The gift only you can give this Christmas

Go beyond the family tree chart. Give a blockbuster. This AI prompt turns your ancestor's story into a movie trailer.

Welcome back to Chronicle Makers. I’m Denyse, and I help family historians research smarter, write their stories, and use AI to do both faster. Every post here is designed to move you forward on your family history journey.

Thanks for being here! All my previous posts and newsletters are archived here.

It’s December. You’re likely stressed about gifts, wondering what to get for people who already have everything, and if you’re like most family historians I talk to... staring at a pile of research you swore you’d turn into a book this year.

You didn’t. And now you feel guilty.

But what if I told you the most meaningful gift you can give your family costs nothing, takes just one afternoon, and is actually... fun?

This Christmas, we are going to solve the “boring family with genealogy” problem. We’re going to use your AI Collaborator to turn one dry ancestor fact into a “Hollywood Blockbuster” movie trailer that will have your family smiling and begging to hear the rest of the story.

The “Magnum Opus” Trap

We have a problem as family historians. We are told that “sharing our history” means citing every fact. So that means (in our heads) writing a 300-page book from birth to death and perfectly formatted.

This is classic perfectionism. In this case, it’s what I call the Magnum Opus Trap. Because it’s a huge project, we don’t finish it. And because we can only share family history that is completely finished (and perfectly cited!), we give nothing.

And let’s be honest: if you read a dry list of dates at Christmas dinner (”John was born in 1842, moved to Ohio in 1860...”), eyes will glaze over. It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that data isn’t a story.

So we need a reframe. Stop thinking “Textbook.” Start thinking “Movie Trailer.”

The Solution: The Hollywood Treatment

Earlier this year, I shared a post about writing like a Hollywood Blockbuster and it became one of the most popular things I wrote in 2025. Why? Because it gave us permission to make family history fun.

Writing a family history like a Hollywood blockbuster

It reminded us that our ancestors weren’t just a set of facts. They were the protagonists of their own lives. They faced risks, made impossible choices, and lived through drama we can barely imagine.

So this week, we aren’t writing a biography. We are writing a Movie Trailer.

Here is the strategy:

1. Pick One Ancestor: Someone you have good notes on.

2. Pick One Moment: A journey, a struggle, or a big decision.

3. The Output: A cinematic script or intro to read before dinner.

It captures attention immediately. It makes your great-grandfather sound like the hero of an action movie or the lead in a Hallmark romance.

But how do you write a movie trailer if you aren’t a screenwriter? That is where our AI Collaborator comes in.

The “Hollywood Blockbuster” Prompt

We are going to use AI (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) to find the drama in your documents. We feed it the facts, and ask it to pitch us the movie version.

Copy and paste this into your AI tool:

Role: You are an expert Hollywood screenwriter and copywriter.

Task: I have a set of genealogy research notes about an ancestor. Please write three different “Movie Trailer” style voiceover scripts (approx. 150 words each) to introduce this person’s story.

Styles to generate:

1. The Historical Epic: Dramatic, high stakes, sweeping music (think “Gladiator” or “Braveheart”).

2. The Hallmark Holiday Movie: Warm, sentimental, focus on family and connection.

3. The Mystery/Thriller: Suspenseful, focus on an unanswered question or a journey into the unknown.

Constraints:

• Stick to the facts provided for names/dates/places, but dramatize the feeling.

• Start each with a catchy “In a world...” style hook.

Input Data: [Paste your research notes here]

Why this works: It forces us (and the AI) to find the conflict and the emotion in the story. It turns “John moved to Ohio” into “One man... against the elements... searching for a new home.”

The Gift of Story

Imagine the difference at the family gathering.

Instead of saying “I’m still working on the genealogy,” you stand up and say, “I have a story to tell. Here is the movie trailer version.”

You read it. They laugh, they lean in, and suddenly... they want to know what really happened.

That is the gift only you can give—a bridge between the past and the present. We can entertain and engage our families AND preserve family history at the same time.

Happy Chronicling!

—Denyse

P.S. If you want to do this but don’t want to do it alone, I’ll be opening the Chronicle Makers community on Wednesday. We are a group of family historians who are done with “collecting” and started “connecting.” We have the prompts, the workflows, and the support to help you finally finish these stories.

P.P.S. Don’t miss this! Join Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, and I for a lively discussion this Sunday at 3pm eastern. Should AI be used for photo restoration? If so, how? And if not, why not? We intentionally did not share our opinions on this ahead of time with each other, so we’ll be working this all out in real time.