To Use or Not to Use AI

Genealogical Research, Creative Writing, and Artificial Intelligence

Apr 10, 2025

Writing is a deeply personal and rewarding craft. As literary artists, we pull from the life we’ve led and the experiences we’ve had. All these experiences will come into play whether you’re documenting family history or crafting fictional worlds.

With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), writers are presented with a choice to incorporate AI into their writing process or not. While some see it as a tool that can enhance their storytelling, streamline research, and refine their prose, others want to avoid it at all costs.

But what is the right choice?

In this article, I’ll explore how AI can assist in two distinct types of writing:

Genealogical writing, and
Creative writing.

I will also talk about how to merge these approaches to help create richer, more compelling narratives.

Using AI for Genealogical Writing

Genealogical writing is about preserving family history, tracing ancestry, and documenting the lives of those who came before us. It requires meticulous research, attention to detail, and the ability to weave historical facts into engaging stories. Research and reconstruction is time-consuming, but if you're like me, that is part of what you enjoy it. Still, I do have a life outside of Genealogy. One that requires me to turn off my computer and leave the archives to spend time with the living people in my life. That is why AI can be an invaluable tool in this process. It can help me with some of the more tedious tasks, allowing me more time elsewhere.

Here are some ways AI can help:

Organizing Research

Genealogical writing often involves sifting through large amounts of data—census records, birth certificates, family trees, and historical documents. AI tools like Evernote or Notion can help organize this information into easily accessible formats. A free version of Google Keep is also an option. These programs can be used on your mobile device or your computer.

Additionally, AI-powered search engines like Google Gemini, Perplexity, or ChatGPT can help you find relevant historical context for your ancestors’ lives.

For example:

- Write a prompt: “What was life like in rural Kansas in the 1920s?” to gather background details for your narrative.1 These answers can be used as jumping-off points to help you get started or continue your writing.

- Use AI to summarize lengthy documents or records into key points. Remember to look back at the original document!

Remember: AI can oversimplify, and you will lose some nuances of what you’re reading.

Generating Narrative Frameworks

AI can help you transform dry facts into compelling stories. By entering key details about an ancestor’s life—such as their occupation, location, and major life events—AI can suggest narrative frameworks or story arcs. These can be used to help you plot what you will write next.

Remember: AI generated replies should not be used as replacements for your authentic voice. Nothing can capture your voice like you can.

Example:

- If your ancestor emigrated from Ireland during the Great Famine, AI can provide historical context and suggest ways to weave it into a personal story. It can also suggest further information, like book titles or documentaries, that will help you better understand and capture the essence of that time period.

Remember:

All suggestions from AI should be fact checked — AI does not always pull the correct information. Make sure to double check all responses!

Enhancing Historical Accuracy

Accuracy is crucial in genealogical writing. AI tools like WolframAlpha or HyperWrite's Historical Analysis AI can fact-check dates, events, and timelines to ensure your narrative aligns with historical records. Still, it’s always better to double-check and not solely rely on their replies. Remember, AI is generative, meaning it is searching and using information that is already out there—and that information may be incorrect.

Using AI for Creative Writing

Creative writing is all about imagination—whether you’re crafting novels, short stories, or poetry. AI can be helpful , but, at the same time, AI isn’t the best source to WRITE for YOU.

By writing for you, I mean using AI responses to your ideas as “creative” piece.

But here are some easy that AI can help you in your creative process:

Brainstorming Ideas

AI is perfect for overcoming writer’s block. Tools like Sudowrite or Jasper can generate ideas for plots, characters, and settings based on your input. You can write out your story idea and tell it to list five endings, then use those endings to inspire you.

Developing Characters

If you’re writing about your ancestors, maybe this won’t apply to you, but you're writing Historical Fiction, you can utilize AI to help create multidimensional characters. AI can help you flesh out character profiles by generating backstories, personality traits, and motivations. These descriptions can help inspire you to plot out your book.

Example:

- Use your family history as a prompt: “My grandmother was a rebellious teenager who was a teenager in the 1950s, tell me what are ways she or other girls may have rebelled during this time,” and AI can expand on social conflicts of the time period.

Refining Language and Style

Even the most creative ideas need polished execution. Tools like Grammarly, Hemingway Editor, or AutoCrit analyze your text for grammar errors and suggest improvements in tone or readability. While Grammarly now has features that will “Improve” your writing or allow you to use its AL to “Make it Better,” these features should be avoided. These AIs should be used to help with grammar and pacing – not rewriting.

If you are unsure if your writing sounds good, read it out loud – or have a program like NaturalReader read it to you. You will be surprised how different your words sound when read out loud.

Marrying Genealogical Writing with Creative Writing

The beauty of writing lies in its versatility—genealogical writing and creative writing don’t have to exist separately. By combining elements of both, you can create deeply personal narratives that blend historical accuracy with imaginative storytelling. My webinar and substack, “From Research to Novel,” are designed to help you do just that.

Turning Facts into Fiction using genealogical research as the foundation for creative works.

For example:

- Take your ancestor’s migration story and reimagine it as a fictional tale with added drama or romance.

- Create composite characters based on multiple relatives to explore themes of identity or resilience that can be turned into a Historical Fiction Novel.

The Power of Combining History and Imagination

AI offers writers endless possibilities for creating compelling narratives, but it should be used cautiously and not in place of stretching our creative legs. Whether you’re documenting your family’s legacy or crafting entirely new worlds, AI, at times, can enhance your storytelling skills by helping you work around writer's block, save you time on research by having it perform tedious tasks, and utilize it to evaluate continuation or grammar of your work in progress.

While AI should not be used to write for you, it is a wonderful tool to help you organize your time better and streamline your process.