This blog will delve into stories about my ancestors and cousins, drawing on 35-40 years of research and my Family Tree Maker 2024 database. As of 25 Aug 2026 the tree encompasses 20,509 individuals from the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the USA.
Initial posts will focus on the 180 known casualties from World War One and World War Two. Each post will dedicate itself to a specific casualty and be published on their date of death. The post is tagged with how the casualty is related to me, whether maternal or paternal line, the service they were in and the cemetery or memorial they are remembered at. They also have a category of “Remembered with Honour”.
My research details are shared with Perlexity AI as an idividual report generated from Family Tree Maker 2024, which is then used to provide further information based on the prompt. I welcome any additional information, comments or corrections you may have.
Details are from public records including Census Records, 1939 Register, Newspapers, GRO entries, Birth entries, Baptisms, Marriages, Death entries, Probate records, Burials, Military Records, Bomber Command losses database, CWGC records and Find-a-grave entries. Most data is collected from findmypast.co.uk and ancestry.co.uk.
Mike
Prompt Used:
Process the attached PDF into an 800–1,500 word biography suitable for my family‑history site msyoung.org. Include extra detail on the subject’s military unit and its role at the time of death. Use UK spelling and a professional but readable tone.
Structure the biography for the Twenty Sixteen theme with clear sections (for example: Early Life and Family, Military Service, Unit Context at Time of Death, Circumstances of Death, Burial and Commemoration, Legacy). Include 1–2 brief pull‑quote sections for key sentences.
Output format:
– Produce full Gutenberg block markup using comments, ready to paste into the post Code editor in WordPress (not into a Custom HTML block).
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– Start your output with a wp:heading (level 2) block for the title and end with a closing block for a “Sources and Further Reading” list.
– Do not wrap the output in Markdown code fences or add any explanation before or after the block markup.– At the end, include a “Sources and Further Reading” section as a wp:heading plus a wp:list of links to CWGC, local rolls of honour, and any other key references you have used.