Making Ancestors People,
Not Just Data Points
We believe every person who came before us has a story worth telling. Our mission is to bring those stories to life.
Why Rooted History Exists
I've been doing genealogy for decades—collecting names and dates, building the tree, discovering unexpected connections. But it always felt like something was missing. These people weren't just data points. They were real humans with hopes, fears, and daily struggles I could barely imagine.
In summer 2025, I was traveling from Stockholm to Copenhagen and crossed the Øresund—the narrow strait separating Sweden and Denmark. I remembered that I had ancestors from both countries. On a whim, I pulled out my phone, took a screenshot of one ancestor's FamilySearch profile, and sent it to ChatGPT with a simple question:
What would daily life have been like for this person, in this place, at this time?
The Øresund Bridge, connecting Sweden and Denmark
The response was remarkable. "Born 1796, Denmark" wasn't just a date anymore—it was a person who spent their childhood on a small island in the Baltic Sea, in an era before electricity, before photography, before the modern world as we know it existed.
That train ride sparked an idea. What if there was a tool that could do this automatically? Take the dry facts from FamilySearch and transform them into rich, contextual narratives that help you see your ancestors as they actually lived?
Around the same time, I was looking for ways to use my technical skills in areas I was passionate about. Genealogy had always been a hobby—but now I saw a real problem I could solve. People had massive family trees full of data, but no easy way to understand what those lives actually looked like.
I decided I had to build this. Not just for myself, but for everyone who's ever stared at a birth date from 1823 and wondered: What was it really like?
That's why Rooted History exists.
The Problem We're Solving
If you've ever explored your family tree on FamilySearch, you know the experience: names, dates, places, arranged in an ever-expanding web of connections. Maybe you've found an ancestor who served in a war, crossed an ocean, or lived through momentous historical events.
But what were they like? What did they worry about? What did their daily life look like? What was it like to live in that place, at that time, as that person?
Traditional genealogy gives us the skeleton of a life—birth, marriage, death—but rarely the flesh and blood. We built Rooted History to change that.
Our Approach
FamilySearch as Foundation
We connect directly to your FamilySearch account. The facts in your tree—births, deaths, marriages, occupations, military service—become the foundation of every story. We never invent new facts.
AI-Powered Context
Our AI team researches the historical context of your ancestor's life: what their village was like, what world events shaped their era, what daily life looked like for someone in their position.
Rigorous Fact-Checking
Every biography goes through multiple AI passes, including fact verification. Sourced facts appear in bold so you always know what's verified from your FamilySearch data.
Respectful Storytelling
We handle difficult history with care. Famines, genocides, slavery, forced displacement—these are named plainly and treated with respect, not sanitized or sensationalized.
Our Principles
These aren't just values. They're convictions that shape every decision we make.
Slow Down
This isn't TikTok. We don't provide quick hits or dopamine-driven content. We believe the lives of your ancestors deserve attention, reflection, and longform narratives that let you sit with their stories.
Time Travel, Not Presentism
We don't drag the past into the present—we take you back. We want you to see your ancestors' world through their eyes: their values, their constraints, their understanding of the world. Historical empathy means stepping into their shoes, not judging them from ours.
Embrace Messy History
History is full of injustice. Slavery, genocide, colonization, oppression—these aren't footnotes. When your ancestor's story intersects with difficult history, we name it plainly. No sanitization, no victim-blaming, no sensationalism. Just honest acknowledgment of what happened.
Honor Traditions
Royal lineages and biblical connections matter to many researchers—and we respect that. Traditional genealogies connecting modern families to ancient kings, prophets, and historical figures are part of many family narratives. We handle these with appropriate confidence levels, noting when connections are documented vs. traditional.
Accuracy First
We'd rather tell you we can't generate a biography than generate an inaccurate one. Every claim in a biography should be traceable to either your FamilySearch data or researched historical context.
Transparency
We explain our process and clearly distinguish facts from context. Sourced information appears in bold so you always understand what came from your FamilySearch data versus historical context.
Your Data, Your Control
We take your privacy seriously. Here's what we promise:
- No password storage — We never see your FamilySearch password. OAuth means you authenticate directly with FamilySearch.
- No data selling — Your family data is never sold, shared, or used to train AI models.
- Minimal tracking — We use exactly one cookie (for login) and no third-party analytics.
- Deceased ancestors only — We only generate stories for people marked as deceased in FamilySearch.
Ready to Meet Your Ancestors?
Connect your FamilySearch account and get 2 free biographies to try.
Sign In with FamilySearchNo credit card required • Connect in 30 seconds