Home NGS Genealogy Education – Online Learning for Every Stage of Your Journey GenTech Toolbox – Power Your Family History!

GenTech Toolbox – Power Your Family History!

Practical Tech Skills for Family Historians

From artificial intelligence to interactive maps, digital tools are transforming how genealogists work, making research more efficient and results more engaging. NGS is excited to introduce our new GenTech Toolbox Workshop Series, helping you build essential digital skills for modern family history research.

Have you ever wished you had tools to help you:

  • harness AI to streamline your research and writing?
  • organize and analyze family data effectively using Excel?
  • create interactive maps that bring your ancestors’ stories to life?
  • transform old documents and photos into searchable digital assets?
  • collaborate and share your discoveries in engaging new ways?

Empower your research with a well-stocked tech “toolbox.” Whether you’re a hobby genealogist or a professional researcher, this workshop series will equip you with practical digital skills to enhance your family history journey. No prior tech experience needed.

Each month, a different Toolmaster will demonstrate practical applications of both free and subscription-based digital tools, with a special focus on emerging AI technologies.

Captions Available: Live workshops include real-time captions in Zoom. Closed captions are provided for all On Demand sessions.

>> Upcoming Workshops     >> On Demand Workshops

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

June 2025: Hands-On AI for Family History Writing: Prompts and Practice

Want to make better use of AI for your family history writing—but not sure how to ask the right questions? This 1.5-hour hands-on workshop focuses specifically on prompting—how to start, guide, and refine a conversation with AI to get useful, relevant help at every stage of your writing process. You’ll learn how to:

  • craft clear, targeted prompts to get stronger, more useful responses
  • develop a conversational approach with AI that feels natural and gets results
  • turn scattered research notes into a practical structure for stories or reports
  • brainstorm fresh angles and story ideas
  • write family stories, blog posts, or ancestor profiles with more focus and less frustration
  • revise your writing to make it clearer, more engaging, and easier for readers to follow

We’ll also talk about that unmistakable “AI voice”—why it shows up, and how better prompts can help you avoid it so your writing still sounds like you. If you’ve ever struggled with how to begin, how to organize what you know, or how to make your research readable, this session is for you. You stay in control. AI just helps you get there faster.

Toolmaster: Kimberly T. Powell, AG®
Course Delivery: This session will be held live via Zoom on Tuesday, 17 June 2025, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Price: We’re sorry! The live session is sold out. See On Demand.
On Demand Option: NGS Members  $35 Non-Members  $45
REGISTER! On Demand Access
(recording available on 2 July, 90-day access)
Photo of NGS Education Director Kimberly T. Powell, AG

Kimberly T. Powell, AG®, is a genealogical educator, researcher, and author with a passion for researching hard-to-find families in the Carolinas and Virginia and sharing her love of genealogy with others through teaching. Her journey includes early work in AI and cognitive science at Carnegie Mellon in the late 1980s. For sixteen years (2000–2016), she blogged about family history as the Genealogy Expert at About.com, developing her distinctive approach to genealogical writing. She is the Director of Education for the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and teaches at major genealogical institutes, including the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, and the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research. She specializes in teaching writing methodology for genealogists at Boston University’s Certificate in Genealogy program and through her Writing for Discovery course.

July 2025: Hands-On Excel for Genealogists

Are you drowning in genealogy data? Family history research often creates problems that are too big, too complicated, or with too many moving parts in anything but Excel. If only Excel could speak genealogy better!

Join Mark Thompson for Excel for Genealogists, an engaging, hands-on workshop designed specifically for genealogists. Mark will show you how to leverage key Excel features through real-world genealogy examples and share strategies to better organize and analyze your family history information.

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to:

  • Organize your info so that it is easier to use Excel’s powerful features
  • Harness the power of Excel data tables to make analysis easier
  • Master the sorting and filtering techniques that the pros use

You’ll leave with practical skills you can immediately use to improve your genealogy projects.

Toolmaster: Mark Thompson
Course Delivery: This session will be held live via Zoom on Thursday, 24 July 2025, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Price: NGS Members  $35 Non-Members  $45
REGISTER! Live + Recording
Live Only!  $25
REGISTER! Live Only (No Recording)
On Demand Option: NGS Members  $35 Non-Members  $45
REGISTER! On Demand Access (Recording Only)
(recording available on 26 July, 60-day access)

Mark Thompson is a professional genealogist and educator specializing in helping family historians use technology to uncover their roots. Combining his extensive leadership experience in technology with his passion for genealogy, Mark is known for making complex technology accessible and relevant for genealogists of all levels. Mark frequently leads workshops teaching genealogists practical skills in Excel, Artificial Intelligence, Genetic Genealogy, and Family Archiving. He currently serves as President of the Victoria Genealogical Society and chairs their DNA Special Interest Group.  Mark also co-hosts the Family History AI Show podcast with Steve Little. When not immersed in family history, Mark enjoys nature photography in his home province of British Columbia, Canada.

September 2025: Power Prompts: Strong Prompts Matched to the Right Model for Genealogical
Tasks

Stop wrestling with generic chat prompts and start deploying the right language with the right model. In this fast-paced, hands-on workshop, you’ll learn a framework for crafting “power prompts,” see how different models excel at genealogical tasks—deep research, data extraction, report writing, and visual storytelling—and practice refining your own prompts in a virtual workshop setting. Walk away with reusable prompts, evaluation checklists, and the confidence to make AI a trustworthy thinking partner in your research.

Toolmaster: Steve Little
Course Delivery: This session will be held live via Zoom on Thursday, 25 September 2025, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Price: NGS Members  $35 Non-Members  $45
REGISTER! Live + Recording
Live Only!  $25
REGISTER! Live Only (No Recording)
On Demand Option: NGS Members  $35 Non-Members  $45
REGISTER! On Demand Access (Recording Only)
(recording available on 27 September, 60-day access)
Photo of presenter Steve Little

Steve Little is AI Program Director for the National Genealogical Society, founder of AI Genealogy Insights, and co-host of The Family History AI Show. Trained in computational linguistics and natural language processing, he pioneers practical uses—and probes the limits—of AI for genealogy.

ON DEMAND WORKSHOPS

April 2025: An Introduction to StoryMaps for Interactive Digital Family History Stories

ArcGIS StoryMaps is a freemium model cloud-based platform for creating and sharing engaging, interactive, multimedia stories online. Weave images, video, maps, and timelines into your ancestor stories. No coding skills needed! After exploring some StoryMaps created by the instructor, we will walk through the platform interface; how to add, format, and rearrange content; and how to preview and publish your stories. We will also discuss best practices for planning your StoryMaps. Participants will have access to sandbox content provided by the instructor so they can focus on learning and test driving the platform while replicating one of her stories. They are encouraged to watch the live workshop and then watch the recordings later while using the sandbox content to build out the sandbox story in a free public ArcGIS Online account.

Toolmaster: Colleen Robledo Greene, MLIS, FTxSGS
Course Delivery:
ON-DEMAND:  A recording of this workshop is available for purchase with access through 31 August 2025.
On Demand Option: NGS Members  $35 Non-Members  $45
REGISTER! On Demand Access

Colleen Robledo Greene, MLIS, FTxSGS is an academic librarian, college educator, and tech nerd who has been researching her family history since 1997. She is the Digital Scholarship Librarian at California State University, Fullerton, and teaches an online graduate-level genealogical research methods and librarianship course for San Jose State University. Colleen is a nationally recognized speaker and educator specializing in methodology, Mexican & Hispanic research, libraries and archives, and technology. She incorporates digital storytelling into all areas of her professional work and genealogy research.

May 2025: More Advanced Tools in StoryMaps for Interactive Digital Family History Stories

If you’re new to StoryMaps you may also want to check out Part One of this two-part workshop series – Introduction to StoryMaps (available On Demand).

This workshop focuses on the different interactive mapping features in ArcGIS StoryMaps. Figuring out which mapping tool(s) to use for sections of your digital story, and how to configure and design those can be confusing. To demystify this, we will walk through each of these mapping tools using examples from a U.S. World War I soldier’s story. We also continue to discuss best practices for planning your StoryMaps. Participants will have access to sandbox content provided by the instructor so they can focus on learning and test driving the platform while replicating one of her stories. They are encouraged to watch the live workshop and then watch the recordings later while using the sandbox content to build out the sandbox story in a free public ArcGIS Online account. Participants should have attended or watched the introduction workshop or have equivalent experience.

Want to know more about what you can do with StoryMaps? View one of Colleen’s StoryMaps here!

Toolmaster: Colleen Robledo Greene, MLIS, FTxSGS
Course Delivery:
ON-DEMAND:  A recording of this workshop is available for purchase with access through 31 August 2025.
Price: NGS Members  $35 Non-Members  $45
REGISTER! On Demand Access

Colleen Robledo Greene, MLIS, FTxSGS is an academic librarian, college educator, and tech nerd who has been researching her family history since 1997. She is the Digital Scholarship Librarian at California State University, Fullerton, and teaches an online graduate-level genealogical research methods and librarianship course for San Jose State University. Colleen is a nationally recognized speaker and educator specializing in methodology, Mexican & Hispanic research, libraries and archives, and technology. She incorporates digital storytelling into all areas of her professional work and genealogy research.

Refund and Cancellation Policy

All purchases are final. No refunds or credits are available.

If you purchase using the LIVE ONLY discount option, please note that it is non-refundable and does NOT include access to the recording. If you’re unsure about your availability, we recommend our Live + Recording option, which includes 30-day access to the recording.

Questions?

Questions on the new series can be directed to the NGS Director of Education.

Need help registering? Contact the NGS Course Administrator.