From Militsary Records to Music
Telling George Mentzer's Story with AI
Have you ever considered turning your genealogical research into a song?
Recently, I've been experimenting with using artificial intelligence to tell the stories of my ancestors in different ways. My latest experiment involved George Mentzer, a Civil War veteran who served in Company C of the 24th Massachusetts Infantry.
What started with his military service record eventually became a song—and then a YouTube video!
Starting with a Military Service Record
As genealogists, we spend considerable time locating, transcribing, and analyzing historical documents. While those records provide valuable information about our ancestors, they aren't always particularly interesting to family members who don't share our enthusiasm for genealogy.
George Mentzer's compiled military service record consists of 28 pages documenting his service in the Union Army during the Civil War.
The records contain information about his enlistment, military assignments, and service between 1861 and 1864.
Although these documents were created primarily to keep track of military personnel, they provide the foundation for understanding George's experiences as a Civil War soldier.
After working with ChatGPT to transcribe the pages of his military service record, I decided to experiment with another way to share the information.
Could those military records become the basis for a song?
Turning Military Records into Song Lyrics
My next step was to ask ChatGPT to use the information from George's military service record to write song lyrics.
Instead of simply listing dates and military events, I wanted the lyrics to tell the story of his service.
The challenge was transforming the factual information found in military records into something that would work as a song.
Military records aren't written to tell stories. They contain dates, locations, assignments, and other administrative details. Yet those details provide glimpses into the experiences of the soldiers who served.
ChatGPT used the information from George's military record to create lyrics inspired by his Civil War service.
As with any AI-generated narrative, I recognize that song lyrics may contain descriptive or emotional language that isn't documented in the original sources.
Thus, the song is a creative interpretation of George Mentzer's military service, not a historical transcription or a replacement for the original records.
Creating the Music with Suno
Once I had the lyrics, I turned to Suno, an AI music-generation tool.
Suno allows users to enter their own lyrics and have artificial intelligence turn those words into a musical performance.
This is one of my favorite parts of experimenting with AI storytelling. Words that began as facts in a historical document suddenly become a song!
Hearing George Mentzer's military story presented through music provided a very different experience from reading his military records.
Adding an Image and Creating a Video
In addition to creating the lyrics, I asked ChatGPT to generate an image to accompany the song.
With the song created in Suno and the image generated by ChatGPT, I had the pieces needed to create a video.
I combined the music and image into a video and uploaded the finished project to YouTube.
The result is a musical interpretation of George Mentzer's Civil War service that I can easily share with family members and others interested in our family history.
Watch George Mentzer's Story
Here is the finished video featuring the song inspired by George Mentzer's military service.
[INSERT YOUTUBE VIDEO HERE]
Why Turn Genealogical Records into Music?
One of the challenges we face as genealogists is finding ways to share our research with family members.
We may enjoy reading military service records, pension applications, census records, and land deeds. However, not everyone finds those documents as fascinating as we do!
That doesn't mean our family members aren't interested in their ancestors. Perhaps we simply need to find different ways to tell their stories.
A traditional biography might appeal to one person, while a video or audio presentation might capture someone else's attention.
And a song might be just the thing to introduce a younger generation to an ancestor who lived more than 150 years ago.
The records remain the foundation of the story. AI simply provides another way to share it.
Another Experiment in AI Storytelling
This project is another example of how I'm experimenting with artificial intelligence as part of my genealogy workflow.
The process was relatively simple:
Use ChatGPT to transcribe George Mentzer's military service record.
Ask ChatGPT to create song lyrics based on that record.
Use Suno to turn the lyrics into music.
Generate an accompanying image with ChatGPT.
Combine the music and image into a video.
Upload the video to YouTube to share with family and friends.
While the process involved several different tools, each contributed something to the finished project.
More importantly, the experiment gave me another way to share the story of an ancestor whose experiences might otherwise remain buried in a collection of historical documents.
I'm not suggesting that every ancestor needs a song! However, I am discovering that experimenting with AI encourages me to think creatively about how I share my genealogical research.
And perhaps that's the greatest benefit of these experiments.
Instead of simply collecting records about our ancestors, we can use those records to help bring their stories to life.
Have you experimented with turning genealogical research into music? I'd love to hear about your experiences!
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