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• Analyzes historical documents: Reads handwritten records in Latin, Polish, Russian, German, French, English, and other European languages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

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
    └── 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• Share a scan or photo of a historical document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

| 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 |

Methodology

Based on the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS):

1. Evidence levels: Every fact tagged as Proven / Probable / Possible / Unproven
2. Source hierarchy: Original > Derivative > Narrative
3. Planning before searching: Document knowns, formulate questions, identify sources
4. Negative results: "Not found" is valuable evidence — always documented
5. Human + AI workflow: Human provides documents and performs web searches; AI analyzes, connects, and maintains the knowledge base

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