Get in Touch
Questions about the newsletter, podcast, Resource Library, or Appalachian Press? Send a message or browse the answers below.
All fields are required. Please allow a few days for a reply.
The best place to reach Appalachian Genealogy & History outside the form is on Facebook, where questions and conversations happen regularly. The Substack community tab is also active for paid subscribers.
Typical response time: 2 to 4 business days
Common Questions
The Newsletter
Resource Library
The Podcast
Appalachian Press
AI Disclosure & Ethical Use
The environment has always been important to me. I feel a genuine responsibility to explain the tools I use to bring my research and work to the world. If you are using AI in your own work, please take the time to research what you are using and how it affects our planet.
AI Disclosure & Ethical Use
I am a researcher and a writer. My work is built on twenty-eight years of historical expertise and forty years of storytelling. To ensure my research remains accessible and to overcome the physical barriers of production due to disability, I utilize specialized audio and visual tools as a digital bridge to bring my research to life.
Why I Use These Tools
I utilize specialized technology as an essential accessibility accommodation. Due to physical disability, traditional recording and production are not always possible. These tools act as a digital bridge, allowing my written work to be heard and seen when my physical stamina or voice cannot meet the demands of a recording studio.
The Human-Led Difference
Technology is my delivery system; the heart, the history, and the truth belong to me.
No. Standard AI tools are power hogs because they use massive, bloated networks that try to memorize the entire internet just to answer a prompt.
My audio tools use a highly efficient setup called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). When I paste my script into my tool, the AI doesn't have to search a giant, power-hungry brain. It reads only the specific text I provided. It is a lightweight process that keeps the carbon footprint incredibly small.
Not at all. Think of standard AI like someone trying to write an audio script based on everything they have ever read in their entire life; it takes a massive amount of brainpower, and they still hallucinate or get facts wrong.
My tool turns it into an open-book test. I hand it the script, and the AI simply processes the exact text in front of it. I get highly accurate, localized results without the massive energy bill required to run a giant model.
Every time someone runs a prompt on a standard massive AI model, data centers have to fire up thousands of specialized chips, drawing huge amounts of electricity and water for cooling.
Because my tools only focus on the script I upload, they can run on a much smaller, highly optimized framework. It gives me the deep processing I need for my audio projects using a fraction of the electricity per request.
Generating brand-new video or images from a text prompt requires immense data center power because the AI has to build pixels out of thin air. Most of my images and videos I have purchased or, on occasion, used digital means to draw myself.
Therefore, the tools I use don't do that. I upload my finished video, and the tool simply reads it to overlay the text captions. It is a targeted, analytical process rather than a heavy creative one. Processing a file I already made uses a fraction of the energy required to generate AI visuals from scratch.
Yes. By providing my own audio scripts, videos, and finished content, I am doing the heavy lifting. The AI is just acting as an efficient assistant to format, caption, and polish your work. It keeps the data usage local, the processing fast, and the environmental impact minimal.
Join the Community
Subscribe on Substack to receive new issues, access the full Resource Library, and follow along with Appalachian family history research.
Subscribe on Substack