In years past, I’ve shared more than one list of essential resources, or tools of the trade, that increase the chance for success during genealogy researches.

That’s not to say that those previous lists that were so carefully compiled are outdated or of no use because they all remain extremely useful for 21st century researches.

However, we are living in a time where data is said to be doubling every 12 hours! That’s pretty amazing.

With the data explosion has come new tech tools that are continually improving access to those genealogical details that we seek.

Today’s Essential Tools list, therefore, will focus on some of those resources that will maximize our research successes.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been at the forefront of the news for a couple of years now and, while I’m not a fan of AI doing my writing, it can be invaluable behind the scenes.

1. FamilySearch is a leader in the genealogy world and its website is 100% free. If you’re one of those people who only enter a name to search or look at the universal family tree hosted there, then you are missing out completely on FamilySearch Labs. One of the innovations introduced a year ago is Full Text Search. If you are on the hunt for an elusive ancestor or would like to find “all” the records pertaining to him/her, then a search of land and probate records is essential. Full Text Search will do just that – the AI-powered search engine has been trained to “read” those records found in the FamilySearch collection. My favorite find was one of my husband’s ancestors – Caspar Starr. I suspected he was from Maryland and knew he ended up in North Carolina. I also suspected that he might have lived in Virginia during his travels. His name was unique enough that I not only found him in Baltimore, but now know his wife’s maiden name, learned where in Virginia he lived and discovered more members of his FAN club. None of that would have happened without Full-Text Search.
2. ChatGPT4o is a popular AI tool which has a robust free version. Questions can be crafted to provide background information (and many other uses) for genealogy research. I used it to ask what life was like in Lowell and Newburyport, MA and Nashua, NH in 1850 because I suspected that all three were factory centers during the Industrial Revolution and was trying to figure out how my ancestor, George Tarbox, ended living up in those places when he was originally from Maine and that is what ChatGPT told me. Caution – Answers provided by AI need to be checked for accuracy. My method of checking happened when I found George in city directories in each place and all three occupations mentioned had to do with factory work.
3. There is one more AI tool that needs to be included in this list – Perplexity. This website is somewhat unique, at least at the time I’m writing this post – because the answer to a prompt will include citations! I wrote a very basic prompt more detailed prompts tend to give more complete and accurate responses), but Perplexity did a great job with Write a biography about Loyalist James Astle.

Notice that there are sources across the top and when I cluck on “View 5 more” the list opens up:

Notice, too, on the biography page, there are some suggested images that might pertain to James Astle. In this case, the map and the newspaper notice do belong to the James Astle story.

Besides including two of my own posts (Sources 6 and 7), I might want to check out Source 5 from the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick and Source 8, Loyalist source material from the American Antiquarian to learn more.

Source 1 is the WikiTree entry for this James Astle, but Sources 2 and 3 are a different, unrelated man and Source 4 doesn’t pertain to the family of this James Astle either.

However, perplexity has done a credible job, particularly since it was given a short, one sentence prompt.

Although AI is the trending topic at the moment, there are other ways to use technology to your research advantage.

4. What search engines do you use, just for general searches? Google is probably at the top of your list, but there are still viable options that can provide information not found elsewhere. Bing taught me what a “tarboxer” is, a word created from a tragedy that happened to Samuel Tarbox and his wife in 1819 in Standish, Maine. Standish is a nearby town to New Gloucester, where my George was born in 1818. Since all the Tarboxes are related, I have to wonder if George’s parents actually knew this Samuel Tarbox who froze to death. I also have to wonder if this story is true? Another search engine that has been around forever is Dogpile. Remember, not every search engine brings up the same results even with the exact same search terms. A few years ago, I wondered what happened to one of two sisters I knew growing up. I had learned that she died, but wondered about the circumstances. Dogpile is the only search engine that found the sad story that she had been murdered by her husband. The moral of the story here is to branch out and try the same search in more than one search engine.
5. Next – How involved with DNA are you? Test kits have been readily available for years. What do you do with the results? Ingenious apps have been created to help determine relationships between two or more DNA matches. Not only are there helpful tools like the Leeds Method, DNA Painter and WATO (What Are the Odds?) and WATO+, but sites like MyHeritage and Ancestry offer (subscription) tools to help analyze DNA results. One of the newest is Ancestry ProTools.
6. Last, but not least, I’d like to remind everyone that not everything is online, but more and more is appearing every day. Cast a wider net than usual. Take the time to search, for example, state libraries and archives, university collections, county historical societies and local public libraries. Use Cyndi’s List and Linkpendium, visit USGenWeb and DPLA. You’ll not only be able to recite the vital statistics of your ancestors’ lives, you’ll be able to place them in a social, economic, political, religious and cultural context, too.