Practical Tools for Evidence-Driven Genealogy Research
Our tools improve the accuracy, efficiency, and completeness of evidence-based genealogical research — across search, documentation, and analysis. We currently have two tools available, with several in development.
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.
Open ToolEvery 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.
Open ToolEvidence Toolbox is a free, independent project. If it’s useful to you, a small Ko-Fi contribution helps keep it going.
We build tools we want to use ourselves. Ongoing projects include:
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.
New tools ship regularly. Subscribe for occasional updates on new genealogy research tools — no more than once or twice a month.
SubscribeEvidence Toolbox is free and independent. Support it on Ko-Fi.