Flower Sculptures

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mumbai. 5 Mar 2026.

The photos above and below are ornate flower decorations at the Jio World Centre in Mumbai, our venue from the meetings earlier in the month. The sculptures were part of the lavish 2024 wedding of the year at the venue. Another wedding occurred at the building at the start of our event, and while there aren't photos, the flower sculptures are a reminder of what was. Here's a link from Vogue India on the spectacular from 2024.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Jio World Centre.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mumbai. 5 Mar 2026.

Deadwood

 

Gem Theater, Deadwood, South Dakota.

As I look into the timeline of Agnes Atherton's performances, one that I had previously overlooked stands out as incredibly adventurous. In January 1883, as part of Niblo's Humpty Dumpty company based in Chicago, Agnes ventured into Deadwood, South Dakota for performances at the New Gem Theater run by the notorious Al Swearengen. This 2019 article from True West magazine provides some interesting color (and historic photos) on Swearengen and the Gem Theater, which was known as a din of prostitution, drinking and gambling. Deadwood would have been a snow-packed mountain mining town transitioning from a lawless gold camp into a more permanent and rugged settlement. A dangerous place for a young 24 year old to be.

Daily Deadwood Pioneer-Times. 6 Jan 1883.

I have not watched the HBO series Deadwood, featuring Ian McShane as Swearengen, but now I need to put it on my watchlist.

Black Hills Weekly Pioneer. 19 Jan 1883.

Agnes likely arrived by stagecoach for the last miles from the nearest train to arrive in Deadwood. She was traveling apart from her first husband Fred Day, who was back in Detroit. It is unclear how long the Chicago company remained in Deadwood, or if Agnes stayed on for very long. By September 1883 Agnes had returned to Detroit. She and Fred separated permanently shortly afterward.

Behind the scenes

Over the past few days I've been catching up on things missed during my India trip, enjoying some celebratory time, and planning ahead for a potential RootsTech 2027 talk proposal. I've begun to assemble the talk and have been using Claude to bounce ideas for the structure. I think I have a better angle to pursue than the original proposal I submitted last June, and I'm working on making it more practically relevant to the RootsTech audience or a local/regional genealogy society. Perhaps I'll try to present this somewhere in advance of submitting again to RootsTech.

In the near term, we're now in my favorite sporting event of the year, March Madness. Last night's games were exciting. As with last year (and the year before that), the Hoosiers are out of the field, but we'll be watching anyway and cheering on some upset teams to make the early rounds interesting.

In the Sonntagpost, 1899

 

Sonntagpost. Chicago, 5 Mar 1899.

The clipping above appeared in the German-language Chicago Sonntagpost (Sunday Post), describing the reunion between Agnes Atherton and her centenarian father John O'Brien. The article states that Agnes was a well-known Chicago actress, separated from her father for over 35 years as she was placed in an orphanage after the death of her mother. The article gets some aspects of the story wrong, as Agnes was placed with the Sisters of Charity in LaSalle by 1860, not Chicago in 1864, and John was 105 or 106 by the time of the reunion. 

It is great to see this family reunion appeared in a German language newspaper - this is the fourth different language newspaper that Agnes has appeared in over the years (French newspapers in Canada, an Italian newspaper in NY, now German in Chicago). The clipping shows the story was shared across a wide audience at the time.

The article is a new-to-me find as I upgraded my membership with MyHeritage to get access to OldNews.com. I'm hoping to uncover some other articles on Agnes and her incredible life that were not previously available to me on other sites.

Through a digital lens

 

Made in Ideogram. Maria Jesus Vasquez.

I have previously shared the photo of my 2nd-great-grandmother Maria Jesus Vasquez, taken about 1895 in Sonora, Mexico. Using the cropped colorized photo of Maria Jesus, I uploaded it to Ideogram, an image and art generation platform that I frequently use with my family history writing and blogging. Ideogram created several realistic options (above and below) that look quite close to how Maria Jesus appears in the original grainy photo.

Made in Ideogram. Maria Jesus Vasquez.

Maria Jesus, cropped from original photo about 1895.

It's an example of how far AI tools have progressed in a year. AI was a hot topic at RootsTech 2026, and it will only increase in use with family history. I try to be very clear when I am using AI with this blog. I label images generated as "Made in Ideogram" (or if I use another platform like MyHeritage, I label it accordingly). It's interesting to look at this image in context with a painting in our family, currently in the care of my cousin Catherine in Tucson. The artist used the 1895 photo to create a family portrait of Vicente and Maria Jesus. One can make an argument that I'm using digital tools today in a similar fashion.