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Is John Smith My Name?

Is John Smith My Name?

Di: Davar Ardalan
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A proposito di questo titolo

What if the world’s most common name carried a secret?

Is John Smith My Name? is part detective story, part family road trip, and part experiment in how emerging AI can bring history to life. Civil engineer John Oliver Smith and storyteller Davar Ardalan set out to confirm his English or Irish roots — only to uncover a hidden German-American story stretching from the Shenandoah Valley to Württemberg, Germany.


At the center is CK, Catherine Kessler AI: both a Custom GPT archivist and a Voice AI persona powered by Amazon Polly. Built on transcripts, archives, and research, CK makes history interactive, letting listeners ask questions, hear ancestral voices, and explore German-American contributions in real time.


Relaunching ahead of John’s research trip to Germany, the podcast blends genealogy, archives, and cutting-edge AI into an immersive story that asks: What does it mean to truly know your name?


You can engage with CK, the AI companion to this podcast on ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68c1b698d690819186f512e0100547ae-ck

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Episodi
  • EP4: Bloodlines and Algorithms

    EP4: Bloodlines and Algorithms
    Dec 16 2025

    A family mystery deepens in this chapter of Is John Smith My Name as the search takes an unexpected turn. A short chapter in an ongoing audio series, it follows John Oliver Smith, his wife Davar Ardalan, and his son Michael as they trace handwritten records, DNA evidence, and modern tools from Virginia to Germany, into church archives, regional histories, and places that feel strangely familiar. Bloodlines and Algorithms weaves together European documents, family lore, and the quiet guidance of CK, an AI companion created to help organize and preserve generations of evidence. Along the way, a faint handwritten name emerges from a grandfather’s old physics book. As past and present converge across continents, from the United States to Baden-Württemberg, the episode explores how memory survives, how technology can serve heritage, and how family stories are carried forward, one generation at a time.

    Engage with CK here: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68c1b698d690819186f512e0100547ae-ck

    • Kinship Family Resource Center
    • Rocktown History, VA
    • VAGenWeb Project
    • Frieden’s Church
    • Germans in America
    • German Immigrants and American Politics
    • US Census German American
    • Jackson Center, Ohio
    • John Smith Remembering the Moon Landing
    • Juanita Smith 70th Class Reunion

    Executive Producer: Davar Ardalan
    Host: John Oliver Smith
    Genealogist & Curator: Jean Conte, Abigail Koontz
    Historian/Researcher: Dale MacAllister & Margaret Hotchner
    Sound Design: Javier Perez
    Podcast Art: ChatGPT
    AI Marketing Assistant: CK, custom GPT for Smith family genealogy
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    11 min
  • The Schmidt Thread Revealed

    The Schmidt Thread Revealed
    Sep 17 2025

    The search comes full circle in Rockingham County, where church records link the family back to Johannes Albrecht Schmidt (1729–1798) of Württemberg, Germany. With CK’s voice woven into the narrative, the story expands from one family to millions of Germans who crossed the Atlantic, contributing to printing, farming, education, and democratic reform movements like the Revolution of 1848. Yet the story is also one of struggle, from the burning of county courthouses and lost records, to waves of anti-German sentiment during World War I, when names like Schmidt became Smith. The episode reflects on the tension between assimilation and identity, asking what it means to reclaim a name and carry its history forward into the present.

    You can engage with CK, the AI companion to this podcast on ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68c1b698d690819186f512e0100547ae-ck

    • Kinship Family Resource Center
    • Rocktown History, VA
    • VAGenWeb Project
    • Frieden’s Church
    • Germans in America
    • German Immigrants and American Politics
    • US Census German American
    • Jackson Center, Ohio
    • John Smith Remembering the Moon Landing
    • Juanita Smith 70th Class Reunion

    Executive Producer: Davar Ardalan
    Host: John Oliver Smith
    Genealogist & Curator: Jean Conte, Abigail Koontz
    Historian/Researcher: Dale MacAllister & Margaret Hotchner
    Sound Design: Javier Perez
    Podcast Art: ChatGPT
    AI Marketing Assistant: ChatGPT
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    26 min
  • Into Rockingham County

    Into Rockingham County
    Sep 17 2025

    The Shenandoah Valley provides the breakthrough moment: in a minister’s record, John and Davar discover that Johann Schmidt married Catherine Kessler, confirming the family’s German origins. In this episode, CK appears as a Voice AI persona powered by Amazon Polly, speaking in the voice of Catherine herself. Through CK, listeners hear echoes of German-speaking settlers who built Rockingham County through farming, pacifist faith traditions, and commitments to education and civic life.

    You can engage with CK, the AI companion to this podcast on ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68c1b698d690819186f512e0100547ae-ck

    • Kinship Family Resource Center
    • Rocktown History, VA
    • VAGenWeb Project
    • Frieden’s Church
    • Germans in America
    • German Immigrants and American Politics
    • US Census German American
    • Jackson Center, Ohio
    • John Smith Remembering the Moon Landing
    • Juanita Smith 70th Class Reunion

    Executive Producer: Davar Ardalan
    Host: John Oliver Smith
    Genealogist & Curator: Jean Conte, Abigail Koontz
    Historian/Researcher: Dale MacAllister & Margaret Hotchner
    Sound Design: Javier Perez
    Podcast Art: ChatGPT
    AI Marketing Assistant: ChatGPT
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    30 min
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