Calvin Osborne, a Washington D.C. attorney and Civil War reenactor, spent nearly three decades studying African American military history before Ancestry researchers revealed a stunning discovery: his great-great-grandfather, William Lacey, was a soldier in the First Kansas Colored Troops, the very first Black men to fight in the Civil War. In this powerful conversation, Calvin shares how a 1989 viewing of the movie Glory sparked an unstoppable passion that led him from battlefield reenactments to uncovering a love story that began in slavery, survived the chaos of border wars, and created a legacy that would span generations. His book, Contraband Hearts, tells the story of William and Lucinda. These two teenagers escaped enslavement together, fought for freedom in Kansas, and built a family that would eventually reach back across time to inspire their descendants. Sometimes our ancestors don't just leave us stories. They call us to find them.

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🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

When Mallory Peterson discovered she had Scottish ancestry instead of Cherokee heritage, she uncovered something intriguing that has captured her imagination. In the little town of Martinsburg, West Virginia she found a spy. And not just any spy but 17 year old Belle Boyd, the infamous Confederate spy known as "Cleopatra of the Secession."

In this episode, I sit down with Mallory, a young genealogist whose complicated family story—raised by grandparents, not meeting her biological father until 14—fueled her passion for discovering the ancestors she never knew. Her journey into her family tree uncovered the migration patterns of her Scottish forebears, those rebellious, storytelling souls who settled in the Appalachian Mountains and brought their fierce independence with them.

Together, we explore how Belle Boyd's story reveals the Scottish tendency toward stubborn conviction, the complicated legacy of being on the wrong side of history, and why some ancestors capture our imagination despite their flaws. From Civil War espionage to stage performances reliving her "glory days," Belle's life demonstrates that family history isn't always comfortable but it's always worth discovering.

What stories of courage, rebellion, or notoriety might be hiding in your family tree?

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

When Greg Wagner's great-great-grandmother made her dying wish to be buried not in a cemetery but beneath an oak tree on their Nebraska homestead, she planted more than roots in the soil. Greg is a sixth-generation Nebraskan whose family has maintained the same land for 158 years through blizzards, armed robberies, and economic crashes. As someone who's spent 46 years caring for Nebraska's natural resources through the Game and Parks Commission, Greg brings a unique perspective on how place shapes family identity. We explore how his grandmother's death in 2005 launched his genealogical journey, uncover the resilience required to keep land in a family for over a century and a half, and discover why every single Wagner descendant has chosen to remain in Nebraska. This conversation reveals how the stories we inherit from our ancestors become the compass that guides future generations home.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

When Sarah Walker's grandfather checked his mail one last day before leaving for World War I, he discovered a neighbor had intervened to keep him home—a bachelor farmer needed on the home front. That single act of community support changed everything.

Sarah Walker, Head of Reference Services at the North Dakota State Archives, shares her grandfather's journey immigrating at age 10 from Germany through Russia to North Dakota's farmland. We explore how tight-knit immigrant communities preserved their language and customs across generations, and why Sarah's career as an oral historian feels like the natural continuation of her family's story-keeping tradition.

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🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

When historian Marni Sandweiss discovered an 1868 photograph of six prominent Civil War generals standing around an unnamed Indigenous girl, she couldn't let go of one haunting question: Who was she? In this episode, Princeton University Professor Emerita Martha "Marni" Sandweiss shares how she identified the child as Sophie Mousseau and uncovered a remarkable story of survival, identity, and resilience spanning generations on the Northern Plains. Through meticulous research combining written records, oral histories, and collaboration with Sophie's descendants, Marni reveals how one photograph connects to broader themes of mixed-race identity, territorial boundaries, and the power of naming the unnamed in history. Discover how this truffle-hunting historian transformed an anonymous face into a fully realized person whose story matters—and why every name in your family photographs deserves to be remembered.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

💕 When Mary Anne Mercer discovered her great-grandmother's diary in a trunk that had sat untouched since 1915, she knew she had found something extraordinary.

Mary Anne, an accomplished author and former international health expert who worked in Nepal and Africa, returned to her Montana ranching roots to uncover a remarkable love story. Through a combination of family interviews, a preserved diary, and treasures from a century-old trunk, she pieced together the journey of Florrie—a young nurse from London whose path led to the isolated Montana plains. Working alongside the stories of her grandfather Andy, a former Wyoming cowboy turned rancher, Mary Anne discovered how family artifacts can reveal not just facts and dates, but the beating hearts of people who lived extraordinary lives. As she shares her process of turning fragments into a full family narrative, you'll understand why some stories demand to be written down and preserved for future generations.

💭 Have you ever wondered what stories might be waiting in your own family's forgotten treasures?

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🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🎵 When Jen Iverson said "What I wouldn't give to hear Grandpa's music again," she had no idea what she was about to discover just two days later. Join me as Jen Iverson, a Gen X mom and passionate family historian, shares an incredible story of musical discovery that transformed her family's connection to their Idaho heritage. We explore her great-grandfather Arnold Steed's forgotten legacy in Pocatello and how one unexpected find in a nursing home room became the bridge connecting four generations of her family. From migratory beekeeping adventures to multi-generational traditions at Island Park, Jen reveals how music became a powerful time machine to her ancestors' hearts. You'll hear why sometimes our most precious family treasures are hiding in the most unexpected places, just waiting to remind us of the voices we thought we'd lost forever. 

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

When Michelle Ercanbrack volunteered for a Mormon pioneer trek, she thought she'd be helping teenagers learn history. What she discovered instead was a missing piece of her own family story that had been hiding in plain sight for decades.

Michelle, a BYU family history program graduate and former Ancestry researcher who worked on television shows like "Who Do You Think You Are," joins me to share how sometimes the most meaningful genealogical discoveries happen not behind a computer screen, but when you physically stand where your ancestors once stood. Her emotional experience retracing her ancestor’s journey through the Wyoming wilderness to Utah reveals why knowing the facts of a story and truly understanding its impact are two completely different things.

Her ancestor, Mary Ann Malley, was a widowed single mother facing impossible choices and learning more about her life led Michelle to understand that even professional genealogists can overlook the most meaningful connections in their own family trees. Her story challenges every family historian to ask a simple but powerful question: What happens when you stop researching your ancestors’ lives and start walking where they walked?

This episode will leave you questioning whether you truly know your family's stories or if you're ready to discover what you've been missing.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

When Stephen Torres's grandfather told him "one of your forefathers was the first European to set foot on New World soil," young Stephen was skeptical—until his college history research revealed a truth that changed everything.

Stephen shares what it means to have 400 years of unbroken family history in New Mexico's Taos Valley. From growing up with 50+ cousins to living with his storytelling grandfather, Stephen's family represents something rare: deep, unshakeable roots in one place. When genealogical research through Catholic Church records revealed remarkable connections to pivotal moments in American history, Stephen discovered his grandfather's stories held more truth than he'd ever imagined.

This is a story about the power of place, cultural continuity, and what happens when family roots run so deep they become inseparable from the very soil of home.

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🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

When Lisa Louise Cooke walked into her estranged grandmother's house in Arizona, she had no idea she was about to discover the key to healing a decades-old family rift. Lisa Louise, host of the long-running Genealogy Gems podcast, shares how following an unexpected inner voice led to finding a hidden quilt that would transform her relationship with her father forever. After years of separation following her parents' messy divorces, a mysterious feeling in her grandmother's bedroom guided Lisa Louise to uncover not just a family heirloom, but a handwritten note that became the bridge to reconciliation. This powerful story reveals how our ancestors sometimes speak to us through the most unexpected discoveries, and how listening to those quiet promptings can heal wounds we thought were permanent. Whether you're dealing with family divisions or simply wondering how the past can inform the present, Lisa Louise's journey from disconnection to deep relationship will remind you that it's never too late for healing when we're willing to trust our instincts and follow the voice that guides us home.

Learn more about Lisa Louise and Genealogy Gems here:
https://lisalouisecooke.com/ 

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🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🏔️ When Jay Marquiss sat down for breakfast at a Southern Utah ranch house, he had no idea a casual conversation would unlock a 130-year-old family mystery.

Jay Marquiss, a third-generation Alaskan, grew up expecting to spend his entire life in the Last Frontier. But when his wife experienced her first Alaskan winter, their plans changed forever. Now living in Utah, Jay thought he'd left Alaska behind until an unexpected encounter with a former missionary revealed an incredible connection that had been hiding in plain sight for decades.

In this episode, you'll discover how Jay's family tradition became something much more significant than anyone imagined. From gold rush miners to modern-day missionaries, this story demonstrates how the most precious family legacies often travel in the most unexpected ways. Jay shares how he's transformed this discovery into meaningful connections with his children, grandchildren, and dozens of young people, creating new traditions that honor both past and present.

Through tales of Alaska's wilderness, family adventures, and serendipitous encounters, you'll see how sometimes our most treasured family heirlooms aren't stored in attics. They're living pieces of history that continue to grow and connect hearts across generations.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

What happens when cultures collide and choose connection instead of conflict?

To launch our America 250 series and Season 2 of the podcast, I sit down with Mike Daniels — former mayor of Pleasant Grove, Utah and a dear colleague from our early days at Ancestry — to explore his family’s extraordinary journey to and through Hawaii. From war and immigration to love, loss, and discovery, Mike shares how his family’s story became a living example of what it means to build unity through difference.

“It is a melting pot, and it's really possible for people to live together in peace.”

Along the way, we talk about picture brides, holiday feasts with 50+ cousins, and a name change that reshaped an identity. This heartfelt conversation about belonging, resilience, and multicultural legacy reminds us how place becomes a character in our family stories—shaping not just where we come from, but who we become.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

What if the story of America isn't just in history books, but living right now in your family tree? As we approach America's 250th birthday in 2026, I'm taking you on an extraordinary journey across all 50 states through the intimate family stories that shaped our nation. Starting in July 2025, Season 2 of Stories That Live In Us will reveal how your ancestors' choices and experiences are still echoing through your family today.

Over 50 weeks, we'll travel from Hawaii to Alaska, Arizona to Oklahoma, following each state's admission to the union in reverse order. You'll discover tales of immigration, migration, courage, and community. These moments of resilience that defined entire families and continue to influence generations. These aren't stories about famous names and places; they're about real families whose experiences show us that American history lives in our DNA, our traditions, and our family trees.

Whether you're a longtime listener or just discovering the transformational power of family storytelling, this season will inspire you to see your own family history with fresh eyes. Because every family tree holds stories connected to places and times that can fuel your imagination, inspire your resilience, and deepen your family connections.

Join me as we discover, from sea to shining sea, the stories that live in us—and learn how your family's journey is beautifully woven into the larger American story.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🛏😴 What if you found out that the bedtime stories you were told as a kid were really true?

When Hopwood DePree finally traced his unusual first name to its origins, he discovered something extraordinary: a 600-year-old ancestral estate in England that had been waiting centuries for him to find it. When Hopwood, author of "Downton Shabby," began exploring the childhood stories he dismissed as fairy tales, it led to the adventure of a lifetime. From growing up in Michigan, embarrassed by his name to dedicating his life to restoring Hopwood Hall Estate in Middleton, England, his journey reveals how our ancestors' stories can literally reshape our entire lives. You'll hear about secret priest holes, hidden tabernacles, and the moment he realized his grandfather's "bedtime stories" about a castle were actually family history waiting to be reclaimed.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🌍 After decades of dead ends and false leads, one $27 payment to a county archive changed everything for Diana O'Connor. She didn’t just get a record. She got a photograph that made her weep with recognition.

Diana grew up knowing almost nothing about her family history. Her father was placed in foster care at two years old when his mother died. He then died tragically young and Diana’s own mother’s death followed a short eight years later. With virtually no family stories, no extended relatives, and no sense of her roots but armed with a single legal document and unshakeable curiosity, she embarked on a journey that would transform her from a woman with no family connections into someone discovering an abundance of Irish cousins and ancestral homes.

Diana shares the emotional highs and lows of researching her Irish heritage, discovering orphanage records, connecting with cousins across continents, and finally standing in the cemeteries of County Tyrone and County Mayo where her ancestors are buried.

This episode is a heartfelt reminder that even the smallest clues can lead to life-changing discoveries. And that it’s never too late to find your people.

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🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🎂 What do cake and cemeteries have to do with one another? Maybe not much but both have quite a bit to do with family history.

Betheny Tomseth, known on Instagram as @BethenyCakes, takes us on a journey through her family’s complex history. From the mysterious circumstances surrounding her great-grandfather Omer's hunting accident in 1921 to the Scottish immigrant family she discovered buried together in an Ogden cemetery. We explore how a 140-year-old cake recipe connects generations of women who understood that food brings families together.

As the middle child in a family of 14, Betheny shares how her great-aunt Edith's stories about a grandmother who died in childbirth became family treasures, and how her genealogist sister Rebecca's Christmas gift may be the most meaningful one she’s ever received. Our conversation celebrates the beautiful ways our ancestors continue to gather us together.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

When Aimee Cross discovered her French ancestor's will in a 1904 newspaper, she found something more precious than gold - a grandmother's heartfelt advice to her children. Professional genealogist Aimee Cross joins me to share how her second great-grandmother Estelle Dumont left behind more than an estate. She left a legacy of wisdom that continues to shape her family today. From Pierre Dumont's journey from France to the goldfields of California, to Estelle's courageous choice to run a business as a widowed mother in 1897 San Francisco, this story reveals how family wisdom survives even when original documents don't. Discover how one woman's deathbed counsel speaks directly to today's grandmothers and learn why the most powerful family stories often hide in the most unexpected records.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

Linda felt there was "something special" in her dad's family but couldn't get answers. She never imagined a single phone call would connect her to relatives she'd never met and a Civil War-era ancestor whose story would change how she celebrates Juneteenth forever.

In this deeply moving episode, I sit down with Linda Epps Parker, whose connection to the Hawkins Wilson documentary reveals the extraordinary power of genealogy to heal generational separation. Linda shares her journey from growing up with unanswered questions about her father's Southern roots to discovering her relationship to Hawkins Wilson, the formerly enslaved man whose 1877 letter became the centerpiece of an award-winning film from Ancestry.

What else Linda discovers feels less like coincidence or chance and more like ancestral guidance. This episode beautifully demonstrates how family history research can move us from longing to belonging, creating profound connections that span generations.

Link to Hawkins Wilson film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wDwDR6yjhk

Link to Episode 11:
https://www.cristacowan.com/blog/the-letter-that-waited-how-one-ancestry-tree-uncovered-a-155-year-family-story

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

What if one of history's most famous authors unknowingly documented your ancestor's immigration journey? In 1863, my three-times-great-grandmother Rachel Smuin sailed from England to America aboard the Amazon—and Charles Dickens was there to witness it all. Expecting to find chaos and disorder among 800 Mormon emigrants, Dickens instead discovered remarkable organization, cheerfulness, and dignity that completely challenged his preconceptions. His detailed letter about that day provides an incredible window into Rachel's actual crossing experience, from the crowded London docks to the careful inspections before departure. I'll read you Dickens' account and share how I discovered this hidden gem that brings my ancestor's journey to life. This episode will inspire you to search for the contemporary records, newspaper articles, and historical accounts that might capture your own family's pivotal moments in surprising detail.

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🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🚢 When 11-year-old Lydia escaped Russia on the last evacuation ship in 1920, she began documenting her extraordinary journey in beautiful handwritten diaries.

Tamara Buzyna Adams discovered her grandmother’s childhood diaries during COVID lockdown. What started as a mother-daughter translation project unveiled an incredible story: a young girl who lived on a refugee ship for two and a half years, finding joy and wonder even amid the chaos following the Russian Revolution.

Through meticulous research, Tamara pieced together not just dates and places, but a moving story of childhood resilience. Her most surprising discovery came when she decided to research the mysterious friends Lydia mentioned throughout her diaries - children with nicknames like "Zhenya" and "Kolya."

Lydia's story reveals how family histories preserved through a child's innocent perspective can illuminate our ancestors' humanity and inspire resilience across generations.

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Visit Tamara's website to see pictures of Lydia and her friends and for information about her book, Last Ship to Freedom:  https://www.tamarabuzynaadams.com/

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!