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.