Giving Great-Grandma Lucy a Voice – and Watching Tech Move Faster Than We Ever Expected
From DeepStory to NotebookLM and beyond, tech is moving fast, but story fundamentals remain ... fundamental.
This weekend, my second granddaughter turned 18, and we took a little trip down memory lane.
For years, Belle and I have been playing with photos of her favorite great-grandparents, Robert and Lucy Parks.
It all started back in 2020, when MyHeritage came out with photo colorizing. We uploaded this photo of Robert and Lucy, brought some color into their world, and we were hooked
In 2021, MyHeritage introduced Deep Nostalgia.
This is an animation tool with options for smiles, winks, and even blowing kisses. Robert spent his days as a Vermont farmer, a school teacher in the winter months, and a justice of the peace. He co-authored History of Wells, Vermont, a book many genealogists still use today. He seemed like a serious fellow, not the type of man to wink or blow kisses. To suit his serious side, we chose the “head nod” animation.
(Belle is a little up in the air about whether he was really all that serious though, because, look at that hair! She calls him her Oompa Loompa Grandpa.)
We’re lucky to have these photos of Robert and Lucy. Unlike their children, they didn’t head west to homestead in Nebraska. Out on those homesteads, if a family even had a photo, keeping it safe was another story. I’ve been writing about some of their children and grandchildren, and about and the challenges they faced in the Sandhills.
In 2023, Belle and I tried the next MyHeritage feature, DeepStory.
This one can animate a photo, but it takes things a step further, allowing for multiple photos and a script. Once you input the script, it will add a voice to your animated photo.
Belle “interviewed” Lucy, and we made a fun little video that we both loved. At the time, this technology felt pretty cutting edge.
Fast forward 15 months, to yesterday. I was thinking about Belle’s birthday and looking back at that video from last year. I wanted to show her how much the tech has progressed.
I put our video script into Google’s NotebookLM. This generated a podcast, brought to life by two AI “personalities” who talk back and forth. The voices sound much more natural than anything we could do last year with DeepStory.
The video below covers our DeepStory experience, and I've updated it to include some of the podcast conversation from NotebookLM. It’s a glimpse at where technology was then—and where it seems to be going.
Wherever it's going, it's going fast!
If you want to listen to more of the AI generated podcast, here it is. I find it humorous in small doses. NotebookLM Podcast Link
In the future, perhaps our great grandkids will experience family history in an immersive environment that we can’t begin to understand. But whether you’re using cutting-edge AI or a handwritten page, a good story is usually about a person who wants something, faces challenges, and changes because of the experience. A good family narrative brings ancestors to life with a blend of personal stories, historical context, and universal themes. It uses these to connect the past to the present. The technology changes, but these ingredients remain the same.
This was true in Lucy’s time. It is true in Belle’s time. And it will be true in her grandchildren’s time.