Your Ancestors Weren't Just Dates and Places.
They Were Real People Who Lived Real Lives.
We connect you to your ancestors by turning your FamilySearch data into comprehensive biographical narratives that let you see them as they lived.
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What We Do: Transform Data Into Context
Before (FamilySearch data)
Tatous Thadeus Gugas Kizerian
Born: 13 September 1863 in Zara, Zara, Sivas, Türkiye
Died: 9 July 1945 in Provo, Utah, Utah, United States
Married: EST 1884
After (Rooted History)
On 13 September 1863, Tatous Thadeus Gugas Kizerian entered this world as the fourth of eight children born to Gugas Hohones Kizerian and Goola Baboog Modoian in the ancient city of Zara in the Sivas province of the Ottoman Empire. Zara sat in the heart of Anatolia, a region where Armenian communities had maintained their distinct identity for centuries despite living under Ottoman rule. The 1860s were a time of ambitious Tanzimat reforms that promised modernization but also brought disruption to traditional ways of life. Armenian families like the Kizerians navigated a complex social landscape where religious and ethnic distinctions shaped nearly every aspect of daily existence.
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Why This Exists
I grew up hearing family stories—ancestors who crossed the plains, who fled Armenia, who knew Joseph Smith—but the details were always fuzzy, almost mythical.
Then one summer, I was traveling from Stockholm to Copenhagen and crossed the narrow strait that separates Sweden from Denmark. I remembered I had ancestors from both countries. On a whim, I sent ChatGPT a screenshot of one ancestor's FamilySearch profile and asked: What would life have been like in this place, at this time?
The answer changed everything. "Born 1796, Denmark" suddenly wasn't just a date—it was a person who lived on a small island in the Baltic Sea in a time where the luxuries of modern life were unimaginable.
I realized: genealogy data desperately needs context. We don't just need names and dates. We need to understand what it was like to live in that place, at that time, as that person.
Rooted History exists to provide that understanding—for everyone.
— Mike, Founder
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