The Claude (now Sonnet 4) artificial intelligence tool can be used to write family-friendly biographies of my ancestors that might interest and engage my relatives and descendants to help them learn about and understand their ancestry. Using the ABC method described in Using Artificial Intelligence In the Ancestor Biography Creation (ABC) Process, here is one ancestor biography.
2) For the Claude AI biography, I attached the PDF of the genealogical sketch for the specific ancestor using the plus (+) icon, and then prompted the AI tool with: "You are an expert genealogist. Please create a biography based on information in 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 engaging and suitable for family members."
3) Here is the Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4 biography:
John Rich (1790-1868): A Life in Wiltshire
Early Life and Family Origins
John Rich entered the world in the autumn of 1790 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, a bustling market town known for its thriving woolen cloth industry. He was baptized on November 14, 1790, at the parish church of St. James with St. Stephen in Trowbridge, marking the beginning of a life that would span nearly eight decades in rural England.
John was the eldest child of William and Betty (Noad) Rich, born into a working-class family during the height of the Industrial Revolution. As the firstborn, he would have carried special responsibilities within the family structure typical of the era. His parents went on to have five more children: Mary (born 1793), Robert (1797-1864), Lucretia (born 1802), and Martha (1805-1814). Tragically, young Martha died at just nine years old, a common occurrence in an age when childhood mortality was devastatingly high.
Marriage and New Beginnings
On February 14, 1815—Valentine's Day—John married Rebecca Hill in a ceremony at Hilperton Parish Church. The wedding was conducted by curate J. Bailes, with the couple married by banns, a traditional English practice where the intended marriage was announced in church for three consecutive Sundays before the ceremony. Both John and Rebecca signed the marriage register with their mark rather than their signatures, indicating they were likely unable to write—a common situation among the working class of the early 19th century.
Rebecca Hill was born just months before John, baptized on April 25, 1790, in Hilperton. She was the daughter of John and Ann (Warren) Hill, making her a local girl from the same community where the couple would build their life together. The witnesses to their marriage were George Hill, likely a relative of Rebecca's, and Isaac Hiscock.
A Growing Family
John and Rebecca established their household in Hilperton, where they would raise their large family. The couple had eleven children, though tragedy would touch their lives repeatedly, as was common in an era before modern medicine. Their children, all born in Hilperton, included:
James Rich (born 1817) became their eldest surviving son. He would later venture to Wales, marrying Ann Gray in Cardiff in 1839 and having five children. After Ann's death, he remarried Eliza Cowham in 1871, though this second marriage produced no children. James lived a long life, dying in Cardiff in 1885.
Ann Rich (born 1818) married James Gaisford on March 25, 1838, in her home parish of Hilperton. The couple had eleven children together before Ann emigrated to America, where she died in Minonk, Illinois, in 1882, far from her birthplace.
John Rich (born 1818) died at the tender age of four, sometime before 1822.
William Rich (born December 1821) died at just four months old in April 1822.
John Rich (born 1822) survived to adulthood, marrying Lydia Scott on December 23, 1838, and having six children. He lived until about 1870, dying in Bradford-on-Avon.
Jesse Rich (also born in 1822, likely John's twin) married Jane Rose in 1849. They had ten children, and Jesse lived in Hilperton until his death in 1871.
Hannah Rich (born April 16, 1824) married James Richman in 1845 and had nine children. She later emigrated to America, settling in Putnam, Connecticut, where she died in 1911 at the remarkable age of 87.
Emma Rich (christened in March 1827), probably died young.
Elizabeth Rich (christened in March 1827) married James Carpenter in 1847 and raised ten children.
William Rich (born March 11, 1830) married Caroline Linzey in 1851 and had eight children. He also emigrated to America, dying in Putnam, Connecticut, in 1914.
Samuel Rich (born February 28, 1833) was the youngest child. He married Deborah Ann Thornton around 1864 in Connecticut and had two children, dying in Putnam in 1897.
Working Life in Industrial England
John Rich was a hand loom weaver, a skilled craftsman in an industry that was rapidly changing during his lifetime. The early 19th century marked a period of dramatic transformation in the textile industry, with mechanization gradually replacing traditional hand weaving. Despite these changes, John continued working as a hand loom weaver throughout his life, representing the persistence of traditional craftsmanship even as factories began to dominate production.
The 1841 census records show John, then 47, living with his wife Rebecca and five of their children still at home: James (18), Elizabeth (16), Hannah (15), William (10), and Samuel (7). By this time, some of his older children had already married and established their own households.
John leased land from Grace Shrapnell in Hilperton Marsh, consisting of a house and garden plot. The property was located on the south side of what is now Horse Road, opposite St. Mary's Close—a modest holding that provided the family with a home and space for a kitchen garden, essential for supplementing their diet.
The Great Migration
By the 1851 census, John's household had shrunk considerably. At age 58, he was still working as a hand loom weaver, living with 63-year-old Rebecca and their two youngest sons, William (21, also working as a weaver) and Samuel (18, who had found work as an India rubber worker—a sign of the new industrial opportunities emerging in the area).
The mid-1850s brought significant changes to the Rich family as several of John and Rebecca's adult children made the momentous decision to emigrate to the United States. Ann, Hannah, William, and Samuel all left England for America, seeking better opportunities in the rapidly expanding nation across the Atlantic. This was part of a larger wave of British emigration during the mid-19th century, driven by economic hardship, land scarcity, and the promise of prosperity in America.
Later Years and Final Days
The 1861 census found John and Rebecca, now in their seventies, living alone together in Hilperton. John, at 70, was still described as a woolen cloth weaver, demonstrating remarkable longevity in his trade. Rebecca, at 75, had weathered the challenges of raising eleven children and seeing many of them venture far from home.
Rebecca died first, sometime before March 7, 1862, when she was laid to rest in Hilperton churchyard. She had lived to see the dawn of the Victorian era and witnessed tremendous changes in British society, from the Napoleonic Wars through the Industrial Revolution.
John lived as a widower for six more years in their longtime home in Hilperton Marsh. He died at the age of 79 and was buried on June 8, 1868, joining Rebecca in the Hilperton churchyard. His death marked the end of a life that had spanned from the era of King George III through the early reign of Queen Victoria.
Historical Context
John Rich's life unfolded during one of the most transformative periods in English history. Born in the final decade of the 18th century, he witnessed the Industrial Revolution reshape English society. His trade as a hand loom weaver placed him at the center of these changes, as traditional textile work gradually gave way to mechanized production.
The Rich family's story reflects broader patterns of 19th-century English life: large families, high infant mortality, the persistence of traditional crafts alongside industrial change, and the great wave of emigration to America that saw millions of British citizens seek new lives across the Atlantic. John and Rebecca's children scattered across two continents, from Wales to Connecticut, creating a diaspora that would carry the Rich family name into the New World while John and Rebecca remained rooted in the Wiltshire countryside where they had been born and raised.
Their legacy lives on through their descendants, who carried the values, memories, and family traditions of rural England to their new homes in America, creating an enduring link between the old world and the new.
4) A poem and song lyrics to commemorate the life of John Rich (1790-1868) can be found in "John Rich's Legacy" -- A Family History Poem, Song and Podcast Created by Artificial Intelligence. The song created from the song lyrics can be played in that blog post, and in "John Rich's Legacy" on Suno.com, and below:
6) I edited the Claude biography text to add more family detail and correct minor errors. Every large language model (LLM) AI tool writes descriptive text much better than I can write. I was an aerospace engineer in my former life, and my research reports and genealogical sketches reflect "just the facts gleaned from my research." The AI tools are very perceptive, insightful and create readable text in seconds, including local and national historical events and social history detail.
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.
Copyright (c) 2025, Randall J. Seaver
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