Heritage AIWrite down who you remember
Parents, grandparents. Years and places, even approximate ones: "somewhere near Tambov, before the war". Every such line later becomes a request.
Finding ancestors in archives
Looking for ancestors in archives?
There are hundreds of Ivan Ivanovs in any province. But "Anna Petrovna, born around 1924, village of Krasnoye" is a trail that leads to a parish record. Heritage AI is where such trails are gathered: a tree, a card for every ancestor, scans and dates next to the person. After a free registration you get a research plan: which documents to look for and in which archive. You do the searching in the archives; below is a short guide to where and what.
The product is currently available in Russian for families in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Where a search starts
Ask the elders
A great-grandfather's patronymic, a grandmother's maiden name, the village the family left. Write the story into the person card while it is fresh, or invite a relative into the tree to add it themselves.
Put each find with the person
A scan of a record, a date, a parish: straight into the ancestor's card. A year later you will not have to remember which tab it was in.
What Heritage AI does and does not do
Better to know in advance than to be disappointed at step two.
- Does: a free research plan after registration (which documents to look for, the archive of your region, links to databases such as OBD Memorial, and questions for relatives); based on the places and years in your tree it suggests where to write
- Does: a tree with no limit on the number of people, free
- Does: a card for every ancestor with approximate dates, places, scans and photos next to the person; 2 GB free
- Does: relatives add their own parts; the free plan allows 1 more editor besides you
- Does: an AI assistant answers questions about your tree, timeline and family chat and shows which record the answer came from; if the answer is not there, it says so. The free plan has 3 actions a month; more in Family Archive
- Does not: search archive collections for you, because we have no access to them
- Does not: read handwritten records from scans
- Does not: issue official certificates; for those go to the registry office or an archive
Where to look next
| Source | Period | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Family folder | at home | Birth and marriage certificates, military IDs, work record books, letters, notes on the back of photos. The most exact dates and places are usually already here. |
| Civil registry office (ZAGS) | the last hundred years | Records of birth, marriage and death stay in the registry office for a hundred years, then go to a state archive. A request about a relative is usually filed with documents that prove the kinship. |
| Memory of the People (Pamyat Naroda) and OBD Memorial | 1941-1945 | Awards, loss reports, records of military units. You can search by surname, first name and birth year, for free. |
| Parish registers (metricheskie knigi) | until 1918 | Church records of baptisms, weddings and burials. Kept in regional archives, and many have put scans on their sites. To find a record you need the parish, that is the village, and at least an approximate year. |
| Revision lists (reviskie skazki) and the 1897 census | 18th-19th centuries | Lists of residents by household: who lived with whom and how old they were. Revisions ran from 1719 to 1858. They let you trace a family back several generations. |
An archive searches from the known to the unknown, so the first step is not a request to an archive but what your family remembers.
Questions and answers
How much does it cost?
The tree, relative cards and storage of finds are free with no limit on people, with 2 GB for scans and photos. The AI assistant on the free plan has 3 actions a month. Family Archive costs 299 RUB a month or 2,990 RUB a year (see Pricing for the launch terms). For ancestor search there is Researcher: 790 RUB a month or 6,990 RUB a year. Payments do not repeat by themselves: we do not store card details and you confirm every renewal.
Will Heritage AI find the documents itself?
No. We have no access to archives and databases: you find the document, in a registry office, an archive, on Memory of the People or in digitised parish registers. But after registration you get a free research plan: which documents to look for, in which archive of your region, links to databases and questions for relatives. Heritage AI keeps what you find next to the person.
I have never worked with archives. Will I manage?
Everyone starts the same way: with the names they remember and the family folder of documents. A grandfather's patronymic and the village a grandmother came from are already a lead: the place tells you which regional archive to write to.
Who will see my tree?
Only the people you give access to: invited members and recipients of your links. Data is stored on servers in Russia.
One record found almost always leads to the next
Start with what you know yourself. Registration is free and needs no card.