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Find leads on an 1800s Edinburgh ancestor's parents with ChatGPT
PartialEvidence: Described by posterPosted Last checked
ChatGPT gave Janice Wellard new places to search for an ancestor's parents, but it read burgess roll dates wrong and repeated itself.
How to use this
- Tap Copy prompt.
- Open ChatGPT.
- Paste it into the message box.
- Send it, then read the answer before acting on it.
New to this? What's a prompt?
A prompt is the message you send to the AI tool. Copy the one on this page, put your own details where it asks, and read the answer before you act on it.
Prompt
Recreated prompt
The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote one from what it describes. The result shown is the source's, not ours.
The person didn't share their exact words, so we wrote this from what they described. We haven't tested it, and they didn't use this exact version.
I'm researching my 3x great-grandfather, William Thorburn, who married in Edinburgh in 1819 as an upholsterer and was buried in 1838. Many online trees list parents whose son was born in 1799, which doesn't fit. Here are the marriage date, occupation and burial date. Help me find William's parents and suggest records I should search.
Try this in:
Sends the Recreated prompt shown above. ChatGPT and Grok open with it filled in, and ChatGPT may send it straight away. Gemini and Claude open empty, so we copy the prompt for you to paste. Every button also copies it.
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These links are only a shortcut. We're not affiliated with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic or xAI, and your results may not match the source.
Optional stronger version
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: Suggest research leads for an ancestor's parents, separating verified facts from guesses. Questions to ask me first: - What do you know for certain (dates, places, occupation), and from which records? - Which parent theories have you seen, and why don't they fit? - Which record sites can you access (free or paid)? Inputs (fill in or confirm): - Ancestor's verified facts with sources: [FACTS] - Theories to test: [THEORIES] - Record access: [SITES] - Screenshots or transcriptions of records: [IMAGES / TEXT] Rules: - Label each point as from my records, a likely inference or a guess. - Suggest specific record types, archives and surname spellings to search. - When transcribing a screenshot, copy each line exactly with its own date and flag anything hard to read. - Don't repeat earlier suggestions; keep a running list. Checkpoint: After transcribing any record image, show me the transcription before drawing conclusions from it. If you get stuck: If the evidence doesn't point anywhere, say so and list what record would settle it. Verify before you finish: Check each conclusion against the dates in my verified facts. Output: A short list of research leads ranked by promise, with where to look and what each would prove. Done when: I have a ranked list of records to check, with no conclusions based on misread dates.
AI tool
Outcome
Janice Wellard asked ChatGPT to find the parents of a 3x great-grandfather, William Thorburn, who married Marion Lee in Edinburgh in 1819 and was recorded as an upholsterer. ChatGPT didn't find the parents, but it suggested credible ways to look, including occupational records, and pointed to a resource Wellard hadn't found before: The Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrights and Furniture Makers, which lists a William Thorburn as a wright, upholsterer and undertaker in 1825–1827. When Wellard added the marriage record, ChatGPT noticed William was from Lady Yester's parish and suggested searching there for a baptism under surname variants such as Thurburn and Thornburn. But when Wellard pasted a screenshot of the Roll of Edinburgh Burgesses, it misread the dates of induction and wrongly said the William in the list was not Wellard's ancestor.
Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.
Known limitations
PartialThe source says it only partly worked, or had a significant problem a person had to deal with.
What went wrong: ChatGPT didn't find the parents, misread record dates and repeated itself. It listed ideas in a minute or so, but checking each one took Wellard much longer.
Source
- Posted
- by Janice Wellard (GSQ Blog)
- Last checked
- Method:
- How we verify
https://www.gsq-blogs.org.au/my-new-genealogical-buddy-chatgpt/
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