• News
  • New ChatGPT5
  • Lisa Louise Cooke podcast/video with prompts: https://lisalouisecooke.com/2025/07/18/ai-terms-prompts/

• AI-Assisted Writing
• It’s everywhere!
• Chatbots, like ChapGPT
• Embedded in Word 365 and Google docs
• Not just plain text outputs
  • Different formats – document, presentation slides, tri-fold brochure
  • Downloadable doc, pdf, xls files

• Clearly OK applications
  • Bread-and-butter letters, like thank you or condolence notes
  • Work templates, like meeting minutes, project trackers, etc built in to Word and Google docs
  • Ancestor profile based on genealogy software output
  • Event schedule from outline
  • First draft from outline

• Tips
  • Can ask for help getting started
  • Can include guidance in prompt – length, tone, audience, purpose, specific things to include
  • Always read and tweak, either with additional prompts or direct edits

• Gray areas
  • No-input writing
  • Final draft polishing
  • New ideas

• Ethical issues, again
  • Accuracy
  • Copyright 
  • Disclosure

• Resources
  • History Association Guidelines: https://www.historians.org/resource/guiding-principles-for-artificial-intelligence-in-history-education/
  • New York Times Article on Hallucinations: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-delusions-chatgpt.html?searchResultPosition=1
  • AI for Ancestor Profiles: https://www.knowwhowearsthegenesinyourfamily.com/blog/ai-and-family-history-creating-a-perfect-ancestor-biography-using-chatgpt
  • Disclose use or not? : https://familylocket.com/disclosing-use-of-ai-for-writing-assistance-in-genealogy/
  • The Family History AI Show, by Mark Thompson & Steve Little
  • Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence Facebook Group
  • RootsTech: https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/

News:

• Wichita Genealogical Society Presentation on AI: https://wichitagensoc.org/event-5984608
• WSU Lifelong Learning Class in September: Dr. Christin Manning – Generative AI: Promises and Peril: https://www.wichita.edu/academics/wpce/Lifelong_Learning.php

Writing Basic Prompts

• Steve Little’s 5 Components of a good prompt:
  • A Role: Begin by imagining you’re recruiting an expert for a specific task. What’s their profession? What expertise should they possess? By defining a role, you’re setting the stage and giving the LLM a context to operate within. (Why? https://symbio6.nl/en/blog/role-prompting-ai)
  • A Goal: What do you want to achieve? This is your endgame. Being explicit here ensures that the AI has a clear understanding of your expectations.
  • A Text: Since genealogy is grounded in factual research, provide the text you’d like the AI to process. By supplying the exact text, you mitigate the risk of the AI generating fictitious information (a phenomenon known as “hallucinating”).
  • A Task: Simplify your request. Break it down into manageable steps, just as you’d explain a process to a bright but inexperienced intern. This ensures the LLM knows the sequence of operations it should perform.
  • A Flask: While the term “flask” is playfully chosen for the rhyme, it represents the container or format you’d like your response in. This could range from a narrative report to a structured database table.

• Lisa Lisson’s 4-Part Strategy:
  • Define the AI’s role
  • Provide Thorough Context
  • Make Specific Requests
  • Layer Your Prompts (layering means asking a question, getting the answer, then asking a followup question)
  • Example: “Act as an expert-level genealogy researcher to help me research my third great-grandmother. Here’s what I know: Her name was Joanna, possibly Barrett (maiden name unknown). She was born in Ireland around 1824 and immigrated to America between 1849-1851. Her port of entry is unknown. Her daughter, also named Joanna, was born in 1851, probably in Virginia or DC. By 1855, elder Joanna was married to WR Wilmouth and living in Surry County, North Carolina, where no other Irish immigrants are found. Please create a research plan to investigate her earlier life and immigration path.”
  • An example from Martijn Andrea on FB: ‘You are an expert genealogist.The goal is to paraphrase content of a genealogy source without altering its meaning to be included into a genealogy report. The writing style of genealogy reports is a formal, academic tone suitable for use in scholarly works. Summarize the following text into a narrative of 2-3 paragraphs. Maintain a dry, factual tone throughout the narrative. Avoid using emotive language or making subjective judgments. Use British English format.Use the English punctuation style. If names of people, family relationships and locations are mentioned, include them as they appear in the facts. If dates or specific time periods are mentioned in the facts, include them in your narrative. For dates, use the international convention and use 3 letter months (example: 2 Nov 1780).’

Try an AI prompt generator like https://originality.ai/blog/ai-prompt-generator

Resources

• The Family History AI Show, by Mark Thompson & Steve Little
• Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence Facebook Group
• Steve Little’s blog posts on prompts: https://aigenealogyinsights.com/category/prompts/
• https://lisalisson.com/ai-prompts-for-genealogy-framework/
• https://www.geneamusings.com/p/artificial-intelligence-posts.html
• A great website with tips for prompting: https://symbio6.nl/en/sheets/

AI-Enhanced Search

• Never trust, always verify!

• Google Gemini
  • Produces the AI insights at the top of some searches
  • Click on the little link icon to get a sidebar with links to webpages.

• Google Lens
• ChatGPT
  • Click the Search button or globe icon below the prompt box.
  • In the results, you can click on the gray source bubbles and see the underlying search results for each paragraph.  You can also click on the sources bubble at the bottom of the result and get a sidebar with links.  You will only get the links the AI used, and not a complete search result list like google gives you.
• Perplexity
  • Two levels of free search – search and research.  Research requires a free account.
  • Search gives you a tab for the answer and a tab for the sources.

• Resources
  • PC Mag: https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-ai-search-engines
  • The Family History AI Show, by Mark Thompson & Steve Little
  • Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence Facebook Group
  • RootsTech will have 25 presentations (March 6-8): https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/