My grandfather had 7 letters on his Ellis Island form. That’s how we got Komando.

March 25, 2026

By Kim Komando

My grandmother got on a boat to America alone at 16 because she was the smartest person in her village.

That’s not bragging. That’s what happened. Her small town in Ukraine administered an intelligence test. The prize? A one-way ticket to America and temporary housing with a former villager already in New York City. Highest score wins. She won. And everything that followed, my father, me, this newsletter, exists because a teenage girl sat down and outscored everyone around her.

My grandfather’s story is different. When he arrived at Ellis Island, the immigration officer had room for seven letters on the form. The name my grandfather carried from Ukraine was replaced in a single moment by a stranger with a pen who had no idea he was rewriting our family history. Komando. That was it.

I’ve been looking for what came before both of them.

🔍 The site most people forgot about

Maybe you used it a few times and never went back. It’s definitely gotten a glow-up. FamilySearch.org is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has spent over a century collecting genealogical records. But it’s open to absolutely everyone, regardless of faith or background. No catch. No subscription. No credit card.

Over 8 billion records. Immigration manifests. Census documents. Birth certificates. Military records. Church ledgers. Covering more than 170 countries, going back centuries.

Create a free account, start a basic family tree with what you know, and the site automatically matches your relatives against its database. Love that.

🤖 AI finds your missing branches

FamilySearch recently launched a built-in AI Research Assistant. It’s super! It scans your tree against billions of records, surfacing ancestors you likely missed completely. One genealogist had been stuck on the same family line for 20 years. The AI found the breakthrough in weeks.

Sign in, look for the AI Research Assistant box on your home page and let it run. Also check FamilySearch Catalog at the bottom of the page. It uses AI to read handwriting inside old documents and church ledgers that no keyword search could ever crack before. Nearly 2 billion records and growing.

Need a hand? Sign up for a free 20-minute virtual training session. 

📖 Tell the story

Once you find records, open ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and paste this:

“Here are the historical records I found about my [family member]. She was born in [place] in [year], immigrated in [year], married [name], had [X] children. Write me a short vivid story about her life. What was the world like when she was young? What might her daily life have looked like?”

Suddenly she’s not a line on a census. She’s a real woman who crossed an ocean toward a country that couldn’t even spell her name correctly.

My family was talking a few weeks ago, and somehow I brought up the fact that every state in New England has a town or city in it called “Warren.” I said that there’s a Warren, Vermont, a Warren, Maine, a Warren, Rhode Island. Then my son chimed in, “There’s also a Warren Ukraine!” I was so proud. 

📩 Send this to someone who’s always talked about tracing their family tree. The process costs nothing and takes five minutes to begin. Heck, you can even get free help! Use the handy links below.