What's new in Genealogy Assistant? | Q2 2026

Recapping the updates we've added to our tools in April, May and June.

In this newsletter we will recap some of the latest features we’ve added to Genealogy Assistant, Genealogy Blurring Tool and OpenTranscribe. Is there a feature that you want to see? Let us know!

New features in Genealogy Assistant

• Preload the number of ThruLines matches directly on the page

  A new “Preload Match Numbers” button appears at the top of your list of ancestors on ThruLines, which will preload the number of matches for each ancestor. This data is stored on the page so you can easily see an at-a-glance overview of large clusters or gaps.

• Keyboard shortcuts for AncestryDNA’s match list

  Hover over any match and press N, R, or G to instantly open the Add/Edit Note, Relationship, or Groups panel for that match. Pressing N will place the cursor in the note text box, so you can start typing right away.

• Advanced Search gets smarter and more customizable

  Advanced Search on profiles now carries the person’s father’s, mother’s, and spouse’s names into the search on sites that support them. You can also customize which pages are opened when searching multiple platforms by selecting the checkbox next to each name in the dropdown.

• Added precision in Quick Search (activated by ctrl + /)

  Type “anctree” to search Ancestry Trees or “ancphoto” to search Ancestry Photos, using the same natural language you already use for records. Adding -x to any Ancestry search (e.g. “anc John Wright b.1863 in England -x”) sets the fields for name, birth, and death to exactly match.

• Click any cM value to open DNA Painter’s Shared cM Tool

  Our DNA match highlighting tools now make every shared cM value clickable, indicated with a small link icon appearing after the number. Clicking the cM amount opens DNA Painter’s Shared cM Tool in a new tab, pre-filled with the amount of cM shared.

• New shortcut and smarter middle-click for Ancestry family trees

  Use the V keyboard shortcut in your Ancestry family tree to flip between horizontal and vertical views. Middle-click functionality is improved, with support for opening profiles from the “Find in tree” sidebar and use of shift + middle-click to open a new tab with focus. You can also hide and expand our Ancestry Tree Tools to work distraction-free.

As well as other changes like:

• Access download settings from the gear icon appearing on the button.

• Automatic ProTools detection greys out options your account can’t use.

• +1 / -1 buttons on the image viewer for Ancestry and FamilySearch.

• New optional “Add DNA matches” research tool (press D) for Ancestry.

• Full support for AncestryDNA’s updated code and URL structure.

• On MyHeritage, one button loads and selects all shared matches.

• A “Show All” link that expands the shared matches list on MyHeritage.

• 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA groups capture more data, like shared cM.

A new Library view for your transcribed files

The latest version of OpenTranscribe now lets you index, search and browse already-transcribed files in a new Library view. Point it at the folders of OCR’d PDFs you already have, and it will index them in place.

You can search hundreds of thousands of files in minutes, with advanced fuzzy matching designed to work with rougher, more dated OCR. It absorbs the usual misreads and split words on its own, so you can surface new information hiding in older datasets that a plain search would miss.

In-page highlighting and fast keyboard navigation help you work through results quickly, jumping straight to the matched page with the word marked on the image. You can retranscribe documents through any local or public AI model, a page at a time or in budget-capped batches, and keep the cleaned result as a hidden searchable text layer without touching the original scan.

For the last six months, we've been testing this on newspaper collections we have, and it has been such an effective way to work with these files. For reference, they were captured with Adobe Paper Capture back in 2016, and the fuzzy search has helped to reveal so much interesting information.

Learn more and try it out: https://opentranscribe.genea.ca/

Custom elements in Genealogy Blurring Tool

Genealogy Blurring Tool now lets you add custom elements to blur, matching your unique needs and helping in a pinch if the page changes right before your big presentation. It protects personally identifiable information while you share research and give live presentations.

And it will always be free: https://blurringtool.genea.ca/

By the way…

I made a Substack of my own as I’ve become compelled to share some of my history and family history writing. It’s called Echoes of Upper Canada and it only has one post, on the history of the land where a Quaker Meeting House I attend sits, but I do have a back catalog of items published elsewhere to add. :)

Kitchener Quaker Meeting House: What was here before us? Part 1/2

Thanks for your time, and with best wishes,

Dan Maloney

Learn more about our tools at Genea.ca