From Mayflower Mayhem to Deep Research Relief

Why dealing with historical debates, vocab police, and juggling tasks led me to delete a growing YouTube channel, and how AI can offer a better path forward.

O, call back yesterday, bid time return.

—Richard II (Act 3, Scene 2)

I’m feeling nostalgic today, during an eventful month.

Two graduations. Two birthdays. Two driver’s tests. So I pulled out this tiny video I made with Mr. Learner’s Permit, way back during Covid. 

We knew nothing about making videos. I think we recorded this in Zoom with the computer’s webcam.

I don’t know if you remember, but at least in our state, the barbers and hair salons all closed down. So I gave him a hair cut, and my hair had grown out with this sort of reddish tinge. We called it Covid Hair.

But let’s go back to the beginning

In 2020, I had an idea. We were all stuck at home, during the pandemic, with the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower looming. So why not learn how to make videos while teaching the grandkids about this ship that sailed the Atlantic in 1620? Covid multitasking.

The Mayflower got an outsized amount of attention, so it has an outsized amount of research to draw on. I would never run out of material. And, bonus points, some of our ancestors scurvied their way over the pond on that leaky little rat trap. So we could focus on them.

The grandkids participated in the first few videos, one for each kid. We set up some rules. We didn’t mention their full names or where they lived. Some chose not to show their faces. On YouTube we turned off comments for videos where they were involved. Various levels of kid privacy. 

Then I continued on my own. Just practicing. Clearly an amateur. Never pretending to be anything else.

One morning I woke up to the ding of a message. “Congratulations! You’ve reached 1000 subscribers!” 

That’s not a lot, but it was a milestone. In the comments I watched strangers in heated political disputes over whether the ship’s passengers were saints or scoundrels, and I thought right, congratulations, you’ve reached 1000 debaters!

Some viewers would scold me if I didn’t make their Mayflower ancestors sound heroic enough. 

One lady commented how I had lost weight, and she really hoped I wasn’t sick. 

Actually I thought she was rather sweet, but then there were the vocabulary correctors. “Did you know we don’t say slavery anymore? It’s enslavement.”

Just thought you’d like to know. En. Slave. Ment. 

I’m not super sensitive, but at some point you have to ask—why am I doing this? I just wanted to learn how to do a new thing. About the ancestors. With the grandkids.

To thine own self be true.

—Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 3)

And why are people’s identities so wrapped up in what their ancestors did 400 years ago? These folks were like people you would meet at a renaissance festival, Shakespeare’s contemporaries! If you met 10x Great Grandma Mary Brewster on the street, would you even understand a word she said? 

(And trust me, if you rely that much on heritage, be glad you’re not related to my Grandpa Orlie!)

So I backed everything up and deleted the whole channel. No regrets. I’m not a big deleter — I still have greeting cards from my first birthday — but this was different. I’ll save the videos we like for the family archives. They were poor first attempts anyway.

And yes, I could have kept the channel and changed topics, but would I have gotten rid of the politically charged debaters? 

In retrospect, the hardest part was the juggling. I was trying to figure out microphones, cameras, editing, research, and then keep track of all the facts. It was a good challenge, an excellent learning experience, but I could have used some help.

I couldn’t afford human help, but if the current AI tools had been available then, that would have been great! 

Now, I know, to hear me talk, you would think I use AI all the time. That lady? She’s just tech-obsessed. But no. I drive without GPS. I still write with a pen on paper. I like DVDs, physical books, manual can openers, conversations that involve actual human voices. I have to remind myself about tools that might help with some of these things part of the time.

Give me your hand.

—Hamlet (Act 5, Scene 1)

So let’s look at just a few of the ways AI could have helped my near-overwhelm as I took on the challenge of learning so many things all at once. 

1. Script Drafting and Editing

I wouldn’t want AI to write the script. I’m too vain for that. But it could help me tighten, smooth transitions, and since I always try to cram way too many details into everything, it could potentially point those spots out, too.

Special Note: It could also help with all those vocabulary updates. This morning I asked ChatGPT about enslavement. Why the change? It explained. We want to focus on the human, not the condition. I’m not against this. I just have specific vocabulary words in my head from grade school, and honestly I can’t keep up with the latest greatest “way we say things now”. But I can tell ChatGPT something like: “Review this script for outdated, inaccurate, or insensitive historical or genealogical terminology and suggest modern, accurate alternatives.”

2. Titles and Thumbnails

When my brain was already fried from editing, it would have been fantastic to say: “Hey ChatGPT, give me five title options that aren’t boring” or “Gemini, What thumbnail colors work best for history content?” 

3. Deep Research Help

Many AI assistants can now do web searches, but the new Deep Research report functionality would have been particularly useful. 

I wrote about these in my last post. Denyse Allen and I talked about these recently in a live stream. And Denyse just put together a beginner’s guide over at Chronicle Makers. So let’s link up to that and follow her instructions to decide which would be best for various types of Mayflower Research. 

Here’s the link: https://denyseallen.substack.com/p/beginners-guide-ai-deep-research

The Chronicle Makers Beginner’s Guide to Deep Research for Genealogy is recommending three different Deep Research options depending on what you’re trying to do. So I’ve chosen three different Mayflower research opportunities as examples.

Make report / of how the world goes.

—King Lear (Act 5, Scene 3)

When we started these videos, my grandson was not quite ten. Little boys like stories about adventure and intrigue, blowing things up, falling overboard, pirates, clandestine meetings, hiding from the authorities, macabre medical mysteries … Oh. I like that one. What do you think?

1. Give me 12 little known medical treatments the Mayflower ship’s doctor would have used on his patients.

The Chronicle Makers Beginner’s Guide recommends Google Gemini’s Deep Research tool for “fast, polished reports that are easy to share, export, or listen to.” So I think it makes sense for this one, because it might be fun to listen to it, or to print it out and turn into a little booklet. Mr. Learner’s Permit might even get a kick out of that now.

2. Create a report that provides a thorough Mayflower Ancestry Research Guide for 2025.

If you have New England roots, you might have Mayflower ancestor, and a guide could help you learn how to figure this out. Just, please, don’t get all wrapped up in needing your ancestor to be heroic. 

The Beginner’s Guide makes a strong case for the ChatGPT Deep Research tool for this one. It’s “good for custom reports and organizing research into clean, structured format.”

Note: Sometimes I’ve noticed that ChatGPT does not go looking at Familysearch or some of the other places where I know there is good Mayflower information, so I think I should mention Familysearch.org specifically in my prompt, along with the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and American Ancestry (although it is likely to find those.)

3. Give me a plan for a 7-Day Stephen Hopkins Tour vacation to Bermuda in 2025.

Now for something a little more current. My grandson is very fond of Mayflower Passenger Stephen Hopkins. Stephen was almost hanged for treason in Bermuda after being shipwrecked there and, maybe, almost getting caught in the Bermuda Triangle.

Hey, I don’t know about that triangle part, but if you’re nine, it’s fun to speculate! 

I understand Bermuda has some Hopkins tourist attractions. Wouldn’t it be fun to get more information about that? If you were a Hopkins descendant, and you wanted to cash out your 401k for a good cause, you could take the family to Bermuda!

Looking at the Beginner’s Guide, it really sounds like Perplexity’s Research option will get me the information I want for this one. So that’s what I’m going to choose. I really like Perplexity, by the way. 

My Prompts

But are these simple prompts the best prompts?

Honestly, they might be fine for starters. I could try them as-is in one of the Deep Research tools and see what I get.

I could also expand them to specify exactly what to cover and how to format the output.

Or I could use a GPT to help me. That’s a pre-made prompt available inside of ChatGPT.

In my next post, I’ll show you one of the GPTs made specifically for Deep Research prompts and how it transforms my simple prompts into prompts with more detail. 

So until next time, happy Deep Researching. And Happy May. Watch out for New Graduates everywhere. And New Drivers!

Hop on over to Chronicle Makers and get your full Beginner’s Guide to Deep Research for Genealogy. Because you know I’ll never get around to making you one. I’ll be too busy making a list of New Vocab Words for Older Ladies, or something …

For More on Deep Research

• See my previous articles here https://www.legacycarvers.news/p/whats-in-a-nickname-the-story-of?r=3og2hh

• And here https://www.legacycarvers.news/p/friday-live-with-denyse-and-nancy