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AI Platforms: Which Ones Will Help You Write Your Family History Quickly?
- Devon Noel Lee
- 3 days ago
- 9 min read
Have you ever stared at a blank page, knowing you need to write your family history, but the words just won’t flow? What if I told you that artificial intelligence could help? AI writing tools are popping up everywhere, but which ones actually help with family history writing—and which ones might lead you astray? Today, we will explore some popular AI writing platforms, their pros and cons, and how they can—or can't—help you tell your ancestors' stories. Let's dive in!
THE PROMISE OF AI FOR FAMILY HISTORY
AI writing tools promise to make writing easier by generating text, organizing ideas, and even improving readability. That sounds fantastic, right? But here’s the catch—most AI tools weren’t designed for genealogy. They excel at general writing, but they struggle with personal, historical, and factual accuracy. That means you need to guide them carefully if you want quality results.
Some AI platforms claim they can write biographies or summarize research, but how well do these AI tools generate meaningful narratives?
AI TOOLS FOR WRITING FAMILY HISTORY
Genealogists can use several AI tools to help them write their family histories.
ChatGPT
Claude
CoPilot
Perplexity
Google Docs Gemini
This video won't go into a comparison of each one, but let's cover some 'universal' strategies for whichever one you decide works best. Meaning, try any of these (or those you've played with that I didn't mention) and use these strategies.
Using AI to Write Ancestral Biographies
If you, like me, are new to using AI for writing family histories, you might have told any of the AI models to:
"Write a 200-word biography of my great-grandfather, John Smith, who was born in 1885 in Texas and worked as a railroad engineer."
If you’ve used ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google Gemini (in Docs), you probably had results very similar to what I did in this video “How ChatGPT failed to write my family history.” (like in the description box).
If you’re left wondering why that is, recognize that AI language models are great for generating a quick draft but can struggle with accuracy.
These tools don’t inherently understand genealogy—they rely on common patterns rather than verified facts. These patterns come from the vast amount of general biographical data AI models have been trained on—such as historical trends, commonly repeated life stories, and frequently mentioned professions or events. When given minimal details, AI tends to fill in gaps using these patterns rather than pulling from real, verifiable sources. For instance, if an ancestor was a railroad engineer in the early 1900s, AI might assume they worked for a well-known railway company of the time, even if your ancestor’s actual employer was a small, lesser-known operation.
Another major issue is that they often conflate different individuals with the same name, pulling in details from unrelated people. For example, if you ask an AI to write about your great-grandfather John Smith, it may blend information from multiple John Smiths, creating a misleading or even entirely incorrect narrative. Because of this, AI-generated family history narratives require careful fact-checking.
Better Approach for Using AI to Write Family History Biographies
The best way to use AI for family history writing is to provide it with accurate, verified details about your ancestor and then use the tool to refine, enhance, or structure the story—not to create it from nothing.
First, upload or copy/paste well-researched facts about John Smith.
Then, use this prompt: “You’re a family historian with an engaging voice designed to capture the interest of family members who aren’t into genealogy. Based on the facts provided, write a compelling, historically accurate narrative about John Smith.”
By structuring your input this way, you ensure AI tools work within the framework of verified information rather than filling in gaps with assumptions or misleading details.
Additional Best Practices for Using AI to Write Genealogy Narratives
Break Down the Story into Sections – Instead of asking AI to generate a full biography at once, work on smaller sections, like childhood, career, or migration story. This helps maintain accuracy and control over the narrative.
Use AI for Sentence Refinement – If a passage feels clunky, ask AI to rewrite it for better readability while keeping the original meaning intact.
Generate Multiple Drafts – Run the same prompt a few times and compare results. AI-generated text varies, so choosing the best version or blending elements from multiple drafts can improve quality.
Enhance with Personal Voice – AI lacks your unique storytelling style. Revise its output to add your personal touch, emotions, and insights about your ancestor.
Verify Every Detail – Never assume AI-generated historical details are correct. Always cross-check names, dates, locations, and occupations against primary sources.
These tools are also GREAT at summarizing details, but again, you have to supply details for the tools to summarize if you want the best results.
Using AI to Summarize Genealogical Details and Social History
When you're writing your family history, it's not just about the facts—it's also about setting the scene. That’s where summarizing historical or social context becomes invaluable. AI tools are great for helping you take large amounts of research or social history and turn it into something readable and compelling. Here's how you can use them effectively to summarize genealogical facts and historical details, so they can be woven into your family narrative.
Practical Tips for Using AI to Summarize Research
Let’s say you've watched a video from RootsTech about Victorian-era funeral customs, and you want to incorporate these customs into your ancestor’s death narrative. Here’s how to summarize that information with AI and use it in your family history draft.
1. Gather Your Research
First, collect all the relevant research and details. For example, if you watched a video on Victorian funeral customs, copy the transcript or your notes from the video. If you’re summarizing genealogical facts, compile any birth or death certificates, census records, or family letters that are relevant.
2. Input Your Research into the AI Tool
Now that you have your research, paste it into your AI writing tool. AI is excellent at digesting large blocks of text, so it can process the information you've provided. If you’re summarizing a transcript or a lengthy source, you can paste it in sections to ensure the AI can focus on specific details.
3. Use a Focused Prompt
The key is in how you prompt the AI. Instead of simply asking it to summarize everything, be specific about what you want to extract for your family history. For example:
Prompt Idea: “Summarize this information about Victorian-era funeral customs so that I can incorporate these details into my ancestor's death story. Use non-definitive language about what my ancestor may have practiced. Don’t make assumptions, but offer possible customs their relatives may have followed.”
This is a good way to help the AI avoid jumping to conclusions. It should give you a summary that sticks closely to the historical context without making it sound like fact.
4. Review and Revise the Summary
Once the AI generates a summary, take the time to read through it. Does it capture the essence of the social customs without overcommitting to any specific details? AI is a tool, not a perfect historian, so you might need to tweak its output. Here are a few things to keep in mind when reviewing the summary:
Accuracy: Does the AI summary align with what you know from your research?
Clarity: Is the summary clear and concise?
Tone: Does the AI summary fit the tone of your narrative? If not, revise it.
If something feels off, provide feedback to the AI for a better summary.
5. Incorporate into Your Draft
Once you're satisfied with the summary, it’s time to integrate it into your narrative. You can ask the AI to use the summarized information in context with your ancestor’s story. For example:
Prompt Idea: “Now that the funeral customs are summarized, please incorporate these details into the draft of my ancestor’s death. Here are the verified facts about my ancestor’s death, and I would like to use them in conjunction with the summary about funeral customs. Please be clear when discussing what we know as fact and use non-definitive language about what customs may have been practiced.”
By being clear and specific in your prompt, you ensure that the AI produces a narrative that blends the verified facts with the historical context you want to add.
6. Refine and Polish
After the AI incorporates the historical summary, review it again. This is your family history, so make sure the narrative flows smoothly and feels personal. AI can give you the framework, but it’s your job to add the emotional depth and unique voice that make the story resonate with your readers.
Additional Tips for Summarizing and Using Social History:
Use AI for Long-Form Social History: If you're summarizing a broad topic like immigration patterns, political movements, or industry growth, break it down into manageable sections. AI is great at turning complex historical topics into digestible summaries, but it helps to direct it to focus on the most relevant aspects of your ancestor’s life.
Contextualize Places and Events: When summarizing events like migrations or historical moments, ask AI to provide a snapshot of what was happening in the world at that time. A prompt could be:
Prompt Idea: “Summarize the historical context of Texas in the 1920s, particularly regarding agriculture and the economy, so I can integrate that into my ancestor's story.”
By using AI to summarize historical details, you’re not only speeding up the writing process, but also adding valuable context that helps bring your ancestor’s story to life. Remember to verify all facts, refine the language to match your style, and use the AI as a tool to enhance, not replace, your own writing skills.
Family History Writing Assistance with AI Tools
So these tools are great, but the learning curve might be too much for the writing goals you have. So, let me discuss two specific tools and one category of tools that are designed to help genealogists write narratives.
StoryAssist by Storied can generate stories based on bullet points you supply to the tool. You don't have to create writing prompts for the AI tool. Storied takes care of the hard work for you. I have tried out that tool and made a video about it.
AI Biographer™ by MyHeritage will take the details you've added to your family tree for one person and generate their biography. Again, you don't have to supply the prompts. However, for best results, use an ancestor profile with as many details as possible. I will soon have a video about this tool, so sign up for my email reminders for when that video goes live. Or subscribe and ring the bell. YouTube should let you know when it goes live.
But let's be honest: Most genealogy software programs have had a form of AI for decades to help you write stories about your ancestors. If you're a fan of traditional narrative reports, then use RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, and the like to generate data for one or more ancestors by simply going to their report section, selecting the ancestors of choice, and clicking whatever 'generate/publish' tool the programs have.
The advantage of Genealogy Writing Assistance tools is that you don't have to think of prompts before you have a tool write a story. The tools do that for you. The disadvantage is that many of your stories will begin to be very formulaic and repetitive. To overcome that, you use all the editing for content videos I have on this channel to make your story non-boring. I'll leave links to two playlists in the description box.
Editing Family History Using AI Platforms
Now, writing your family history doesn’t focus only on generating a draft, but also on making it readable. If you’re not a grammar-pro or professional editor, there are two AI tools that can lend a hand to polish up your stories.
Grammarly & ProWritingAid don’t write for you, but they do help refine your writing. So, paste a paragraph from a family story into Grammarly or use it on any platform that you’re using. So, it could be Google (although they now have a grammar checker within), StoryAssist, Google Docs, or any website that you’re writing in. Sometimes, it’s working on MS Notepad.
After you have Grammarly showing up on your platform, it suggests grammar and clarity improvement, such as better phrasing, and improves readability. I use them to make sure my stories flow well, but they won’t add historical depth or personal insights.
When to Use AI for Writing Family History - And When to Avoid It
Now that you know what tools are available, your next question is likely, "Should I use AI to write my family history?"
✔ Overcome writer’s block by turning facts into paragraphs.
✔ Improve readability and grammar
✔ Establish tone and voice for a target reader
But AI struggles with:
❌ Researching an ancestor's life for you
❌ Being consistently accurate
❌ Capturing the emotional depth of personal stories
In short, AI is a tool—not a replacement for your own storytelling skills. If you need an outline, a jumping off point, help with voice and tone, or reducing redundancy, then you're in luck. However, if you want non-boring family histories, then you'll need to use AI as a power tool, much the same way a carpenter or home remodeling enthusiast uses a table saw. Know the best use for the table saw and then use your knowledge to turn raw materials into your final creation.
WHAT AI Writing Tools Have You Used?
What do you think—have you tried using AI for writing your family history? Did it help or frustrate you? Drop a comment below and let’s chat about it! If you want more tips on making genealogy writing easier, be sure to subscribe and check out my other videos on storytelling techniques. Thanks for watching, and happy writing!
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