Several years ago I provided memoir coaching to clients. Quite simply I helped people get control of their family tree or memoir projects by working with them to develop a work plan based on what they saw as their end goal. Most times people were simply overwhelmed by the amount of material they had gathered and in some cases, still had to gather, and didn’t know what to do with it. The majority of my clients thought a book was what was required of them and this was too daunting a task for them to consider Instead I suggested they look at preparing a biographical sketch of their ancestors. This is certainly a more achievable task and the information is presented in a readable format with interesting context added. Recently I returned to this idea of preparing biographical sketches for my own ancestors. Today with developments in AI and easily useable graphic design sites such as Canva, it is quite easy to prepare a biographical sketch for your ancestor.
My most recent sketch was for my great-grandfather Franz Schmid. I purchased a wonderful Ancestor Profile Canva Template from RootsNBranches Design (https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/RootsNBranchesDesign) which saved me a lot of time. Now all I need to do is change the information for each ancestor. I’ve included Franz’s completed biographical sketch so you can see how customizable templates can be. Some of Franz’s biography was developed using AI available on both Ancestry and MyHeritage sites. The facts for great grandfather Franz were generated from my family tree hosted on these sites.
Also included in Franz’s sketch is a timeline of important events, photos of important records (census etc.) and some pages containing historical context. One of the big defining moments in Franz’s life was the expulsion from his home in Czechoslovakia in 1946. The expulsion of the Germans from the Eastern territories was a major world event and I wanted to include some context into his sketch to explain it to those who are not aware of its occurrence. This is where AI comes in again. ChatGPT created paragraphs on the German expulsion, the weaving industry in Franz’s hometown of Lichten and a sketch of everyday life before the onset of WW2. All this information will eventually be used to provide historical context to Franz’s life. I’m looking forward to creating several of these biographical sketches for my maternal side.
I’ve also decided to add Biographical Sketches to my Fiverr profile which can be viewed here http://www.fiverr.com/s/EgqkNXK