autoresearch-genealogy Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection. A structured system of autoresearch prompts, Obsidian vault templates, archive guides, and methodology references for AI-assisted genealogy research. Built for Claude Code's autonomous research loops, adaptable to any AI tool or manual workflow. What This Project Does Provides 12 Claude Code /autoresearch prompts that autonomously search the web, update your vault, and self-verify results Supplies a complete 19-file Obsidian vault starter kit with YAML frontmatter and markdown templates Includes 24 country/region-specific archive guides (Europe, Americas, Oceania, Jewish genealogy) Offers 9 methodology reference documents covering confidence tiers, DNA guardrails, naming conventions, and source hierarchy Defines 7 step-by-step workflows for OCR pipelines, oral history, discrepancy resolution, and phase planning Installation

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]

|

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

安装