In this video, I walk you through how to build—and more importantly, verify—your family tree without getting overwhelmed. A lot of folks start genealogy by collecting names, but I want you to go one step further: confirm the names, dates, and relationships with real evidence. We talk about why sources and citations matter so your tree isn’t just “a nice story,” but something your family can actually trust and build on. I also show you how I think about using today’s tools the smart way. Platforms like FamilySearch, Ancestry, and MyHeritage can help you find records faster, and programs like RootsMagic can keep your tree organized. For research notes, I mention Obsidian as a simple way to track what you found, where you found it, and what you still need to prove. And yes—AI tools like Claude and Gemini can speed things up, but I’m very clear about the danger of AI hallucinations. My rule is simple: AI can help you search and summarize, but you always verify with original documents and add clear citations.