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AncestorIQ Blog

Genealogy tips, research breakthroughs, and AncestorIQ updates — all in one place

An open book with blank pages on a wooden table, a magnifying glass resting on the left page and a pale green ribbon bookmark trailing over it, an inkwell and a dip pen beside the book

Family Bible records: how to tell when the page was written

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How to make a family history book that outlasts you

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How to write a family history: start with one ancestor, not the whole tree

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We checked 36 public GEDCOM files, and the oldest still parses

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What a GEDCOM leaves behind when you move your tree

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How far back you can trace your family tree is a date, not a number

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Reunion, reviewed: the Mac genealogy program that pulls nothing in

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Gramps, reviewed: the free program that is really a database

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Family Tree Maker, reviewed: the tree Ancestry gave away

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Transkribus, reviewed: the handwriting AI built for archives

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WikiTree, reviewed: the free tree with rules

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How to find your ancestor's original surname

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The family reunion interview kit: what to ask when the whole room remembers

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RootsMagic, reviewed: the desktop tree you buy once

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Genealogy software for Mac: what runs natively in 2026

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Getting started

Free genealogy software: what you actually get without paying

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Storied.com, reviewed: the cheapest records subscription in family history

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Goldie May, reviewed: the research log that grew an AI assistant

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FamilySearch's AI, reviewed: two billion pages of handwriting, searched free

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MyHeritage's AI suite, reviewed: photo magic, record chat, and the wait for GAIA

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Ancestry's AI Stories, reviewed: your records, narrated (with a few stumbles)

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Why ChatGPT can't do genealogy (and what can)

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How to find your immigrant ancestor's hometown before they left

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Getting started

Before you chase a single ancestor, do these five things.

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Reading between the lines of a census record

A path of stepping stones fading upward into mist

What to do when the trail goes cold

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Building a tree you — and everyone else — can trust

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Where DNA matches meet paper records

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Turning a life into a story worth watching

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Getting started

How to organise your research before you drown in it

Start with one relative and see what comes back.

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