Faculty:
- Coordinator and Instructor: Mark D. Thompson
- Other Instructors: Steve J. Little, Jr.
Tuition:
- Regular Price: $615.00
- NGS Member Price: $575.00
Description:
Join Mark Thompson and Steve Little for a week of advanced artificial intelligence applications in genealogy. Mark and Steve are co-hosts of the Family History AI Show podcast, and Steve serves as the Artificial Intelligence Program Director for the National Genealogical Society.
Through a combination of classroom instruction and hands-on workshops, you’ll learn how to take advantage of AI’s powerful research, reasoning and analytical capabilities. You’ll also learn how to select the right AI tool for each genealogical challenge, and how to efficiently get information in and out of those tools so that you can transform raw historical data into meaningful family history insights.
Student Prerequisites:
- Participants should have completed several AI-related genealogy workshops or one AI genealogy institute. They should also have accumulated between 20 and 100 hours of hands-on experience with AI tools for their genealogical research. Students are comfortable with prompting basics, and have a general understanding of AI’s strengths and weaknesses for genealogy.
- Students have familiarity and experience with one or more areas of genealogical research.
- Students will, preferably, bring some of their genealogy sources and/or research documents available on their computer, or in the cloud, for use during the course.
Recommendations:
As there will be some hands-on learning in this course, students will bring a laptop (strongly preferred) or tablet with Wi-Fi connectivity. Students are recommended to have free accounts setup with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity; with a paid subscription to at least one of them.
Important Notice Regarding Course Materials:
An electronic syllabus for personal use.
All times are listed in Eastern Time.
Live Sessions may be subject to schedule adjustments by your course coordinator
| Day | Session | Time | Session Title | Description | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday 13 July |
Intro | 9:00 AM – 9:30 AM | Introductions | Meet your fellow genealogy researchers and share your family history and AI interests. We’ll discuss the week ahead and set some personal goals. | Thompson/Little |
| 1 | 9:30 AM – 10:15 AM | AI Fundamentals | Demystify how AI works with genealogy-specific examples. Learn the language of AI and understand what these tools can (and can’t) do for your family history research in 2026. | Little | |
| 2 | 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | Advanced Prompting | Master the art of asking the right questions, in the right way, to get to genealogy gold. Transform vague queries into powerful prompts, and learn how to unlock AI’s full potential with advanced prompting strategies. | Thompson | |
| 3 | 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM | Responsible AI | Navigate important ethical considerations for using AI in genealogy. Learn to verify AI-generated information, how to protect private and sensitive family information, and to maintain research integrity while leveraging these powerful tools. | Little | |
| 4 | 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM | AI Reasoning | Discover the game-changing difference between AI that simply responds and AI that truly reasons. Learn when and how to use reasoning models that can work through contradictory evidence, evaluate multiple hypotheses, and tackle the complex puzzles that make genealogy research so challenging.
This session will include some pre-built exercises to practice, or time to apply the day’s new skills to your own research project. |
Thompson | |
| Tuesday 14 July |
5 | 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM | Beyond The Prompt | Learn the tools and techniques for working beyond basic chatbot prompts and responses. Learn to feed AI your census images, handwritten letters, audio interviews, and historical videos —then how to create documents, spreadsheets and more; without ever leaving the chatbot. | Thompson |
| 6 | 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | Context Engineering | Master the art of feeding AI the right information at the right time. Learn to manage large documents, transcriptions, and family data to maximize AI’s analytical power. | Little | |
| 7 | 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM | Project Workspaces | Organize your AI-assisted research like a pro. Create dedicated workspaces for different family lines and multiple research projects. This session will help keep your AI assistant focused and your research organized and efficient. | Little | |
| 8 | 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM | Build Better AI Workflows for Genealogy | Design efficient AI procedures for common genealogy tasks. Create your personal toolkit of AI workflows for everything from census analysis to immigration research. This session will include some pre-built exercises to practice, or time to apply the day’s new skills to your own research project. | Thompson | |
| Wednesday 15 July |
9 | 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM | The Best (And Worst) AI Tools for Genealogy | Cut through the hype with honest comparisons of ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI tools. Learn which tool excels at what genealogical task and why. | Little |
| 10 | 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | Web Searching with AI | Supercharge your online genealogy research with AI-powered search strategies. Learn to find hidden records, overcome search barriers, and discover resources you didn’t know existed. | Thompson | |
| 11 | 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM | Deep Research with AI | Tackle complex, multi-source research projects with AI assistance. Learn strategies for comprehensive locality research, migration patterns, and historical context building. | Little | |
| 12 | 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM | Research Workshop: Locality Guides | Roll up your sleeves and create a comprehensive locality guide using AI. Work individually or in teams to build a powerful research resource you’ll use long after the course. | Thompson | |
| Thursday 16 July |
13 | 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM | Analysis with Chatbots | Transform chatbots into your personal genealogy analysis assistants. Learn to identify patterns, connections, and insights hiding in your family data. | Little |
| 14 | 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | Analysis with AI-enhanced Tools | Leverage specialized AI tools for genealogical analysis. From handwriting recognition to AI-enhanced spreadsheets, discover tools that solve specific research challenges. | Thompson | |
| 15 | 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM | Verification and Conflicting Evidence with AI | Use AI to identify and help resolve maddening contradictions in your research. Learn practical strategies to catch both genealogy errors and AI hallucinations before they end up in your family tree. Discover how to check AI’s answers, spot when it’s making things up, and create simple verification habits that keep your research accurate while still benefiting from AI’s help. | Little | |
| 16 | 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM | Analysis Workshop: From Information to Insight | Apply the day’s techniques to real research challenges. Work individually or in teams to analyze difficult to understand information and develop analysis and prompting skills that you’ll use long after the course. | Thompson | |
| Friday 17 July |
17 | 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM | Learn Genealogy Faster and Easier with AI | Accelerate your genealogy education by learning to use AI as your personal tutor. | Thompson |
| 18 | 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | The Future of AI and Genealogy & Wrap up | Explore emerging AI capabilities that will revolutionize genealogy research. We’ll discuss upcoming tools, address current limitations, and explore where Family History AI is going in 2026. | Little |