Sunday, September 7, 2025

This Week On My Family History Calendar-Remembering Two Sumter County, SC Ancestors

 



Sept. 9 
      Thomas J. McRady (1821-1896), my maternal 3rd great-grandfather, was born 204 years ago in South Carolina. He lived many years in the Sumter County area and may have been born there.


Thomas J. McRady
Headstone
Pisgah Baptist Church Cemetery
Pisgah Crossroads, Sumter, South Carolina



September 13

 My maternal great-great-grandfather, William A. McManus (1854-1914), died 111 years ago in Bishopville, Lee County, South Carolina. He is buried in Pisgah Baptist Church Cemetery, Pisgah Crossroads, Sumter County, South Carolina. 


William A. McManus
Headstone
Pisgah Baptist Church Cemetery
Pisgah Crossroads, Sumter, South Carolina



Who are you remembering this week?


Thanks so much for stopping by!
Helping you climb your family tree,


Celebration Sunday-Genealogy Happy Dance! AI Photo Enhancement-Giving Clues to An Old Family Picture.

 



You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone that you found the document, contacted a cousin with the family Bible, made a DNA connection, or found a new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.

                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This weekly series enables everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. 
Share by scrolling 
down and add your story to the comments section, or you may also link to a blog post about what had you dancing this week.

Daughrity Family
Sumter, SC
Before 1930
Photo Copy of Original






AI-Edited Version of the Same Photo


My Happy Dance Moment for the week:

I have an old photo from the mid-1920s that shows a family on their porch.
It is faded and very hard to see the people in the background, but I know it's my great-great-grandmother and four of her sons on the steps and sitting in the chair.
I decided to see if ChatGPT could help clear it up.
I'm not sure if you could initially see who was standing on the porch, but it did a good job of giving me some clues. There are at least two little girls.
The little girls are most likely my grandmother and her sisters. There seems to be someone in a white shirt on the right-hand side of the porch. That may be my great-grandfather, since he is not in the photo on the stairs with his brothers. There are some hints of others who have faded and couldn't be restored. Perhaps all 5 little girls were there, and their mother, my great-grandmother, was standing on the porch as well. 
The tool wasn't able to clear up all of the faces, so I can't tell which one of the girls they are, but it's fun to know they were in the photo. The little boy on the right, sitting next to the man on the steps, is most likely one of two cousins. 
It also cleared up the faces of the men, my grandmother's uncles, who were sitting on the steps. My great-great-grandmother is sitting on the chair. I wish her face had been turned towards the camera for a better image of her.

It didn't work perfectly with this photo, at one point when I asked it to clear up the faces a little more, it went way overboard and created faces that were completely made up! It even turned the head of the woman in the chair and had her looking at the camera. I say her, but it looked like a man! So, AI can help, but you have to be careful of what it might do and completely change a photo. 

AI is getting better at photo editing. But it still has problems with some photos.
Always make sure to state that a photo has been edited with an AI tool and not the original. It is important for future generations to know that an editing tool was used. 

Have you used an AI editing tool for your photos?
How did your photo turn out?



What were you celebrating?
Share your Happy Dance Moment for the week, and let's celebrate together!

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

Helping you climb your family tree,