CensusTools

In my November 2004 newsletter I wrote a brief review of Gensmarts. I have since had the chance to more fully explore the many features of this amazing software and present a much more detailed review.

What is GenSmarts?

Simply put, GenSmarts is inexpensive artificial intelligence software which analyzes your family history database and compiles a "Research To-Do List" with suggestions for filling holes in your records.

Artificial Intelligence?

If GenSmarts could only tell you that you are missing the birth place for a particular ancestor it wouldn't be of much use. But GenSmarts goes much further. The suggestions displayed in the Research To Do List name specific records to research and the "Explanation" window tells you why the record was selected. The explanations are remarkably insightful and detailed, particularly considering that the software drafts them from scratch in seconds using the data in your family history file. Even experienced genealogists will discover overlooked avenues for research, if for no other reason than Gensmarts applies its relentless AI engine to every person in a family file.

The Research To-Do List

The heart of GenSmarts is the compiled Research To Do List (figure 1 above). Each item is a specific suggestion for further research to fill some gap in your data. As each of the suggestions are evaluated and accomplished, the user updates their status for future filtering. This feature is very handy because there are so many ways to combine the filters to focus exactly on the records you want and to reduce the clutter by excluding recommendations you have already explored.

The "Filter To Do List" area allows the user to select which Research To Do List suggestions to display. Want to look only at records involving direct ancestors or record sources available online? Easy!

Searching Online

GenSmarts has about 50 online research locations programmed and each suggestion is analyzed to determine if an Internet source is available. If so, GenSmarts can open a browser window, access the website and even complete and submit a search request. It just doesn't get any easier.

For added convenience, a user can tell GenSmarts which online subscriptions are active. The Research To Do List can then be filtered to only show suggestions with corresponding free or subscription sources. For anyone with an Ancestry or Genealogy.com subscription, you could also display only the suggestions with corresponding records available at either site, greatly maximizing the amount of effective research which can be accomplished in an Internet session.

GenSmarts Explanations

Each Research To Do List suggestion is accompanied with an explanation (figure 2 above) of why GenSmarts is making the recommendation. In Figure 2, I have the Ohio 1910 census for James Pratt highlighted. In the explanation window we are told many things about the reasoning behind the recommendation.

GenSmarts recommends the Ohio 1910 census because two of James Pratt's daughters were married in Ohio in 1910 and 1914. The recommendation is important because I don't have places of birth for James Pratt's parents and that information is available in the 1910 census.

Where dates and places are not available, GenSmarts analyzes available data for a family and comes up with estimates (GSEST). In the case of James Pratt, Athens Co., Ohio was estimated because a son was born there.

A very nice feature of GenSmarts is the background paragraph included in most explanations. The background is well written, thorough, and includes a variety of available information from my family file.

Figure 3 below shows the remainder of the explanation for the Ohio 1910 census recommendation. There are some really nice touches here. To aid in the census search, we see a GenSmarts estimate of what the James Pratt family might have looked like in 1910. Figure 4 below shows a snippet from the 1910 census which shows that GenSmarts was amazingly close. As added bonuses, we are also provided with the Soundex code for the name "Pratt" and several alternate spellings. Anyone who has struggled through records searches trying to come up with plausible alternate spellings will certainly appreciate the possibilities presented by GenSmarts.

The example above shows the 1910 census recommendation. But GenSmarts actually provided me with 16 different Research To Do List items for James Pratt (1845-1925), including birth, marriage, Civil War, census, death, cemetery and obituary recommendations. And each of those recommendations came with the logical and concise explanation and analysis displayed in the example above. Better yet, GenSmarts doesn't suffer from the tendency to focus just on direct ancestors. There are over 160 recommendations for the extended Pratt family. If census records don't show a birth place for the parents of a direct ancestor, a record for a sibling might.

GenSmarts as a Research Assistant

So does GenSmarts live up to its billing as an "Automated Research Assistant"? Taking a critical look at what GenSmarts did with my family file I have to say that it absolutely deserves the label. It analyzed my database of 2,896 individuals in just 10-15 seconds and produced a list of 3,762 research suggestions, 1,382 of which filling missing data and 2,054 of which can be pursued online. For each of the Research To Do List items, I am given the reasoning and a summary of the data I have already recorded for my ancestor. For the 1,382 gaps in my database, GenSmarts identifies a record source which might contain the data. Even if I wanted to do all that work for myself, it would take weeks of work and I couldn't possibly hope to be as thorough or accurate as GenSmarts.

The GenSmarts analysis of my family file was almost always spot on. There are isolated instances where the GenSmarts estimates and reasoning are way wrong, but that seems to happen only when there is little to no information to work from in the family file. As with any family researcher, the more information that is available, the better guesses we can make. The difference of course is that GenSmarts does it almost instantaneously!

It will take me a few months to work through GenSmart's recommendations, but as I do I will fill holes I didn't know existed and I may even break down a brick wall or two. I certainly couldn't ask any more from a research assistant.

Quick Facts

Cost: GenSmarts is available via a 4MB download at gensmarts.com for $24.95. The CD version is $34.95.

1. Introducing the CensusTools Family Group Report!
2. Preview of Coming Attractions
3. GenSmarts - A Detailed Review of the Automated Research Assistant
4. Favorite Civil War Research Sites
5. A Request for Your Support