Arranging a Family Photobook

For the Grandchildren

Now in the second half of the year thoughts turn to approaching birthdays and that inevitable end of the year Christmas celebration. What presents will I find? What can I hope will endure and not be lost in later years?

With this in mind I am preparing a photobook based on my husband's line to give to our children for them to share with their children. I want to use a variety of photos I have going back as far as their three times gt. grandparents. 

The only photo I have of  John Patrick Galvin, their 2 x gt grandfather is this rather grainy photo from a newspaper. It is dated October 1927 when he was 59 years old. I don't think this photo would have much appeal to four young boys.

John Patrick Galvin (1)

In order to clean it up I gave an extensive prompt to ChatGPT.  This prompt appeared in a Facebook group but the original author of it was unknown. 

Restore this vintage newspaper photo by removing visible halftone dots, scratches, and discoloration. Enhance facial features and fine details while preserving the original style and texture. Improve clarity, contrast, and definition without over-sharpening. If black and white, keep tonal balance natural; if faded color, revive tones subtly. Maintain authenticity while making the image clean and presentable. It shouldn't look like a digital rendition, but like a touched-up vintage photo.

I then uploaded the photo.

The first iteration was good but not suitable, the face is too wide

AI cleaned image by ChatGPT

I then added "His face should be slightly longer and thinner"

AI cleaned image by ChatGPT

This is a better rendition, better than I would be able to do in photo restoration software but not a true photo of J P Galvin.

I will add the newspaper version to the photobook and next to it the AI rendition labelling it carefully so that future generations know that this is not actually a picture of him but it is how he might have looked in 1927. 

What a pity the original photo did not survive as John Patrick Galvin himself was a photographer. I wonder what he would think of this?

1. 1927 'H.A.C.B.S.', Southern Cross (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1954), 14 October, p. 11. ,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167804044

This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin

Lifespans, charts and timelines

During the month of April I experimented with a variety of methods to display family history data. Ideas come from video channels, blogs and Facebook groups. Recently the South Australian Genealogy Writer's group featured a session on charts to include in family histories. This chart displays lifespans across decades.

The idea was provided in this video Use AI to Create Stunning Timelines from your Ancestry Tree The instructions were very clear and easy to follow. I did check Gemini's output and needed to add some extra instructions to obtain the data I wanted. 

Chart showing family of John Horgan and Honora O'Leary

I added Honora's husband to the chart after copying the data from Google Gemini into a Google sheet. Then after using the clipping tool to save the data as an image, I decorated the image in Canva.

This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin

The Family History Zone

This series of posts focuses on an A-Z theme for April in 2025. 

In this Zone I chose events that occurred On This Day in April of years in the past. 

On this day - 30th April

1892 - Birth: Mary Agnes O'DEA, Terowie, South Australia 2nd cousin once removed

1907 - Birth: Julia Catherine “Kit” HORGAN, Jamestown, South Australia 2nd cousin once removed

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During April I have written about family events that occurred throughout April across the years.

A - Associate Names and Places surnames Meaney and Callery

B - The Building Blocks Lucy Elizabeth James 1847 -1877

C - Collect and Collate Catherine Frances O'Dea 1885 - 1959, Johanna Horgan 1883 -1978

D - Dive in and Deliver the Details Mary Julia Horgan 1909 -1950

E - Evidence in many forms Francis Leo Payne 1902 -1944

F - Finding Families Timothy Thomas Hogan 1864 - 1931

G - Generations and Geography John Stephens Eddy 1891 -1954

H - H for Heritage Elizabeth Ann Hogan 1914 -1973

I - I for Identification Barbara Clarke 1820 -1878

J - J for Journey Alice Rose Eddy 1890 -1915, Anne Josephine Horgan 1917 - 2002

K - K for Kinship Jacob James 1822 -1904

L - Learning through Family connections Edward Andrew Callery 1900 -1985

M - Mapping out the families Daniel Horgan 1843 -1916, William Stirling 1838 -1920

N - Noting the Details John Smyth 1824 -1870,  Daniel Horgan 1880 -1919

O - Organising Records Hannah Olive O'Dea1912 -2013, John Horgan 1875 - 1942

P - Preservation of stories, documents and photos Bridget Mary Crotty 1840 -1940

Q - Queries and Questions Catherine "Kit" Callery 1909 -2002 , Dominic McInerney

R - Research reveals the details James Leo Byrne 1899 -1969

S - Seeking Sources Peter Dominic Smyth 1887 -1903, James Leo O'Leary 1891 -1969

T - T for Timelines

U - Uncovering the Stories Andrew Michael O'Leary 1849 -1920

V - Voices from the Past David Crosbie 1820 -1859, Phoebe Horgan 1912 -2012

W - Writing their Stories Margaret Veronica Horgan 1907 -1999

X - Extracting the Details Edward John Horgan 1908 - 1992

Y - In Years gone by Christopher Gerald Horgan 1886 -1954

Z - The Family History Zone, data gathered

ChatGPT assisted with analysis of data and created this Timeline chart. This is for some of the individuals mentioned above.

Timeline chart created by ChatGPT

The top five longest lived individuals listed

Hannah Olive O'Dea | 101 years

Bridget Mary Crotty | 100 years

Phoebe Horgan | 100 years

Johanna Horgan | 95 years

Catherine Callery | 93 years

Interesting to note that the data I used had 13 Females and 16 males, a reasonable balance across just one month of the year.

This post first appeared on earlieryears.blogspot.com by CRGalvin