The family history tree — while you still hold the keys.
In most families exactly one person knows which great-uncle homesteaded where and who the stern woman in the wedding photo is. If that person is you, this project is your legacy. If it is not you — do this WITH them, soon.
Brain dumpStart messy, let AI organize
Just talk: parents, grandparents, their siblings, who married whom, roughly when, where they lived. Do not worry about order or missing dates. AI keeps track, organizes it into a proper tree as you go, and asks about the branches you skipped.
The storiesA tree is names; a history is stories
For each person you knew, add even two sentences: what they did, what they were like, one story. "Uncle Alvin lost two fingers to a combine and played the fiddle anyway" is worth more to your grandchildren than his birth date. Ask AI to prompt you person by person.
The photosName the faces before it is too late
The saddest boxes in America are full of unlabeled photos. Go through them with AI as your scribe: describe each photo, say who is in it, and build a numbered index. Even better, do it with a sibling on speakerphone — you will remember more together, and it turns a chore into an afternoon.
Ask AI to format everything as a document you can print and share — and consider making it a chapter of the Life Story book or the back pages of the recipe book.
Your turn
One branch this week:
- Record everything you know about one grandparent’s family.
- Add one story for each person you actually met.
- Identify ten photos and start the index.
What you can do now
- Build the tree from memory with AI organizing
- Attach stories to names
- Create a photo identification index
- Produce a printable family history document