What is your learning style? Do you prefer videos or the written word?
I have to admit—I’ve always preferred the written word when learning something new. There’s something about being able to read, re-read, and process information at my own pace that works best for me. But recently, using AI tools to create songs, audio overviews, and even videos has shown me that an ancestor’s story can be told in far more ways than I once imagined.
Thanks to the work of Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, I’ve been experimenting with tools like Suno and Google NotebookLM to create songs and audio summaries of my research. However, it was a Facebook post by Diane Henriks in the Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence group that encouraged me to take a closer look at something new. In her post, Bringing Ancestors to Life, she highlighted a feature I hadn’t explored yet: Cinematic Video Overview.
Having recently worked with ChatGPT to extract both military and genealogical details from my 2nd great grandfather Richmond Hammond’s Civil War and pension records, I decided to see what Google NotebookLM could do with the same material.
Instead of giving it a clean transcription, I uploaded a 259-page PDF of the original pension file—handwritten documents and all. No transcription. No cleanup.
What happened next was honestly amazing.
NotebookLM was able to interpret those handwritten images and produce:
- A cinematic video overview
- An audio overview
- And an infographic
Each output presented Richmond’s story in a different format—and each added something unique.
From there, I took things a step further.
I combined the audio overview with the infographic to create one video. I also paired a feature image created in ChatGPT (based on Richmond’s photograph) with a song created in Suno using lyrics composed by ChatGPT about his Civil War service to produce another.
The result?
Three completely different videos, all telling the story of Richmond Hammond—his Civil War service, his imprisonment, and the long-term impact of that experience—each in its own way.
This process reminded me that storytelling in genealogy doesn’t have to be limited to text. Whether it’s a blog post, a song, an infographic, or a cinematic video, each format reaches people differently—and sometimes, combining them brings an ancestor’s story to life in ways we never expected.
Cinematic Video – created by Google NotebookLM
Audio Overview and Infographic (created by GoogleNotebook LM)
Song – Lyrics written by ChatGPT, image created by ChatGPT, song created by Suno.com