Benefits of AI-Assisted Ancestral Storytelling

Have you tried out Google’s NotebookLM yet? I find it to be an extraordinary tool for genealogy and ancestral storytelling—a new way to engage with different audiences. I have been exploring ways in which I can make the best use of its featured function, the ability to create a podcast with the two voices provided by NotebookLM. This week I have been learning more about making use of its extraordinary note-taking features too.

The first episode of the History Hour podcast focussed on reviewing research material on the history of Leith Hall and the story about key characters from the Battle of Culloden who were associated with the Hall. An interesting addition to my ancestral story. The provided text outlined a script for a podcast episode focusing on the relationship between the Leith and Hay families in 18th-century Scotland.

The second episode explores how to create an engaging podcast where the AI voices summarise the contents of uploaded documents for a fresh overview.

I uploaded a selection of my ‘Digital Downloads’ on using AI tools for ancestral storytelling, to the Notebook Guide at NotebookLM. Each of these free PDF documents is available in the Essential Genealogy Academy here at the Digital Downloads collection

Here is what the NotebookLM screen looks like with the finished audio overview, summary, and suggested questions in place.

Note: It is also a rewarding iterative discussion with NotebookLM to use the followup suggested questions for more insights into your project.

Note: There are other featured tools on the top left of the screen under the Help me create heading. It is worth exploring each of these to create Notes about your project in the form of FAQ, Study Guide, Table of Contents, Timeline, or Briefing.

Summary of the Source Documents

The provided sources offer a comprehensive guide to using AI in ancestral storytelling. They outline specific techniques for integrating AI tools to enhance research, generate ideas, refine narratives, and create engaging multimedia content. The sources also emphasise the importance of maintaining historical accuracy, ethical practices, and a personal voice in storytelling. They include detailed prompts for using AI to analyse documents, create timelines, generate character profiles, and write various narrative formats, making them valuable for genealogists seeking to craft compelling family histories.

I requested that the NotebookLM team focus on the benefits of AI-Assisted Ancestral Storytelling and referenced the suite of PDF documents to create this podcast episode, engagingly to appeal to genealogists who are just embarking on their journey into using AI tools in this way. I have uploaded the recording unedited.

Note: the show notes cite the documents referenced for each of the paragraphs in the script developed at NotebookLM.

If you want to find out more about how NotebookLM can assist you in your genealogy journey, whether it be for comprehensive research notetaking or creating engaging ancestral storytelling, come and join us in the new course ‘AI Guide to Genealogy 2.0’.

The course includes a collection of weekly challenges, weekly workshops in Zoom, and a comprehensive suite of modules containing lessons for embedding a range of AI large language models in your genealogy workflow. These include Chat GPT4, Claude Sonnet, Perplexity, and NotebookLM.