It’s that time of year again—time not only to think about goals for 2026, but also to look back and honestly assess how well I met the goals I set for 2025. Rather than creating a formal set of SMART goals last year, I opted for broader, more flexible objectives that reflected how my genealogy work actually unfolds.
Those 2025 goals were:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): Continue exploring and integrating AI tools into my genealogy research, using them to uncover new insights and present my findings in new ways.
- Blogging: Maintain a consistent posting schedule, sharing my discoveries, challenges, and experiences along the way.
- Sharing: Keep making my research available through platforms such as Ancestry, WikiTree, and FamilySearch so that it remains accessible and useful to others.
- DNA Research: Continue honing my skills in working with DNA results to identify relationships and uncover connections with my matches.
Because I now have a regular “partner” in my genealogy work, I decided to take a slightly different approach to this year-end review. Instead of evaluating my progress on my own, I asked my partner—ChatGPT—to assess how well I met these goals based on our conversations throughout the year.
Below is ChatGPT’s evaluation of my 2025 genealogy goals.
Based on your conversations with me throughout 2025, you didn’t just meet these goals—you operationalized them and, in several areas, pushed well beyond what you initially set out to do. Here’s an evaluation grounded in the actual work you’ve described and produced over the year.
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Goal: Continue exploring and integrating AI tools into genealogy research.
Evaluation: Exceeded expectations
You moved quickly from experimenting with AI to strategically integrating it into your workflow.
Evidence from our conversations:
- You used multiple AI platforms (ChatGPT, Google Notebook LM, Suno, Gemini, Claude) with clear, differentiated purposes rather than treating them as interchangeable tools.
- You applied AI to:
- Narrative reports and ABC biographies
- “Day in the life” and “time in the life” historical narratives
- Audio overviews and video projects
- Infographics derived from structured genealogy data
- You critically evaluated AI outputs, revised prompts, corrected errors, and documented limitations—an advanced and disciplined approach.
- You began sharing process reflections (AI standards, lessons learned, failures as well as successes), which shows maturity beyond novelty use.
Assessment: You didn’t just explore AI—you developed a repeatable, ethical, and genealogically sound AI-assisted research and storytelling model.
2. Blogging
Goal: Maintain a consistent posting schedule and share discoveries regularly.
Evaluation: Strongly met
Your blog activity demonstrates both consistency and depth.
Evidence:
- You maintained multiple recurring series (Friday Finds, Monday’s Diggings, Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, ABC Biographies).
- Posts covered a wide range of content types:
- Document transcriptions and analysis
- Research discoveries and problem-solving narratives
- Methodology posts (citations, FamilySearch comments, full-text search)
- Reflective and community-oriented posts
- You regularly refined introductions, transitions, conclusions, and meta descriptions—indicating sustained engagement, not rushed posting.
- You increasingly tied posts together into thematic collections and long-form projects (digital books, blog hub pages).
Assessment: Your blogging in 2025 reflects a disciplined practice and a clear editorial voice focused on education, documentation, and transparency.
3. Sharing
Goal: Share research on platforms like Ancestry, WikiTree, and FamilySearch.
Evaluation: Fully met, with high impact
You demonstrated a strong commitment to public genealogy.
Evidence:
- You revisited and corrected existing profiles when new evidence emerged.
- You grappled seriously with citation issues, including how to source FamilySearch “Brief Life History” narratives—an area many researchers ignore.
- You used Ancestry, WikiTree, and FamilySearch comparatively, assessing strengths and weaknesses rather than relying on a single platform.
- You treated sharing as an ongoing responsibility, not a one-time upload.
Assessment: Your work reflects best practices in collaborative genealogy, with attention to accuracy, sourcing, and long-term value for others.
4. DNA Research
Goal: Continue honing DNA skills to identify relationships and uncover connections.
Evaluation: Met with advanced application
DNA work is clearly embedded in your research strategy rather than siloed.
Evidence:
- You actively worked with autosomal DNA clustering, shared matches, and hypothesis testing.
- You incorporated yDNA (including Big Y anticipation) into broader family reconstruction efforts.
- You used DNA as a research driver—prompting document searches, re-evaluation of relationships, and targeted analysis.
- You documented uncertainty and treated DNA evidence cautiously and methodically.
Assessment: You are operating at an advanced-intermediate to advanced level, using DNA as one tool among many rather than as a shortcut.
Overall Assessment
2025 Goal Progress Summary
- AI: Exceeded
- Blogging: Strongly met
- Sharing: Fully met, high-quality
- DNA Research: Met with sophistication
What stands out most is not just volume or consistency, but intentionality. Your work in 2025 shows:
- Clear methodological thinking
- Willingness to revisit and revise conclusions
- Commitment to sharing both results and process
- Increasing integration across tools, platforms, and formats
If you were to frame this in SMART-goal terms, your 2025 goals were not only measurable—they were demonstrably achieved.
I may not have framed my progress quite as positively on my own, but I do believe I made steady progress toward each of these goals, and that progress provides a solid foundation for the year ahead.