Every genealogist, from the curious beginner to the seasoned researcher, eventually hits one: the dreaded “brick wall.” That frustrating point where records seem to vanish, names change inexplicably, or connections just refuse to materialize, leaving your family tree with a stubborn gap. For generations, overcoming these hurdles meant painstaking manual searches, endless library visits, and perhaps a little bit of luck. But today, a new set of tools is emerging, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), offering innovative ways to potentially chip away at those seemingly impenetrable barriers.
While AI isn’t a magic wand, it’s becoming an increasingly powerful assistant in the genealogist’s toolkit. Here’s how AI can help you approach those tough brick walls, especially when traditional methods have stalled:
AI as a Super-Powered Data Analyst: Connecting Your Dots
One of the most exciting aspects of AI in genealogy is its ability to process and analyze vast amounts of information—including the theories and data you provide—in ways that are simply beyond human capacity.
Pattern Recognition: AI algorithms can then sift through this information, comparing it against enormous datasets of historical records, user-submitted trees, and other online content. It can look for subtle patterns, name variations, geographical proximities, and associative connections that you might have missed. It can essentially “stress-test” your theories by looking for corroborating or contradictory evidence across millions of data points.
Theory Testing: Imagine you have a hypothesis about a missing ancestor—perhaps they changed their name, moved unexpectedly, or were part of a group that left few records. You can feed your existing research, your theories (e.g., “I believe John Smith, born circa 1820 in Virginia, might be the same person as Jonathan Smyth, who appears in Ohio in 1850”), and any supporting clues into certain AI-powered genealogy platforms or even some advanced AI language models (with careful prompting).
Accessing the Inaccessible (Sometimes): AI’s Broader Reach
A fascinating, and sometimes frustrating, aspect of research is knowing that information might exist somewhere online, but it’s locked behind a paywall you don’t subscribe to, hidden in a poorly indexed database, or part of a digital collection you’re unaware of. This is where AI can sometimes offer an unexpected advantage.
Important Caveat: It’s crucial to understand that AI doesn’t have a secret key to every paywalled database. However, its ability to draw connections from the publicly accessible parts of its training data can sometimes indirectly point towards information that, once identified, you might then be able to access through traditional means (like a library subscription or a targeted record request).
Vast Training Data: Many sophisticated AI models have been trained on an incredibly broad swath of the internet. While they don’t “browse” in real-time like a human, their training data often includes content from a multitude of sources, some of which might be obscure or less accessible through standard search engine queries.
Synthesizing Information: If relevant clues related to your brick wall ancestor exist within this vast training data, AI might be able to synthesize that information and present potential leads or connections. It might identify a family mentioned in an obscure digitized county history or a name appearing in a forum discussion about a specific region that your own searches didn’t surface.
AI for Hypothesis Generation & Suggestion
When you’re truly stuck, AI can act as a brainstorming partner.
“What If” Scenarios: Some tools can help you explore “what if” scenarios based on limited data, showing potential family structures or migration paths that fit the available evidence, giving you new lines of inquiry.
Suggesting New Avenues: By analyzing your existing research and the common challenges for a particular time period or location, AI might suggest new record sets to explore, alternative spellings you haven’t considered, or migration patterns that could explain a disappearance.
Tips for Using AI for Brick Walls:
Be Specific with Your Input: The more detailed information and clear theories you provide to an AI tool, the better its output is likely to be.
Critically Evaluate AI Suggestions: AI is a tool, not an oracle. Always treat its suggestions as clues that require rigorous verification with original source documents. AI can make mistakes or “hallucinate” connections.
Use AI in Conjunction with Traditional Methods: AI is best used to supplement, not replace, your own research skills and critical thinking. Use it to generate leads, then hit the (digital or physical) archives to confirm.
Explore AI-Powered Features on Genealogy Platforms: Sites like MyHeritage, Ancestry, and FamilySearch are increasingly integrating AI features to suggest record hints, identify photo matches, and analyze DNA results.
Experiment with AI Language Models (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude): With careful prompting, these can help analyze text, summarize documents, or brainstorm research strategies. (Remember data privacy when inputting personal family information).
The Future is Collaborative
The integration of AI into genealogy is still evolving, but its potential to help researchers break through long-standing brick walls is undeniable. By understanding its strengths – particularly its ability to connect your theories with vast datasets and sometimes point towards information from less-obvious corners of the internet – you can add another powerful strategy to your research arsenal.
The Eau Claire Chapter encourages exploring all avenues in your genealogical journey. While we rely on traditional, documented proof for DAR applications, understanding how new technologies like AI can generate leads is an exciting development for all family historians!