A reader asked me this in email recently, and I thought "well, that's a great question."
1) My short response was: "Any profile in a MyHeritage family tree can be turned into a biography, but the quality of the created biography depends on the quality of the information in the person profile. Are there relationships to parents, siblings, spouses and children? Are there events with dates and places? Are there person and/or event notes that describe the person or events in their life? Are there source citations for the relationships and event information?"
In other words - "do a good job creating information about a person, and you will get a decent genealogical sketch or biography." But - "garbage in, garbage out" applies if there is little information about relationships, events, and notes.
2) MyHeritage can create an AI Biography of any person profile in a MyHeritage Family Tree. I wrote about the feature in New MyHeritage Feature -- Artificial Intelligence AI Biographer(tm). The feature is still there. Have you used it? Is it perfect? Nope - but nothing is perfect. There may be mistakes in records, there may be mistakes in the names, dates, places, relationships, events, notes and sources.
Think critically about the information in a family tree profile and what can be added, and then add that information to the profile before writing a biography. The MyHeritage AI biography is really very good if the profile has relationships, events and event notes.
3) There is another way to create a biography of a person from a MyHeritage family tree profile (or a profile in your family tree software or other online family tree). You can create a PDF of the profile by using this process:
- Choose a person in your MyHeritage Family Tree. [I chose my 2nd great-grandfather, David Auble (1817-1894. Note the link to "View AI Biography"]:
- Choose the "Profile" button on the "profile card" on the left side of the screen. That opens the Profile view for the person, with five buttons for "Details," "Matches," "Biography," "Photos" and "Sources."
On the "Details screen above there are two columns: The left-hand column has the list of events (e.g., birth, marriage, death, census, military, residence, etc., whatever you have included in the profile. The right-hand column provides "saved records" (shown above) and also "Immediate Family" shown below:
The "Immediate family" list includes parents, siblings, spouses and children.
- You can highlight all of the data on that page by using Ctrl-A (on Windows) or Cmd-A (on Mac) and then Copy it (Ctrl-C on Windows) and paste it (Ctrl-V on Windows) into a word processing document. Here is the top of the document for David Auble:
You could do the same thing for the Person Notes and Sources and add them to the word processing document.
- Edit your document (perhaps delete the buttons, align dates with places for events, etc.)
- Use your word processor to create a PDF of the document. Save the document to your computer file system with an appropriate file name.
- Open your favorite Artificial Intelligence tool (I usually use Claude 3.7 Sonnet for this), attach the PDF file, and ask the AI tool with "You are an expert genealogist. Please create a draft biography from the attached file, including parents, siblings, spouses and children (with birth and death dates and places), summarize life events, and add historical facts as appropriate, but do not add or embellish any extra genealogical details. Use section headings. Expand the information in each section to add more details. The tone should be casual and suitable for family members." and hit your "Enter" keyboard button.
- Here is a screen of the top of the Claude 3.7 Sonnet biography for David Auble created in about 20 seconds based on the PDF file, which was based on the MyHeritage "Details" page. If I had added Notes and Sources to the PDF the Claude AI biography would be different because it would have more information.
- The text of the AI-created biography is:
Biography of David Auble (1817-1894)
Early Life
David Auble was born in 1817 in Stillwater, Sussex County, New Jersey. He was the son of John Auble (1780-1831) and Anna Row Auble (1787-1860).
David grew up in a large family with several siblings including:
- Sophia Auble Foster (1805-1887)
- William Auble (1808-1875)
- Sarah Auble Schoonover (1811-1889)
- Elizabeth Auble (1814-1899)
- Nathan S. Auble (1820-1886)
- Samuel H. Auble (1823-1844)
- Hampton Auble (1827-1901)
- Robert Auble (1830-1920)
Marriage and Family
In 1844, David married Sarah G. Knapp in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey. Sarah (1818-1904) came from a prominent family. Her brother Manning M. Knapp would later become a Supreme Court judge in New Jersey, serving on the bench for seventeen years. She also had a brother C.C. Knapp who lived in Terre Haute, Indiana.
David and Sarah had six children:
- William A. Auble (1845-1901), who later lived in Kansas City
- Frances Mary "Fannie" Auble (1846-1917)
- Charles Auble (1849-1916), who later lived in Chicago
- Katherine "Kate" Auble (1851-1940)
- Anna Mattison Auble (1859-1913), who married Henry Shannon Buntin on December 7, 1888
- Cora A. Auble (1862-1876), who sadly died young
Life in New Jersey
Shortly after their marriage in 1844, David and Sarah purchased 4 acres of land in Newton, New Jersey, in partnership with David Foster. The deed shows they bought this property from Nathan Drake for 310 pounds.
The family lived in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, from at least 1849 (when son Charles was born there) through the early 1860s. The 1850 census shows David working as a "boot and shoe man" in Newark, with his wife Sarah and their three oldest children. By the 1860 census, the family had grown to include five children, and David was working in a shoe store.
Move to Indiana
In 1865, David relocated his family to Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. This move came at the end of the Civil War, a time when many Americans were relocating to seek new opportunities.
In August 1870, David purchased land in Terre Haute from Manning M. and Anna M. Knapp (presumably his brother-in-law and his wife) for $2,000. The 1870 census shows David working as a boot and shoemaker, with real estate valued at $2,500 and personal property worth $200.
According to his obituary, David ran a boot and shoe business on Main Street in Terre Haute for several years, becoming "widely known for his strict and honest business practices."
Later Years
The 1880 census shows the family living at 40 Chestnut Street in Terre Haute. By 1892, they had moved to 411 Chestnut Street, where they remained until David's death.
David became an invalid during the last two years of his life and was confined to his home for over a year before his death. He passed away on March 22, 1894, at the age of 77, and was buried in Terre Haute.
At the time of his death, David was survived by his wife Sarah, five of their children (William, Charles, Anna, Frances, and Katherine), his sister Elizabeth Auble of Philadelphia (then 80 years old), and two brothers – Robert Auble of Blairstown, New Jersey, and Hampton Auble of Philadelphia.
Character and Interests
David was a devout member of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church. His obituary noted that he was "well-known and one of Terre Haute's most honored citizens."
He took pride in his civic participation, often mentioning that he cast his first vote for William Henry Harrison, who was elected the ninth President of the United States in 1840. Harrison, known for his "Log Cabin Campaign," served just 31 days in office before dying of pneumonia – the shortest presidential term in U.S. history.
Historical Context
David's life spanned much of the 19th century, a time of significant change in America:
- He was born during the "Era of Good Feelings" under President James Monroe
- He lived through the development of the railroad system that transformed American transportation
- He witnessed the westward expansion of the United States
- He lived through the tumultuous period of the Civil War (1861-1865)
- His move to Indiana came during the Reconstruction Era
- He experienced the Industrial Revolution and the economic transition it brought
David's occupation in the shoe business would have evolved during his lifetime, from primarily handmade footwear to more industrialized production methods as manufacturing technology advanced throughout the 19th century.
His relocation from New Jersey to Indiana reflects the pattern of eastward-to-westward migration that was common during this period, as Americans sought new opportunities in developing regions of the country.
- That's just the first pass. I could ask Claude to expand the narrative in all sections and it would draw more information from the profile and revise the narrative. I can copy the AI-created biography into a word processing document and edit it. I usually have to add spouses of the children. Remember, the AI tool uses only the information that you provide to it. Provide mroe information to it and it will improve the biography.
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Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.
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