Oops, I see that somehow a week has flown by again without me posting anything new here. The rather summery temperatures have continued - but changing now, and it seems to be getting a bit more autumn-like again. I've been out on my daily walks, but just along the same old paths as usual; and for the most part I've let the camera rest.
The thing is, in my head I've spent a lot of this week Elsewhere and in Another Time - which is not all that easy to illustrate by photos from the Here and Now...
Just now, I let Bing Image Creator have a go at it, though. My first instruction was simply 'Time Travelling 1920s' -
which, for some reason, only rendered pictures of Men. I added the word 'Woman' for another search; and then created this collage using images from both:
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Time Travelling 1920s - Images by Bing Image Creator
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I also tried the phrase I used above - "Elsewhere and in Another Time". Besides mystic images, that also seems to have inspired Bing to invent a whole new language...
The "real story" is not quite as mysterious as all that; but it involves recently having been contacted by A Stranger, who some time ago happened to come across two of my ancestors in his own research for a book. And then he found me via my family history blog...
And it is a little bit delicate, as he's writing about people (including my two ancestors) who ended their lives in a certain mental hospital. His book project is about trying to bring some of those tragic fates out of anonymity. Besides a draft of his chapter about my relatives, he also offered to send me scanned copies of their hospital records that he'd been able to access from visiting a physical archive (most of the hospital records so old now that they're no longer confidential). As I've been digging into that part of family history a bit myself, none of it was shocking news to me; and I don't mind him writing about it. But I've not had access to the full hospital records before, so I said 'yes please' to that... And I'm now spending some time comparing those to my own private family documents, to see what I can perhaps add. So that's where my mind has been a lot during the past week!
13 comments:
Goodness me... no wonder you have been absent here. That must be a fascinating read!
Goodness, what an amazing thing to happen! Those records should have a wealth of information! I would be so excited.
to tell you how far inside my head I have been, i did not notice you were missing until i saw your post come up. enjoy your dive into history and ancestors, I will be playing with the new phone and doing nonsense
JC, fascinating and sad. I do know much of it since before from private documents saved by my grandfather, though.
Ginny, it's not the first time I've had interesting info added to my family history from strangers reading my blog, but it's always exciting when it happens.
Sandra, I guess we all need to spend a bit of time inside our own heads now and then! ;) Hope your new phone will serve you well!
I know from experience how time consuming those family history rabbit holes can be. But we wouldn't do it if we didn't enjoy it. I've recently had a stranger (with a very familiar surname) confirm something I had sort of figured out but about which I was far from sure. Love it when that happens, as I'm sure you are, too.
Those photos are interesting interpretations, Monica!
Intriguing to be given information about ancestors - it will be a fascinating read.
Good name for it, Pauline! (rabbit hole...) And yes, I've had that happen to me a few times as well - strangers getting in touch "out of the blue" to confirm or provide further info on something I've written about :)
Carol, I do like some those AI generated Time Travel illustrations. I think my favourite is the b&w one in the top left corner :)
That's mine too!
As others here have said, fascinating! (The bing creations, too, but much more so the person having contacted you about their project, and sending you scans of your relatives' hospital records.)
Meike, I have since "returned the favour" by contributing some excerpts from inherited private notes and documents as well - as I have evidence that their family did continue to care and worry about these two (wrote regularly to the hospital to enquire about them, sent gifts, and even visited once in a while although it was a long journey).
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