Why Use Ask Grandma Kylie?
If you’ve been researching your family history for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed something curious — and sometimes frustrating.
You search for the same person on different genealogy websites…
…and you get different results.
That’s not your imagination. And it’s not because you’re doing it wrongly.
Why I Use Multiple Genealogy Websites
When I’m researching ancestors, I don’t rely on just one platform. I regularly use Find My Past, Ancestry.com.au, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage — even though there’s overlap in their records.
Why?
Because each site uses a different search algorithm.
That means:
- What Find My Past doesn’t surface, FamilySearch might.
- What Ancestry misses, MyHeritage may pick up.
- A spelling variation, transcription error, or unexpected detail can hide a record on one site and make it visible on another.
Each platform “thinks” differently about names, dates, locations, and relationships. As a genealogist, I work with those differences, not against them.
But there’s a catch.
All of those sites are still search engines at heart.
They’re excellent — but they’re designed to return results based on structured fields, filters, and algorithms. They don’t reason, infer, or understand context the way a human researcher does.
That’s where Ask Grandma Kylie comes in.
How Ask Grandma Kylie Is Different
Ask Grandma Kylie doesn’t use a traditional search algorithm at all.
It’s built on a large language model (LLM) — the same kind of technology used for advanced natural-language reasoning — and that changes everything about how searching works.
Instead of asking:
“Does this record exactly match these fields?”
Ask Grandma Kylie asks:
“What is the user trying to find, and how does this information connect?”
Natural Language, Not Search Fields
The data inside Ask Grandma Kylie has been:
- Carefully selected
- Cleaned and structured
- Prepared in natural language, not database tables
That means you can ask questions the way you’d ask me if we were sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea.
For example:
- “Who were the teachers at this South Australian school in the 1880s?”
- “What records might exist for someone living in a small country town in the 1920s?”
- “Why can’t I find a birth record, and what should I try next?”
Ask Grandma Kylie doesn’t just look for keywords.
It interprets meaning, context, and relationships between pieces of information.
Built by a Genealogist, for Real Research
Ask Grandma Kylie isn’t scraping the internet or guessing.
The data it uses has been:
- Curated from trusted historical and genealogical sources
- Written specifically so the LLM can understand it
- Shaped by how genealogists actually think and work
It reflects real-world research — including missing records, boundary changes, name variations, and the messy reality of people’s lives.
And importantly: Ask Grandma Kylie doesn’t replace the big genealogy sites.
It works alongside them.
Think of it as:
- A research assistant
- A second brain
- A guide when you’re stuck, overwhelmed, or not sure what to search next
Who Ask Grandma Kylie Is For
Ask Grandma Kylie is especially helpful if:
- You’re new to genealogy and don’t know where to start
- You’re experienced but hitting brick walls
- You’re researching South Australian families
- You want explanations, not just search results
- You prefer plain English over technical jargon
It’s a space where curiosity is welcome, confusion is normal, and questions are encouraged.
A Different Way of Searching
Traditional genealogy websites are powerful tools.
Ask Grandma Kylie is something else entirely.
It’s not about “finding the right record” as fast as possible.
It’s about understanding the story, the gaps, and the possibilities — and knowing what to try next.
And that’s why Ask Grandma Kylie exists.