Resolve conflicting dates, names or places between family history records with AI

---
name: "resolve-conflicting-genealogy-records-method"
description: "Use when you need to Resolve conflicting dates, names or places between family history records with AI. Record the conflict, rank the sources, apply the hierarchy, resolve or leave it open, then update every affected file"
---

# Record the conflict, rank the sources, apply the hierarchy, resolve or leave it open, then update every affected file

Job: [Resolve conflicting dates, names or places between family history records with AI](https://aiagents.org/canai/resolve-conflicting-genealogy-records)

## Need

- AI agent

## Steps

1. Document the discrepancy in the person's file: for each conflicting pair, note Source A and Source B (name and type), the field (such as birth date, name or place) and each value.
2. Classify each source: its tier (primary, secondary or tertiary), how close to the event it was created, who gave the information and how likely they were to know, and whether accuracy mattered for the record's purpose.
3. Apply the hierarchy: a higher-tier source is presumed correct. For sources of the same tier, prefer the one made closer to the event, the better-informed informant, a third source that breaks the tie, or the source that is otherwise consistent.
4. Resolve or defer: if the answer is clear, update the person file, note the resolution and mark it RESOLVED with your reasoning. If not, keep both values, add the question and a search plan to your open questions, mark it UNRESOLVED and flag the claim as speculative.
5. Propagate the resolution: if the correct value differs from your family tree or other files, update the tree, the timeline and any affected person files, and log the correction in your research log.
6. Use it whenever two records disagree, with an AI assistant such as Claude that works on a research vault of person files, a family tree and a timeline.
7. Note: Steps from the discrepancy resolution workflow in Matt Prusak's autoresearch-genealogy project (MIT).

## Credit

Method author Matt Prusak — mattprusak/autoresearch-genealogy (MIT)
Source: https://github.com/mattprusak/autoresearch-genealogy/blob/main/workflows/discrepancy-resolution.md