John in 1850

 

Created in Ideogram. John O'Brien in La Salle, about 1850.

I've used Ideogram previously to generate a possible likeness for Bridget O'Brien and her daughter Agnes, as well as one for my 3rd-great-grandfather Gabriel Vasquez, and 3rd-great-grandparents Marianna Hais and Samuel Oyler at the Buck Tavern in Ohio in 1850. Although we do have the painting of John O'Brien, recreated by my Gumpy in 1960 from the original painted by Shelbyville, Illinois artist Robert Root probably in the 1890s when John was much older. We also have a great photo showing John's son, my 2nd-great-grandfather, John J. O'Brien with a group of coal miners (and their cats) in 1903 Illinois.

Above is a possible scene for John, showing him standing above the Illinois and Michigan Canal in La Salle County, Illinois about 1850. Ideogram has improved "character consistency", so once I'm happy with a likeness, I can use that to create other scenes similar to what I've done with the lullaby image for Bridget.

Related to my ongoing research questions, while reading about Irish naming conventions to test a theory on the parents for Bridget and John, I ran across the excellent Irish Family Roots blog and thought I should share a link for future reference. Donna also creatively uses AI-generated images and photos in her blog posts, and it's good to see I'm not alone in trying to reimagine historical scenes involving branches of our family.