Do you consider yourself a leader or a follower when it comes to using artificial intelligence in your genealogy research? I’m aware of several early leaders in this space, but I’ll admit that I sometimes find their prompts and workflows difficult to follow. What I appreciate most are approaches that are transparent, practical, and adaptable to real-world genealogy projects.
That’s why I’ve long valued the work of Randy Seaver, who consistently experiments with AI tools in ways genealogists can understand and apply. More recently, I discovered the Ancestors and Algorithms community, which offers both a podcast and a Facebook group focused on approachable, step-by-step methods for incorporating AI into genealogical writing.
In Episode 23 of the podcast (embedded below), the hosts walk through a process for creating a narrative biography that combines a Claude-generated timeline with historical context developed using Perplexity. The episode is accompanied by detailed, written instructions shared in the Facebook group, making the method easy to test and replicate.
Using this approach, I created the following narrative biography of Frances Artlissa “Artie” Ricketts Briles. While the process differs slightly from my earlier ABC Biographies, the goal remains the same: to present a carefully researched, historically grounded account that relies only on verified facts while situating an ancestor’s life within the broader world she inhabited.
Below is the resulting biography telling her story.
Frances Artlissa “Artie” Ricketts Briles (1868–1947)
The Story of Frances Artlissa “Artie” Ricketts Briles
Frances Artlissa Ricketts—known to everyone as Artie—was born on April 7, 1868, in Clinton, Indiana, just a few years after the Civil War had ended. She was the daughter of Rachel Elmeda Christy and James Marshall Ricketts, and her earliest years were spent in Sugar Creek Township, where her family was still rooted in the familiar landscape of Indiana.
Artie was very young when her life changed in a lasting way. Sometime during the 1870s, her family joined the steady stream of Midwesterners heading west to Kansas. By 1880, twelve-year-old Artie was living in Everett Township in Woodson County. Kansas was still a young place then—its towns small, its future uncertain, its communities being built almost from scratch. This prairie setting became the backdrop of Artie’s growing-up years, shaping the rhythm of her daily life and the expectations of adulthood that lay ahead.
She remained in Everett Township through her teenage years, and it was in Woodson County that Artie’s adult life truly began. On February 19, 1890, she married Edward Grant Briles, a Kansas native from Coffey County. Together, they began what would become a long partnership, one rooted in family, work, and the changing towns of southeastern Kansas.
Within a few short years, Artie became the mother of four children. Her first, Edward Osmond Briles, was born in 1891 in Burlington. Ethel Frances followed in 1893 in Coffey County, then Glen in 1895 in Woodson County, and finally Lulu Belle in 1899, again in Coffey County. The places recorded in their births tell a quiet story of movement—of a young family relocating as opportunities and circumstances required—while Artie carried on the steady work of raising children in a rural world without modern conveniences.
By the mid-1890s, Artie and her family were living in Neosho Township, then later in Pleasant Township in Coffey County, where they were still found in 1905. The following years brought more moves: back to Woodson County in Liberty Township by 1910 and 1915, and then to Center Township by 1920. These were not restless wanderings but practical relocations within a familiar region—moves that reflect the realities of farm and small-town life in Kansas.
In November 1920, Artie was living in Yates Center, the county seat of Woodson County, signaling a shift from township life to town living. For a time in the mid-1920s, she and Edward lived in Iola, in Allen County, where their address—612 North Jefferson—was carefully recorded. By 1930, however, Artie was once again back in Yates Center, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
One of the most publicly noted moments of Artie’s later years came in February 1940, when she and Edward celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Fifty years of marriage was no small accomplishment, especially for a couple whose life together had included frequent moves, hard work, and the demands of raising a family in a changing Kansas landscape.
Artie spent her final years in Yates Center, living quietly in the town that had become her home. She died there on April 28, 1947, at the age of seventy-nine. Two days later, she was laid to rest at Crandall Cemetery in Coffey County—a place that suggests enduring ties to the county where she had lived, raised children, and built much of her life.
Artie’s story is not one of grand headlines or dramatic turns. It is the story of a woman born in one state, shaped by another, and remembered through the places she lived, the family she raised, and the years she shared with her husband. Through census records, dates, and town names, we catch glimpses of a life that was steady, mobile, and deeply rooted in southeastern Kansas—a life that, in its quiet consistency, helped form the family that followed.