AI for Genealogy: Writing Ancestor Biographies with AI - Free ChatGPT Tutorial (Episode 23)

Learn how to transform dry genealogy facts into compelling ancestor biographies using free AI tools. This complete AI writing tutorial teaches genealogists step-by-step how to use Claude, Perplexity, and ChatGPT to create family histories people actually want to read—without inventing a single fact.

What You'll Learn:

In this 35-minute genealogy AI workshop, discover the three-part system for writing ancestor biographies that makes family members ask for printed copies. Brian walks through the exact process used to turn boring timelines into emotional narratives that honor ancestors while maintaining genealogical proof standards.

Complete Example Walkthrough:

Follow the real example of Catherine Schmidt (1848-1921), a Bavarian immigrant who came to America alone at age 20, raised eight children, and survived 29 years of widowhood running a boarding house. See how the same verified facts transformed from a boring timeline into a biography that made family members cry and request copies.

You'll Get Word-for-Word Prompts For:

• Organizing genealogy research with AI assistance
• Researching historical context with citations
• Writing biographies that stay 100% factual
• Handling different writing tones (conversational vs. scholarly)
• Avoiding common AI writing mistakes
• Maintaining genealogical proof standards throughout

Advanced Techniques Included:

• Multiple perspective writing for different emphases
• Comparative context analysis
• Voice and vocabulary matching for time periods
• Family context mapping across generations
• How to iterate and refine AI-generated content

Common Pitfalls to Avoid:

Learn the five biggest mistakes genealogists make when using AI for writing, including letting AI add "color," ignoring uncomfortable facts, over-polishing, forgetting source citations, and accepting first drafts. Get strategies for preventing each mistake before it happens.

Why This Episode Matters:

Most genealogists are excellent researchers but struggle to communicate findings in ways that engage family members. Research sits in drawers unread because it's presented as reports, not stories. This episode solves that problem using completely free AI tools that work as writing assistants—not as researchers inventing facts.

Who This Is For:

• Genealogists frustrated that family doesn't read their research
• Family historians with facts but no writing confidence
• Researchers wanting to share findings more effectively
• Anyone who's spent years researching but can't make it interesting
• Beginners intimidated by "writing up" their family history

Free Tools Used: Claude.ai, Perplexity.ai, ChatGPT (all free tiers work perfectly)

All prompts available in the free Facebook group: "Ancestors and Algorithms: AI for Genealogy"

Tags: #GenealogyWriting #AIForGenealogy #FamilyHistory #AncestorBiographies #FreeAITools #ChatGPT #Claude #Perplexity #GenealogyResearch #WritingTips

Connect with Ancestors and Algorithms:

📧 Email: ancestorsandai@gmail.com
🌐 Website: https://ancestorsandai.com/
📘 Facebook Group: Ancestors and Algorithms: AI for Genealogy - www.facebook.com/groups/ancestorsandalgorithms/

Golden Rule Reminder: AI is your research assistant, not your researcher.

Join our Facebook group to share your AI genealogy breakthroughs, ask questions, and connect with fellow family historians who are embracing the future of genealogy research!

New episodes every Tuesday. Subscribe so you never miss the latest AI tools and techniques for family history research.

Transcript

You know what most people do with their genealogy research? They fill out family group sheets. They create timelines. They have spreadsheets full of dates and places and census records. And then they put it all in a drawer. Because here's the thing nobody tells you when you start doing genealogy. Facts don't tell stories. And if you can't tell the story, nobody in your family will care about your research. Not your kids, not your cousins, not the relatives you're hoping will keep this work alive. But what if I told you that AI can help you transform those dry facts into narratives that make people cry? That make them understand who their great-great-grandmother really was? Today, I'm going to show you exactly how to do that. Welcome to Ancestors and Algorithms, where family history meets artificial intelligence. I'm back with you for episode 23. And today, we're tackling something I get asked about constantly in our Facebook group. How do I turn my research into something people actually want to read? This is probably the most important skill we haven't covered yet. Because all the transcription and document analysis in the world won't matter if you can't share what you've discovered in a way that connects emotionally with your family. So, for the next 30 minutes, I'm going to walk you through my complete process for using AI to write ancestor biographies that read like novels, but stay absolutely faithful to the historical record. And here's the best part. We're doing this with 100% free tools. No paid subscriptions required. Let's dive in. 

Okay, let me start with a confession. I have been writing family histories for over a decade. And for most of that time, they were terrible. Not factually I'm obsessive about verification. But they were boring. I'd write things like, quote, John Smith was born on March 15, 1847 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Jones on October 3, 1869. They had six children. He worked as a farmer. He died on December 12, 1923, end quote. Technically accurate. 

And I knew they were boring because nobody read them. I'd send these carefully researched documents to family members and they'd say, oh, that's nice. And then I'd never hear about it again. The problem is that most of us were taught genealogy as data collection, not storytelling. We learned how to find census records and death certificates, but nobody taught us how to make great-grandpa John come alive on the page. Here's what changed everything for me. I realized that the same AI tools I was using to analyze documents could help me write in a completely different way. Not by inventing facts, that's critical, but by helping me present factual information in compelling narrative form. Let me show you what I mean with a real example. I had all these facts about my three-time great-grandmother, Sarah. Born in 1852, Pennsylvania. Married at 17. Had eight children. Husband died young. She raised those kids alone during the economic panic of the 1890s. The facts were incredible, but my original write-up made her sound like a data point. So, I took those exact same facts and asked ChatGPT, the free version, to help me reframe them. Not to add anything, just to reorganize how I was presenting them. Here's the prompt I use, and I want you to write this down. Quote, I have factual information about my ancestor, Sarah Miller, 1852 to 1934. I'm going to list verified facts from primary sources. Please help me organize these facts into a compelling narrative structure that shows the emotional weight of her life without inventing any details. Focus on what these facts tell us about her experience and character. Here are the facts, end quote. And then I listed everything. Birth year, marriage age, children's names, and birth years. Husband's death date, 1890s economic records, her death at 82. What came back wasn't fiction. It was the same facts, but arranged to show the arc of a life. It started with her at 17, newly married. Then the children arriving, one after another. Then widowhood at 35, with eight mouths to feed during an economic collapse. Then the survival. Watching those children grow up. Marry, have their own families. Living to meet great-grandchildren. Same facts, completely different impact. This is what we're learning today. How to use AI as a writing partner that helps you tell true stories powerfully. And remember our golden rule. AI is your research assistant, not your researcher. In this case, AI isn't creating the history, you've done the research. It's helping you communicate what you've discovered in a way that honors your ancestors' actual life. 

Alright, let's break down the complete process. I use three different free AI tools for three different jobs, and the order matters. Part 1, Fact Organization with Claude. First step is getting your facts organized, and for this I use Claude's free tier at claude. ai. Claude is exceptional at pattern recognition and organization, which makes it perfect for taking your scattered research and structuring it. Here's what you do. Open Claude and start a new conversation. Your first message should be, quote, I'm writing a biography of my ancestor, and I have facts from multiple sources. I need help organizing these facts chronologically and identifying themes in their life. Please create a structured timeline and note any significant patterns. Here's what I have, end quote. Then paste everything, and I mean everything you've verified. Census information, vital records, newspaper mentions, military service, land records, whatever you've got. Claude will come back with a beautifully organized chronological timeline, and here's the magic. It'll also identify patterns you might not have noticed. Things like, This person moved six times in 12 years, suggesting economic instability. Or, The naming pattern of the children suggests strong cultural traditions. This isn't Claude inventing things. It's Claude helping you see what your own research is telling you. Now, I have Claude Pro, which is the $20 a month version, but you absolutely do not need it for this. The free version of Claude on Claude. ai gives you plenty of messages for genealogy work. I've organized dozens of ancestor biographies on the free tier. Let me show you a real example. I'll share my screen. Well, verbally, since this is audio. I had gathered facts about my great-great-grandfather, who was a Civil War veteran. I had his service record, pension application, three census records, his death certificate, and several newspaper mentions. I pasted all of that into Claude with that organization prompt, and what came back was illuminating. Claude didn't just put things in chronological order. It noticed that he enlisted at 16 by lying about his age, that his pension was rejected twice before being approved, that he moved from Ohio to Illinois to Iowa always toward cheaper farmland, that his later newspaper mentions all called him captain, even though his military records showed he was a private. These patterns matter because they tell us who this person was. The age lie shows determination or desperation. The pension rejections show the grinding bureaucracy veterans faced. The westward moves show economic struggles. The honorary captain title shows community respect despite hardship. Claude didn't invent any of this. All those facts were in my sources. But Claude helped me see the story they were telling. 

Part 2, Historical Context with Perplexity Next step, understanding the world your ancestor lived in. This is where perplexity comes in, and the free version is perfect for this. See, you might know that your great-grandma worked in a textile mill in 1885, but do you know what that actually meant? What the conditions were? What the pay was? What risks did she face? Historical Context turns facts into understanding. So, after I have my organized timeline from Claude, I take the key moments and research them with perplexity. The free version gives you five pro searches per day, which is plenty for this kind of research. Here's the pattern I use. For each significant life event or occupation, I ask perplexity, quote, what were conditions like for occupation and location during time period? Include information about daily life, typical wages, working conditions, and social status. Cite historical sources, end quote. Perplexity is brilliant at this because it pulls from historical sources and gives you citations. You're not getting AI's imagination. You're getting real historical research synthesized for you. Example. One of my ancestors worked at a sewing machine factory in Pennsylvania in the 1870s. That's what the city directory said. Sewing machine factory laborer. So, I asked perplexity, quote, what were working conditions like for factory laborers in Pennsylvania's sewing machine manufacturing in the 1870s, end quote. What I got back was eye-opening. 10 to 12 hour days, six days a week. Pay around $1. 50 per day when skilled workers in other industries made $3. High injury rates from industrial machinery. Lots of young single women and recent immigrants in these jobs. And citations to historical labor studies, company records, and period newspapers. This context completely changed how I understood his life. He wasn't just a factory laborer. He was doing dangerous, exhausting work for poverty wages. And the fact that he managed to save enough to eventually buy a small farm becomes heroic when you understand what he's working with. That's what context does. It makes the facts meaningful. And again, this is all free. Perplexity's free tier is generous. Five pro searches per day means you can thoroughly research five ancestor stories per day. That adds up fast. 

Part three, narrative writing with ChatGPT. Now comes the actual writing. And for this, I use ChatGPT's free version at ChatGPT.com. You've got your organized facts from Claude. You've got your historical context from Perplexity. Now you need to turn that into prose that people will actually read. Here's the prompt framework I use, and this is the most important one I'll share today. Quote, I'm writing a biography of my ancestor. Name, name, date. I have verified facts and historical context. Please help me, and this is the most important one I'll share. Please help me craft a narrative biography that, number one, uses only the facts I provide, no invented details. Number two, shows the emotional historical significance of these facts. Number three, maintains a tone you want, compelling scholarly conversational. Number four, keeps the ancestor at the subject, not as a victim or hero, but as a real person. Number five, stays around word count words. Here are the verified facts. Paste those from Claude. Here's the historical context. Paste from Perplexity Research. Please draft the biography, end quote. What you'll get back is a narrative that feels alive but stays absolutely faithful to your research. The free version of ChatGPT works beautifully for this. I know, because I tested these exact prompts on both the free version and my paid version, and for genealogy biography writing, the difference is minimal. Now, you'll probably want to refine it. That's normal. You might say, make the opening stronger. Or, add more detail about Civil War service. Or, tone down the drama in the third paragraph. This isn't a novel. ChatGPT is great at iteration. It's a conversation. Not a one-shot deal. me walk you through a real example of all three parts working together, because this is where it clicks. 

Let me show you this process with a complete example from start to finish. This is based on real research I did, though I've condensed the process for time. And my quick disclaimer, I have changed names and locations to protect privacy. Meet my ancestor, Catherine Schmidt, born 1848 in Bavaria, came to America around 1868, settled in Pennsylvania. That's what I knew from basic genealogy, but I wanted to write something her descendants would actually want to read. So, I followed the three-part process. I opened Claude and pasted everything I'd verified. 1848 birth in Bavaria, church record. 1868 immigration, ship manifests with age 20, traveling alone. 1869 marriage in Pennsylvania, marriage record. Husband was German immigrant. Eight children born, 1870 to 1888, birth and census records. Husband's death, 1892, death certificate, age 47, heart disease. Her death, 1921, death certificate, age 73. 1900 census shows her as head of household, three adult children living with her. City directories, 1895 to 1910, show her running a boarding house. Naturalization record, 1904. Unusual, she did it 12 years after becoming a widow. I told Claude, organize these chronologically and identify themes. What Claude gave me back was incredible. It organized everything by life phase. Bavaria to America, 1848 to 1868. 20 years we know nothing about, but the fact she emigrated alone was significant. Early marriage and childbearing, 1869 to 1888. Rapid family building. Widowhood and survival, 1892 to 1921. Almost 30 years as a widow, running a boarding house, raising children. Late life citizenship, 1904. Choosing to naturalize after years of living here. And then Claude noted patterns. Quote, the boarding house suggests entrepreneurship during an era when women had limited economic options. The late naturalization might indicate she initially planned to return to Germany or was focused on surviving rather than citizenship. She spent 38% of her life as a widow. Her identity was shaped as much by widowhood as by marriage. End quote. That last observation stopped me cold. I'd been thinking of Catherine primarily as an immigrant and mother, but Claude's math was right. She was a widow for nearly three decades. That was the defining experience of her adult life. Now, I needed to understand what all this meant. I asked perplexity several questions. Quote, what was it like for a single woman to immigrate from Bavaria to America in 1868? Include economic conditions, typical reasons for immigration, and dangers of solo travel, end quote. Perplexity told me, 1860's Bavaria was economically depressed. Single women who immigrated alone usually had family already in America or were fleeing limited prospects. Solo passage for a woman was expensive and risky. This suggested either family support or considerable determination. Next question. Quote, what was life like for German immigrant widows in Pennsylvania in the 1890s? Focus on economic survival strategies and boarding houses, end quote. This was gold. Perplexity explained that boarding houses were one of a few respectable ways for widows to earn income. You could stay in your home, maintain propriety, and generate cash flow. Many German immigrant widows did this. It was hard work, cooking, cleaning, laundry for multiple people, but it was survivable. And then, quote, why would a German immigrant woman naturalize in 1904 after living in America since 1868? Were there economic or legal advantages, end quote. Perplexity revealed that 1904 was significant. Property rights, business licensing, and pension access were all affected by citizenship status. If Catherine was running a legitimate boarding business, naturalization might have been necessary for a legal operation. Suddenly, these bare facts were telling me a story. A young woman leaves Bavaria. Why? She comes alone. Who helped her? She marries quickly, but her husband dies young. She doesn't collapse. She turns her home into a business. She waits until it's legally necessary, then naturalizes to protect that business. 

Step three, writing with ChatGPT. Now, I took everything to ChatGPT. I used this exact prompt. Quote, I'm writing a biography of my ancestor, Catherine Schmidt, 1848 to 1921. I have verified facts and historical context. Please help me craft a narrative biography that 1. Uses only the facts I provide. No invented details. 2. Shows the emotional and historical significance of these facts. 3. Maintains a compelling but scholarly tone. 4. Keeps Catherine as the subject. Not as a victim or hero, but as a real person. 5. Stays around 800 words. Here are the verified facts. Cases Cloud's timeline. Here's the historical context. Cases Perplexity's research. Please draft the biography. End quote. What came back was remarkable. Let me read you the opening paragraph. Quote, Catherine Schmidt left everything she knew in 1868. At 20 years old, she made the passage from Bavaria to Pennsylvania alone. A journey that cost more than most young women could save in a year. And carried risks that families whispered about but rarely named. The fact that she came suggests either family connections providing safe passage or a determination that made the dangers irrelevant. What we know is that she arrived and within a year she had married another German immigrant. What we don't know, what the records will never tell us, is what she left behind in Bavaria that made America worth the risk. End quote. That's good writing. That's good writing. And notice, it invents nothing. Every fact is from my research. But ChatGPT arranged them to create emotional impact. The biography continued through her marriage, the rapid arrival of children, and then this paragraph about widowhood. Quote, In 1892, Catherine became what she would remain for the next three decades of her life. A widow. Her husband's death at 47 left her with a house full of children and no obvious means of support. Her response reveals character. She converted her home into a boarding house. This was practical. She could stay in her space, maintain German propriety, and generate income. But it was also exhausting. Cooking for boarders, laundering sheets, managing personalities, all while raising children alone. The city directories list her year after year Catherine Schmidt boarding house. Each entry represents another year of survival. End quote. And the ending brought it home. Quote, In 1904, 16 years into widowhood, Catherine did something she had never done in her first 24 years in America. She became a citizen. She was 56 years old. The timing suggests pragmatism over patriotism. By 1904, citizenship affected property rights and business licensing. Perhaps the boarding house had grown successful enough that naturalization was necessary for legal protection. Or, perhaps after raising eight children in this country, she simply decided she wasn't going back to Bavaria. She died in 1921 at 73, having spent more than half a century in America and more than half her adult life as a widow. Her grandchildren would remember her as formidable. The documents suggest they were right, end quote. That's 450 words and every single fact is verifiable. No invented dialogue, no imagined thoughts, no historical fiction. Just real facts presented in a way that makes you understand who Catherine was. And this was created with 100% free tools. Claude organized my research. Perplexity gave me context. ChatGPT helped me write it compellingly. The total time? About two hours from raw data to finished biography. 

Now, let's talk about leveling up this process and avoiding mistakes I made when I was learning. Advanced Technique 1, Multiple Perspectives. One thing I've started doing is asking ChatGPT to write the same facts from different perspectives. Not fictional perspectives, different analytical frames. For example, after you have your biography, try this. Quote, now rewrite this focusing on economic survival rather than personal relationships, end quote. Or, quote, now rewrite this emphasizing Catherine's immigrant identity and cultural preservation, end quote. Same facts, different emphasis. This helps you see which aspects of the story resonate most. Advanced Technique 2, Comparative Context. Here's a prompt for perplexity that's incredibly powerful. Quote, compare the experience of, your ancestor's situation, to the typical experience of, demographic, in, time, place. What was normal? What was unusual? End quote. For Catherine, I ask, quote, compare widowed German immigrant women running boarding houses in Pennsylvania in the 1890s to the general population of widows. How common was the survival strategy, end quote. This helps you understand whether your ancestor's experience was typical or remarkable. Advanced Technique 3, Letter Writing Style. If you have verified quotes or letters, or even formal documents, you can use this technique. Ask ChatGPT, quote, based on this writing sample, paste their actual words, help me understand their likely voice and vocabulary. Then, suggest how to describe their life using language that reflects their educational level and time period, not modern phrasing, end quote. This keeps you from anachronism. You don't want modern therapy language in an 1890s farm wife story. Advanced Technique 4, Family Context Mapping. Use Claude for this. After you've organized one person's life, ask, quote, now map this timeline against their children's births, marriages, and life events. Show me how family cycles affected individual choices, end quote. This is brilliant for seeing patterns. Catherine's oldest children started having their own kids in the 1890s, right when she became a widow. Did she help with grandchildren? How did that affect her boarding house business? Now, let's talk about what not to do, because I learned these lessons painfully. Pitfall number one, letting AI add color. The biggest temptation is to let AI enhance your story with probable details. Don't. I've seen people accept AI additions like, she must have felt, or certainly she worried about. No. Stay with what you can verify or reasonably infer from documented context. When ChatGPT starts adding feelings or thoughts, stop it. Say, quote, remove any language that assigns emotions or thoughts. Focus only on what actions and context tell us, end quote. Pitfall number two, ignoring uncomfortable facts. Sometimes your research reveals difficult truths. Divorces, scandals, criminal records, poverty, abuse. Don't ask AI to soften these. Ask AI to help you present them with appropriate historical context and sensitivity, but don't erase them. I had an ancestor who died in a mental institution. I was tempted to gloss over it. But instead, I researched 1920s mental health treatment, understood the stigma and conditions, and wrote honestly about what that probably meant for him and his family. It made the biography more real, not less. Pitfall number three, overpolishing. Academic writing has its place, but family history isn't a doctoral dissertation. If ChatGPT gives you something that sounds too formal, say, quote, make this more conversational while keeping it respectful and factual, end quote. Your family will actually read conversational writing. They won't finish academic prose. Pitfall number four, forgetting sources. This is critical. After AI helps you write, go back and add source citations, either as footnotes or endnotes or as source's appendix. Quote, born 1848 in Bavaria. 織  MILLION PARTNELAND CHURCH RECORD, ST. PETER'S BAVARIA TRANSLATED, end quote. Or, quote, BORDING HOUSE DOCUMENTED IN PHILADELPHIA CITY DIRECTORIES, 1895-1910, end quote. This maintains credibility and helps future researchers. Pitfall number five, one and done. The first draft ChatGPT gives you won't be perfect. That's fine. Iterate. Make the opening more engaging. Add more detail about her widowhood. Connect her naturalization decision to economic factors more clearly. AI is a conversation partner, not a magic button. 

Alright, here's what I want you to do this week. Pick one ancestor. Not your most complicated one. Save that for after you practice. Pick someone with enough facts to tell a story, but not so much that you'll get overwhelmed. Someone with birth, death, maybe a census or two, maybe an occupation. Then, follow the three-part process. Step one. Take all your verified facts about that person to clod at clod. ai. Free version is fine. Use this prompt. I'm writing a biography of my ancestor and I have facts from multiple sources. I need help organizing these facts chronologically and identifying themes in their life. Please create a structured timeline and note any significant patterns, end quote. Post everything. See what patterns clod identifies. Step two. Take the key moments from Claude's timeline to perplexity. Ask about historical context for their occupation, location, or major life events. Use your five free pro searches wisely. Focus on understanding their world, not just their facts. Step three. Take everything to ChatGPT at chachypt.com. Free version. Use the prompt framework I gave you in segment two. Ask for an 800-word biography that uses only your facts but presents them compellingly. Then refine it. Ask ChatGPT to adjust tone, add detail, or reorganize structure. When you're done, share your results in our Facebook group. Ancestors and Algorithms, AI for Genealogy. I want to see what you create. And here's the thing. If you follow this process, you'll have something you can actually share with your family

Because that's the point, right? All this research we do isn't just for us. It's for the family. And if we can't make them care, we've failed at the most important part of genealogy. Keeping these people alive in memory. AI doesn't replace the research you do. Remember our golden rule. AI is your research assistant, not your researcher. But once you've done that research, AI can help you communicate in a way that honors your ancestors by making others understand who they really were. One more thing before we close. Some of you might be thinking, but isn't this just having AI right for me? No. You're doing the research. You're verifying facts. You're making judgment calls about what matters. You're choosing which details to include and which to leave out. You're ensuring accuracy. AI is doing what any good editor does. Helping you organize. Providing historical context. And suggesting ways to present your material more effectively. Think of it like this. You've gathered ingredients through months or years of research. Claude helps you prep them. Perplexity tells you about the regional cuisine. ChatGPT helps you plate the dish. But you're the chef. The recipe is yours. Until next week, write those biographies. Make your ancestors come alive on the page. And remember, facts tell you what happened. Stories tell you why it mattered. Thank you so much for listening to Ancestors and Algorithms. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps other family historians find us. Don't forget to join our Facebook group, Ancestors and Algorithms, AI for Genealogy, where you can share your AI written biographies and get feedback from other researchers. We just reached 1,000 members, and they are all incredibly supportive. I'm your host, Brian. I'll see you next week for another journey into the past powered by the future. Happy researching.