A comprehensive genealogy research assistant skill that turns Claude into a systematic family history researcher using the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS) methodology.
- Analyzes historical documents: Reads handwritten records in Latin, Polish, Russian, German, French, English, and other European languages
- 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
- Covers 15+ countries: Database references for Poland, Germany, Russia, UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Scandinavia, Czech Republic, Hungary, USA, Canada, and more
claude install-skill /path/to/genealogy-researchOr copy the genealogy-research/ directory to ~/.claude/skills/.
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
└── vault-templates.md
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- Share a scan or photo of a historical document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
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.
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
SKILL.md |
Core methodology, workflow, capabilities |
references/databases-by-region.md |
80+ databases across 15+ countries |
references/naming-conventions.md |
Surname variations in Slavic, Germanic, Romance, Scandinavian, Jewish naming traditions |
references/common-pitfalls.md |
Indexing gaps, parish reassignments, calendar issues, identity confusion |
references/vault-templates.md |
Obsidian templates for People, Places, Documents + PROCESS.md and AGENT.md formats |
Based on the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS):
- Evidence levels: Every fact tagged as Proven / Probable / Possible / Unproven
- Source hierarchy: Original > Derivative > Narrative
- Planning before searching: Document knowns, formulate questions, identify sources
- Negative results: "Not found" is valuable evidence — always documented
- Human + AI workflow: Human provides documents and performs web searches; AI analyzes, connects, and maintains the knowledge base
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.
MIT