Heartland Genealogy

As part of my ongoing exploration of artificial intelligence tools for genealogy storytelling, I’ve been experimenting with ways to transform traditional genealogical research into formats that may be more engaging for family members. For Angelina Jane Burke Currey (1836–1901) , that journey has included an AI-assisted biography, a frontier-inspired song, infographic experimentation, and testing Google Notebook LM’s video creation tools. This post highlights yet another variation: combining AI-generated content into a shareable video presentation. For this project, I began with Angelina’s RootsMagic narrative report , which I uploaded to Google Notebook LM . From that source material, Notebook LM generated two pieces of content that worked especially well: an audio overview summarizing Angelina’s life story a historically styled infographic (after some prompt engineering to avoid modern corporate design aesthetics!) Rather than using Notebook LM’s built...

Have you experimented with the relatively new video creation feature in Google Notebook LM ? When this feature first appeared, I immediately gravitated toward the cinematic video option. The results were visually engaging, and I found them to be an interesting way to reinterpret genealogical research. So naturally, when I created an ABC Biography project for Angelina Jane Burke Currey , I decided to try the cinematic format using her RootsMagic narrative report as the source. At first glance, the results seemed impressive. The audio narration was excellent —engaging, well-paced, and an enjoyable retelling of Angelina’s story. But then I noticed a problem. While discussing Angelina’s birth in Kentucky , the accompanying visuals displayed an image associated with Posey County, Indiana . That immediately raised a red flag. I have found no evidence placing Angelina or her family in Posey County, Indiana. Including that image unintentionally introduces fals...

with AI Video One of the things I enjoy most about using AI in genealogy is experimenting with new ways to tell family stories. A traditional narrative biography is valuable, but sometimes a different format helps bring an ancestor’s life to life in a new and engaging way. After creating an ABC Biography for my 3rd great-grandfather, Hiram M. Currey (1835–1901) , I decided to see what AI could do with his story in video form. Using the narrative report and research I had assembled, I turned to Google Notebook LM to create an infographic, an audio overview, and a cinematic video interpretation of Hiram’s life. For the first video, I took the infographic and audio overview created by Notebook LM and combined them in Canva to produce a narrated video presentation. This version is probably the most grounded in the documented facts, since it relies directly on the information I provided. The second video is Notebook LM’s cinematic interpretation of Hiram’s story. Whi...