Genealogy Research Skill for Claude Code

A comprehensive genealogy research assistant skill that turns Claude into a systematic family history researcher using the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) methodology.

What It Does

• Analyzes historical documents across languages and scripts: Preserves literal text, script, transliteration, translation, and normalized interpretation separately
• Manages an Obsidian knowledge base: Creates and maintains People, Places, Documents, and Events files with cross-references
• Tracks research progress: Maintains PROCESS.md with completed actions, pending tasks, negative results, and evidence levels
• Guides systematic search: Recommends specific databases, parishes, and parameters based on region and time period
• Handles naming complexity: Understands patronymics, declension, transliteration, and scribe-era spelling variations across cultures
• Works with GEDCOM: Import/export standard genealogy data format
• Finds lawful machine-accessible sources: Official APIs, exports, open datasets, IIIF, OAI-PMH, SRU, and archive portals
• Searches locally in native languages: Country, province, department, diocese, municipality, and genealogical-society databases without defaulting to English-only aggregators
• Extends GEDCOM conservatively: Builds evidence packets, resolves identity, proposes reviewable patches, cites assertions, and validates the result
• Covers dozens of jurisdictions: National, provincial/departmental, municipal, diocesan, society, military, cemetery, newspaper, and migration sources across Europe, the Americas, and Oceania

Installation

Claude Code (CLI)

claude install-skill /path/to/genealogy-research

Or copy the genealogy-research/ directory to ~/.claude/skills/.

Manual

Copy the skill directory into your Claude Code skills location:

~/.claude/skills/genealogy-research/
├── SKILL.md
└── references/
    ├── databases-by-region.md
    ├── naming-conventions.md
    ├── common-pitfalls.md
    ├── source-access-catalog.md
    ├── local-databases-by-country.md
    ├── uk-ireland-local-sources.md
    ├── gedcom-enrichment-workflow.md
    └── vault-templates.md

Usage

Start a conversation with Claude Code in your family history project directory. The skill triggers automatically when you:

• Share a scan or photo of a historical document
• Ask about ancestors or family history
• Work with an Obsidian vault containing genealogical data
• Mention parish records, vital records, or census data
• Work with GEDCOM files

Example Starter Prompt

You are a genealogy research partner. My project is in this directory.

Region: Poland / Russian Empire partition, 19th century
Languages: Polish, Russian, Latin
Obsidian vault: Chronicles/

I have scans of parish registers in materials/skany/.
Start by analyzing the documents and building a research plan.

What's Included

Methodology

Based on the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS):

1. Conclusion status: Proven / Probable / Possible / Unresolved / Disproven, based on the whole evidence body
2. Evidence analysis: Source type, information quality, and direct/indirect/negative evidence evaluated separately
3. Planning before searching: Document knowns, formulate questions, identify sources
4. Qualified negative results: "Not found" counts only when coverage and expected appearance are established
5. API/export before scraping: Use supported interfaces and never bypass access controls
6. Patch before merge: Relationship edits, merges, and deletions are reviewed before mutation
7. Human + AI workflow: APIs and exports provide reproducible artifacts; humans handle restricted access and ambiguous conclusions

Origin

Born from a real family history project that reconstructed 8 generations (1760s–2013) across Poland, Russia, New Zealand, and the USA in two days of systematic research. The methodology proved effective enough to generalize.

License

MIT