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Short answers to the questions people ask most. Sign in to take the quick tour.
How do I get started?
Sign in. No FamilySearch account is required. Home leads with what matters most right now: a discovery, progress on a run, or what to do next. Research lists all your runs. Import a GEDCOM, people CSV, or DNA CSV you exported, or open an imported person and start research on that one person.
Do I need to connect FamilySearch or Ancestry?
Begot does not accept those passwords and does not write those trees. You upload files you exported.
What happens after I import a file?
GEDCOM and people CSV add people to Family. Opening Family → Import writes a free gap list (missing parents, date clashes, unsourced facts). What you imported stays a starting point until research finds records that support it. A file upload is never treated as proof on its own. Scan spends no credits. Starting research from one imported person uses one credit.
What is a DNA CSV import?
Upload a DNA match or segment CSV you exported yourself. Begot saves each row as typed genetic evidence on your account. It does not scrape match lists from testing sites. DNA is not parentage evidence.
What is People and Place?
Period context reconstructed from place and decade: food, songs, daily life, and historical background. It is labeled reconstruction, not evidence, and never substitutes for a sourced genealogical claim. Song playback and pronunciation appear only when attested in the source record.
What does the record request desk do?
When a case needs a record held offline, Begot drafts a letter, email, or phone script from your research citations. Copy or download the draft and send it yourself. Begot does not mail, email, or call on your behalf.
What is Family names waiting?
When research proposes a parent name or surfaces a name worth checking, it appears in Family names waiting on Home and Family. Each row shows the name, why it came up, and which investigation found it. Approve adds it to your in-app tree only. Hold or Reject keeps it out. Begot does not write to FamilySearch or Ancestry.
What is Watch this person?
On a person profile, choose Watch this person after research has started on that person. When new records or coverage changes land, Home and that profile show New evidence. Mark read clears the notice. Still watching on Home lists people you are watching. This does not connect to FamilySearch or Ancestry and does not write to those trees.
What is further research?
After an investigation finishes, Research further on a surfaced name starts a child run scoped to that person. Child runs search open archives only and use one Research Credit. Findings return to Family names waiting; nothing joins your tree until you Approve. Approving a name does not start another search.
What are field research tasks?
When only a human can reach a record by letter, phone, or visit, Begot may offer a field task quote on Home. Accept the quote to authorize the genealogy team; work begins after that receipt. This is separate from the record request desk, which only drafts text for you to copy or download and send yourself. Field tasks mean the team carries out the outreach. Additional cost may apply. There is no purchase button in the app today.
What does a Research Credit cover?
Research is unlimited during testing. No credits are spent and your existing balance is preserved.
How does research run?
Each investigation uses public-web retrieval to search open archives and the research model to reason over what it finds. Live look is an optional watch on allowlisted public-record sites. It complements retrieval; it does not replace it.
Why does research take time?
Your agent works through historical records the way a professional genealogist would, including checking claims against the original documents. Careful takes longer than quick, and careful is the point.
What can it research?
Deceased ancestors, using documentary evidence. It will tell you plainly when a question falls outside what the records can support.