PROJECTS

Project 1.

My Günsberger ancestors' settlement in Vas County, Hungary - I am looking for a settlement pattern and its historical context. (Names, locations, timeframe, and chronology.)
Potential outcomes: a narrative (content) with a detailed process.

Project 2.

The Günsberger family in Alsóság, Vas County, Hungary—My great-grandfather, a descendant of a “settler” family, moved to Alsóság with his wife and baby daughter between June 1, 1876, and March 15, 1878. This small town became their home. The story combines family milestones with major historical events, including social, economic, and political changes such as the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, WWI, and WWII (Names, locations, timeframe, and chronology).
Potential outcomes: a narrative (content) with a detailed process.

Project 3.

A story of four generations of Jewish women spanning nearly two turbulent centuries, illustrating both continuity and change over time. Once again, the story blends family milestones with major historical events, including industrialization, economic depression, migrations, two world wars, the Holocaust, and ultimately, immigration to Montreal, Canada.

The women are:
Rozália Günsberger, my Orthodox, small-town Jewish great-grandmother who died in childbirth,
Regina Günsberger Ébenspanger, my remarkable grandmother, who experienced two world wars, the 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 driving force behind our emigration from Hungary and the family’s pillar through various economic and personal struggles,
Lily Ébenspanger, my Aunt Lily and my mother’s younger sister, who, despite seeming like a meek woman, showed a backbone of steeland was willing to sacrifice for her family, and finally,
Finally, Anne-Marie, the child protected by three women, the child who had to reach old age to properly appreciate these women and this family.

APPROACH - OVERVIEW

THEORETICAL RESOURCES

Our conventional approach to various histories is based on traditional academic disciplines. The recognized expertise of researchers tends to be focused on relatively narrow subjects at a few levels, e.g., a person, a group, a community, or a country (just to name a few; I will address the concept of “levels” in detail). We rely extensively — and rightly so — on the knowledge of these experts. However, if we seek the larger picture, we need to consider a transdisciplinary approach that allows us to explore multiple levels and their interrelationships.

For example, the level of analysis is the main difference between traditional approaches in macro and micro sociology or economics.

Macro and microsociology are two different levels of social analysis: macro-sociology focuses on large-scale social structures and entire societies, while micro-sociology examines small-scale, face-to-face interactions between individuals and groups. They provide different lenses for understanding the same topics, with the macro-level analyzing broad trends and systems (like politics and religion), and the micro-level analyzing how these systems affect individual behavior and how everyday interactions shape society.  
Source: Google AI overview https://www.google.ca/search?q=macro+vs+micro+sociology

When we try to understand the bigger picture and place our ancestors in their historical context, we encounter greater complexity. To address the problems and opportunities that come with this complexity, I use a transdisciplinary approach that allows me to explore multiple levels and their various interrelationships. I base my work on Systems Thinking, combining General System Theory and Cybernetics (GST/C) as they relate to human social systems. [1]

PRACTICAL RESOURCES

During the reconstruction of my family’s experiences during the Nazi occupation of Budapest, I have tried out a number of available resources. My plan is to identify and demonstrate the use of some of the most practical and appropriate ones.

Data sources:

Traditional sources, such as personal documents, witness testimonies, books, journal articles, etc.  One of the potentially most rewarding ones is the collection of Yizkor Books (Memorial Books) of pre-Holocaust Jewish communities (JewishGen and other locations).

Websites are too numerous to mention. I am optimistic about the growing number of factually reliable government and organizational data sources. These sources populate and enrich our genealogy. The following are truly helpful in my work:

JewishGen — for anyone with Jewish ancestry.
Arcanum Maps — allows us to explore historical maps, including large military surveys as well as cadastral and city maps, using modern in-browser technologies
Arcanum Newspapers — is the Eastern European Newspaper Archive. Easily search every word in a document, even names of individuals or places.
RadixIndex: Hungarian and Central European genealogy and local history databases

I have become a YouTube enthusiast: great historical videos (from different point of view) of places and rulers, photo-videos of places (e.g. Budapest before and after WW2). There are also aggregators of journal articles, e.g. Acedemia.edu.

In all cases, reliability is the main issue. I believe that AI (Artificial Intelligence) significantly affects both the content and the way we receive and use data. There is an old saying: “garbage in, garbage out.”

Computer programs for organizing data and related narratives

Scrivener and Aeon Timeline can be used individually or synchronized for a truly powerful tool.

Genealogy programs. I am currently using a Mac platform and the MacFamily Tree software. I have used other programs on Windows.

Finally, I hope that someday we will have access to a global, organized, and easily accessible virtual history for everyone.

An example of this idea appears in the 2014 film Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman, written and directed by Luc Besson. It tells the story of a woman who gains psychokinetic abilities after absorbing a nootropic, psychedelic drug into her bloodstream. Around 1 hour and 16 minutes into the film, you see her sitting in a chair, directing a virtual “screen” with her hands, and moving images of a place through time.