Probate Records & AI — Prompt Reference (Brick Walls & Buckeyes)

Stop guessing how to prompt AI tools for probate research. This 4-page reference gives you 17 copy-paste prompts — plus one master prompt for a full end-to-end analysis — built on Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained standards and the Genealogical Proof Standard.

Full description:

Probate records are some of the richest genealogical sources you'll ever open — and some of the hardest to fully mine by hand. This reference hands you exact, tested prompts to put AI tools to work transcribing, abstracting, and analyzing them, without sacrificing the sourcing discipline genealogy demands.

Inside you'll find 17 ready-to-use prompts covering:

• Verbatim and cleaned-up transcription
• Complete name and relationship extraction
• Formal ESM-style abstracts and citations
• Property, heir, and beneficiary charts
• Timeline building with Julian-to-Gregorian date conversion
• Hidden clue-spotting (unnamed children, prior marriages, geographic hints)
• Handwriting and difficult-passage help
• DNA correlation from probate heirs
• Conflict and discrepancy analysis across sources

Plus one Master Prompt that runs a complete 8-step analysis in a single pass.

Built for use with ChatGPT, Claude and most other AI text tools — includes a troubleshooting note for tools with stricter privacy filters, and a reminder to always verify AI-assisted readings against the original document.

Print-ready PDF, 4 pages. For personal, non-commercial use.