What has the moon got to do with it all? I am writing this story in mid-April 2024. Over the past 18 or so months, I have been on a journey into the past. More recently I have been delving into the future via AI.
Past.
My journey into the past and how I got there has been a roller coaster of a ride. A ton of memories both happy and sad. The journey has been amazing. I have travelled far and wide. I have been to places I would never have dreamt of. I have met so many different types of people from all walks of life.
I know I have joked about that I dig up details about dead people and hang around graveyards. But, if I had not done this I would not have found out about my ancestors.
1980s England.
As I have probably written, I started my journey to find out where I came from in the late 1970s. However, most of my experiences occurred in the 1980s. I took time off work to go and explore and discover.
And, I sure did. Travelling all over East Anglia in England. Meeting relatives along the way. We shared stories, surprises, and laughter but I never remember any sadness. I discovered Shropshire and in particular Ludlow and the surrounding areas. What an amazing County! Up into Yorkshire where I had thought I’d be there researching for days only to find my travelling ancestors came there from Suffolk and then went back!
1980s Scotland.
During my six months of travelling, I ventured into Scotland. It was like finding home. I remember going to a small village in Perthshire where my Scottish ancestors once lived.
I met distant Scottish relatives who lived in Dundee and Aviemore from different branches of my tree. It was like a feeling that I belonged. Discovering my connections in the Highlands to the whiskey trail was another amazing find. Being shown around a distillery and how the whiskey barrels were “put” together is a memory I will never forget. Finding the church located on the side of a hill and a stream nearby, was to die for. This was where my great-grandmother was baptised.
History.
I never really understood history when I was at school. It was like dates, places and then the events that took place. Basically, so what. However, when it comes to family history and it being personal is another matter. Being from Australia the buildings show dates like 1857 or 1904 but when travelling around England – well these dates aren’t even old.
Besides dates and places, each has its own history and its place in it. Understanding what was happening at various times in the 1700s, 1800s and even the 1900s makes a huge difference.
Mystery.
So the moon, is it the mystery, the unknown because it shines light into the night? Don’t forget the moon can also be seen during the day. With recent events, I saw people coming together as a natural event occurred but can’t seem to be getting along with others at other times. The moon is powerful. As we move forward, huge changes are occurring that take us into the future, particularly with technology.
AI.
Then we have artificial intelligence (AI) where a machine can manipulate anything in a variety of ways. This can be structuring sentences differently, adding colour to old black-and-white photographs and even having an image of an ancestor appear to come alive at that moment the photograph was taken. This whole process can create massive rabbit holes. However, it makes one think outside of the box. AI is here to stay and up to us how we use it to benefit our research.
In all of my writings to date, I have NEVER used any generative AI process. Also, I will never use it in any future writings published here. I write as I speak – you either enjoy it or you don’t.
Ways to use AI effectively with family history is to use it to create maybe, mini-movies of your ancestors’ travels or even a mini-documentary of where they once lived, played, worked and died.
You can have a look on YouTube to see all the latest trends. Oh, and it’s not cheap with all the different platforms having a “free” component but to get better content you do need to pay.
To use AI to create a mini-movie, you need script ideas, shooting plans plus much, much more. It is possible to create a reasonable short movie. It is something that I have been considering but it is very time-consuming. Basically, it would bring your ancestor’s life alive.
Throw Away.
Life living in the past and rapidly flying into the future before entering the past again, so we can understand where we came from. Living life and looking at our past, what have our ancestors endured? Our ancestors created historical events and then are gone. Life is like a battery – starts fully charged and eventually runs down.
Then, the battery is thrown away and the cycle starts again… Life is full of mysteries. We tend to go looking for these mysteries to discover the what, when and why events occurred for our ancestors.
For that matter, even our own lives… Life goes on. Each of our lives begins, has a middle and an end. Along the way, we explore and discover not only where we came from but also where we are going.
Future.
We know what the future was for our ancestors. We go searching and find details. These details fit into history. We follow this process for our own lives – explore and discover.
So how does the moon affect you? What discoveries have you made during this time? What “moon” events did your ancestors encounter? Think about that for a while…
CHANGE IS COMING…
Ancestor Family 