Greetings Fellow Family History Sleuths,

This month's issue is technology heavy – social media upheaval, photo colorization, Obit Magnet, and more – but for those who prefer their genealogy more on the traditional side, you'll also find an heirloom wedding dress, a woman who bakes recipes she finds on tombstones, and the reunion of two girls who came to America on the same ship 75 years ago. A little something for everyone, I hope, as we enter this holiday season.

Until next time, hope you're able to enjoy some time with living branches of your family tree!

Animate Your Ancestors

Way back in the dark ages of February 2021, I wrote about MyHeritage's freshly launched technology that allowed you to animate your ancestors. Little did I expect that we'd already be in nostalgic territory for that by now. As many of you know, they've now launched a new tool – MyHeritage AI Time Machine – that makes it possible to see how you might have looked over the centuries (and yes, I'll warn you now that you'll be subjected to some of the "historical" versions of me next month). But in the meantime, this seemed a good time to refresh people's memory about what seemed so state-of-the-art just last year:

Welcome to the world of retro reality. And meet my 3rd great-grandmother, Ellen (Nelligan) Murphy, who was born in Ireland in 1832.

MyHeritage announced its Deep Nostalgia tool which allows you to animate photos (also available as an app). It doesn’t work for all photos, but succeeds with many, and is simultaneously weird and wonderful. Pro Tip: When it’s your own ancestor, you might find yourself unexpectedly emotional, so consider starting with ancestors you didn’t know personally.

Want another example? Here’s Barack Obama’s 3rd great-grandfather — also an Irish immigrant — Fulmoth Kearney (born in 1830), along with a side-by-side with his famous descendant.

Click here to continue reading.

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Genealogy Roundup, November 16

Photo Credit: MudflapDC under Creative Commons license

Texas soldier reported missing in action during Korean War now accounted for – Wow. It's been 20 years since I submitted this case. Welcome home, Cpl. Tommie T. Hanks. Honored to have researched your family. Texas soldier reported missing in action during Korean War now accounted for

Taking my baby steps on Mastodon and have that sort of woozy feeling that comes after pulling an all-nighter. 😆 Will be my usual mix of genealogy and feel good stuff, but be forewarned, also some politics. Would be delighted should you choose to follow me if you've joined! 🙏

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Genealogy Roundup, November 9

Photo Credit: Josh Mazgelis under Creative Commons license

Bride Will Be the 11th Woman in Her Family to Wear 120-Year-Old Heirloom Wedding Dress – One of my favorite kind of stories. ❤️

Girls in the Windows by Ormond Gigli – Weirdly, I have this poster in our front hall. Have carried it around from house to house for decades and finally got it framed a couple of years ago. Always found it so striking. Fun to learn the full story behind it.

Not Yours music video by Hrdza – So welcome to my roots again. This was filmed in Osturna, the village all Smolenyaks hail from.

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Genealogy Roundup, November 2

Photo Credit: ijclark under Creative Commons license

For those who are connected with me on Twitter, I'm going to tread water for a while and see how things go. I'm thinking/hoping that maybe genealogical Twitter won't be too badly affected? Could be wishful thinking as he apparently just fired the entire engineering team, so that doesn't bode well, but I'll stay put for a spell. Also looking into alternatives such as Counter Social and BlueSky Social. And of course, I'll still be on Facebook.

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Genealogy Roundup, October 26

This woman bakes recipes she finds on gravestone epitaphs: ‘They’re to die for’ – Just love stories like this. 🍪🍪🍪

You just know that when a gutsy woman departs England in 1889 with her 6 kids to emigrate to the US - and leaves her husband behind - that there’s more to the story.

Young Girls Who Met on a Ship Sailing for America 75 Years Ago are Reunited: ‘I could never forget her’

Narrow Down Your Obituary Searches With Obit Magnet – Tara Calishain (@ResearchBuzz ) has done it again! Check out the Obit Magnet, a tool that simplifies the sometimes tedious process of unearthing that obituary you just know is out there!

Playing with palette.fm (free colorizing tool) as recommended by Tara Calishain and liking all the options. This is the "lavender dusk" version. The older woman on the right is Barbara (Matycki) Lukacz, one of my great-great-grandmothers, born in 1855 in Velyki Mosty, Ukraine.

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