Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Turning ideas into images

 

Created in Ideogram 3.0.

I'm continuing to try out Ideogram, turning text prompts into images for use with the blog and family history related projects. Above is a wine crate next to a vineyard completely generated with AI from a text prompt. I used the idea of a Spanish winery in the ancestral region of the Campuzano family. Unlike last time, I did not use another photo as a reference. I asked for a "photo-realistic winery crate with the words Bodega Campuzano etched onto the crate and Cantabria on the bottom". Ideogram took that idea and returned four suggested images, including the one above.

Below is another suggested image, showing the crate with wine bottles, perhaps in the tasting room at my fictitious Spanish winery. I like this one with the simulated Cantabrian shield or family crest on either side of the box. These look pretty good for being AI generated.

Created in Ideogram 3.0.

A long time ago (around 2002 & 2003), before I moved into my current profession, I had developed a wine label, including the domain names and prepared trademark clearances. I was even talking with a European producer on the label concept, and attended an industry tasting event at the exclusive Athenaeum Club in London. Ultimately life took another path, and I ended up in the Internet industry instead of the wine business.

Playing around with this AI tool on this Spanish winery idea above brings back memories of the old wine labels and the crazy experience of our whirlwind trip to London for the tasting. One of these days I may write more about that experience on the blog. Maybe I'll use Ideogram and bring back some images of the labels, showing how they would look today.  

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Source material

While conducting my extensive 10+ year search to break down the mystery of my 2nd-great-grandfather John O'Brien's siblings placed in the care of the Sisters of Charity convent in La Salle, Illinois, I used a variety of sources, primarily focusing on Agnes Atherton O'Brien. I'm placing this here as a reminder and potential guide in case I build a proposed talk for Rootstech 2026. I used these sources to write her obituary in October 2023.

US Census Records

  • 1860 US Census in La Salle County, Illinois (2 years old in the Sisters of Charity convent)
  • 1880 US Census in Hancock, Houghton, Michigan (actress)
  • 1910 US Census in Cincinnati, Ohio
Marriage and Divorce Records
  • Indiana Marriage Record (Marion County) - 20 October 1881
  • Davidson County, Tennessee divorce decree - 24 September 1887 (via the Metro Archives in Nashville)
  • Michigan Marriage Records (witness, 27 November 1883 in Wayne County, Michigan), via Ancestry
Newspapers
  • Newspapers.com - extensive newspaper articles and advertisements mentioning Agnes performing throughout the United States and Canada between the late 1870s until her death in 1910.
  • GenealogyBank
  • Illinois Digital Newspaper Archive
  • Internet Archive (Billboard magazine, 1914)
  • Quebec Newspapers, banq.qc.ca (1890 and 1906 tours in Canada)
  • New York State Historic Newspapers collection
  • FamilySearch Full-text search
City Directory for Cincinnati, 1910

Death Records
  • Cook County, Illinois Deaths Index (Ancestry)
  • Findagrave
  • Mount Carmel Cemetery, Chicago (via Catholic Cemeteries of Chicago website) 
Trans-Mississippi International Exhibition website (see blog post from September 2023) for photo by Frank Rinehart from Kirchner's German Village

American Vaudeville Museum archives

I also inquired with the La Salle County Genealogy Society, and wrote to the Diocese of Peoria about the Sisters of Charity and Saint Patrick's Parish in La Salle, Illinois.

Monday, June 16, 2025

Searching with Perplexity

Another recent AI answer-generation tool for genealogists and family historians to try is Perplexity (link). It offers a free option and "pro" membership (currently $20 per month). As I have been testing other AI tools such as MyHeritage's AI photos, Ideogram, Claude and Runway, I decided to go ahead and try out Perplexity using the free option.

I made a simple query, asking for sources on Agnes Atherton O'Brien Gillette (sister of my 2nd-great-grandfather), telling the tool she was an actress who lived between 1858 and 1910. The tool returned an initial response that "Agnes Atherton O'Brien Gillette was an actress and performer active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While direct, detailed sources on her are scarce, there are several archival collections and historical theater resources that may contain relevant materials about her life and career." It then suggested that I look at archival and theater collections, such as the Chamberlain and Lyman Brown Theatrical Agent Records at the New York Public Library, general theater and performer archives, and digitized playbills and programs from the era.

Perplexity gave related questions to ask as prompts, such as "what is known about Agnes Atherton O'Brien Gillette's family and personal life". This prompt returned limited sources, and pulled from my own blog when describing her family and early life. I guess that's a good sign that my blog is available as a source.

I'm going to have a separate post detailing the sources I have used to date on Agnes' life, and this list of sources is more along the lines of what I might have expected Perplexity or another search tool to suggest. 

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Crossroads

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Prague. 12 June 2025.

The shot above is part of a larger wall near the Prague Congress Centre, titled Crossroads. The installation is connected to a series of pieces located around the city by the Praho Project. This thoughtful wall caught my attention as I was taking a break from meetings. It asks questions: "Who or what has led you to your current path?" and "What are your hopes right now?", and is written in a mix of Czech and English.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Prague. 12 June 2025.

Happy Fathers Day

Proud moments with the kids this week as I traveled with Sophia in Prague after she flew solo internationally for the first time, and Silas starts his first job today. These are big life achievements. It definitely feels like we reached a parenting milestone this week.

Other things in the news on this Sunday - a fascinating set of articles about a Viking boat burial discovered in Norway with a prominent Viking woman buried with her dog (see original article in Science Norway).

Rock legend Billy Idol discovered he had an unknown son, after his daughter took a 23andme autosomal DNA test and saw a mystery match (NJ.com 15 June 2025).

It looks like 23andme founder Anne Wojcicki will be taking control of the company once again through the bankruptcy proceeding (Yahoo, 13 June 2025). Her larger bid topped the previous one submitted by Regeneron. A hearing is scheduled for this coming Tuesday to decide on the bid.