 3: Run autoresearch prompts in Claude Code

/autoresearch prompts/01-tree-expansion.md

Step 4: Audit and verify

/autoresearch prompts/02-cross-reference-audit.md

Autoresearch Prompts — Reference

Each prompt in prompts/ follows this structure:

## Goal

[What this iteration should accomplish]

## Metric

[Measurable success condition — e.g., "increase sourced person files from N to N+10"]

## Direction

[Step-by-step instructions for the AI]

## Verify

[Cross-check to run after each iteration]

## Guard Rails

[What NOT to do — prevent hallucination, preserve source rigor]

## Iterations

[How many loops to run before stopping for human review]

## Protocol

[Output format, file naming, YAML fields to populate]

All 12 Prompts

File

Purpose

01-tree-expansion.md

Push every branch back using web research

02-cross-reference-audit.md

Find and fix discrepancies between tree and sources

03-findagrave-sweep.md

Locate Find a Grave memorials for deceased ancestors

04-gedcom-completeness.md

Sync GEDCOM file with vault data

05-source-citation-audit.md

Verify every person has ≥2 independent sources

06-unresolved-persons.md

Identify and resolve unnamed people in documents

07-timeline-gap-analysis.md

Find life events where records should exist but don't

08-open-question-resolution.md

Systematically attack every open research question

09-bygdebok-extraction.md

Extract data from digitized local history books

10-colonial-records-search.md

Search pre-1800 colonial American records

11-immigration-search.md

Locate passenger manifests and naturalization records

12-dna-chromosome-analysis.md

Analyze per-chromosome ancestry data

Running a prompt in Claude Code

# In Claude Code terminal or chat:

/autoresearch prompts/08-open-question-resolution.md

# With a specific vault path context:

/autoresearch prompts/03-findagrave-sweep.md --context vault-template/Family_Tree.md

Vault Template Files

Person file template ( vault-template/templates/person.md )

---

full_name: ""

birth_date: ""

birth_place: ""

death_date: ""

death_place: ""

father: ""

mother: ""

spouse: ""

children: []

confidence: "Moderate Signal"  # Strong Signal | Moderate Signal | Speculative

sources: []

open_questions: []

last_updated: ""

---

# [Full Name]

## Life Events

| Event | Date | Place | Source |

|-------|------|-------|--------|

| Birth | | | |

| Marriage | | | |

| Death | | | |

## Sources

1. [Source 1 — type, repository, date accessed]

2. [Source 2 — type, repository, date accessed]

## Open Questions

- [ ] Question 1

- [ ] Question 2

## Notes

[Narrative summary, naming variant notes, contextual history]

Certificate transcription template ( vault-template/templates/certificate.md )

---

document_type: ""        # birth | death | marriage | baptism

document_date: ""

repository: ""

file_reference: ""

transcribed_by: ""

transcription_date: ""

confidence: ""

---

# Certificate: [Type] — [Name] — [Year]

## Transcription

[Verbatim transcription of the document]

## Key Data Extracted

- **Subject**:

- **Date**:

- **Place**:

- **Witnesses/Informants**:

- **Officiant**:

## Discrepancies

[Note any conflicts with other sources]

## Image

![[filename.jpg]]

Research log entry pattern ( vault-template/Research_Log.md )

## 2026-03-19 — Tree Expansion Session

**Prompt run**: 01-tree-expansion.md

**Iterations**: 5

**Metric start**: 42 sourced person files

**Metric end**: 51 sourced person files

### Searches Performed

- FamilySearch: "Kowalski Poznan 1880–1920" — 3 results, 2 useful

- Ancestry: "Smith Michigan census 1920" — found Robert Smith (b. 1919)

- FindAGrave: "Helen Kowalski Detroit" — memorial #12345678

### Negative Results (Important)

- No passenger manifest found for Stanislaw Kowalski, searched 1890–1910

- No church records found for O'Brien line in Cork pre-1850

### New Open Questions

- [ ] Was Robert Smith born in Michigan or Ohio? 1920 census says MI, 1930 says OH.

Confidence Tier System

From reference/confidence-tiers.md:

Strong Signal    — Two or more independent primary sources agree

Moderate Signal  — One primary source, or two secondary sources agree

Speculative      — Logical inference, DNA suggestion, or single secondary source

Apply confidence in every person file YAML:

---

confidence: "Moderate Signal"

---

Archive Guides — Key Countries

Each guide in archives/ covers:

• Where to find records (free vs paid)

• What AI tools can access directly vs what requires browser

• Record types available by era

archives/

├── ireland.md

├── england-wales.md

├── scotland.md

├── norway.md

├── sweden.md

├── poland.md

├── germany.md

├── italy.md

├── france.md

├── spain-portugal.md

├── netherlands.md

├── austria.md

├── hungary.md

├── russia-ukraine.md

├── usa-colonial.md

├── usa-immigration.md

├── usa-census.md

├── usa-vital-records.md

├── african-american.md

├── canada.md

├── mexico-latin-america.md

├── australia-new-zealand.md

├── jewish-genealogy.md

└── ...

Example usage in a prompt:

# In prompts/09-bygdebok-extraction.md

## Direction

Consult archives/norway.md for Digitalarkivet access patterns.

Search Bygdebok collections for the Rogaland region, 1750–1900.

Common Patterns

Pattern 1: New ancestor intake

When a new ancestor is found during research:

1. Create person file from vault-template/templates/person.md

2. Set confidence based on source count

3. Add to Family_Tree.md under correct generation

4. Log the discovery in Research_Log.md

5. Add unresolved questions to Open_Questions.md

6. Run 02-cross-reference-audit.md to check for conflicts

Pattern 2: Resolving a date discrepancy

# Open_Questions.md entry

## Q-042: Robert Smith birth state conflict

- 1920 census: born Michigan

- 1930 census: born Ohio

- Status: Unresolved

- Next step: Run 07-timeline-gap-analysis.md targeting Robert Smith

Then in Claude Code:

/autoresearch prompts/07-timeline-gap-analysis.md

# Focus: Robert Smith, b. ~1919, discrepancy Q-042

Pattern 3: DNA-to-genealogy mapping

# In vault-template/Genetic_Profile.md

---

test_company: AncestryDNA

test_date: 2024-11-01

ethnicity_summary:

  - region: Eastern Europe

    percentage: 38

  - region: Ireland/Scotland

    percentage: 31

---

# Then run:

/autoresearch prompts/12-dna-chromosome-analysis.md

Pattern 4: Immigration research loop

# Run immigration search prompt

/autoresearch prompts/11-immigration-search.md

# Prompt will:

# 1. Pull all foreign-born ancestors from Family_Tree.md

# 2. Search passenger manifests (Ellis Island, Ancestry, FamilySearch)

# 3. Search naturalization records (NARA, Ancestry)

# 4. Update person files with ship name, arrival date, port

# 5. Log negative results for each unresolved ancestor

Reference Documents

File

Contents

reference/confidence-tiers.md

Strong / Moderate / Speculative definitions

reference/source-hierarchy.md

Primary vs secondary vs derivative sources

reference/dna-guardrails.md

What DNA can and cannot prove; centimorgan thresholds

reference/naming-conventions.md

Patronymics, farm names, Polish przydomki

reference/gedcom-guide.md

GEDCOM field reference and export instructions

reference/common-pitfalls.md

AI hallucination patterns in genealogy, date traps

reference/glossary.md

Record type definitions, Latin terms, abbreviations

reference/ai-capabilities.md

What AI can access directly vs what requires human

reference/case-for-autoresearch.md

Methodology rationale

Troubleshooting

AI is inventing sources

Set guard rails explicitly in your prompt session:

## Guard Rails (add to any prompt)

- Do NOT fabricate census record URLs or Ancestry record IDs

- If a source cannot be directly linked, mark as "reported" not "confirmed"

- All new claims require a real URL or repository reference

- When uncertain, add to Open_Questions.md — do not guess

Vault files getting out of sync with GEDCOM

Run the completeness audit:

/autoresearch prompts/04-gedcom-completeness.md

This compares every person in your GEDCOM against vault person files and flags mismatches.

Name variants causing duplicate person files

Check reference/naming-conventions.md for your family's relevant region. Common traps:

• Norwegian farm name changes (Haugen → Bakke on emigration)

• Polish name Latinization in church records (Stanisław → Stanislaus)

• Irish anglicization (Ó Briain → O'Brien → Bryan)

• Spelling variation in census records ("Sakkarias" vs "Zacharias" — both valid)

Add aliases to person file YAML:

---

full_name: "Stanisław Kowalski"

name_variants:

  - "Stanislaus Kowalski"

  - "Stanley Kowalski"

  - "S. Kowalski"

---

Autoresearch loop running too long

Each prompt has an ## Iterations field. Set it explicitly:

## Iterations

Run 3 iterations maximum, then stop and output a summary for human review.

OCR producing poor results on old documents

See workflows/ocr-pipeline.md. General guidance:

• Photograph at 600 DPI minimum

• Use even, diffuse lighting — no flash

• Pre-process with a contrast adjustment before running OCR

• Use vault-template/templates/transcription.md to record both the OCR output and your manual corrections side by side

Contributing

To add a new archive guide or prompt:

• Follow the existing file structure and YAML frontmatter patterns

• Use placeholder names in all examples (no real family data)

• Open a PR with a brief description of what region or record type you've added

License: MIT