 Genealogy
The Methodology
I thought this might be of interest to those of you who
are interested in researching your family's genealogy.
I am writing about the methodology I am employing in
researching my own family's genealogy. Since this is the
first time for me to take on this type of project, I know
this will include a lot more trial and error than anything
else. Now a couple of months into this project and all I can
say is "HOLY SHIT THIS IS FASCINATING". I really gotta say
though, there is no way in The World this could have been
accomplished years ago, at least not as easily. Recent
technological advances such as image scanning, biometric
profiling, and ChatGPT, to name a few, make this incredibly
fast and simple....and fun.
Anyway, for many years I wanted to trace my family history
back as far as I could, more specifically, the Rose family
history. With all of the mundane tasks and projects that
fill our daily lives, it is often difficult to find the time
to work on a project of this magnitude. With us now settled
in our new (but old) home in the Japanese countryside, I
decided it was time to finally tackle this project.
I have files and photos from way back in the day that stayed
in storage until this year, 2026. I spent a couple of months
at the beginning of the year, almost every day, sorting
through literally tens of thousands of computer files, and
scanned over 4,000 recent and old photos. Now I am taking
the pieces of the puzzle and putting them together in an
organized and meaningful form.
Hopefully these methods prove useful to you. Anyway, here
goes.... |
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A Few Thoughts About Genealogy
Genealogy does not strictly imply genetic inheritance. While
genealogical ancestry traces documented family lineages, it
often ignores that, due to recombination, you only inherit
DNA from a subset of ancestors. The vast majority of
genealogical ancestors beyond a few centuries ago are not
genetic ancestors, as genetic material is lost over time.
Key Differences Between Genealogy and
Genetics: |
- Definition: Genealogy is based on
records, paper trails, and family stories, whereas
genetics is based on DNA inheritance.
- Genetic Dilution: Due to
inheritance, you only inherit 50% of your DNA from each
parent, meaning that by the time you go back 5–7
generations, you might have no detectable DNA from some
ancestors in your family tree.
- Adoption and Non-Paternity:
Genealogy tracks legal or social relationships
(including adoption or misattributed parentage), while
genetics only tracks biological lineage.
- "Pedigree Collapse": You have more
ancestors on paper than actual unique genetic ancestors.
Many ancestors are "genealogical" but not "genetic,"
meaning they are in your tree but contributed 0% of your
DNA.
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While genetic genealogy (using DNA tests) can verify
traditional research, the two fields often diverge. |
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Workspace
This was an important consideration when I decided to take on this project. I
have a wife and three kids at home (home educated) literally 24/7, and although
they are all wonderful, the two younger dudes can get a little rambunctious at
times. When we moved to our present new (but old) house in Japan, I worked
pretty much on outside landscaping and repairs. This year I began working on the
interior, which included new walls to enclose a hallway and make it part of our
bedroom. This resulted in a master bedroom with an adjacent master bathroom, and
a huge storage area in between. What to do? I decided to convert this area into
a workspace, complete with custom shelves for holding pictures. Without this, it
would have meant spreading thousand of pictures out on a table, or even worse,
on the floor....in the way for everybody. Anyway, I used our old dining room
table, one of the four chairs, installed a couple of LED lights, and VOILA,
there was my genealogy project workspace. I highly recommend that you find, or
make, a similar area of your home if you plan to do this type of project.
Information Sources
The beginning of this genealogical journey began with going through computer
files, previous social media account posts, and emails with the following being
a more complete and descriptive list of information sources used: |
- Computer files - This
literally included tens of thousands of files containing information from
back in the day including:
- File entries included old tax statements, credit card
statements, fuel receipts, etc. These all gave an invaluable insight to
places I went and when. This information will be matched up to dateless
pictures that have already been scanned and then the pictures, and associated dates
they were taken, can be added to the story pages of my blog.
- Email Messages -
This was another time consuming project but necessary due to the huge amount
of information I found. Keep in mind that the sent email messages are the
ones you want to use. This is usually a reporting to friends and family what
you're doing at a given time. These email messages have already been added to the
pages of my blog. Unfortunately to complete the file sorting project, there
was not time to read the emails and a lot of personal drama is now being
publicly displayed. This really doesn't bother me much and I plan to delete
these once the pictures are posted and the emails are no longer needed.
- Facebook Posts - All posts
and messages in Facebook can be downloaded in chronological files. These are
almost as valuable as the sent email messages in determining what you did
and when.
- Scanned Photos - This took
almost a full month working almost every day for about eight hours per day.
For this project I purchased a fast refurbished laptop computer, a new
scanner, a new wired keyboard, and a new wired mouse....yup old school and
still prefer a direct computer connection. The total pictures scanned came out to be about
4,000 already with more on the way.
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ChatGPT
I really had to "swallow my pride", "eat my words", um, forget about practicing
what I preached....pick a cliché. When ChatGPT became "a thing", I totally
slammed it and labeled it a cheat, and even when on rants about how this was
going to be what destroys modern society by replacing humans and slowly
infiltrating into every aspect of our daily lines....um, well, this could
actually happen. Anyway, I began using it for simple tasks in order to "check it
out" and the next thing I found was that doing genealogical research was almost
impossible without it, or at least, significantly more difficult. That said, be
aware that there are some limitations.
ChatGPT often “hallucinates” which means that the AI model generates information
that is plausible-sounding but factually incorrect, nonsensical, or entirely
fabricated. Instead of telling a user it doesn't know the answer, the model
confidently makes something up, which can make it very difficult to distinguish
real information from fake.
This really became evident when asking Chat GPT was asked to look at the writing
on the reverse of a scanned photo. The photo had been in a photo album years
ago, and when it was taken out, some of the photo album paper, was stuck on the
back of the photo. In addition, the writing was most likely in handwritten
Yiddish or Russian and indistinguishable to the AI model. Addresses and name
that were easily readable were ignored by ChatGPT and it returned information
that did, not only contain errors, but was completely fabricated. When pressed
about this, the model quickly defended itself, almost like someone being accused
of a crime. The model would return statements such as, “Sorry, you were correct
in pointing that out”, or something like “This was not my fault”, and then go on
to push technological reasons for relating fiction.
My advice is, when scanning information or pictures, use ChatGPT to get the
clues to what you’re searching for, even let the model come to a conclusion, but
leave the final conclusion for yourself.
Scanning Text
I was able to scan the information given to attendees of two of the Rose Family
Club reunions. The scans were immediately put into PDF form. I am not really a
fan of PDFs but this was the easiest was to scan the over 40 pages I needed to
copy. The scan went okay but getting the text into my blog turned out to be
another matter entirely. I used ChatGPT at the beginning to scan the entire PDF
file, but quickly reached the daily limit (using the free service) for uploaded
information. The next step was to take a “screen shot”, “print screen” for those
of you from my generation, and upload it to ChatGPT for analysis. The
information it returned was maybe about 90 percent correct, with the other 10
percent basically made up. This was unacceptable because I was trying to find
out names and dates related to family members.
Frustrated, I decided to go online and find some free OCR scanning sites to use
to complete my task, after all, ChatGPT was using the same technology to scan
the uploaded PDFs and print screen, um I mean screen shots. Yeah, I could simply
subscribe to Adobe and be done with it, but they require email and your credit
card information upfront, for only a seven day trial, before they will even look
at you files. There had to be another way. I came up with this method, and IT
WORKED, the text was 100 PERCENT CORRECT.
To get text from a PDF for free (this worked on a Windows 10 computer) simply do
the following: |
- Open up the PDF in your browser
- Take a screen shot (got it) of the page you want (I used
80% zoom on the PDF)
- Make sure you get 100% of the text in your screen shot
- Put the picture in the "Paint" program and get rid of
all the unnecessary stuff until there is only the text
- Save the text picture to your computer in “jpg” format
- Right click on the picture in "Windows Explorer"
- Choose “Open with” and then choose “Photos”
- Once in the Photo viewer, you will notice two buttons at
the bottom
- Hover the mouse over the button on the right and it
should say “Scan text”
- Click the “Scan Text” button
- Then hover the mouse over the text and right click, and
it should say “Select all text”
- Click “Select all text”
- Click “Copy text”, which will then be copied to your
clipboard
- Then simply paste the text into a program like Notepad
(keeps the text unformatted)
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Scanning Photos
This was by far the most tedious part of this genealogy project. I scanned over
4,000 photos. This meant over 8,000 motions using the same arm to put the photo
in the scanner, scan it, and then take it our again. This went on for about a
months, taking up about eight hours per day….exhausting. With that now complete
(actually there are still more photos to scan), I needed a way to figure out as
much as possible about the photo.
I decided to use the following photo as a test for ChatGPT to see how good a
detective it was. The photo was of a Grade 6 classroom in 1944. This is the only
information I could easily figure out on my own. I uploaded the photo to ChatGPT
and the information it returned (please scroll past photos) was amazing. |
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SCANNED PHOTO |
ChatGPT ENHANCED PHOTO |
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This actually turned out to be a picture of classmates my mom was in school with
in 1944. She is not in the picture but her name is listed on the blackboard,
which was unreadable for me, but ChatGPT was able to pick her name out with no
problem. ChatGPT then offered to enhance the photo for an even better analysis.
The original prompt given to ChatGPT was: please
analyze this photo and provide as much information as possible including, but
not limited to the following, approximate date, location, age of the students,
school, and more
There was no bias contained in the search prompt and this is the information
ChatGPT returned: |
- Approximate Date
- The blackboard clearly reads: GRADE 6 – 1944
- That is almost certainly written at the time the photo
was taken, not added later. The clothing, hairstyles, and classroom décor
are fully consistent with mid-1940s North America, specifically the WWII
era.
- Conclusion: Very likely
1944 (±1 year at most).
- Age of the Students
- Grade 6 students in North America in the 1940s were
typically: 11–12 years old
- Occasionally 10 or 13 depending on birth month or
retention
- The children in the photo visually match that age range
very well:
- Boys have pre-teen facial structure
- Girls show early adolescent development
- No one appears older than about 12–13
- Conclusion: Approximately
11–12 years old.
- The Teachers
- There are two adult men at the back: Primary classroom
teacher (center, tall, wearing suit and tie)
- Likely either: The principal, or Another faculty member
present for the class photo
- In the 1940s, many elementary classrooms were taught by
women, but male teachers were still common, particularly in urban public
schools.
- The formal suit and posture suggest this is a posed
class portrait rather than a candid.
- School Type & Environment
- Strong Indicators of North American Public School:
English language on chalkboard
- Standard wooden desks with metal frames (very typical
U.S./Canada 1920s–1950s)
- Blackboard handwriting style
- Classroom wall educational posters
- The chalkboard includes: Arithmetic
- Agricultural terms (carrots, radishes, tomatoes listed
on left)
- A visible “Honour Roll” list of names
- Probable Location
- While we cannot name the exact school from this image
alone, there are strong contextual clues: Likely:
- United States or Canada
- Urban or industrial area
- English-speaking public school
- If this connects to your earlier Buffalo / Western New
York research:
- The classroom architecture is consistent with
1930s–1940s Buffalo public schools
- The student mix suggests a working- or middle-class
neighborhood
- If this is related to your Kenmore / Buffalo context, it
would fit very naturally.
- Clothing Analysis (Very
Date-Specific)
- Boys:
- Side-parted hair, neatly combed
- Button-down shirts
- Ties (several wearing patterned 1940s ties)
- Sweater vests
- One boy in darker jacket (possibly from a more formal or
religious household)
- Girls:
- Peter Pan collars
- Puff sleeves
- Printed cotton dresses
- Large hair bows
- Braided styles
- Cardigans
- All very typical wartime 1940s fashion.
- No 1950s styling elements are visible (no poodle skirts,
no post-war fuller silhouettes).
- Classroom Wall Details (Very
Interesting)
- On the right wall:
- A Moon Phases educational chart
- A labeled science diagram (possibly of enamel or
anatomy)
- Geography / social studies clippings
- Historical images
- Above:
- Framed western art print (cowboys on horseback)
- Possibly a landscape print
- This suggests:
- Standard American curriculum
- No religious symbols visible
- Secular public school setting
- Names on the Board
- The Honour Roll includes names like:
- Bernard
- Lil Rose - my mom
- Pearl
- Sylvia
- Nettie
- Betty
- Mabel
- Jean
- These are common Jewish and Eastern European immigrant
family names of the period — though not exclusively Jewish.
- If this photo connects to your Jewish family research,
that would be consistent with:
- 2nd-generation immigrant children
- 1940s Northeast U.S. urban public school
- Photographic Characteristics
- Silver gelatin print
- Matte finish
- Typical school photographer framing
- Likely taken by a local studio photographer
- The slight tilt of the hanging pictures suggests:
- Normal classroom environment, not staged in a gym
- Architecture Clues
- High ceiling
- Single hanging industrial light fixture
- Thick plaster walls
- Tall blackboard
- Old-style heating system likely below frame
- This matches pre-WWII school construction (1910s–1930s).
- Social Context (1944)
- Remember:
- 1944 = WWII ongoing
- Fathers of many of these children likely overseas
- Rationing ongoing
- Clothing would reflect practical wartime materials
- Yet the children appear well-dressed, suggesting:
- Stable family environments
- Urban middle or skilled working class neighborhood
- What We Cannot Determine From This Alone
- Exact school name
- Exact city
- Identities of students
- Exact photographer
- Unless:
- The back of the photo contains a studio imprint
- Or this connects to a known family collection
- Most Likely Summary
- Year 1944
- Location: Likely U.S. Northeast or Ontario
- School Type: Public elementary school
- Grade: 6
- Student Ages: 11–12
- Socioeconomic: Working to lower-middle class
- Cultural Background: Likely mixed immigrant community
- Photographer Professional: school portrait photographer
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My recommendation based on this particular use of ChatGPT. This was invaluable
for determining this was in fact a class picture my mom was associated with. She
is not actually in the picture (most likely sitting off to the right) but her
name, Lil Rose, is written on the blackboard. She was 13 years old at the time
this pictures was taken, which was actually May 3, 1944, as written on the rear
of the photo. I think ChatGPT is an extremely useful tool for analyzing photos
for general dates, locations, and other information, but that's pretty much
where the usefulness ends. The enhanced picture looks really good, but after
closer inspection, there are a lot of changes to the students in the picture....see
if you can find them on your own.
Anyway, that's all for today. More coming as this project progresses. Until
then.
Howie |
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File Workspace
Hey folks, if you made it to this part of the page....CONGRATULATIONS. This
section is where I am storing file information about this project in order to
keep a permanent record for my family. Please disregard this information. |
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Pictures Names |
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The individual pictures contained in the files below are named in this manner. |
- Pictures in Windows Explorer are named simply after the
file and the picture
- Example: F2, P8 means Picture 8 in File 2
- Pictures put online are named using the actual URL
- Example: all pictures follow this format -
mysite/graphics/picturefolder/story-xxxx-xxxx-xx-fxx-pxx-country-state-city-place-comments-picture
- graphics is the main folder
- picturefolder is the individual folder for different
picture files (numerous)
- story - the name for every picture file
- xxxx-xxxx-xx - placeholder for date of the picture if
known
- fxx - the file number of the picture (see files below)
- pxx - the picture number within the file
- country-state-city-place-comments - self explanatory
- picture - simply an end word for the URL
- Example:
mysite/graphics/picturefolder/story-1948-xxxx-xx-f4-p8-canada-ontario-toronto-home-1-mom-2-dad-3-grandma-4-grandpa-picture
- In this example the picture would be from file 4,
picture 8 of, mom, dad, aunt, uncle in 1948 while at home in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada
- Note: The people in the pictures are named in the URL as
follows:
- All people are listed from front to back and from left
to right
- Example: in this section of the URL,
1-mom-2-dad-3-grandma-4-grandpa, if it were changed to
11-mom-12-dad-21-grandma-22-grandpa, this would now mean my family members
are not standing in a straight line and now my mom is in the front row on
the left, and my dad is in the front row on the right, and my grandma is in
the back on the left, and my grandpa is in the back on the right
- The position naming conventions are as follows:
- The first number before a name is the row number
- Example: 1=1st row, 2=2nd row, 3=3rd row, etc. (left to
right)
- The second number is the position in the row
- Example: 1=1st position, 2=2nd position, 3=3rd position,
etc. (left to right)
- Example: 16=1st row 6th position (left to right)
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Picture files in Windows Explorer |
File-1-1900-1949-Miscellaneous-1
File-2-1900-1949-Miscellaneous-2
File-3-1900-1949-Miscellaneous-3
File-4-1900-1949-Miscellaneous-4
File-5-1900-1949-Miscellaneous-5
File-6-1940-1949-M-Black-White-1
File-7-1940-1949-M-Black-White-2
File-8-1940-1949-M-Black-White-3
File-9-1940-1949-M-Black-White-4
File-10-1950-1969-M-Black-White-1
File-11-1950-1969-M-Black-White-2
File-12-1950-1969-M-Black-White-3
File-13-1950-1969-M-Black-White-4
File-14-1950-1969-M-Black-White-5
File-15-1950-1969-M-Black-White-6
File-16-1950-1969-M-Black-White-7
File-17-1950-1969-M-Black-White-8
File-18-1950-1969-M-Black-White-9
File-19-1950-1969-M-Black-White-10
File-20-1960-1969-M-Black-White-Album-1
File-21-1960-1969-M-Black-White-Album-2
File-22-1960-1969-M-Black-White-Album-3
File-23-1960-1969-M-Black-White-Album-4
File-24-1960-1969-M-Black-White-Album-5
File-25-1960-1969-M-Black-White-Album-6 |
File-26-1960-1979-M-Color-Rounded-Regular-1
File-27-1960-1979-M-Color-Rounded-Regular-2
File-28-1960-1979-M-Color-Rounded-Regular-3
File-29-1960-1979-M-Color-Rounded-Regular-4
File-30-1960-1979-M-Color-Rounded-Small-1
File-31-1960-1979-M-Color-Rounded-Small-2
File-32-1960-1979-M-Color-Rounded-Small-3
File-33-1960-1979-M-Color-Rounded-Small-4
File-34-1960-1979-M-Color-Straight-Regular-1
File-35-1960-1979-M-Color-Straight-Small-1
File-36-1960-1979-M-Color-Straight-Small-2
File-37-1960-1979-M-Color-Straight-Small-3
File-38-1960-1979-M-Color-Straight-Small-4
File-39-1960-1979-M-Color-Straight-Small-5
File-40-1960-1979-M-Color-Straight-Small-6
File-41-1960-1979-M-Color-Straight-Small-7
File-42-1960-1979-M-Color-Straight-Small-8
File-43-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-1
File-44-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-2
File-45-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-3
File-46-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-4
File-47-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-5
File-48-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-6
File-49-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-7
File-50-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-8 |
File-51-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-9
File-52-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-10
File-53-1960-1979-M-Color-White-Border-11
File-54-1960-1979-Miscellaneous-1
File-55-1960-1979-Miscellaneous-2
File-56-1960-1999
File-57-1960-1999-M1
File-58-1960-1999-M2
File-59-1960-1999-M3
File-60-1960-1999-M4
File-61-1960-1999-M5
File-62-1960-1999-M6
File-63-1960-1999-M7
File-64-1960-1999-M8
File-65-1960-1999-M9
File-66-1960-1999-M10
File-67-1960-1999-M11
File-68-1960-1999-M-Ballinger-1
File-69-1960-1999-M-Ballinger-2
File-70-1960-1999-Me-aaaa
File-71-1960-1999-M-Friends-New
File-72-1960-1999-M-Friends-Old
File-73-1960-1999-M-Hyde-Park-1
File-74-1960-1999-M-Hyde-Park-2
File-75-1960-1999-M-Hyde-Park-3 |
File-76-1960-1999-M-Polaroid-1
File-77-1960-1999-M-Polaroid-2
File-78-1960-1999-M-Polaroid-3
File-79-1960-1999-M-Properties-1
File-80-1960-1999-M-Properties-2
File-81-1960-1999-M-Properties-3
File-82-1960-1999-SPNB-Work-Parties
File-83-1960-1999-Weather-Station
File-84-1960-1999-Wedding-Depinto
File-85-1970-1979-Buffalo-Bills
File-86-1970-1979-Family-Canada-Trip
File-87-1970-1979-Family-Mexico-Trip
File-88-1970-1979-Grandparents-Anniversary
File-89-1970-1979-Parents-Arizona-Trip
File-90-1970-1979-Parents-California-Trip
File-91-2000-2009-Japan-1
File-92-2000-2009-Japan-2
File-93-2000-2009-Japan-3
File-94-2000-2009-Japan-4 |
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- When trying to match uploaded pictures (reduced size) to
picture stored in computer files (full size and resolution) simply do the
following:
- Example picture URL
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story-1944-May-3-F1-P36-canada-ontario-city-unknown-school-class-scanned-picture
- The "F1" in the URL is the file number, in this case the
Windows Explorer "File-1-1900-1949-Miscellaneous-1"
- The "P36" in the URL is the picture number "36" in "F1
or File-1-1900-1949-Miscellaneous-1"
- This makes it easy to find full size and resolution
pictures for printing out
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Pictures File Links |
Picture file 1
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Picture file 2
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Picture file 3
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Picture file 4
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Picture file 5
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Picture file 6
Picture file Mina |
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