Sourdough
A browser side-panel for hobbyist researchers (genealogy, local history, genealogy) that turns hours of scattered bookmarks, scanned PDFs, and half-remembered tabs into a connected private wiki — all stored on the user's own machine.
Amateur genealogists and local-history hobbyists drowning in scanned documents, Ancestry links, and old newspaper clippings spread across tabs
- Auto-link people, places, and dates across your saved notes so the AI surfaces 'this Mary you mentioned is the same Mary as in this 1871 census clip'
- Browser-side OCR for scanned PDFs that you can drag in without uploading anything
- Timeline view that renders your research as a navigable family or place chronology
- One-click export to Gramps, RootsMagic, or plain Markdown so you're never locked in
Genealogy and local-history communities are large (millions of active hobbyists) but their tooling is decades old and cloud-centric services like Ancestry have changed pricing terms repeatedly — a privacy-first, hobbyist-friendly alternative hits a live nerve.
Genealogy/local-history is a real, sizeable hobbyist market with active Reddit r/Genealogy discussions, dedicated YouTube channels, and paid platforms (Ancestry, MyHeritage), but searches show no specific demand for a browser side-panel form factor — users mostly discuss research logs and trackers in blogs and videos rather than browser-resident wikis.Best genealogy software in 2025 — a practical comparison ↗How to Create Your Own Genealogy Tracker - Heritage Discovered ↗Paying for one month of a subscription based family tree maker... - Reddit ↗
Not wide-open: Obsidian (local-first, free, 1,600+ plugins) plus the 'Charted Roots' plugin already offers GEDCOM import, charts, and map views for genealogists inside a markdown vault; generic side-panel note tools (SideNotes, Side Notepad) also exist. Sourdough's narrower 'browser side-panel' niche is largely unfilled but competes against a strong free incumbent.banisterious/obsidian-charted-roots - GitHub ↗SideNotes - Chrome Web Store ↗Obsidian vs Roam Research (2026) ↗
Users do pay for genealogy tooling — AncestorOS charges $15/mo hobbyist, $40/mo pro, and Ancestry subscriptions are widely accepted — but the value prop is records/trees, not note organization. A subscription for a browser note/wiki faces a free Obsidian+plugin baseline, suggesting harder willingness-to-pay.Genealogy Software Pricing — AncestorOS | Hobbyist $15 · Pro $40 ↗How Much Should You Pay for Genealogy Research Software? ↗
Genealogy/local-history is a multi-decade hobby with millions of participants; the local-first / privacy-first software movement (Obsidian, Logseq, etc.) is durable and accelerating, matching the 'why now' narrative around Ancestry pricing changes.Ancestry alternative private family tree, for your privacy ↗Obsidian vs Roam Research (2026) ↗
Well-trodden build path: Chrome sidePanel API exists, local IndexedDB/file storage is standard, PDF/OCR libraries are mature, and wiki/graph features are commoditized via libraries like Tldraw/Cytoscape. Main risk is competing with free Obsidian + Charted Roots rather than technical complexity.SideNotes - Chrome Web Store ↗banisterious/obsidian-charted-roots - GitHub ↗