W - Weaving your Web at WeAre

April Challenge: A to Z of AI in Genealogy

Creating Your Family's Virtual Archive

In yesterday's exploration of virtual archives, we examined how platforms like WeAre.xyz transform family history preservation, offering collaborative spaces where ancestral stories can be shared across generations and geography. Today, we'll take a deeper dive into the practical aspects of creating your family web on WeAre.xyz platform, with special focus on handling even the most complex and challenging family histories.

Why Choose WeAre.xyz for Your Family Web?

While many genealogy platforms focus on building family trees or storing documents, WeAre.xyz offers something fundamentally different: a living, interconnected digital environment designed from the ground up with family engagement as its core principle.

As Simon Davies, founder of WeAre.xyz, notes, "Generally, the wider family is not that interested in the ancient struggles of our ancestors. We find it perplexing; how can it not be fascinating to know that your 4xGreat Grandparents abandoned their European homeland and struggled across an alien continent to carve out a new life?"

This perceptive observation guides the platform's innovative approach. Unlike traditional genealogy sites that primarily attract dedicated researchers, WeAre.xyz is designed to engage even family members who show little interest in ancestral histories.

The Unique Psychology of WeAre.xyz

The platform's effectiveness stems from its understanding of family psychology through three key principles:

1. Personalised Home Trees: Each family member experiences the archive from their perspective, with themselves at the center. As Davies explains, "Each family archive member experiences the information as if they were the central focus of the archive." When cousins Albert and Sam log into the same family archive, each sees their ancestors highlighted and positioned centrally, creating an immediate personal connection.

2. Three Knowledge Buckets: WeAre.xyz is structured around Davies' three buckets of family knowledge:

   • Beyond Living Memory: Traditional ancestral research about people no living person knew

   • Within Living Memory: Experiences of relatives that living family members personally knew

   • Memories as They Are Created: Current photos, videos, and events are documented as they happen

   By integrating all three, the platform ensures that even genealogically disinterested relatives find content that resonates emotionally.

3. Ubiquitous Tagging: Content appears wherever it's relevant—connected to individuals, families, places, and events—creating multiple pathways for discovery and connection.

Preparation: Before You Begin Weaving

Before diving into WeAre.xyz, consider these preparation steps to ensure your family web will be both engaging and sustainable:

Step 1: Inventory Your Materials

Take time to categorize your existing materials into Davies' three knowledge buckets:

• Beyond Living Memory: Historical photographs, vital records, census data, land deeds

• Within Living Memory: Photos and stories of grandparents, parents, and memorable family events

• Memories as They Are Created: Recent digital photos, videos, and social media posts worth preserving

This categorization will help you balance your archive's content to maximize engagement across different family interests.

Step 2: Digital Conversion Priorities

Not all materials can be digitized at once. Consider prioritizing:

1. At-Risk Materials: Fragile photographs, deteriorating documents, items stored in suboptimal conditions

2. Unique Items: One-of-a-kind artifacts that can't be replaced if lost

3. Materials with Strong Emotional Connections: Items that evoke particularly powerful memories

4. Temporal Urgency: Records connected to living elderly relatives who might provide valuable context

As Simon Davies advises, "I cannot over stress the importance of digitising old albums, slides, negatives, VHS, and DV tapes and then getting them stored somewhere, anywhere, in the cloud."

Step 3: Organizational Strategies

Before uploading, develop consistent approaches for:

• File Naming: Create a system that includes dates, names, and events (e.g., Sally Romano from Genealogy Space recommends: “the first three letters of the surname, the first three letters of the forename, and the year of birth. eg. for me that would be (Allery, Carole) ALLCAR1945")

• Metadata Planning: List key information you'll want to include with uploads (locations, people, dates, contexts)

• Content Categorization: Group materials logically for easier batch uploading

Step 4: Family Communication

Introduce your project thoughtfully:

• Share your vision without overwhelming family members with technical details

• Emphasize the aspects that will most appeal to different relatives

• Start with a small, engaged group before expanding to the wider family

• Consider creating a simple guide or scheduling a virtual demonstration

Note: for my Allery Tribe and McCulloch Clan, I have a private Facebook group where I regularly post updates to the stories displayed in the family archives at WeAre.

Building Your Web: The WeAre.xyz Framework

WeAre.xyz offers a robust yet intuitive framework for creating your family's digital home:

Core Structure Creation

Simon Davies offers two convenient ways to begin:

1. GEDCOM Import: Upload your existing family tree file to instantly create your basic structure. As Davies notes in his instructional materials, this provides an immediate foundation for your collaborative archive.

2. Build from Scratch: If you don't have a GEDCOM file, you can create your family structure directly on the platform using the intuitive tree-building tools.

Either approach establishes the essential framework to which you'll add rich content and contextual information.

Expanding with Rich Content

With your basic structure in place, begin adding multi-dimensional content:

• Documents and Photographs: Upload and tag key visual elements that bring your family history to life

• Place-Based Collections: Create location entries for ancestral homes, neighborhoods, and significant places

• Narrative Sections: Develop story elements that provide context and emotional connection

• Interactive Maps: Utilize WeAre.xyz's 3D fly-by maps and historical map overlays to visualize ancestral environments

Weaving Connections Through Tagging

The platform's "ubiquitous tagging" system is perhaps its most powerful feature. As Davies explains, "Content items can be connected to individuals, families, places, events, and artifacts. This ensures that content surfaces wherever it's relevant, creating multiple pathways to discovery."

This interconnectedness transforms static collections into dynamic webs of family information, where a single photograph might appear in an individual's profile, a family grouping, a location history, and an event timeline, maximizing its visibility and impact.

Permissions and Collaboration: Inviting Others to Your Web

WeAre.xyz offers flexible permission levels to support collaborative family archiving while maintaining appropriate controls:

• Super Admin: Complete control over all archive aspects

• Admin: Full editing rights except creating Super Admins

• Editor: Can create and edit their content

• Contributor: Can create their content, but cannot edit the family tree

• Viewer: View-only access

This tiered approach allows you to involve family members at appropriate levels—perhaps giving tech-savvy cousins Editor status while providing elderly relatives with simpler Viewer access.

Case Study: The Goodall Family Archive

The power of WeAre.xyz to handle complex, even tragic family histories is exemplified by the Goodall family archive. Their story includes one of the most challenging narratives any family historian could face: a tragic case of filicide in 1901.

Richard Edward Goodall, a 36-year-old coal porter living in Camden Town, London, was convicted at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) for drowning three of his children (ages 8, 4, and 2) in Regent's Canal. The 1901 census shows the Goodall family living at 1 Archer Street in St. Pancras, with Richard, his wife Clara Jane Camp (33), and their children: Florence (11), Edith Alberta (8), James Edward (3), and Mildred Catherine (1½).

This difficult history presents unique challenges for family archiving, but WeAre.xyz's thoughtful design makes it possible to present such stories with appropriate context and sensitivity.

Update on my research process for the story of Richard Edward Goodall!

I now have some vital records regarding Richard’s time at Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum and have been able to synthesise and summarise with the help of Ms Perplexity. These have now been added to the ongoing article called:

The Darkness Below - the darkness within

Note: the PDF records obtained from the Royal Berkshire Archives could not be transcribed accurately by either Claude or ChatGPT. Instead, I used Perplexity. That seems fitting as it was Perplexity who gave me the link to the Archives.

Note: WeAre provides me with an easy method of adding to the article as my research expands. I simply add a new section, add the Title style to its heading, and it is automatically included in the Table of Contents at the top of the Article.

Contextual Understanding

The Goodall family archive uses WeAre.xyz's historical context features to place Richard's tragedy within broader social patterns of the era:

• Historical information about working-class pressures in Victorian London

• Context about the limited mental health support systems of the period

• Materials exploring how physical disability often led to unemployment and financial crisis

• Connections to similar cases that highlight systemic issues rather than individual blame

Privacy and Sensitivity Controls

The platform's permission settings allow the family to control how sensitive information is shared:

• Detailed criminal records can be made accessible only to immediate family members

• Court documents and medical reports can be tagged with content warnings

• Simplified, age-appropriate narratives are available for younger family members

• Keeping this Article in a Private space will allow family members to process their reactions to difficult discoveries

Note: these will be housed in a separate archive established on WeAre, as this Goodall family does not have direct links to my Goodall ancestors. I have now created a separate family tree on Ancestry.com and can create a separate archive at WeAre for the family of Richard Edward Goodall. To get started, all I need to do is follow the instructions from the ‘Back to Basics’ video tutorials on the WeAredotxyz YouTube channel.

Multiple Narrative Perspectives

WeAre.xyz's flexible structure enables the story to be told from various perspectives:

• Richard's medical and psychological struggles

• Clara and Florence's experience of rebuilding their lives

• The broader social and historical context of Camden Town in the early 1900s **

• Contemporary understanding of mental health issues is similar to Richard's

** Note: My further research with Perplexity has uncovered an unsolved crime in 1907 in Camden Town. This will become part of a wider historical research project. Ms Perplexity suggests I take a look at the complex court transcripts from the Proceedings of the Old Bailey; my next research task.

Healing Through Understanding

Perhaps most importantly, the platform allows the Goodall family to transform a shameful secret into a contextualized human story. By understanding Richard not merely as a perpetrator but as a troubled individual whose actions were influenced by mental illness, physical disability, and societal factors, the family has been able to process this difficult history with compassion and insight.

Through my WeAre.xyz archive I am creating a space where the Goodall family and their future generations can understand their complex heritage without judgment or unnecessary stigma, exemplifying how even the most challenging family stories can be preserved with dignity and historical accuracy.

Future-Proofing Your Family Web

As you develop your family's presence on WeAre.xyz, consider these strategies for ensuring long-term sustainability:

Data Security and Backup

• Schedule regular downloads of your archive using WeAre.xyz's backup feature

• Store backup copies in multiple locations (cloud storage, external drives)

• Document passwords and access information in a secure but accessible location

Documentation for Future Generations

• Create clear guides explaining how to navigate and maintain the archive

• Document the stories behind key artifacts for context

• Include information about missing elements or areas for future research

Planning for Technological Evolution

• Use standard file formats whenever possible (JPG, PDF, MP4)

• Keep original high-resolution scans separate from web-optimized versions

• Stay informed about WeAre.xyz updates and new features

Summary: Weaving Your Family Legacy

Creating a family web on WeAre.xyz isn't just about organizing information—it's about weaving connections across time, geography, and generations. By thoughtfully utilizing the platform's innovative features, you create not just an archive but a living digital home where family stories can be preserved, shared, and continued.

As Davies eloquently states, "I have come to realise that my motivation relates to anxieties about life and death. Breathing life into long-departed ancestors comforts me that our essence can live on. I like to think that a part of all those who came before me exists in me, and a part of me and my family will exist in those who will follow."

In the final posts in these episodes, we'll explore other dimensions of AI in genealogy with the XYZ components of the April Challenge.. Until then, consider beginning your inventory process and exploring WeAre.xyz to see how it might serve your family's unique story.

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Ready to elevate your genealogy research with AI? Come and learn how to become an AI-skilled ancestral storyteller in the course, "Beyond the Pen: Using AI to Transform Ancestral Storytelling." Discover practical techniques and ethical approaches to incorporating AI into your family history work. Join us at Beyond the Pen and transform how you preserve your family's legacy!

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UPDATE ON PROGRESS WITH BEYOND THE PEN:

The final module lessons will be added during the next two weeks, and the course will be open for enrolments on May 10.

One of the new modules is all about how to create your virtual archives at WeAre.xyz. Family History Archiving with WeAre.xyz

In this module, I include 10 easy lessons that will fast-track your WeAre.xyz experience and enable you to:

1. Get started

2. Build a welcome page

3. Create an ancestor profile

4. Create a research article for your family history

5. Edit your tree

6. Upload documents

7. Create maps

8. Create media albums

9. Create stories about people, occasions, artefacts, and places

10. Build a Blog

Be quick and get your 25% discount with this code at the checkout: ai2025story

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Have you started planning your family's virtual archive? What aspects are you most excited or concerned about? Share your thoughts in the comments below!