Follow the evidence.
Leave room for the unknown.
Past & Kin is an automated family-history discovery service. It is a starting point for curiosity, not a certified professional genealogy or DNA analysis.
What one investigation covers
We investigate the four grandparent branches on both sides of your family, targeting five ancestral generations. Your parents are generation one; third-great-grandparents are generation five. That is up to 62 ancestor positions—not a guaranteed number of discoveries. Direct ancestors are the scope; other relatives may provide clues.
A fair pass on every branch
Each branch receives an initial investigation, followed by a separate evidence-checking pass when there are candidates. Searches may try birth names, alternate spellings, relatives and different permitted collections. Research stops when evidence is insufficient or conflicting, accessible records run out, or the research allocation is reached. Those are different outcomes and are reported separately.
What the labels mean
Family supplied: information you provided, preserved as such. Source supported: the automated investigation found evidence for the relationship and it passed a separate checking stage and consistency checks. Unconfirmed: a possible match that must not be treated as an established ancestor. Agreement between AI outputs alone is not evidence.
Biological and adoptive families
Adoptive relationships are part of family history and remain visible. They do not enter biological ancestry percentages. Unknown biological parents stay unknown. The service does not investigate private living parentage, use DNA databases, or contact relatives.
How geographic percentages work
Choose a generation in the map or a person’s popup. Parents have two equal positions (50% each), grandparents four (25% each), and so on. A position contributes its documented birthplace country. Missing people or undocumented countries contribute to Unknown. Repeated ancestors count once for each genealogical path. We never fill a missing parent’s country from their child’s birthplace or a surname.
These are birthplace distributions at a stated generation, not genetic ethnicity estimates. Being born in Mexico, the United States, or any other country does not establish racial, ethnic, Indigenous or tribal identity. We distinguish England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where supported, and show UK country unresolved when the evidence is less specific.
Where we look
We use reviewed public archives, government and museum sources through supported search interfaces. Access differs by time and place. We do not scrape restricted genealogy databases, bypass sign-ins, or copy record images without permission. Initial coverage is limited; a record-access check takes place before a standard purchase.
Timing and corrections
We are measuring research completion time before advertising a guaranteed delivery window. Progress is saved, and the service is designed to continue without leaving your browser open. A wrong relationship can affect a whole branch, so report conflicting evidence through the support contact shown in your account. Corrections must preserve a source trail and recalculate affected percentages.
When a trail stops
Unresolved is not proof that no record exists. The report records the reason for stopping and, when possible, the next piece of information that could help. We do not promise to reach an immigrant, a particular century, or a specific continent.