From Attic to AI: A Family Story
What You'll Find Here
Ever wonder how to breathe new life into old family stories? I took an old newspaper article about my family's escape from Russia in 1918 and, using AI tools, turned it into an interactive experience. I'll show you exactly how I did it - from getting a digital copy to creating an AI-powered podcast. Whether you're a history buff, tech enthusiast, or just love a good family story, you'll find an interesting nugget or two in here!
The Discovery: A Precious Family Artifact
For years I've had this newspaper clipping sitting in my attic that my mom laminated onto a piece of cardboard. Well, not the actual newspaper - it's a photocopy of a St. Paul Daily News article from November 28, 1920. Mom did her best to preserve it, but the whole article didn't even fit on the cardboard, so she had to cut off some of it.
The headline tells you everything: "How a St. Paul Family Broke Through Russian Battle Lines." You can see the photos of family members and a map, telling this incredible story of how my grandmother, her sisters, brother, mom, and grandmother made a remarkable 14,000-mile journey to America in 1918. Written by my great Aunt Bertha Levenson, this article captures the details of their daring journey to freedom.
You know how sometimes you find something that just sparks an idea? Well, staring at this laminated photocopy on cardboard, I started thinking about all the AI tools we have now. What if I could do more than just preserve this photocopy? What if I could bring this whole story to life? I want to make sure this story doesn't get lost through the generations.
The Tech Journey
Getting Digital
So I reached out to the Minnesota Historical Society, specifically the Gale Family Library for a digital copy. When it arrived in my inbox today, I was excited but also faced a new challenge - parts of the text, especially along the left margin, were pretty faded and hard to read. But hey, that's where AI could help, right?
First Try: ChatGPT
With the digital copy in hand, my AI journey began and the first thing I did was pretty simple - I uploaded the PDF to ChatGPT and asked, "Could you summarize this attachment?" (Spoiler alert: it didn't work). But ChatGPT wasn't completely useless. It actually gave me some good ideas about how to get the text out of this thing.
Making it Readable
One suggestion was to try Amazon Textract, and wow - it actually worked for my use case.!
How ChatGPT walks me through how to use tech that's new to me. After following the steps, I ended up with both a .txt file and a .CSV file of the whole article. Here's what a .txt file looks like if you haven't seen one before.
By the way, I also learned there are multiple tools available that do text extraction that might be easier to navigate than Amazon. You could try Claude.ai or even Canva.
Building a Custom GPT
From there, I clicked Explore GPTs in ChatGPT and called up a pre-built tool called Custom GPT Builder. I use it to help guide me on building my own GPTs. It speeds up the process. While it's not perfect, it gets me closer to what I want. I knew I wanted the GPT to answer in first person as if the words were coming from Bertha and I wanted it to be conversational so that a 4th - 8th grader could understand the answer. And I wanted it to ask follow-up questions of the person interacting with the tool. It's still a work in progress and I would love for you to take it for a test drive and give me feedback on what I can do to improve it. Here's the link: GPT: Bertha Levenson's Immigrant Story
Enter NotebookLM
While the GPT was handling conversations pretty well, I needed something more. I wanted to see key milestones in a more visual way. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get ChatGPT to give me a list of locations and key dates.
That's when I had my "aha" moment - what about NotebookLM? I uploaded both the raw text and the PDF to this organizational tool, and it helped me create a clear timeline of events that I could turn into new sources. But here's where it gets really cool. I even got an AI-generated podcast where hosts talk about the entire historical experience! And there's a recent new feature where you can add yourself to the conversation. You should hear how the hosts reacted when they found out one of the family members was my grandma. You can watch the video to get a taste of what you'll hear in the podcast. (Please note this video was recorded before my mom tested and pointed out that Isadore is a brother. So where the hosts reference all sisters, that has now been updated)
Making It Visual
While NotebookLM's text timeline was great, I wanted a diagram not just a text list. It just so happens that last week, my friend Dan Wegner introduced me to Napkin AI during one of our Daily AI Experiment podcasts. I was able to take the timeline that NotebookLM created and copy-paste that into Napkin AI, which gave me several visual options to choose from. This is one of my favorites.
The Power of Community and Collaboration
Sometimes the best solutions come from sharing your challenges. Talk about perfect timing! Minutes after figuring all of this out, Kyle Shannon was hosting his weekly AI Salon Office Hours. I couldn't contain my excitement and shared everything I'd done. When I mentioned I was struggling with mapping the journey, Kyle immediately said, "You have to try lovable.dev - it'll create an interactive map for you!" I was aware of lovable.dev because Dan had demonstrated this tool in one of our previous podcasts, however I hadn't tried it yet.
Right after that call, I jumped on a one-on-one with my friend Kellye Kamp from SourceKamp. Together, we created this interactive experience in just 15 minutes! We are still working on how to make it available to the public without entering an API key for each run. Stay tuned for updates on that.
Looking Back and Looking Forward
This journey taught me so much—not just about my family but about what's possible when you combine curiosity, AI, and a willingness to learn. Tools like Amazon Textract, ChatGPT, NotebookLM, and Napkin AI can transform old family archives into vibrant, living stories.
What's Next?
This is just the beginning. With the timeline and details in place, this story could become a book, a children's story, or even a short film. The possibilities are endless, and I can't wait to see where this journey leads.
What about you? Have you uncovered any family history that left you in awe? How would you use AI to bring it to life?
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