What’s Next

The goal is universal, readily available virtual history.

I sit in my comfortable chair, ready to “work.” I turn on a large virtual screen that surrounds me (this is already available from Apple).

My AI bot is ready..
“Hello AI. I would like to see Budapest in 1920.”
A bird’s-eye view appears on the screen.
“Take me to my mother’s gymnasium.”
An image of the school building appears.
“Can you tell me who her teachers were?” I ask.
A list appears, with the names of her teachers by grade and subject.

And so it goes…. I relocate and another image appears. I ask questions, a voice answers but the answers can also appear on the screen. I don’t take notes; all my exchanges with the AI-bot are recorded and can be searched by any word or combination of words.

It’s a dance: I lead, and the AI bot follows.

This is my vision of the future. We’re not fully ready yet, but the intentions are there, and the technology is getting closer.

My mission is to blend the person-focused approach of genealogy with the comprehensive, complex, and location-based perspectives of history and historical accounts, covering social, economic, political, and geographic contexts.


THE PREMISE

The history of a location encompasses the history of its people.

Therefore, the history of a people must include the history of the corresponding location(s).

My policy for this work is simple: it is a personal legacy project, and my priority is to pass our complex history on to children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren (yes, I have them), and so on.

It is intended to be useful for any individual or community seeking to understand their ancestors’ place in a broader historical context.

PROGRAMS & PROJECTS
These programs and related projects are interconnected and built on each other.

Program 1.
To utilize the genealogical data of my ancestors/family to establish a process for situating them within their broader historical context.

This program includes four projects through which I explore and describe how to fit family history into the larger history of that time and place. Data is about 50% complete.

  1. My reconstruction of the Nazi occupation of Budapest. Completed. (I may write a second iteration of this in project four below, as I explore the interactions among family members.)

  2. Settlement in Vas County, Hungary - A single name (Günsberger) in multiple places within Vas County. Seeking a settlement/residence pattern and its historical context. Results: a narrative (content) and the process.

  3. Alsóság, Vas County, Hungary - A single name (Günsberger) in a single place in Vas County. This is a family’s story, in its historical context, going back to my great-grandparents. Results: a narrative (content) and the process.

  4. A narrative of four generations of Jewish women spanning nearly two turbulent centuries. A story of family continuity over time includes industrialization, migration from a small town to a capital, two world wars, the Holocaust, migration, and immigration to Canada.

    • Rozália Günsberger, my Orthodox, small-town, Jewish great-grandmother who died in childbirth,

    • Regina Günsberger Ébenspanger, my awesome grandmother, who experienced two world wars, loss of family in the Holocaust, and eventual immigration to Canada,

    • Margit Ébenspanger Balázs, my mother, who had her life plans extinguished at a young age, became the primary mover in our emigration from Hungary, and the family’s strength through a variety of economic and family turmoils,

    • Lily Ébenspanger, my aunt Lily, my mother’s younger sister, who despite appearing as a meak woman, demonstrated a backbone of steel, ready to sacrifice for her family,

    • Finally, a bit about myself, the child protected by three women, who had to reach old age to properly appreciate these women and this family.

      Results: a narrative (content) and the process.

Program 2.
To identify some organizations, tools, and resources (particularly those that I have used) that could contribute to developing a global, virtual, location-based comprehensive history.

It contains the following projects:

  1. Further work with Szombathely, Vas County, Hungary. I want to include Szombathely because of the proven quality of their work in telling the complex history of a Hungarian Jewish community before and during the Holocaust. Their work deserves more recognition and wider replication. I also believe it would be an excellent community for a virtual history test.

  2. A preliminary review of place-centered history projects, implemented or currently underway. I wish to highlight at this point JewishGen’s various approaches to providing place-based data.

  3. Summarizing resources (organizations, tools) that I have used in Program 1 projects, to assist users in placing their own family/ancestors in their historical context.

  4. Exploring ways of integrating location-based chronologies and information into genealogy education and genealogy programs.

POTENTIAL OUTCOMES

1. Participation in the development of learning opportunities (I don’t like the word courses - feels way too traditional, constricted and confining) and tools for students, genealogists, and researchers.

2. A third-party GEDCOM app (if such a thing is possible) to expand the “place” identifier in genealogy programs.

3. A more effective use of the personal experiences described in testimonials, anecdotes, and memories, despite critiques of such material in “pure historical” narratives.

4. Publishing the story of the women’s journey.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

When we try to place our ancestors in their historical context, we encounter complexity. To address the problems and opportunities associated with this complexity, I rely on my previous work in General Systems Theory and Cybernetics (GST/C) as it relates to human social systems.

PROJECTS’ ORGANIZATION

I have initiated and successfully run a research center at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. USA. Successful in the sense that it obtained grants for community projects that involved student participation.

The projects outlined above are quite advanced. I plan to use this blog to publish content and related processes simultaneously. The goal is to help future users create distinct groupings for learning opportunities or publication.