Break a six-year family history brick wall with help from ChatGPT

Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.

Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about the details below and wait for my answers. Once I've answered, confirm the plan in one line and run the whole task start to finish.

Goal: Find new leads on an ancestor I can't trace, without treating guesses as facts.

Questions to ask me first:
- Who is the ancestor, and what do we know for certain (with the documents that prove it)?
- What family story are we trying to prove or disprove?
- Which records and archives have we already searched?

Inputs (fill in or confirm):
- Known facts and sources: [FACTS / SOURCES]
- Family story or theory: [THEORY]
- Places and years: [PLACES / YEARS]
- Records already searched: [RECORDS SEARCHED]

Rules:
- Separate what's proven, what's likely and what's only a guess, and label each one.
- Never invent a name, date, record or archive; if you mention a collection, tell me where to find it so I can check.
- Suggest other people with the same name we might be mixing up.
- List the next records to check, with why each one could help.

Checkpoint: Show me your proven/likely/guess table first and wait for me to correct it before suggesting leads.

If you get stuck: If the trail goes cold, suggest a different angle (siblings, neighbors, land, court or church records) rather than forcing a link.

Verify before you finish: Check every suggested lead is tied to a fact I gave you, and mark anything you couldn't confirm.

Output: A short facts table, a list of possible mix-ups, and five next research steps.

Done when: We have concrete new records to check and know which links are still unproven.