David Unriddled

A 12-second dramatised excerpt from an ancestor persona conversation set in a 19th-century Welsh coal mining village.

Based on records, but still an interpretation. A way of testing how narrative and evidence can sit alongside each other.

#genealogy
#FamilyHistory

A simple way to get better AI output in genealogy?

Don’t just ask for an answer. Ask it to separate:
– Confirmed evidence
– Inference
– Speculation
– Missing information

Structure builds trust!

#genealogy
#FamilyHistory

Screenshot showing labelled AI inference within a genealogy storytelling interface, distinguishing historically grounded content from narrative interpretation.

When AI is used for storytelling in genealogy, trying to eliminate hallucination misses the point. The real task is making visible what is record and what is interpretation. That’s what builds trust.

Decades ago, I heard a professor warn that future historians might see the 1990s–2030s as a “hole” in human memory because digital preservation is a hard problem to solve.

As we approach 2030, I now wonder what genealogists will struggle to recover from our era.

#genealogy
#FamilyHistory

When you’re conversing with an ancestor persona, trust doesn’t come from fluency. It comes from knowing what is historically grounded and what is narrative interpretation.
#genealogy
#FamilyHistory

When an ancestor is encountered as a person, progress stops being abstract. Vaccines, workplace safety, women’s rights... they become visible as hard-won answers to the lives people actually lived.

#genealogy

One thing that surprised me early on: after years of working with genealogy records, people don’t ask for more facts when an ancestor is encountered as a person. They ask what life was like.

#genealogy

Part of my work sits at the intersection of genealogy and AI.

After years of working with records, I became interested in what happens when these facts are used to animate historically grounded characters.

That work became Through Their Eyes, and I’ll be sharing observations from that work here.

Ha. I Made it. Let's make something of this—to connect, comment, discuss, and explore. See you there!