SHOW NOTES: Weave more family history into your holidays and get the whole family involved in capturing stories and finding joy in genealogy. Here are 5 ideas that will enrich your family gatherings.
#1 Stimulate conversation about family history during gatherings.
Christmas wreath
Watch the 4-part series Family History Christmas Wreath, part of the Family History Craft and Displays YouTube playlist. It’s an old video series but you’ll get the step-by-step instructions you need to create a family history Christmas wreath.
Google search: Search for Sears Wish Book 1960…1970 (substitute the desired years)
Yearbooks & Photos
Look up high school photos in old yearbooks online. Screencast your phone to your TV screen so everyone can join in the fun. Here are two great sources for yearbooks:
Show Notes: Finding great sources of information is part of what makes genealogy so fun! But citing those sources may not be so much. In this episode professional genealogist, Gail Schaefer Blankenau makes the case why source citation is a vital part of great genealogy research and she’s going to give us the resources to help get the job done right.
Fort Wayne, Indiana is the home of the second largest free genealogy library in the country. Make your plans to visit today. Learn more at https://www.visitfortwayne.com
AI Time Machine™ utilizes text-to-image technology licensed from a company called Astria. Using a variety of photos of one person that you upload to the website, it builds a model showing that person in a variety of poses and lighting conditions that are different from those in the original photos. Then, using a series of predefined themes, it synthesizes the model with motifs from a large variety of historical themes to create the photorealistic images.
Cost: As of this writing, Complete subscribers will be able to create 3 complimentary models per year and receive all available themes for each model (Subject to change.) Keep an eye out for free promotions throughout the year.
Photos you’ll need for the best results
Do one person at a time.
Crop group photos down to one individual.
The more photos you use, the better the results. Take extra photos if you don’t have enough already on your phone.
Don’t use an assortment of photos at different ages.
Use an assortment of poses: 3 full body shots, 5 medium (waist up) shots, and 10 close-ups.
Use photos with an assortment of poses and expressions, with your eyes looking different directions.
Use photos taken on different days and with different backgrounds.
Avoiding makeup is recommended.
Step-by-step instructions
Log into your free MyHeritage account. (Don’t have one? Use our link to go to the site and sign up for a free account.)
In the menu go to Photos > AI Time Machine
Click the Try it Now button
Click the Select Photos button or drag and drop your assortment of photos from your computer onto the box on the screen. You can select all of them by clicking the first image, holding down your Shift key (Win) and clicking the last image in the collection.
Drag and Drop Photos
Uploading can take several seconds or even a few minutes. Leave your browser tab open until you see the screen telling you they will email you when your photos are ready.
When you receive the notification email, click it to go to your photos on MyHeritage.
There will be many boxes of photos, each representing a theme. You can scroll through them to quickly find ones that look good. It’s normal to see many that didn’t work out. This is due to the particular photos that you uploaded not suiting the image very well. However, if you follow the guidelines above, you should have many excellent photos to choose from.
Click the desired photos and download them to your computer.
The Results are Amazing
Here I am as an Egyptian Queen
And here I am ready to head off into the 1950 skies as a stewardess:
And I could be the third sister my Grandmother’s family in the 1930s:
