Animated Photographs

 

The latest craze on social media – well on the old photos bit of social media at least – is for animating old photographs.

‘My Heritage’ is a US Family History site that has become popular because they offer a simple photo enhancement tool as part of their subscription package.  I posted some photos that have been through this process, a few months ago.

The latest animation software is very clever.  By using a series of algorithms it can turn a still picture of a face into a short animation.  Of course the animation can bear no relation to the actual mannerisms of the person depicted so the utility of this software is not significant.  In fact It can be misleading.  We don’t know what our long dead ancestors were like when they smiled or blinked.  In most cases we don’t even know if they smiled at all!  The algorithms seem to use the original perspective of the photograph and this can distort the final image.  See example one below which is an enhanced picture of my Aunt Ruby.  Note the eyes especially.

The second photograph is an enhanced and coloured version of a photograph of my Mother, Jean Duncan TRENDALL (previously TRENDALL, previously PALMER, nee McGAVIN).  This works quite well but the computer generated movement is, in my opinion, just a gimmick.

In short this technology is little more than a parlour game.  One commentator has described it as ‘creepy’.  The technology will improve as they iron out the glitches.The movements will appear more natural.  To me this will make it creepier still.

What do you think?

Photo One:  https://myhr.tg/1530xZpN

Photo Two:   https://myhr.tg/1UnYZMV5

Philip Trendall

Bramfield

7^th March 2021

TRENDALL: NAME DISTRIBUTION

 

Figure 1:  Heatmap:  1841 Census Showing the Distribution of the TRENDALL Surname Variant

As excitement builds around the next UK census later this month (21^st March 2021) I have been looking at the ‘big data’ around my own surname.  Excitement is of course a relative concept!

The availability of census data for the period 1841-1911 means that it should be easy to map the movement of families around England and Wales.  The National Trust used to have this information in map form – I am not entirely sure why and the site is no longer available.  At last I have found replacement ‘heatmaps’ that show how my family (TRENDALL – without sub variants) has grown and moved in this timeframe.  Of course this is never a 100% accurate.  A slip of the enumerators pencil can leave surnames unreadable, and certainly during the 19^th century spelling of names was much more casual than it is now.  But the data, which is broken down by county, is very interesting.

In 1841 193 Trendalls appeared in the Census. Many of these were to be found in the Thames Valley (Oxon/Bucks/Berks) (67), and (71) in London and Middlesex,  with a sizable number (19) in Cornwall and Kent (8).  Just one spent Census night in Sussex and one in Hampshire.  Very low numbers are a reminder that the Census was a snap shot of one night in the decade.  In this case 6^th June 1841.  People visiting family and friends or working away from home are recorded where they spent the night, although it is not unusual to see people appear twice on the same Census, indicating that not everybody understood the recording rules which were not updated until 1931. I know that my branch of the family moved from Oxon/Bucks to London at the end of the eighteenth century so there are no surprises here.

Fifty years later in 1891 there are 495 Trendalls in the Census.  The Thames Valley counties remain a stronghold for the surname (125) but London and Middlesex (which included large parts of what we now regard as London) still had the largest concentration (160).  The surname had spread more widely but still was rare in the northern parts of England with the exception of Lancashire (22).  There were no Trendalls in Wales on the night of Sunday 5^th April 1891.    The number in Cornwall had declined over half a century to only (6).

Figure 2: Heatmap: 1891 Census Showing the Distribution of the TRENDALL Surname Variant 

The 1911 Census is the last one we can access (but see below).  The twenty years since 1891 had seen many developments but for the Trendalls the changes were steady.  The spread of the surname continued and the for the first time Cornwall had nobody bearing the name.  London and Middlesex claimed (201) Trendalls and the Thames Valley Counties of Berks, Bucks and Oxon had (143).  The Surrey branch grew to (75) and in Kent the number increased to (45).  In the North) name bearers were to be found in Yorkshire (31) and (13) in Lancashire.  The move to the Eastern Counties is marked with (28) Trendalls in Essex, compared to (10) in 1841 and clusters in East Anglia and Lincolnshire.  Again, the Essex numbers are inflated by the fact that much of modern east London was in Essex in 1911.

Figure 3: Heatmap: 1911 Census Showing Distribution of the TRENDALL Surname Variant

We must remember that these figures and maps are produced by computer algorithms that are dependent on things such as the human transcription of hand written paper records.   I have checked some of the low concentration areas and have found discrepancies. However, in general, trends shown in the maps certainly reflect the generality of the name distribution.

The next Census that will become available to view is the 1921 Census. This will be opened for inspection in early 2022.  It will be an exciting day for family historians as it will be our first opportunity to get detailed data from the post Great War era.  It is also important because it will be the last Census that we can study for many years.  The 1931 Census (or at least the parts relating to England and Wales) was destroyed by fire in 1942.  No Census was taken in 1941.  We do have the 1939 Register with is very useful but the next census that we will be able to view will be that from 1951 which should be published in 2052.  I hope to update this blog for the 2022 release but I will probably leave the 2052 results to someone else!

Philip Trendall

7^th February 2021

Bramfield