I’ve combined Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge, and Steve Little’s The 2025 AI Genealogy Do-Over, to create a unique 52 AI ancestors in 52 weeks party!

52 AI Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 45: Multiple

Introduction

My ancestor Charlotte DuShannon West had multiple birthdays.

Discussion

The family stories on my WEST line generally proved out, time and again. So, I can enter into this with high confidence.

The family said that Charlotte DuShannon was orphaned “around age 3,” and they (officials? the orphanage? Oh the questions I should have asked!) didn’t know her birthday, so they chose Christmas.

Lottie’s tombstone has an 1867 birth, and her death certificate has a death on April 10, 1922 at age 54/3/15, calculating to December 26, 1867. So the family had, indeed, pinned her birth at Christmas 1867.

Figure 1 Charlotte DuShannon West, 1866-1922

But when was she actually born? I wasn’t sure I’d ever find her real birth date—but then I stumbled onto a tool that opened a whole new world: the Family History Center (now FamilySearch center) and its microfilm ordering.

Lo and behold: Bridgeport, Connecticut had her birth recorded:

Very clearly on May 14, 1866.

To the same parents I found her with (age 3) in the 1870 census.

Great-grandma Lottie now has her true birthday.

How AI can help

AI can’t rewrite the past—but it can help us recognize patterns, surface forgotten records, and challenge long-held assumptions.

In Lottie’s case, AI tools can:

• Surface hidden records: Language models can help generate search strategies to uncover early-life records, especially in unfamiliar places or when names vary slightly. For instance, suggesting that a “Charlotte Dushannon” born in Connecticut in 1866 might appear under “Shannon,” “Duchennan,” or “Chanon.”
• Check the math: AI and genealogy apps can cross-check reported death ages and calculate likely birth years automatically—especially when the age-at-death is written as years/months/days.
• Fill narrative gaps: Story generators like ChatGPT can simulate possible journal entries or “what it was like” vignettes of life in an orphanage in the 1870s, giving context to records that lack detail.
• Create timelines: Use AI-assisted timelines to reconcile census entries, birth records, and tombstones, highlighting discrepancies like Lottie’s multiple birthdays.

Lottie’s birth wasn’t celebrated on her actual birthday during her lifetime, but with the help of research and modern tools, we can give her story a more complete arc.

Summary

There’s something quietly heartbreaking about not knowing your own birthday. No candles. No certainty. No story behind the date, just a placeholder.

For Lottie, the family chose Christmas. A beautiful guess, full of warmth and meaning. But it wasn’t hers.

Thanks to one lonely line in a birth register, we now know the truth: she was born on a spring day in May.

And somehow, after all this time, that feels worth celebrating.

Challenge for Readers

Option 1: The Birthday Audit

Check your family tree for ancestors with:

• Conflicting birthdates across records (e.g., tombstones vs. census vs. certificates)
• “Estimated” birth years based on age at death

👉 Use a date calculator tool or AI to double-check the math. Post about your findings – did anyone else get a holiday birthday as a placeholder?

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Option 2: Find the Forgotten Birthday

Pick one ancestor with no known birthdate and challenge yourself to:

• Search at least 3 record types that might include it (census, church, delayed birth certs, military draft cards, etc.)
• Use AI to generate alternative search spellings or suggest overlooked sources

Bonus: Let ChatGPT write a hypothetical birthday scene based on what you do know about their childhood.

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Option 3: The Mystery Birthday Prompt

Ask ChatGPT:

“Write a fictional diary entry from a woman in 1922 who has just discovered that the birthday she’s celebrated her whole life is wrong.”

Post or reflect on what that might have felt like—for her, or for one of your ancestors.

Want to Go Deeper?

FamilySearch Record Hints
https://www.familysearch.org

• Use AI-driven record suggestions to find alternate birth, census, and death records.

Date Calculators for Genealogy
Legacy Date Calculator

• Check calculated birthdates from death ages (like 54 years, 3 months, 15 days).

ChatGPT Genealogy Prompts
Try asking:

“What name variants might I search for Charlotte DuShannon in 1860s Connecticut?”
“Simulate a diary entry for a 3-year-old girl entering an orphanage in 1870 Connecticut.”

Historic Context
Orphanages in 19th Century America – JSTOR Daily

• For background if you want to explore what Lottie’s early years might have been like.

Next Week’s Topic: “Wartime”

AI Disclosure

This post was created by me with the help of AI tools. While AI helps organize research, the storytelling and discoveries are my own.