Evidence Toolbox tools improve the accuracy, efficiency, and completeness of evidence-based genealogical research across three areas: search, documentation, and analysis. Each tool is free, requires no account, and produces structured output you can carry directly into a research log or proof argument.
We deliberately build focused tools rather than another all-purpose platform. Genealogists already have record databases; what is often missing is the connective tissue — the ability to search a collection the way a genealogist actually needs to, the discipline of documenting as you go, and the analytical lens to see patterns across records. The four tools below are live today, with several more in active development.
FANlines
Analyze decades of census records to identify your research subject’s FAN (Friends, Associates, and Neighbors) club. FANlines does that clerical work for you across every census page you supply, followed by a suite of analysis. A single run surfaces which neighbor families persist near your subject and migrate alongside them, how the household itself changed from one census to the next, and candidate maiden or married surnames for the women in the family (neighbors often married neighbors) — each ranked for further research. Every result is delivered as a self-contained HTML report that you can save and print.
Best for: researchers hitting brick walls or doing FAN analysis.
Open Tool
VariantChronicles
Perform enhanced historical newspaper searching of the Chronicling America collection across comprehensive name variants, including common OCR-derived variants. One search becomes dozens of targeted variant searches, with results organized into a clean, efficient layout.
Best for: researchers whose ancestors appear in pre-1963 U.S. newspapers — especially immigrant families, German-language communities, and any surname prone to OCR misreading.
Open Tool
AbsenceOfRecord
Every thorough search deserves a documented statement. Describe your unsuccessful search in plain language and get a polished, standards-ready negative search statement — formatted for your research log or proof argument. Save all your searches at the end of your session.
Best for: researchers working toward Genealogical Proof Standard conclusions who need consistent, reusable negative search statements without breaking their research flow.
Open Tool
GenWebSearch
Search the full text of nearly 2,700 USGenWeb county sites in one place — over 388,000 pages and 650 million words of volunteer-transcribed cemetery readings, vital records, obituaries, biographies, and local histories that general search engines index poorly. Surname spelling variants, first-name proximity matching, and per-county coverage ratings tell you exactly what was searched — and what a “no results” really means.
Best for: researchers working county-level problems — anyone whose ancestors sat in one place while volunteers transcribed its cemeteries, courthouses, and newspapers page by page.
Open Tool
Evidence Toolbox is a free, independent project. If it’s useful to you, a small Ko-Fi contribution helps keep it going.
FAQ
Is the site free to use?
Yes. Our goal is to add value to the genealogical community. Our focus is providing free tools, with a combination of donations and limited ads to support hosting the site and allow for further development.
Why focus on tools instead of full research platforms?
Genealogists already have record databases — what’s missing are the tools that enhance searching, documenting, and analysis.
How can you improve search?
Many public databases have interfaces that weren’t designed with genealogical research in mind. Our tools build on top of those collections to make searches more targeted, flexible, and effective. We also seek to revive digital collections that have become challenging to search.
How can you improve documentation?
Documentation activities are concurrent to every iterative step in the genealogical workflow. We plan to start with simple genealogy documentation tools to serve as research companions for various tasks, and then move to more integrated solutions. The goal is to minimize friction by helping capture findings as you work in real time, polish your notes, and produce clear, consistent outputs that you can reuse across your research process (research logs, proof arguments).
How can you improve analysis?
Our analysis tools enrich traditional methods with analytics and visualization — especially for FAN club analysis: mapping Friends, Associates, and Neighbors across records to identify patterns and connections.
Do I need an account?
No. Evidence Toolbox is intentionally lightweight — no account, no login. You may opt in to occasional email updates on new tools.
Who builds these tools?
Evidence Toolbox is built by Nathan, an avocational genealogist at Glenside Digital LLC whose own research follows the Genealogical Proof Standard. Each tool starts as a solution to a real problem in his research and is field-tested on actual family lines before it ships. See the About page for more.
How do you decide what to build next?
Two inputs: problems we hit repeatedly in our own research, and suggestions from users. If a widely useful genealogy task is tedious, error-prone, or impossible with existing tools, it’s a candidate. You can suggest a tool via the contact page.