This week David and Terri talk with special guest, Michelle Taylor. Michelle is a triple threat: a genealogist, archaeologist and anthropologist. We enjoyed talking with Michelle, she has so much information to share when it comes to educating others.
Special Guest
Michelle Taylor is a freelance genealogist based in Richmond, Virginia. The research that she has conducted incorporates archaeology, history, and genealogy. Her research interests include public archaeology, mapping, cemetery preservation, and military history. She has worked on excavation sites throughout the state of Virginia including James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange County, Virginia. The material culture that has been unearthed through both her archaeological and genealogical research connects back to her enslaved ancestors at Montpelier. She has been able to collaborate and engage with the staff and descendants on projects, exhibitions, and other public outreach initiatives. The exhibitions and workshops that she has worked on examines the lives of the enslaved men, women, and children who were enslaved by President James Madison. Nearly a decade ago, Michelle embarked on her first archaeological excavations at James Madison’s Montpelier while she was an undergraduate student. This experience heightened her interest in archaeology as well as genealogy. Since completing her undergraduate studies, she has focused her graduate research on uncovering the narratives and contributions of African Americans throughout history.
Show transcription
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[00:00:04] David: Hi, I’m David Allen Lambert, and I’m pleased to be here with my colleague Terri O’Connell today for another episode of Virtual Historians. And I want to just ask Terri, what’s new with you?
[00:00:17] Terri: Not a whole heck of a lot here, but we’re enjoying the beautiful weather. The cold seems to be gone. So that’s good.
[00:00:24]David: We’re enjoying it here too, but I get the air conditioning on. So I got a sweatshirt on, but that’s a New England thing, you know, wait five minutes and the weather changes.
[00:00:32] Well, I’m really excited to bring one of our new friends, Michelle Taylor, to Virtual Historians today. And we’re going to learn about what she does. Now many of you may be genealogists, but are you also an archeologist? Can you say you got that on your checklist. So Virtual Historians have a archeologists, genealogists, anthropologist and someone who can make amazing things come alive with 3d printing, which is our VR, part of the thing, virtual reality with making history a reality in a different way. So without further ado, I want to introduce Michelle. Thank you for coming on the show.
[00:01:13] Michelle: Hi David, hi Terri, I’m so excited to be here today.
[00:01:16] How are you?
[00:01:17] David: We’re doing great. You know, it’s funny, we met through Clubhouse, which is an app a lot of people may not know about, and we just kind of bumped into each other. I think when we first used it.
[00:01:29] Michelle: Definitely. I feel like when Clubhouse first came out, they had so many genealogy rooms to choose from.
[00:01:35] And I think the first room I saw you and was like a military history room and I said, oh, that’s right up my alley. So I joined in, you know, kicked it off, just like that.
[00:01:44] David: Yeah. Funny how that happens and of course, with COVID going on so many of us have been meeting people virtually because that whole.
[00:01:51] In-person handshaking. Nice to meet you that we’ve had for millennia, it’s kind of been robbed from us for a little while. So, so it’s nice to meet with you virtually one level up. Cause I don’t think we’ve all chatted on camera before, so this is great to have you here. You know, one of the things I was doing, because this is a genealogist and historian. I kind of sleuth out people and I was blown away by an NPR story about you from a few years ago where you actually volunteered to help recreate enslaved cabins at Montpelier where James Madison lived. I need to know about this. Tell us about that story.
[00:02:33] Michelle: Absolutely. So when I started school as an undergraduate student.
[00:02:39] I was studying anthropology and it led me to, you know, also doing my genealogy research and within like a year or two into the program, I found out about a connection to my family through my mother’s side. And basically I went ahead and did a field lab, went and did an excavation program at Montpelier and the first excavation I did was on the same part of the estate that I built this log cabin. So it was kind of like a full circle for me. Like in 2012, I’m excavating as a student and several years later I’m going back reconstructing a log cabin. So it was really interesting because we worked with the salvage company and they taught us like all the pointers and tips that you need to know to build a log cabin. I was like, oh, this is intimidating. Especially in the middle, it was February, it was very cold. And but it was such a rewarding process, especially cause we did all the tools and techniques we learned were, like we didn’t use, you know, modern day equipment. We use all the traditional techniques that would have been used by the enslaved communities during that time.
[00:03:47] So it was a very rewarding whole experience. So I really thought, like, you know, had to go back out there and try one of those workshops because Montpelier offers so many public, you know, public archeology programs. And so I think that just like one of my favorite experiences, being able to start from archeologists excavating, then moving onto like a builder in one way.
[00:04:13] David: I mean, talk about 3d printing on a larger scale, you know
[00:04:19] Michelle: exactly. I know when I hear people, it’s like, oh, you know, we can 3d print with steel and wood and chocolate. I’m like, oh, what? This is this, this is a whole nother thing. You know, this is like hands in the dirt, you know, you’re right on the ground getting dirty.
[00:04:36]I love outdoors. I love doing, you know, activities like, building and I’ve always loved that. So I think, you know, it was a perfect fit for me.
[00:04:45] David: So talking about the cabins for a little bit, so how big was an enslaved cabin on Montpelier would like dimension wise, ballpark?
[00:04:53] Michelle: So interesting enough when the, when we were building the cabins, it was based on the archeology that was found there.
[00:05:01] So they found features in the ground that showed where it was. I Ooh, like it would be the size of like a living room, apartment size, living room to put it into perspective. I won’t give dimensions cause I’m not good with that. But I would say, I definitely say about the size of like apartment size living room.
[00:05:21] So one room for a whole family of eight, nine, 10 people.
[00:05:25] David: Dirt floors and probably a hearth at one end of it or not a hearth.
[00:05:29]Michelle: Yeah. It was so great when I was in 2012, taking my archeology classes and being able to see like middens and seeing where, the archeology support at where the people lived and seeing like, oh, this is the area where traditionally they would sweep in the morning and all of you would find like a cluster of artifacts and all this material culture in one area.
[00:05:51] And it was just support, you know? Okay. This is where everything was being swept to. And this is where the actual posts are for the house. So to be able to go back and rebuild that to the likeness of what enslaved people there lived in, I think it just gives people and to see it from the visitor center when you drive into the facility, you can see the log cabin. So it’s just the change, how that looks that I think just puts it into place for people to understand a little bit about it.
[00:06:22] David: And that’s really the truth. I mean, places like Montpelier, and even with Monticello, I think for a number of years, they kind of swept clean the, I mean, there was the element, there was an enslaved population there, but as far as telling that story, even with colonial Williamsburg until recent years, that was kind of implied, but never displayed or recreated. So how many cabins did they make at Montpelier? Do you, do you know.
[00:06:48] Michelle: Well, when I went into the log cabin in 2016, it was the second log cabin that was built. And they have like, they only build it when they do the log cabin workshops.
[00:06:58] So each year they do the log cabin workshops. Another one is built. So I think I know they’re up to at least three now, because I know they did one the year after I was in the workshop program.
[00:07:10] David: That’s awesome. Well, you know, you did mention, you have a family connection with Montpelier and obviously as a genealogist, I’m curious about that.
[00:07:17] So can you tell us about with your connection?
[00:07:20] Michelle: Well, definitely. So pretty much, I knew my mom’s family migrated to, I was born and raised in Detroit. So I knew that side of the family migrated from Kentucky. But when I started sitting down and talking with my mom’s first cousin, I said tell me what you know about your mother’s side of the family.
[00:07:35] Although this would be like, My in-laws side, he’s told me some names and I said, let me just plug it in and see how far I can go back. And when I got back to like the 1880s, 1870 census, I saw this name, George Gilmore. And I said, oh, look, he’s living in orange county, Virginia. That’s not. That’s only an hour away from where I live.
[00:07:58] And sometimes I think people like they don’t take advantage of Google. Like sometimes you can Google your ancestor. You never know what will come up. So like, I think early on I didn’t realize it was like, it could be something out there about, you know, your ancestors. So I did a quick Google search, but to my surprise, all of this information came up about George Gilmore and how he had a cabin that was still standing at Montpelier. So his home he raised his family and it looks a lot different than those cabins that we reconstructed on the site, because it’s like when you’re driving down Constitution Highway, which is the highway that takes you to Montpelier. His cabin is located on the other side of the entrance. It’s just really interesting to see that connection and go back and tell my cousin.
[00:08:48]Wait, you know, he at that time was living in South Carolina and I think it was just amazing to know like history was like right there. And since I’ve lived in Virginia, I have found a lot of history, right under my nose. That was really, it’s just fascinating,
[00:09:02]David: And that’s true and I’m sure Terri will agree is that, you know, I think most people who haven’t dabbled in genealogy, you know, some people don’t even know their great-grandmother’s name, let alone her maiden name or better yet that your family could have lived two blocks from where you live now, or 200 miles from where you’re living now, because it’s forgotten.
[00:09:23] If the next generation doesn’t share that story, it’s kind of lost until a genealogist like yourself comes along and to uncover it. So that’s really cool.
[00:09:34] Terri: I think it’s important to add with Googling. If you’ve got somebody who’s been doing their family history for, you know, a decade or so. Many of them are out there blogging, putting a lot of information out there. So I wrote a blog post years and years and years ago about the different great grandparents and their names. Maybe three years after one post, I got an email from a lady who said we have to be related. That’s a Hungarian name. I’m still in Hungary and I Google my name every year. And I never find anything. This is the first time any hit has come from it. I have no clue how we connect. Obviously it’s through my Hungarian line, but it’s important to put those names out there for anybody who is doing that kind of research.
[00:10:21] Michelle: Wholeheartly agree because I think that if more crowdsourcing, more putting it in blog and any kind of social media outlet where people can see it is just going to draw in audiences. Like I’m a member of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, which is located throughout this country, but I’m based in Richmond and every meeting, we usually go over surnames at the beginning of the meeting.
[00:10:45] And that’s just to re establish, like, you never know who you’re meeting within you know, who’s your cousin, you know, now with the DNA, you really don’t know, like I’ve been in spaces where I’ve met people and later on logged into ancestry and they were my cousin. So it’s kinda mind blowing.
[00:11:06] David: Yeah, I’m really glad that my Christmas card list hasn’t expanded versus the amount of Autosomal DNA matches that I’ve had.
[00:11:13] Michelle: Yeah. He would have to take out a loan just to send out Christmas cards.
[00:11:22] David: I’m looking over your left shoulder and I see a 3d printer. So is that where you make all the magic happen or similar, or you worked on it in school and you decided you had fun at home or?
[00:11:35] Michelle: Yeah, so I started as an intern after graduating from college in archeology lab, So the Virtual Curation Lab and all we did was like 3d scan, 3d print, and, you know, catalog any of the artifacts that we were finding while doing our excavations or any artifacts that different collections wanted 3d scans. So after finishing that internship, I continue training students and my next job in the library, training students, how to use 3d printers and scanners, and I just needed one for myself.
[00:12:08] So I really love the one I have because it’s for educational purposes and straightforward. It’s not like some, the ones that I worked with while, you know, as an intern, they’re like four figures. Like this is like, really, this is very cost efficient type of 3d printer, like on Amazon, like under $300.
[00:12:30] So I think, you know, Yeah. I think, that’s part of what I want people to take away with, you know, doing a family history. You never know what kind of ways you can bring it to life, to younger people. Like when I do like presentations with like high school and middle school age students, they’re so excited to see like hold actual artifacts and, you know, learn that history that they’ve read in the textbook, see something visually to like translate to them in a way that. It’s not always able to be done through text.
[00:13:03]Terri: What do you print and bring?
[00:13:05] Michelle: So actually whenever I need to go to schools I take a collection that’s from the virtual creation laboratory where I was an intern and they’ll have different boxes.
[00:13:13] So if I’m talking about African-American history, I’ll take a box where people can see artifacts from as early as the mid 1700s up until contemporary artifacts. So you would have anywhere like for Montpelier, particularly you would have artifacts that were from the Gilmore cabin, because they’ve done excavations under the cabin where you see toys that the children played with. They had a blacksmith, you could find artifacts that were connected to made by the blacksmith on the plantation.
[00:13:42] So just like anything to help convey that story of, you know, what were the occupations of people who are enslaved? All the way to present day, artifacts that show what their life’s like afterwards.
[00:13:54] David: Well, that’s great. Well, you know, I think the thing I find so exciting about archeology is that so many things are behind glass walls and museums with a 3d printer, you can pass around the paleo Indian artifact or the clay pipe , and not worry about the kid dropping it and breaking in, or, you know, it’s going around kids in a, in a hall and like, all right, who has the Arrowhead.
[00:14:20] Hello?
[00:14:24] Michelle: And then you can print mass amounts of it, depending on, but a lot of the artifacts we print are very small scale, just so you’re allowed to print more of it because that makes it easier as well. And just creating activities to every subject I’ve been invited to English classes, history, art classes, you know, it varies and you can bring a history into any of those fields.
[00:14:45] So this whole concept of steam. Like we went from stem and adding the a, into it for art. So I think whenever you can bring that to life for students it just makes it so much more exciting and it keeps them engaged long term.
[00:15:02] David: Well, I feel like a student I’m sure Terri does right now. And I think we had talked before you have a little bit of a presentation that you do. Talking about what you’ve worked on and I’d love to have you share your screen and share with our audience, if you don’t mind.
[00:15:17] Michelle: Of course. I want to talk a little bit about some of the latest trends that people can get into that may help them with their research.
[00:15:23] So to get started with today’s presentation, I’m going to go through some of the technologies that you can incorporate into your genealogy and archeology research. Starting with twoof the newest Apple products on the market.
[00:15:38] We’re not endorsed by Apple, but I definitely would love to talk about some of the things that you can use to help with your research. So if you are an Apple user, Apple fanatic, these are the latest products on the market that have LIDAR scanners and prior to this, the previous iPads and iPhones did not have this sort of technology, which is very commonly used with archeologists and the way it’s used, we see it used in AR VR does different ways to 3d scan, whether you’re scanning rooms or scanning objects.
[00:16:17] That’s another way to enhance your ability to scan something. Cause you may have something in your family heirloom, or I know in a previous conversation I had with David, we talked a lot about cemeteries. I think that’s something I really I’m just very passionate about is making sure that you’re able to preserve, sometime we never know, like natural natural occurrences, you know, can happen and your tombstones can be destroyed or vandalism. So I think this is another way if you already have, you may not know what kind of things your phone or iPad have, is already built in. So that’s definitely two things, I would tell people, look at what your specs are on your device and see if you can incorporate that into it.
[00:17:04] Because prior to that, like when I was starting off learning how to 3d scan, we used a lot of devices sort of like this one on the screen the Structure Sensor, where you’re actually connecting your iPad or iPhone to a scanner, attachment scanner and uploading it to one of the various online websites to 3d print.
[00:17:27]Another thing that. Going back to some of these Apple updates is enhancing your research by using the Scribble tool. I think any Apple users, sometime we are not aware, it’s there always so many updates. And so with the scribble tool, you can, if you have an iPad and the Apple pencil pair, you can write anything, whether it’s in cursive or in straight hand, And it’ll convert it into text.
[00:17:53] So that could be great when you’re interviewing your family members or any kind of way that you can speed up your ability to do any research. So I love using that feature. I actually can share my iPad screen and the zoom call and give some examples because I use it a lot with creating family trees.
[00:18:14] Going back to like that whole cemetery perspective to 3d scanning and printing. I actually went to one of the free websites, sketchfab.com and just did a quick search, because when it comes to military history, particularly a focus of mine it’s the United States colored troops and looking for their tombstones. So you’ll see that this particular one is not a USC, but it has been scanned and it’s free to download and alter.
[00:18:42] So that’s something I love about using some of these free websites is they will allow you to edit the object to your heart’s content, as long as you credit them. So depends on what kind of copyright permissions, they give you, but in this case, like you have, you know, you know, what kind of format this tombstone was in and you can say, okay, this is the same format I’ve seen for my ancestor. You can modify it and make any, you know, change the name. But if you have that ability to use the 3d scanning technology that I talked about, that just will allow you to scan it yourself and upload it to one of these websites and do the similar things with it. And I’m very like, you know, you just search on the website, whatever you’re looking for, it can be very specific or, very broad, but some people do charge because they have not just 3d objects.
[00:19:37] They have VR and AR objects that can be downloaded and added into your games. They have the files where you can 3d print it. It’s just varies. So I think it’s like a lot of these websites are really beneficial to being able to do 3d scanning and printing and virtual reality and all the above. So going back into what we talked about at the beginning, it’s like work I did at Montpelier, how I’ve evolved since starting as an intern and moving up. But here, when I was an intern, a lot of the collection that we worked with is 3d scanning was located right in house, a lot of archaea, like a lot of historical sites. They have like offsite, locations for their artifacts, but for Montpelier, they’re all onsite and you’re able to have visitors see it in person. And I think, you know, that’s just one aspect of how you can look at artifacts, if you, but as we know now, everything’s opening back up. But at the same time, how about students who are studying history in different states? So that goes back to 3d printing and 3d scanning. How do we bring these sites into the classrooms, across the nation?
[00:20:51] And so I actually include some of the 3d renderings from the virtual creation laboratories collection including some of the artifacts from, Montpelier, and you’ll see that this just gives another visual presentation of how these artifacts look. They’re easily 3d printed. For objects this size, it would take less than an hour to print something.
[00:21:16] You know, you could print both of these objects in less than an hour. So another unique thing about Montpelier is their iron conservation is done in house, so they don’t have to go ahead and send it off to another place. It’s all done there. So that’s just something to add to it. I wanted to make sure I discussed how thankful I am for the opportunity that my professor, my undergraduate professor, Dr. Means presented to me because you know, a lot of students have went through working as interns in this program, and it’s just jumpstart their careers, including myself. So I think 3d printing can take you a lot of places and. It, whether you’re using it in academic outreach or you’re taking it into engineering side of things, it’s just something that, you know, it’s very helpful for historians, enthusiasts and everyone in between.
[00:22:11] Here’s some more images from some of the things I have 3d scanned, as you’ll see, this is a 3d scanner that’s not like a handheld or attached to a phone. This is a stationary 3d scanner, very detailed compared to the ones that are attached to phones and some of the objects that I haven’t been able to 3d print have been able to be used for museum purposes. So on the left, we have an image of several bones from a Bootherium Bombifron, which is, if you see what it looks like, it looks very similar to a wooly mammoth, but we spent hours on it in 3d printing these artifacts to recreate the.
[00:22:52] The original animals. And so just being able to take those, you know, 3d prints and have something on display of a replica is just another way that I’ve been able to use history that, you know, tell the stories. And I’m the school and workshops that I’ve went to, the students have been able to see these objects and hold them in their hand.
[00:23:17] And once again, bringing history to reality. I think another thing that people may not have thought about what the 3d scanning and printing is that it’s awesome, really beneficial to the students, visual, you know, the visually impaired community. Like that’s something that it’s very important when, you know, creating curriculum.
[00:23:38] For students as being able to create it, whereas accessible and available for all students. And you’ll see in the image on the right, it’s actually the signature of president George Washington, but it’s been embossed in a way where you can feel the signature in that fist. You know, it wouldn’t be something where someone could feel it.
[00:23:58] Not only just see it or adding brown to artifacts is another thing that helps to bring history to life. I have a few more artifacts here that are in the collection through the virtual creation laboratory that are on display on sketchfab.com. And just some of the resources that people can take advantage of for the particular collection that the virtual creation laboratory has, but we see more and more archeology labs are moving in that direction of having artifacts readily available to download.
[00:24:33] If you do have a 3d printers, 3d printer personally, or you go into your local library and download these artifacts to incorporate into teaching at home with your kids or as you care is being able to incorporate it into their curriculum. And that’s my short presentation. Hope that you have more questions.
[00:24:56] David: That was really great. Wow.
[00:25:00] Michelle: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[00:25:03] David: You know, I think artifacts, I have a new life and a new way for interpretation and you know, you can bring it back to the site, archeologists often when they remove the artifacts they’re out of situ forever.
[00:25:19] And just to think that you could replicate a display in one of the enslaved cabins or what was found there, that’s mind blowing because you probably would want to keep it in a conservation area because of some things maybe fragile or they may not be good to be out in the elements.
[00:25:39]It’s amazing to think what. We’re just at the tip of the iceberg. Where do you think 3d printing is going? As far as like further advancements or larger scale things? I mean, obviously I saw the I didn’t quite remember the name, but like a wooly mammoth.
[00:25:55] Michelle: Bootherium Bombifron, and it’s quite a mouthful out of typed it out for you because I may be pronouncing it wrong, but I practice a lot.
[00:26:06] I remember practicing all the time when I was an intern to make sure I said it right. But I think I got it. Right. But yes. And else you large scale that was very low. Each one of those bones put maybe six to seven hours. So we were printing it to scale and that thankfully working in an academic institution, like they have, you know, getting receiving grants and everything helps to fund those kinds of projects because it can add up, but it’s very rewarding.
[00:26:34] David: That’s pretty amazing. I think Terri would probably remember like was flying from Chicago to Denver one time I handed over to her. I think I had bought, there was a mineral show and of course there’s always people that are finding pieces of fossils and whatnot. This is part of a femur to a mammoth,
[00:26:56] Michelle: So great.
[00:26:57] David: And that’s all across sections. Was that wow to think the 3d print that I could give it as a gift to all my family members now. My family members probably think I would get rocks in my head literally. I mean, for me, I’ve always been interested in the past, especially even the past, that doesn’t genealogically connect to me, But that’s fascinating.
[00:27:17] Terri, what are your thoughts on the whole thing?
[00:27:19] Terri: Amazing, but what really struck for me was the embossed signature of George Washington. I was thinking about my own ancestors signatures that you have. Right. Cause I always clip them because I just think it’s amazing to be able to like, oh my God, this was in their hand.
[00:27:36] But to give it to a blind person who can’t see it, And now they can feel it. And that’s just amazing.
[00:27:48]Michelle: I love that David pulled out the femur and I’m going to take a little spooky. I’m bringing out a tombstone I 3d printed. My favorite can get it. Okay.
[00:28:00] Terri: [00:28:00] I can kind of see it. Yeah.
[00:28:06]David: That’s awesome. That is well being a former Civil War re-enactor with the 12th, Massachusetts I must say that I think every re-enactor needs a mini tombstone for the person they historically represent. Just to kind of stay grounded.
[00:28:22] Michelle: No, it’s really fascinating. The whole 3d printing, especially in an, if you. Like another thing, like I do, like before I got into archeology, I went to high school for visual arts. So like I do drawing and that’s another cool thing that you can do is like draw. If someone has that artistic ability drawing out what you think the soldier looked like, or if you have a reference image and you can create that into the 3D, you can 3d enhance that to be able to be printed because we have scanned people and 3d printed them. So if you have an image of a person, you can go into these 3d modeling programs, model it up, and then you have a miniature, you know, Soldier. So has a soldier has a tombstone, might spook some people out, but it’s kind of cool.
[00:29:10] David: [00:29:10] That’s really, really cool. Well, you will not freak me out over having a grave stone at home because I’ve written books on cemeteries for over 20 years and it’s like I think that’s kinda neat. I to think if I get a 3d printer, I’m probably going to have to start replicating ancestral gravestones and just have a little cemetery.
[00:29:30] Michelle: No, I mean, but I remember in our conversation, you were talking about a tombstone that had been destroyed. If you wouldn’t mind sharing that cause that’s what really inspired my discussion today with including the tombstone in 3d printing.
[00:29:42] David: I mean, obviously I’ve wondered enough cemeteries over the years. I mean, a lot of times those slate gravestones in the 18th century will break apart and there’s one stone that I came and it was just basically in fragments and I was doing just light cleaning around it.
[00:29:58] I was able to find the stone of my ancestor that was in about nine, 10 pieces. And I took a photograph of it, but think of taking that technology and then being able to clean it up and stitch it, you technically could replicate what the stone would have looked like. I’m sure that archeologists are using that because how many times you find a piece of a plate you don’t have maybe three-quarters of the rest of it, but you envision what it looked like.
[00:30:26] So gravestones could be done in the same way.
[00:30:28] Michelle: Absolutely. And the technology, like when I was a intern, that was like a lot of times we were stitching together through multiple 3d scans to recreate the object. Just like you see with plates that are found or any kind of ceramics that are found. So I think that’s what.
[00:30:45] Especially with cemeteries that are neglected. I know that was some takeaway I had last week when I was staying at presentation, a lot of people contacted me about the cemeteries. Like this is a big issue we’re seeing throughout the United States. It’s just a neglect or grave robbing or not like humans, but like of stealing tombstones or destroying them.
[00:31:06] And if we have more people 3d having these virtual cemeteries per se, where you have proof you, have a copy of the tomb size just makes it a lot easier because I think a lot of these family cemeteries, they have tombstones that are created, you’ll see, handwritten, like with a stick, someone made it like, how do you want to keep that kind of history?
[00:31:29] So like, you know, I think the 3d scanning really helps to preserve history in a way that we haven’t looked at in the past.
[00:31:36] David: It really does. I mean, marble grave stones itself because of the sugaring that the stone is falling apart, cause marble inside is beautiful. Marble marbles. You add the elements on the care.
[00:31:46] What part of the world you’re from it usually will break down and the lower epitaph on the stone, may it be biblical or just some, you know, personal saying that they have on there. Those are the lighter inscriptions are disappearing and it’s going to probably only be another generation or two before some of those inscriptions are going to completely be gone.
[00:32:05] So if you capture it now you’re preserving the worthwhile past, for the future. So that’s a, that’s a brilliant idea, Michelle.
[00:32:13] Michelle: I’m really excited. I seem like I’m reading more. I was reading more literature on it and I see more people, you know, doing that, just that 3d scanning these. Just like the image I found online, people are going into the cemeteries, uploading it to like websites, like find a grave, billion graves and not only are they uploading the image of the tombstone, but uploading these 3d files that can be saved into, you know, JPEGs or PNG files.
[00:32:42] David: Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. Well, you know, I’ll tell you, I just never would’ve thought that I would be bringing a gravestone home, but you know, it’s that thing of the stocking stuffer.
[00:32:52] Michelle: That was right up my alley. I just hope people share the same.
[00:32:59] David: I think they do. If they’re tuning into this show, they probably are.
[00:33:02] Michelle: Indeed.
[00:33:04] David: So what is the plan for the rest of the year. Do you get any special projects or anything you’re looking forward to doing now that things are getting back to normal a little bit.
[00:33:14] Michelle: So I have a few projects in the works.
[00:33:17] Some I can’t go into much detail about, but they’re all related to preserving USCT history. And one of my personal projects I’m working on because I have a lot of family from Henderson, Kentucky, I’ve been going through some of the records on Ancestry they have the request for headstone request for USCT soldiers on Ancestry is in the collection.
[00:33:40] It’s from the 1860s to 1904. So I went through the collection and identified all of the soldiers from Henderson,or at least those who died in Henderson. And I’m just going ahead and try and see if I can map them out because I have GIS background, so just mapping those out cause I’ve went too so many family cemeteries.
[00:34:00] Every year I would visit Henderson since graduating. And so that’s something I’m really passionate about, making sure that any of those tombstones that we aren’t able to find requesting them to be reshipped out and having them replaced because it’s just a part of history that unfortunately, a lot of descendants, they only learn about it once they start researching their family.
[00:34:21] So I think just that’s something I’m working on and really excited about.
[00:34:26]David: Yeah, it’s amazing to think that the start of the civil war is 160 years ago, but you know, there are sometimes there’s many generations between the soldier. And now, I mean, my grandmother’s uncle was a drummer boy in the civil war, and I know of him because she knew him, but there are other ones that until they find it online or they find it through their research, I have a Civil War ancestor?
[00:34:50] I mean, It’s amazing. And I think anybody who’s trying to keep the memory of a soldier, especially USCT alive. I tip my hat to you there, that’s an important project to do and a large project to do for that matter. So that’s, that’s more than just what you’re doing the summer, obviously.
[00:35:11] Michelle: Yeah. It’s and that’s why I’m starting pretty small scale because the town that my family is from in Henderson, it’s not the county itself is not that big.
[00:35:19] And the amount of soldiers. That’s a good size. And I just think when you’re looking at small towns or small counties, everyone connects together one way or another. So I I think all of us agree with genealogy when you’re starting your research, you have to know the county you’re working and you can’t just focus on the family.
[00:35:38] You have to look at the county, the adjacent counties. Maybe even the adjacent states because that county is right on the like 10 miles from Evansville, Indiana. So it’s wide spreading when you really look at it.
[00:35:53] David: Well, listen, I hope that we run into you again and hear about more of your adventures in the fascinating world of genealogy, anthropology, archeology, 3d printing, grave stones, and other things.
[00:36:06] You’re a delight to have on. And Terri, do you have any final questions for Michelle?
[00:36:10]Terri: No, I don’t. I think you’ve covered them quite well. It’s been very interesting.
[00:36:15] Michelle: Thank you all. It’s such an honor to be here today, so I’m glad we met on Clubhouse. Thank you.
[00:36:23] David: Well, Michelle, it’s really great to have you on here. And I just want to tell our listeners, if you want to find out more about what Michelle does, or if you’re interested in genealogy work that she’s doing, you can visit her webpage, Michellethegenealogist.com and well, that’s all I have for this week.
[00:36:42] And again, thank you, Michelle. It’s always a pleasure as well to have Terri as my cohost on Virtual Historians. Well, until next time, virtually yours signing off. Thanks for tuning in.
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