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Ella Lambert
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Personal · Built on curiosity

A citizenship question, built like a product

Real project · names and details changed

AI-assisted researchSystemsZero budget

No client, no budget, no deadline. Just a question I couldn't let go of, and the system I built to answer it.

1

Define the problem

What I was wondering

My great-grandfather left Poland in the 1930s. Could that make me an EU citizen?

To say yes, I'd need

An unbroken paper trail from him to me

and

Proof citizenship was never lost along the way

100 years, 5 countries, 2 alphabets, and laws that changed three times.

2

Think through the solution

How I attacked it

  • Shrink the question

    One huge question became 4 family links to prove and 4 legal questions to answer, in order.

  • Ask about evidence, not the law

    “Can I get citizenship?” gets a generic answer. “Which register would record this birth?” gets a lead.

  • Grade everything

    Official, supporting, or research only. A photo of a record isn't the record.

3

Apply AI

What I started building

  1. 01

    Sources

    • 10 archives
    • 5 countries
    • 2 alphabets

  2. 02

    AI reads + searches

    • Old handwriting
    • Finds the right register
    • Drafts requests abroad

  3. 03

    I check

    • Every reading vs the original
    • False leads logged

  4. 04

    Graded

    • A = official
    • B–C = supporting
    • D = research only

  5. 05

    The chain

    • 4 family links
    • 4 legal questions

Follow one document through the system

A birth entry from his home town, 1880s

Handwritten, in an alphabet I don't read. Right town, right decade.

Parish register · entry 12 · Russian Cyrillic

4

Set up the system

The final product

  • 1. Family line

    2. Evidence, graded

    3. The 4 legal questions

    4. The one that decides it

    A brief for lawyers

    The whole case on a few pages. A specialist could assess it in hours, not weeks.

  • A2Marriage certificateIn hand

    A1Birth register entryOrdered

    BArchive search letterRequested

    DFamily-tree siteNever used

    An evidence tracker

    Every document, its grade and its status, so nothing is lost or used twice.

  • A family history site

    The same research, told for relatives: who each person was, and how we know.

The result: a case narrowed to the one question that decides it, ready for a specialist lawyer.

What this shows a product team

  • Turns a vague question into a system

    Big unknowns broken into parts you can prove, one at a time.

  • Uses AI where it's fast, people where it matters

    AI reads and drafts. Every answer is checked before it counts.

  • Ships something useful with no budget

    No client, no team, no deadline. Just a question I couldn't let go of.

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