Welcome to Vibe Genealogy.
We are living through the biggest disruption to genealogy since release of direct-to-consumer DNA tests, perhaps even the invention of the microfilm reader. Artificial Intelligence is changing everything—how we search, how we analyze, and how we tell our ancestors’ stories.
But it’s also noisy. It’s full of hype, fear, and “loathsome jargon.”
I created Vibe Genealogy to cut through that noise.
What We Do Here This is a newsletter for serious genealogists—hobbyists and professionals alike—who want to master these new tools without losing the soul of the work.
Decoded: I explain complex AI concepts in plain English.
Practical: Weekly workflows you can actually use to break down brick walls.
Ethical: Honest conversations about privacy, hallucinations, and the “human in the loop.”
Who Am I? I’m Steve Little. I serve as the AI Program Director for the National Genealogical Society and co-host The Family History AI Show.
My path here wasn’t obvious, but looking back, it was inevitable. I stand at the intersection of three distinct lives:
The Tech: My academic training is in Computational Linguistics (the science behind LLMs like ChatGPT). I was studying this tech decades before it had a chat interface.
The Research: I spent 20 years building information systems for law, local, university, and state archival libraries. I know how data is organized.
The Human Element: I spent another 20 years as a Methodist pastor. I learned that every family is messy, and that truth matters because these are lives, not just data points. And sometimes the sacred is found in the messiness.
My Roots I don’t just write about this; I do the work. I trace my own roots deep into Ashe County, North Carolina, where all 32 of my 3rd-great-grandparents had settled by 1820. I’ve spent decades haunting courthouses and verifying paper trails with DNA.
Join the Conversation Vibe Genealogy is where we figure out the future together. Subscribe today to get full access to the archives, the community chat, and the tools you need to discover your past.
