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Have you ever looked at a genealogy record and thought, there's more to the story? How much research do you need to write a story about your ancestor?
If you've wanted to write a family history, but you're not sure what path to take with your genealogy records, then, this writing challenge will benefit you.
A Simple Process to Turn Genealogical Records Into Family Stories
When doing writing challenges, I have developed a six-step process for transforming a document into a draft. As a reminder, here are those steps.
Source Citation - For the first document that you'll process, write a proper source citation for your document.
Transcription - Instead of staring at a blank page wondering what to write, extract all the details from your initial genealogical record.
Understand the Document - With the information extracted, do you understand what the information is trying to convey? Have you consulted the entire source? More could be hiding in the book or on the next page.
Rearrange the Details - Once you understand the document and have extracted the details, arrange the data into sentences and paragraphs.
Mark Up the Document - Once the data is in a readable format, begin asking questions to understand the context of the event recorded in the document. And begin to ask questions about the familial and social history context.
Research Answers to the Mark Up Questions and Update your Draft - This step can be fun, so try not to go on too many tangents. Gather enough details to complete your first draft.
The Passenger List That Began the Challenge
A fan named Robin submitted an index to a passenger list for this writing challenge. Starting with an index card isn't always ideal, but we should start with what we have an improve as we go.
I used the Ellis Island Index Card to extract this information:
Tage O Johansson, Single, Male, aged 5
Last place of redience Halmstd, Swedeny
Passenger ID 101005020621
Date of Arrival 9 Oct 1912 aboard the C F Tietgen From Copenhagen.
Then I used the Google Docs "Help Me Write" feature to turn that data into sentences.
Tage O Johansson, a single male aged 5, traveled from his last place of residence in Halmstad, Sweden. He arrived on October 9, 1912, in Copenhagen aboard the C.F. Tietgen. His passenger ID is 101005020621.
The image I had came from an Ancestry Member Tree, so this is the source citation that I crafted. What do you think?
ilike2search2, "Johnson Family Tree," Ancestry (ancestry.com : 19 Nov 2024), Screenshot of LibertyElllisFoundation.org posted 24 Aug 2015 with passenger details about Tage O. Johansson's arrival at Ellis Island. The original source behind a paywall.
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Go To the Originals Behind the Index
Genealogists know that we should not stop with an index to a record but seek out the original source, because there might be more information hiding on the document that the index doesn't share. I did just that and extracted the following details:
Left Copenhagen on 26 Sep 1912
Arrived in New York, 9 Oct 1912
Travelers
Ida A Johansson, 39, wife, 5'3", fair, blond, blue, born in Holm, Sweden
Her Children:
Nils H , 7, son, fair, blond, blue, born in Halmstad, Sweden
Gustav, 6, son, fair, blond, blue, born in Halmstad, Sweden
Tage O, 5, son, fair, blond, blue, born in Halmstad, Sweden
Stig R, 3, son, blond, blue, born in Halmstad, Sweden
Anna I, 11 mo, daughter, blond, blue, born in Halmstad, Sweden
Relative back home: Johannes Anderson at Alfhern Holm, Halmstad
Final Destination: Ida and her children, with $25 in her pocket, meet up with "My husband Oscar Johnson, residing at 502 Prospect St, W New Brighton, in Staten Island, New York.
Once again, I used ChatGPT to turn these details into a biographical narrative. Here's the result.
On a crisp September day in 1912, a small family embarked on a grand adventure. Led by Ida Johansson, a 39-year-old woman with fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, the family set sail from Copenhagen aboard the C.F. Tietgen. With her were her five young children: Nis, Gustaf, Tage, Stig, and Irma. Their hearts were filled with hope and a touch of fear as they left their beloved homeland of Sweden, their last known residence being the quaint town of Halmstad.
Tage, a bright-eyed 5-year-old with fair hair and blue eyes, was one of the youngest members of the family. Little did he know this journey would mark a significant turning point in his life. The family’s destination was the bustling city of New York, where they planned to reunite with their husband and father, Oscar Johnson. He awaited their arrival at their new home on 502 Prospect Street in West New Brighton, Staten Island.
Insert details about Oscar’s voyage 2 years earlier.
With a mere $25 in her pocket, Ida carried the hopes and dreams of her family. As the ship sailed across the vast ocean, she must have pondered the future, wondering what awaited them in the New World. Would they find a warm welcome, opportunities, and a better life? Only time will tell.
Not bad. Now, this narrative style may or may not be your cup of tea (or glass of lemonade, but at least you can get a feel for who easy it is to use AI tools to help write your family history.
HOWEVER! And I must stress the how-ever.
Notice what the AI tool tool out.
The ages and physical descriptions of Tage's siblings. There are other details missing, so don't use AI writing tools as the end all be-all of writing family histories. Instead, use them as a jumping off point and then expand as you go.
This Writing Challenge Needed More Than One Passenger List
Normally, after writing a first draft, I would mark it up, identify missing details, and start layering in familial and historical context. But this Writing Challenge took me in an unexpected direction—one that reshaped the entire story.
At first, the focus was simple: Tage, his mother, and siblings crossing the ocean to reunite with his father. But the more I dug into the details, the more I realized their journey wasn’t just about arrival—it was about survival, separation, and reunion. Tage’s father had immigrated two years earlier, aided by his wife’s sister’s husband. By the time the family arrived, he was working at a shipyard in New York. A new baby was born. Then tragedy struck—Tage’s mother died, and suddenly, the family was scattered. Some children were sent to an orphanage in Connecticut, while their father remained in New York.
This is where the tangent happened. While working with the writing challenge submitter, I received several records—but I didn’t stop there. Instead of just reviewing the documents, I started building out the family tree on FamilySearch (even though some details were initially found on Ancestry). Doing this helped me see connections I might have missed if I had only focused on isolated records.
Then came another twist: Swedish Household Records—a resource I hadn’t previously explored. These records provided crucial insights into the family’s life before immigration, confirming relationships and clarifying lingering questions. And yet, one mystery remained. When the father reunited his children, Tage was missing. He appears to have been living elsewhere, possibly under a different name. Why? That’s a question for another research session.
This detour taught me that before you can enrich a story with familial and historical context—or even think about using storytelling techniques to make it more engaging—you first need to understand the full picture. Sometimes, a draft isn't ready for polish because there are still missing pieces that shape the narrative in unexpected ways. When that happens, don’t be afraid to follow the paper trail. Chasing down additional records, exploring new sources, and even building out a family tree can provide the clarity needed to tell a more complete and compelling story.
Where the Story Currently Stands
In the video, you can explore all the steps that I took to take me from what I shared earlier to this drafat that began with ChatGPT's help
Current Draft
On the crisp day of 18 September 1912, a small family embarked on a grand adventure. Led by Ida (Anderson) Johansson, a 39-year-old woman with fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, the family set sail from Copenhagen aboard the C.F. Tietgen. With her were her five young children: Nis, Gustaf, Tage, Stig, and Irma. Their hearts were filled with hope and a touch of fear as they left their beloved homeland of Sweden, their last known residence being the quaint town of Halmstad. She was heading to see her sister Selma, who had migrated to America ten years earlier. She left behind a child who had died in infancy and her father Johannes Anderson (and possibly her mother and other siblings).
Tage, a bright-eyed 5-year-old with fair hair and blue eyes, was one of the youngest members of the family. Little did he know this journey would mark a significant turning point in his life. The family’s destination was the bustling city of New York, where they planned to reunite with their husband and father, Oscar Johnson. He awaited their arrival at their new home on 502 Prospect Street in West New Brighton, Staten Island.
Oscar Johansson, a 35-year-old markman, and Wilhelm Anderson, a 32-year-old spinner, departed from Copenhagen on April 11, 1910, aboard the Cf Tietgen. Both men hailed from Halmstod, Sweden, and carried $25 each upon their arrival in New York on April 24, 1910. Despite being brothers-in-law with next of kin residing in Karlken 68 Halstod, their American journeys diverged. Oscar, standing at 5'7" with blond hair and blue eyes, intended to settle in New York with his brother-in-law Charles Dohlman.
Charles Dohlman was a native of New York. Tage’s aunt Selma Anderson had migrated to New York in 1902. It seems likely that she wrote home to her sister Ida and encouraged her siblings to migrate with all possible haste. Oscar would make the voyage ahead of Ida and his children.
He also brought William Anderson with him (a likely brother, but whose familial relationship has yet to be established). Wilhelm, three inches taller than Oscar, planned to relocate to Old Orchard, Maine, under the care of his brother-in-law C O Nelson.
With a mere $25 in her pocket, Ida carried the hopes and dreams of her family. As the ship sailed across the vast ocean, she must have pondered the future, wondering what awaited them in the New World.
After 21 days, they arrived in New York and disembarked at Ellis Island. Then, they experienced the Ellis Island processing center.
Detainment note says: Ida Johnsen & 5 ch, denotes manifest group number 12 12/7 - 1 child aged one year or under, 5 over the age of one; Cause of detention - husband = Oscar Jonsen 502 Prospect St W New Brighton, SI, discharged by Inspector A at 9 45. Five meals provided
Would they find a warm welcome, opportunities, and a better life? Only time would tell.
With his family in America and going into his third year of residency, Oscar began the process of becoming a citizen. Oscar filled out a Declaration of Intention on 16 June 1913. The record offers the following identifying details about his appearance. Oscar’s hair had turned brown, and he had documented a scar on the back of his left hand. Resides at 104 Caroline St, West New Brighton, New York. He intended to renounce his claim to Gustavus, King of Sweden, to become a US Citizen.
The following year, the couple and their children welcomed Arthur Johnson to the home upon his birth in 1914.
Unfortunately, Oscar became a widow after Sep 1918 when his wife of about 15 years. Oscar was left with potentially six children aged 14 to 4 in the home. Nils remained with his father. In 1920, Oscar was working as a ship carpenter. Nils lived with him (and eventually met his future wife through a neighboring family surnamed Blue.) They were boarding with the Smith family, the wife of which was Swedish by birth.
Nine years after, Oscar applied for full citizenship rights on 17 March 1921. At the time of his application, Oscar was a ship carpenter in Tompkinsville, NY. Upon receiving approval for this claim, he and his children Nils Harold (b. 1904), Gustavs Herbert (b 1906), Taga Oscar (b 1907), Stig Rudolph (b 1909), Anna Ida (b Oct 1910), and Arthur Henry b 1913 in Richmond Co, NY. Witnesses are Charles A Delmar Sr (his brother-in-law) & Charles A. Delmur, Jr (a nephew by marriage), who live in Westerleigh, New York. Since Charles the elder was the destination of Oscar upon his arrival in New York and a native New Yorker, he would be a valid witness to Oscar’s character. Charles the younger was the son of Charles’ first wife, not the sister to Oscar’s deceased wife. He, too, could know of Oscar’s character.
By 1930, Oscar was able to ‘reassemble’ his children under one roof with the exception of Tage and Nils who had moved out.
Robin has a great starting point from this writing challenge. Sure it's messy and probably has a million grammatical error, but it's a draft. The point of the first draft is to finish it. And that's exactly what you see.
Robin still has some homework to answer some questions, but she can also start adding the fun facts and context that will make this story shine.
What suggestions do you have for Robin's ancestor? Let me know in the comments below.
Let's make family history fun and inspiring, one story at a time.