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FamilySearch is advancing its AI offerings with new data quality features and broader handwriting recognition. Recent testing highlights both the promise and current limitations of generative AI for genealogy citation tasks. RootsTech 2026 will spotlight AI's evolving role in genealogical research.
Detailed Updates
- AI Research Assistant Notifications: FamilySearch's AI Research Assistant now proactively identifies potential tree-extension findings and notifies users upon sign-in to FamilySearch.org 1.
- Full-Text Handwriting Recognition Expansion: AI-powered Full-Text Search is being extended to interpret handwritten documents in additional languages, addressing challenges with older handwriting styles and scripts 2 3.
- AI-Driven Data Quality Tools: New family tree features under development will use AI to detect duplicate entries, suggest standardized dates and places, and recommend possible relatives based on pattern recognition 2.
- AI Citation Generation Testing: ChatGPT, Gemini 3, and Perplexity can generate basic source citations for standard web articles but require proofreading for consistency; all showed limitations with specialized genealogical sources, with Gemini producing hallucinated citations and others declining to cite FamilySearch documents 4.
- Template-Based Citation Alternatives: Tools like Zotero (with Genealogy Style), Cite-Builder, and Legacy Family Tree 10.0 produce usable citations but require manual data entry; AI is increasingly used for proofreading citations against Evidence Explained standards rather than generating them 4.
- AI Challenges: Generative AI platforms misidentified document types and produced hallucinated citations, underscoring the need for human verification when using AI for specialized genealogical sources 4.
- RootsTech 2026 AI Programming: RootsTech 2026 will feature dedicated sessions and a live panel on "The Future of AI in Genealogy" 5.
- AI-Assisted Indexing Quality: FamilySearch is expanding record collections with improved AI-assisted indexing 2.
- Responsible AI Implementation: Ongoing focus areas include improving data quality and ensuring responsible use of AI in genealogy 5.
Expanded AI Tools, Citation Testing, and Upcoming Events in Genealogy