Family History Planning Skill
emaynard/claude-family-history-research-skillGenealogy skill that plans research before searching, then covers citations, conflicting evidence and logs under the GPS.
Recommended
No issues Depth 3/5
ex-USSR Kinship Research Claude skill
An evidence-first genealogy skill for the former USSR and Russian Empire: church and civil records, archives, evidence registers, an audit script and an HTML report.
Our verdict Recommended with caveats
Deep and carefully designed, but it is only days old, instructs the agent to make one CAPTCHA attempt, and can send emails and use your logged-in sessions when you allow it.
Depth expertise shipped Security Review before installing Maintenance Updated today Adoption stars License MIT, commercial OK
The author changed the skill files after our review (noticed Oct 29, 2026). The review describes the earlier version; we recheck changed skills weekly, the most significant changes first.
What ex-USSR Kinship Research does
This single, very large skill turns an agent into a structured family-history researcher for the former Soviet republics and the Russian Empire. It starts with case intake (one question, known facts, who may be alive, what is off limits), then keeps registers of persons, artifacts, claims, relationships and a CSV search log. It resolves each event to the historical jurisdiction at the event date, builds name-variant matrices across Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, German and Yiddish forms, and prefers original records over catalogs, indexes and finally trees and forums as leads.
Claims get named statuses (hypothesis, single-source, corroborated, contradicted and so on) instead of percentages, and copies of the same record share an independence group so they do not count as separate proof. An audit script checks the registers for broken references and weak corroboration before conclusions are written. The default output is an HTML report with each relationship laid out, contradictions and failed searches; GEDCOM export and PDF are optional.
The SKILL.md is about 54 KB and written in Russian, but the agent replies in the user's language. The folder has 40 reference files (government portals, correspondence, FamilySearch, browser handling), 13 scripts, 14 tests and templates, and the repo has about ten eval files. Optional workflows cover FamilySearch through a browser session or MCP connector, WWI records and drafting or sending archive requests when you authorize it.
Good for
- Family historians researching ancestors in the former USSR or Russian Empire
- Genealogists who want traceable sources and explicit evidence statuses
- Users comfortable supervising an agent that browses archives
Not for
- Tracking or locating living people, which the skill itself excludes
- Quick genealogy questions; the workflow is heavy for a single lookup
What's inside depth 5/5
A 54 KB SKILL.md with 40 reference files, 13 scripts, 14 tests, templates and an eval set, all in one skill.
- Skills
- 1
- Reference docs
- 40
- Scripts
- 13
- Tests / evals
- 24
- Templates
- 10
- Avg SKILL.md
- 53.2 KB
Counted from the repository file tree. How we score depth.
Dependencies and costs
- A browser-capable agent or web search
- Optional FamilySearch account or MCP connector
- Optional mailbox integration for archive requests
- Python 3 for the helper scripts
Security review
Review before installingA Russian-language genealogy research workflow with local Python helpers that keep case registers and query one public archive (gwar.mil.ru); the scripts read no credentials or cookies and write outside the skill folder. The instructions let the agent make one attempt at a real CAPTCHA in its browser without asking again, send archive requests by email once you have authorized that, and check the GitHub repo for skill updates (asking before updating). It processes personal data about named people.
Worth knowing
- Makes network requestsgwar.py sends bounded, rate-limited search POST/GET requests only to https://gwar.mil.ru via urllib, same-origin redirects only, stops on 401/403/429 or CAPTCHA; it trusts two Russian CA certificates bundled in scripts/ca for that client only.scripts/gwar.py:17
- Relies on a CLI or package we could not reviewbuild_pdf.py launches a locally installed Chrome/Chromium/Edge headless (subprocess, no shell, network disabled via host-resolver rules and a CSP) to print a report to PDF.scripts/build_pdf.py:224
What we checked
The repository (78 files) on Oct 29, 2026. We had every file and read every script.
NVIDIA SkillSpector static scan: 75 pattern hits (analysis-evasion 35, MCP Rug Pull 18, Dangerous Code Execution 17, Data Exfiltration 3, Output Handling 1, MCP Least Privilege 1). The HIGH hits are in tests: os.environ is copied only to set PYTHONIOENCODING and subprocess.run executes the repo's own scripts. The remaining subprocess/MCP/'analysis-evasion' hits are test runs, a pinned-less 'npx skills' mention in translated READMEs, and a data.matricula-online.eu link in a reference document; no obfuscation or credential handling found.
A review, not a certification. Skills change after we check them — read the files before installing.
License
MIT — commercial use allowed.
Can it run unattended?
Not really. It is a supervised research process with authorization steps for sends and site access, and it hands CAPTCHA, phone and payment steps back to you.
Alternatives to ex-USSR Kinship Research
Sleuth
povvo/sleuthA 6-phase, 56-task OSINT workflow with a Python task runner, source grading, hypothesis analysis, templates and about 15 scripts.
With caveats
Broad access Depth 4/5
FAQ
What is the ex-USSR Kinship Research skill?
It is an agent skill for genealogy in the former Soviet Union and Russian Empire. It builds evidence registers, resolves historical jurisdictions and name variants, grades claims, and produces an HTML report with sources.
How do I install the ex-USSR Kinship Research skill?
Copy the repository's skill folder into your agent's skills directory (for example ~/.claude/skills/ or ~/.codex/skills/); it works with Codex and Claude Code. The agent replies in your language even though the instructions are in Russian.
Is the ex-USSR Kinship Research skill safe?
The files are instructions and local helper scripts with an MIT license. It can browse archives and, with your authorization, send emails, and it tells the agent to try one CAPTCHA, so supervise it and decide what to permit.
Ex-USSR kinship research vs family-history-research skill: which one?
This one focuses on former-USSR and Russian Empire archives with evidence registers and an audit script. The claude-family-history-research-skill is a general planning aid for genealogy, so it is lighter and not region specific.
Sources: GitHub repository (stars, license, file tree, last push Oct 29, 2026). Review based on the README and SKILL.md files as published.