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Hosted by Brian · 🇺🇸 US · EN-US · 50 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
Stuck on a family history brick wall ? It's time to add the most powerful tool to your genealogy toolkit: Artificial Intelligence . Welcome to Ancestors and Algorithms, the definitive guide to revolutionizing your family tree research with AI . Forget the hype and confusion. This isn't just another podcast about AI; this is your hands-on, step-by-step masterclass using AI. Each week, host and researcher Brian demystifies the technology and shows you exactly how to apply AI tools to find ancestors , analyze records , and solve your toughest genealogy puzzles. We explore the incredible promise of AI while navigating its perils with an honest, practical approach. Learn to use AI as your personal research assistant —not a replacement for your own critical thinking. Join us to learn how to: Break through brick walls using AI-driven analysis and data correlation.</l
Brian hosts Ancestors and Algorithms: AI for Genealogy, a society show with 50 episodes published.
A family believed their ancestor arrived in Australia a free man in the 1830s. A 190-year-old government pardon said otherwise, and nobody had ever read past the word "Pardon" printed across the top of it. In this episod
During the Chinese Exclusion Act, one immigrant's 200-page federal case file was built to hide his real name, and nearly succeeded. For sixty-one years, the Chinese Exclusion Act barred an entire ethnicity from immigrati
A single 1917 WWI draft card, plus a naturalization petition filed seven years later, reveal an Italian immigrant's real birth name. This is a real, start-to-finish example of using AI for genealogy research, ChatGPT, Cl
Use ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude to email any archive in the world, including drafting a formal German-language request, in under 15 minutes. Most genealogists stop when online records run out. But the records you nee
Three AI tools, one 1866 Mexican parish register, and the family that a U.S. census reduced to a single word: México. Brian traces composite ancestor Esteban Vasquez through two Arizona census records where birthplace re
You can write a genealogical proof argument using 3 AI tools in one afternoon: NotebookLM organizes your evidence, Claude drafts and stress-tests the argument, and ChatGPT reviews it for plain-language clarity. This is t
Brian uses 4 AI tools to trace a formerly enslaved Mississippi ancestor across 6 record collections and through the 1870 Wall. This is what African American genealogy research looks like when AI and the Genealogical Proo
You've found the estate settlement. You've counted the heirs in the distribution sheet. And the math doesn't add up. Nine children appear in the 1860 census. Seven names appear in the 1874 settlement. Two heirs are gone
If you can't find your Norwegian ancestor in genealogy records, the problem is almost certainly the name. Norway used a patronymic naming system until 1923, meaning most Norwegian-Americans carried completely different s
Most genealogists search 4-6 databases and miss 70% of the records that exist for their ancestor. In this episode, we fix that. If you have ever searched Ancestry, FamilySearch, and a couple of other databases and still
Every family has a story that got quietly handed down across the generations. A birthplace. A number of children. One marriage, one life, neatly summarized. But what happens when you sit down with the actual records and
If you have Scottish Highland ancestry and your family tree hits a wall before 1855, this episode was made for you. In Episode 36 of Ancestors and Algorithms, Brian traces a MacLeod family from the Isle of Skye using thr
Three records. Three completely different birthplace answers. A German Lutheran church register from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania says New York. The 1880 US Federal Census says Germany. A Pennsylvania death certificat
Your ancestor went to California in 1849 as a forty-niner. The family says he struck it rich. But when you search the mining records for his name? Nothing. No claim. No miner's registration. No county tax list. He's a gh
If you have a brick wall ancestor with a common name; a William Harrison, a Mary Smith, a John Thomas this episode will change how you research forever. In Episode 33 of Ancestors and Algorithms, host Brian walks through
"All the Irish records burned." Every genealogist with Irish ancestry has heard this warning and most have believed it long enough to stop searching. In Episode 32 of Ancestors and Algorithms, host Brian shows why that w
What happens when your ancestor filed a homestead claim, worked the land for a decade, and then vanished from every surviving record? In Episode 31 of Ancestors and Algorithms, Brian follows the trail of a Volga German f
Every genealogist eventually asks the same questions. How do you know when you have enough evidence? How do you decide which record to trust when two documents disagree? How do you turn years of family history research i
Have you ever searched for an ancestor in a newspaper database and found nothing, even though you were certain the information had to be there? You are not searching wrong. You are searching with the wrong strategy. And
He arrived at Ellis Island in 1912 as Salvatore Maranzano. He reappeared in the 1920 Census as Samuel Martin. Eight years of silence in between, and three years of searching by his granddaughter had turned up nothing. In
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Ancestors and Algorithms: AI for Genealogy is hosted by Brian. The show is categorised under society (culture) and has published 50 episodes.
Ancestors and Algorithms: AI for Genealogy has published 50 episodes.
Ancestors and Algorithms: AI for Genealogy regularly covers society, culture, history. It sits in the society category, with a culture focus.
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