I paid $20 for a month of ChatGPT Pro to see how it could help me with editing the rewrite of my book on Family History, Gathering Leaves. I have been working on this rewrite called Gathering More Leaves for about two years, and I am perpetually stuck in the middle of the book.

Parts of the original book were generated using software specifically designed for generating family history narratives utilizing data supplied by a genealogical database. In a lot of cases, these narratives were repetitive. Because the narrative was auto-generated in the first place, I am comfortable using AI to rephrase and rewrite those book sections. To do that, I use Grammarly to rewrite those sections, which ultimately using ChatGPT. With chat GPT specifically, I can upload a PDF file containing a chapter of the book and then have it answer questions about that text contained within. I’m using it primarily to help me identify places in the chapter that would benefit from being moved, removed, or rewritten. 

Knowing that I could upload a PDF file and have ChatGPT examine and work with that file. This morning, I tried something completely different.  I uploaded a JPG file of my Headshot without wearing glasses. I then asked ChatGPT to use my image as the basis for creating historical images of my ancestors in certain life experience situations. 

For example, here is my ancestor Jan Van Coppenolle (1434-1492), the infamous demagogue of Ghent. He was executed in 1492 after he led a rebellion against Maximilian, the Archduke of Burgandy in which he had his coins minted, the “Coppenollen”. Also, I told ChatGPT that it should be drawn in the style of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Here are the results of those prompts.

One of my ancestors was a Puritan from England who settled in Salem, Massachusetts. The house he built there in 1650 stands to this day and is part of a park in that city. His name was John Pickering (1615-1657).

Another ancestor was a soldier in the Continental Army stationed at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777/78. His name was John McMullan (1740-1817). Yet another ancestor, Evan “The Patriot” Prothro (1742-1822), was a hog drover who kept the South Carolina irregulars well-fed. I asked AI to use my attached image to create an image of both men closely resembling their descendant, me. (I did not notice the two-headed horse until later and decided to keep it. I see it as a metaphor for events in John McMullan’s life.)

I have two ancestors who were soldiers during the War of 1812. David Dobbs (1791-1871) was a Third Lieutenant in the Georgia militia, who served under Andrew Jackson during the Creek War of 1814 and in the First Seminole War (1819). Corbett Pickering (1798-1878) served as a private in Montgomery’s Regiment of the Pennsylvania militia during the War of 1812, and he “made it as far as Danville.”

One ancestor won the title to land in a lottery in which Georgia gave away the land that had belonged to the Cherokee Nation. While he rose to the rank of Col. in the Georgia state militia, he owned slaves and worked them on a cotton plantation in Cobb County. His name was David Dobbs (1791-1871).

Another ancestor came from France in the 1830s and traveled to Ohio via the newly opened Erie Canal. In Ohio, he and his family lived in a log cabin on a tidy little farm near Canton. His name was Jean Baptiste Francois Xavier Jeanin-Gaume (1807-1860). His father, Luc François Jannin-Gaume (1774-1860), had been a soldier in Napoleon’s Army who fought the Austrians in northern Italy.

In the 1840s, my German and Irish ancestors came over. Some, such as Martin O’Malley (1820-1873), settled on farms in Minnesota, while others took up residence in the booming cities along the Ohio River. Another German ancestor, George C. Spiegel (1839-1925), a cigar maker, lived in the Kleinedeutschland neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Non-Germans called the neighborhood Dutchtown.

In the 1850s, my ancestors living in Louisville, Kentucky, were brutalized by political violence and were told they did not belong in this country. Joseph Kollros (1792-1864) later became a policeman in that city. Richard Bannon (1818-1883), also of Louisville, was a member of the Fenian Brotherhood.

When the Civil War finally came, I had ancestors fighting on both sides. Francis “Frank” Gaume (1843-1917) was a 19-year-old farmhand in Ohio who volunteered and was wounded at the Battle of Stone’s River. And then, down South, one was a private in the Georgia State Guards. He was captured in Greenville, South Carolina, and made a prisoner of war by Sherman’s Army. His name was David Judson Dobbs (1835-1877). 

After the war, my northern ancestor left Ohio and went out west, settling in Kansas long enough to raise a family before heading out to Colorado to dabble in prospecting and went further west to California, where he spent time as a fieldhand. His name was Francis “Frank” Gaume (1843-1917). He was a member of the Civil War veterans group, the GAR – Grand Army of the Republic.

While down south, my ancestors in Georgia struggled to try and rebuild the culture and civilization they once knew. They were David Judson Dobbs (1835-1877) and Martha Josephine Prothro (1836-1928). Some left Georgia and went to Texas, finally settling in the boomtown of Dallas. They were George C. Spiegel (1839-1925) and Sophia Schmidt(1846-1885).