AI Features

AncestryCodex integrates artificial intelligence to enhance your genealogy research with smart automation and content generation.

Overview

AI-powered features help you:

Standardize place names to GEDCOM 7 format automatically
Enhance old photos with restoration and quality improvement
Generate biographies and stories from individual records
Identify relationships and suggest connections

API Keys Required

AI features require API keys from providers like Anthropic (Claude) or OpenAI. Configure these in Admin Panel > AI Services.

Place Standardization

Historical records often contain place names that differ from modern conventions:

Original	Standardized (GEDCOM 7)
Amsterdam, Holland	Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
St. Petersburg, Russia	Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia
New Amsterdam	New York City, New York, United States
Danzig, Prussia	Gdansk, Pomeranian, Poland

How It Works

When you enter or import a place name, AI analyzes it
Historical context is considered (e.g., country boundaries changed)
A standardized version is suggested with confidence score
High-confidence matches can be auto-approved, or you can review manually

Configuration

AI Provider - Choose Claude (recommended), OpenAI, or local Ollama
Auto-Approve - Enable to automatically accept high-confidence matches
Confidence Threshold - Set minimum confidence for auto-approval (0.70-1.00)

Best Practices

Review auto-approved places periodically for accuracy
Include country context when entering historical places
Use the original place as recorded in sources, let AI suggest modern equivalent

Image Enhancement

AI can improve old, damaged, or low-quality photographs:

Photo Restoration

Repair scratches, tears, water damage, and fading

Quality Enhancement

Increase resolution and sharpness of blurry photos

Color Correction

Fix faded colors and improve exposure balance

Using Image Enhancement

Navigate to Media Gallery or an individual's photos
Select a photo to enhance
Click the Enhance button
Choose enhancement options (restoration, quality, color)
Review the result and save or discard

Cost Note

Image enhancement uses more API resources than text features. Each enhancement may cost several cents depending on image size and provider pricing.

Biography Generation

AI can create narrative biographies from structured genealogy data:

What's Included

Birth and early life information
Marriage and family details
Occupation and achievements
Migration and residence history
Death and legacy

Generating a Biography

Go to an individual's profile
Click Generate Biography in the Actions menu
Choose style: Narrative, Timeline, or Formal
Review and edit the generated text
Save to the individual's story section

Tips for Better Biographies

Include complete dates and places for better context
Add occupation, religion, and notes for richer narratives
Link family relationships for family context
Always review and personalize AI-generated content

AI Providers

AncestryCodex supports multiple AI providers:

Provider	Best For	Cost
Claude (Anthropic)	Place standardization, biographies	Pay-per-use API
GPT-4 (OpenAI)	Image enhancement, general AI tasks	Pay-per-use API
Ollama (Local)	Self-hosted, privacy-focused	Free (your hardware)

Privacy Considerations

When using AI features, consider:

Data is sent to third-party APIs (except Ollama)
Don't send sensitive information to AI services
Review AI provider privacy policies
Consider using Ollama for maximum privacy

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
AI features not working	Check API key is configured correctly in Admin > AI Services
Poor place standardization	Add more context (country, time period) to place names
Slow image enhancement	Large images take longer; consider resizing before enhancement
Rate limit errors	Wait and try again; consider upgrading API tier

Getting Started

Start with place standardization - it's the most commonly used AI feature and costs just fractions of a cent per place. Get an API key from console.anthropic.com.