Listening for the Story with “sir” Paul 🥐

I’ve been chasing Paul Chiddicks to join me in a Projetkin event for a year or more. We’d never quite been able to find a time that worked. As I’ve gotten to know him, his personal story of coaching has added a richness to the whole that he adds to our family history community.

It’s an honor to have made the calendar adjustments to make both today’s program and to arrange for our special episode on Adelaide’s story on Wednesday this week. If you haven’t already, take a moment to register. We’ll wait.

Well done. In our conversation this morning, Paul talked about how he’s used his research skills since filling out the structural genealogical elements of his family tree to explore the stories that unfold from the limbs. He mentioned several that came to him, among them

• The American pilot’s gravestone, he discovered while on his walk:

  

• The Boy Behind The Picture, the story of the little newsboy on the day after the Titanic sank:

  

• Finally, Adelaide’s story. There is so much behind this story. Paul referenced a few elements in our conversation, but each is worthy of a little exploration ahead of Wednesday’s program. First, is this piece on Substack about the photograph itself:

  Stories Behind the Records

  The Life Behind the Lens: Adelaide Springett and the Dark Streets of Victorian London

  Editor’s note…

  Read more

  4 months ago · 61 likes · 25 comments · Paul Chiddicks

  Next is the original post on his Chiddicks Family Tree site that went viral with the story of Adelaide Springett:

  

On Wednesday, Paul will share the details of this incredible story, the connection to the industrialization of England, Jack-the-Ripper, and a larger story that connects with everyone of us as we witness poverty in our own lives.

I’m able to share these and all of our programs and posts for free thanks to both the economics of modern platforms and the generous support of our wonderful Projectkin patrons. You’re more than welcome to share this post with friends and family to encourage them to take the time to consider their own stories. Thank you.

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The NGS conference is a very different sort of event, and this expo hall filled with local historical and genealogical societies was a very different kind of experience. It’s an insiders’ event that allows all of us bitten by the genealogy bug to celebrate and inspire each other.

This event created a number of very special opportunities we may be talking about in the coming months, but I wanted to take a moment to thank not only my buddy and roomie, Kyla, but also those who, as active Geneabloggers, were supporting our mission in their conversations with everyone at the conference. Without Paul’s tap on the shoulder, the crazy livestream never would have happened.1

In fact, two of our members received awards during the opening session recognizing their work over the years: , and .

• As a well-known voice on Monday’s with Myrt, DearMYRTLE posted an article about Randy’s award of recognition on Thursday.)

• You might recognize Ron for his extensive work in Chinese-American genealogy. Though most of his programming is with local groups here in the Bay Area, he’s also joined us as a guest at Projectkin for several posts and events.

I’ll take responsibility for some minor technical glitches, but I’m also proud that we tried. You’ll see these lessons weave their way into the success of future programs and events. As community members and participants from Projectkin and Geneabloggers, we were honored to meet so many new people and to thank our kind supporters.

I’m grateful to our host, Rick Voight, who went out of his way to make space for us in his platinum-sponsor booth space at the show, Vivid-Pix. In the video, you’ll see me chatting with founder Bruce Ha at Nanofiche, a fascinating solution for long-term image storage.

We came away from the conference with hundreds of notes, document scans, and inspired ideas. It’s going to take weeks to absorb them all. Thanks for coming along with Kyla and me.

If any of you, as members and supporters of our Projectkin and Geneabloggers, have an upcoming public event, we just might have some materials you can use to help share the story. I’ve tried to capture our joint mission to encourage family history storytelling at RideAlongPartners.org:

That domain property also gives us a quick and easy way to share photos, stories, and encouragement with organizations. You can see the update for the NGS conference here. We also shared little blue pencils and bookmarks (convenient for use at the ACPL Genealogy Center), but they are inexpensive and generic precisely so that we can keep using them at local events. Add your thoughts in the comments below or just reach out to Kyla or me directly.

Leave a comment

This Week Kathy Looks Back to the Future

Our conversation today gave us a preview of Thursday’s special program with Kathy’s guest, Lori Olson White of The Lost and Found Story Box, to talk about preserving today's stories and being a better ancestor. This is a perfect fit for her new series, “Building My Bridge to 2076,” which shares how she is implementing a new approach, the Century Safe Method, which Lori developed while researching Annie Diehm, a Civil War widow who sealed a safe containing stories at the American Centennial.

The Lost & Found Story Box

Annie Deihm and the Century Safe: Part 1

| Part 1 of 5 | Next Chapter →…

Read more

4 months ago · 27 likes · 11 comments · Lori Olson White

Remember, Thursday’s program is held via Zoom, so you will need to register for your personal link.

Because this is a “Preview” series on Sundays, we get to wander into other related… and not so related topics. As my cat Zarabeth swished her way back and forth, we hit on a few topics I wanted to provide references to:

• Historical events & our personal memories:

  This is a topic that comes up frequently in conversations among family historians. Events like the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 conjure strong memories for many Americans. Recalling where they were at the time brings up a great deal of context about their lives leading up to that moment that aren’t captured in textbooks. This conversation today was in response to ’s moving post, “Your Bicentennial Memories Are Here: The Ones Who Didn’t Come Home,” in the context of tomorrow’s Memorial Day here in the US.

• Technologies & storage devices

  As human beings, we’re “wet ware” in the sense that we are made of flesh and blood. Our input media are simple eyes and brains. The devices we use to store our stories for future generations need to anticipate mediation to reach their intended audience. Does that mean, as Jill Swenson asked, that media like USB drives are a bad idea? Well, yes, and no. Yes, because you can’t count on any input format we use today (floppy disk, diskette, CD, DVD, or USB) to be used or even accessible 50 years from now. The same goes for file formats (WordPerfect, anyone?) Factors include

  • Physical media (electronic, parchment, ordinary paper, ink, magnetic media, analog media like celluloid film, glass negatives).

  • Applications, file formats, even .doc, .xls, or .pdf1

  • Writing styles, languages, and more.

• Then there’s the larger topic of what future generations might be interested in.

  • Historical topics (e.g. Vietnam War)

  • Cultural topics (what we wore, what they thought, believed, and did)

  • News topics (current news events)

There are so many ways to spin this and get motivated to start being a better ancestor.

I truly wish I could be there on Thursday to join in on the fun. As I shared in the program, I’ll have to catch up by watching the recording. You’ll find them at Kathy’s Corner: Projectkin.org/kathys-corner.

About Kathy Stone

Kathy has been the “cornerstone” of Projectkin since we were a “Rōnin” gang called “PostPonga.” That was just over three years ago, just after RootsTech 2023. Her commitment to the physical artifacts of family history now inspires our whole community. Learn more about what Kathy is doing today at her own publication:

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

The War of American Independence

Today’s story pulls us into exactly the kinds of personal perspectives on this bitter British civil war that some of us call the American Revolution. From her home in Virginia, Anne Wendel of Grandma’s Granny’s Family Album shares just a few of the many stories she’s collected in her family history with deep roots on both sides of this war.

From the start, Anne took us down the rabbit hole to turn the tables on the close of the war as she shared her personal connection to Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Her post about Captain Joseph Durfee captured a kid’s perspective on this incredible place and how she was able to make it part of her family again.

Grandma's Granny's Family Album

Captain Joseph Durfee 1725 - 1801

Genealogy Matters Storyteller Tuesday Challenge: RABBIT-HOLE RESEARCH…

Read more

9 months ago · 8 likes · 9 comments · Anne Wendel

The pictures perfectly set the stage for the story she tells in the recording.

Other Stories250 posts from Anne

Anne has been among our most prolific storytellers in this series. She touched on several of the stories in our conversation, in addition to the tale of Captain Joseph Durfee, 1725 - 1801. Among the other stories:

• A German Teenager in the American Revolution

• The Map Our Ancestors Forgot

• Attack! and Fall

• Isaac Van Wart, 1762-1828, Revolutionary War Hero

• Revolutionary War Cowboy

• My 5th Great-Grandparents, Mary Coon and John Rushton, in the Revolutionary War

If you’re not already familiar with her publication, here’s an easy link to subscribe:

Grandma's Granny's Family Album

Grandma told stories and took photos of her granny...now I write stories of all the ancestors I can find, with all the photos I can find.

By Anne Wendel

About Stories250

Learn more about the series at Projectkin.org/stories250, view all recordings and posts, then explore the posts in an interactive timeline. You’ll find this post of Anne’s here:

Last week, I shared more details about our two special programs on July 9th. This is in addition to the commemorative magazine I’m producing to include all articles in the series. Learn more:

If you have stories to share, please join us. More at Projectkin.org/stories250. The window to submit posts will remain open until June 30th.

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

Oh, one more thing — if you think this post might interest a friend or colleague, why not just pass it along?

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These are public posts, and our events are free because sharing your stories is that important. Let’s get this started!

Emma Explores: 2nd Anniversary!

After a brief holiday, Emma returns to share more stories woven from themes she’s discovered in her own family story. In homage to the 2nd birthday of the series, she’s weaving stories around “twos,” things she’s discovered in pairs. If Emma Explores is new to you, here’s the archive for the series.

In today’s preview, we ended up talking quite a bit about how we arrived at a series for Emma Explores, her Journeys into Genealogy Podcast, and more. The 100th episode of Journeys into Genealogy is a terrific way to survey the podcast.

Journeys into Genealogy

Journeys into Genealogy is a podcast with interviews with experts and people with interesting stories to tell.

By Emma - Journeys into Genealogy

Themes!

The genius of a thematic view of family history is that it encourages you to look beyond the strict facts of family history. Picking a theme has you thinking about the deeper ties that can create connections with your audience as a family history storyteller. It has to be a real connection, though, not something contrived by an artificial prompt or driven to a deadline. We talked about the example of Stories250, something I’m passionate about because of my own history as an American. It didn’t resonate for Emma, nor was there a story in the different ancestors she explored at the time.

Migration stories, however, a new series we’ve planned for this fall, sounds like an interesting hook for many new themes for Emma Explores later this year. Perhaps with a tie-in to our planned All About That Place sponsorship in October 2026, we might even pull a few strings for thematic topics there, too.

Join us, Thursday, May 21st

You won’t want to miss next week’s program. Our Emma Explores programs are held via Zoom, which allows you to join in on the conversation that follows each presentation. Zoom requires you to register to get your personal link:

I’m able to offer these programs for free because of the generous support of our Projectkin Patrons. Learn more about each of them, their publications, and their work at Projectkin.org/patrons

To see these livestream posts on the go and keep up with the latest stories and conversations in the community, join us in the Substack app. If it gives you any trouble, just ask. You’re among friends and fellow travelers in the world of family history storytelling.

Get more from Barbara at Projectkin in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Today’s conversation took us into the theme for Thursday’s Speakers’ Corner episode with and , “Of Letters & Old Lace.” The theme brings together two writers who have written extensively about collections of handwritten materials.

For Cynthia, it was a remarkable series she did on her research into an autograph book she found in a flea market. The first in that series is below, but…

…our focus for Thursday’s program will be on a new story she hasn’t yet shared 👀.

For Helene, the theme relates to discoveries in a cache of handwritten letters her great-grandmother left behind in the nineteen sixties and early seventies.

Letters from LaBelle

A treasure trove

Over the last few years, as I pondered starting this project, I’ve often wondered why both my mother and my grandmother kept the letters that May Emma Northcutt Hinkson wrote. May was my great-grandmother who I remember most for her sugarcoated oatmeal, her side porch swing that my siblings and I would spend hours “playing train” on when we visited, her…

Read more

2 years ago · 7 likes · 6 comments · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

Letters give us such a direct personal view into what’s in someone’s mind and what affects their daily life. In handwriting and choices of paper, ink, and stamps, they can convey a larger story. We shared personal experiences with extended writing partners and how collections of letters have affected our research.

• I mentioned the 2024 Projectkin talk with author Kathryn Graven, the voice behind Memoirs of a Mask Maker, as she worked on her new project to tell the story of her grandmother’s year in India in 1923.

In the age of email and texting, letters are more important than ever. Join us to be inspired:

Of course none of this would be possible without our remarkable showrunner and storyteller, Jennifer Jones. If you haven’t already, you’ll want to be sure to follow her work at Tracking Down the Family.

Do you have friends or family members who may benefit from watching this program or viewing our other posts? Everyone is welcome here.

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories. Have stories to tell? We’d love to have you share your story as part of the Speakers’ Corner.

I can’t tell you how much it means to me here on the American Pacific coast to see all of you joining from Australia, New Zealand, and across the American states and provinces. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this community together. The little ❤️s you drop keep us motivated and give this post a little more visibility. Feel free to create clips from this post to share with your friends.

Migration Stories Series Coming in September

In contemplating a follow-up act to Projectkin’s Stories250 series, I realized that Migration Stories was the perfect fit. Several practical elements make the collaboration a bit of a challenge, however. I mentioned the idea in my livestream with Jennifer Jones a few weeks ago, and you can see it’s already started to take shape.

To continue to develop the idea, I invited Lisa Maguire of Ancestory to join me today. Her post on Micro History, “Family History Asks Large Questions in Small Places,” from August 2025.

Lisa jumped right in to underscore how genealogy helps us understand how our story was part of a larger historical arc. In talking through some of the push/pull dynamics that motivated our ancestors to pick up stakes, we explored the complexities:

• Forced migrations (enslavement, indentured servitude, famine)

• Experimental / adventure seeking

• Family unifications

… as a few examples. My hope is to create a way to invite writers to submit posts they’ve already written and published on their own sites for presentation with posts of others that follow the same themes, migrations to/from the same places, or perhaps for similar reasons. In reviewing the stories in context, we can all learn more from each other.

An idea! 💡

During the conversation, we also hit on the idea of me creating a simple submission form where community members can post stories or themes they would LIKE to see. The submitter might optionally share their contact info for follow-up.

Projects Can Be Messy

As you might see in the video, Lisa and I had a fun time in the conversation. One important example as a theme was the story of America’s Great Migration, the decades-long migration of African-Americans from the Jim Crow laws of the South for the promise of a better life in the industrial North. In that context, Lisa referenced Isabel Wilkerson’s brilliant epic, “The Warmth of Other Suns.”

The brainstorming effort then made us a little punchy.

As David Shaw raised the example of ethnic German families in the late 19th century to South Dakota, we fell down a rabbit hole reminiscing on an American 1960s-era variety show, The Lawrence Welk Show. For those of you who may not get the reference, here’s just one of the episodes available now on YouTube.

(Wikipedia corrects us to report that Lawrence Welk (1903-1992) was a native of North Dakota who was born to German immigrants from Russia.)

Many thanks to Lisa Maguire

If you aren’t already familiar with Lisa Maguire’s own stories, you’ll find them here on Substack, Ancestory:

ancestory

Your family has a story. Your family were makers of history. ancestory is the place where family stories and history meet.

By Lisa Maguire

Do you have friends or family members who may benefit from watching this program or viewing our other posts? Everyone is welcome here.

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories.

Recommend Projectkin

I can’t tell you how much it means to us in California and Texas to see all of you joining from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this community together. The little ❤️s you drop keep us motivated and give this post a little more visibility. Feel free to create clips or this post with your friends.

Rounding up RootsTech: April 30th

I was thrilled to have Kyla Bayang of RootsquadRoundup with me today. I can think of no one better to offer tips and strategies for getting the most out of Relatives at RootsTech and the remarkable recordings.

On April 30th (we believe ending at 11:59 pm MDT)…

Relatives at RootsTech will be taken offline.

• Once that happens, you’ll no longer be able to connect with cousins you’re related to as documented in FamilySearch using their special Connect tool.

  • To visit the site right now (and see what the excitement was about,) make sure you’re logged into FamilySearch, then visit 👇

    • Your special Connect page at FamilySearch.org/en/connect/…(each of us gets a unique string of numbers.) When you share this link the people who view it can see how they’re related to you.

      • 😉 Here’s my Relatives at RootsTech link. Are we cousins?

The RootsTech recordings will migrate to YouTube.

While the online recordings will for the most part remain accessible, there will be changes as the organizers start to migrate recordings from the conference pages at RootsTech.org to their YouTube channel. Speakers with special arrangements for their talks may have limited the availability of the recordings. The syllabi for many programs may be removed and playlist access may disappear.

• Experienced participants like Kyla are telling us not to miss this opportunity to focus on the most important recordings. Just visit RootsTech, take a moment to log in and explore.

Kyla’s tips to convert a contact into a research partner

As a genealogy librarian and responsible as a FamilySearch Center affiliate, Kyla has some nifty strategies for us for making the most of the Relatives at RootsTech program in these waning days.

This is a great opportunity to meet cousins who might be open to collaborating with you in your genealogy research. Everyone in the Relatives at RootsTech program has registered for RootsTech and opted into the program. To be fair, though, they may have other priorities; don’t be hurt if they don’t respond to your messages.

⮕ Approach each new contact as if you’re on a first date. Be respectful and “don’t scare ’em.” It’s always more effective to give first, pay-it-forward, and offer to share.

• Kyla’s go-to line, “Hey, I’m working on this line … I’m more than happy to share what I’ve learned, but I could really use some help.”

Before April 30th: Save the Cousin Connection

To save the details on the cousins you’ve met, tap on “View Your Relatives” on your dashboard, then start with your closest cousins, or skip ahead to the connected relatives you’re most interested in and save…

• User name (this is the name they used to register for Relatives at RootsTech; it might be the same as the user name they use on FamilySearch, but it also might not be…)

• Full name (This may be a real name; it depends on what the user wanted to make available in their registration. This is visible if you’re connected.)

• Group tree (you’ll see this by tapping the relationship button:👇)

  

  To capture the group tree, Kyla suggests grabbing several things (pick your own tool to store these…1):

  • First, a screenshot2 of the tree (we’re 8th cousins!)

    

  • Second, the person IDs for the most recent deceased person on their tree. In this case, it’s

    • Oma Ogle (1928 – 2018) or L5BH-Y3G. (Thanks, Dad.) That’s going to give you a way to keep an eye out throughout the year if you come across other individuals who might be helpful to your new cousin.

    • You can also go back to the most recent common ancestors you share. In our case, we go back to 17th-century England to find:

      • L1NW-CP9 — Thomas Symons

      • GZZ5-6HT — Rebecca Ann West

  • Third, add your cousin to your FamilySearch Contacts. This may be the easiest since all you have to do is tap that “+” button. Once you do it turns into an “x.” If you tapped one by mistake, tapping the “x” turns it back into a “+.”

  • Fourth, screenshot your chat history with your new cousin. If you started a chat during RootsTech, it might be there during the year, but also… it might go away. This makes sure you’re in control.

RideAlong Tips

The RootsTech RideAlong, our partnership with Geneabloggers, was such a hit this year that we plan to keep the website up indefinitely. You’ll find it chock-full of recordings, posts, and suggestions at RideAlongPartners.org.

We might even come up with a few other special events to RideAlong to, as DearMYRTLE suggested in her post for :

GeneaBloggers Community

Moving Forward: The Ride Along Collaboration

The RootsTech Ride Along 2026 collaboration between GeneaBloggers and Projectkin was a smashing success, such that we’re planning an enhanced redux in 2027…

Read more

2 months ago · 4 likes · GeneaBloggers

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories. Do you have friends or family members who may benefit from this?

Please share our work and invite your friends to join us.

Share

I can’t tell you how much it means to us to see you join us from England, Scotland, and across the United States and Canada today. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this community together.

Your added ❤️s help ensure others can see this conversation, too. Thank you. Did I miss you? Add your thoughts in the comments below. Projectkin programming is offered free with the kind support of our patrons worldwide.

At Kathy’s Corner: Archiving & a Professional’s Insight

In our rollicking conversation this morning, we touched on a variety of topics that intertwined media with memories, stories with context. At several points in our conversation and comments from the chat, we touched on the Projectkin special last week with Lori Olson White of the Lost and Found Story Box.

• In the talk, Lori introduced her ongoing series, “Building my Bridge to 2076,” describing Annie Deihm’s methodology for creating a time capsule for the American Tricentennial in 2076.

  Lori will also be Kathy’s guest for Kathy’s Corner in May. I’ll be attending from an undisclosed location in Fort Wayne during the National Genealogical Society annual conference. (Tickets still available 😉)

Part of what made that discussion so relevant was the recurrent conversation we’ve had on Kathy’s Corner about the wide variety of media you can use to tell stories. Kathy is currently participating in a conference sponsored by Forever.com, the maker of Artisan, her favorite digital scrapbooking platform.

• We may come back to that topic again, just as we have when we discussed “Junk Journals,” and related visual storytelling topics with :

Remember, Thursday’s program is held via Zoom, so you will need to register for your personal link. To learn more about our special guest, Kate Jacus, please visit her site at The Photo Curator, or just drop your questions into the comments below.

About Kathy Stone

Kathy has been the “cornerstone” of Projectkin since we were a “Rōnin” gang called “PostPonga.” That was just over three years ago, just after RootsTech 2023. Her commitment to the physical artifacts of family history now inspires our whole community. Learn more about what Kathy is doing today at her own publication:

Kathy's Coaching

After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

By Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories. Do you have friends or family members who may benefit from this? Please share our work and invite friends and family to join us:

Your generous ❤️ s, restacks, and shares have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. Thanks for all you do to be so kind, curious, and creative!

Literacy at the Heart of a Democracy

With this series, I’ve tried to help us all appreciate the broader context of the American Revolution through the stories of our ancestors who lived through it. Today’s program was remarkable in that it tells the story of events that happened far from the shores of this British colony that would become the United States, yet the ties are strong.

During our conversation, Dai Davies, an expert in Welsh history and genealogy, shared how transformative education had been for their family in 18th-century Wales and how it carried themes of liberty. Much of that was due to the contributions of Thomas Bray (1656 or 1658 – 15 February 1730) and his traveling parish library and the obsessive work of George Eyre Evans (1857 - 1939), Unitarian minister and antiquary.

Among George Eyre Evans’ friends was John Davis, “the bookbinder,” whose diary has been transcribed. In it is a stanza from “Ode,” by Philip Morin Freneau (1752 - 1832)

As a way to better understand the story, Dai shared this map so you can see where Cellan is in Wales:

This was Dai’s post as part of the Stories250 series:

We discussed the role of language preservation in protecting a culture from complete assimilation. Welsh poetry has been key to that. Dai has an ongoing series that tells the story, starting with the post, “Our Ancestors Were Poets.”

About Stories250

Learn more about the series at Projectkin.org/stories250, view all recordings and posts, then explore the posts in an interactive timeline. You’ll find Dai’s post here, just after 1765:

In March, I announced an expansion of the series with a live event inviting all of our authors of over 50 articles now to gather to share their stories. That program will be on July 9th during either our Atlantic or Pacific time windows (possibly both to accommodate schedules, more to come). In addition, I’m producing a commemorative magazine including all articles published in print, and shared at cost with all writers.

If you have stories to share, please join us. Learn more at Projectkin.org/stories250. The window to submit posts will remain open until June 30th.

Finally, free to share this post with your genealogy friends and family. While you’re there, invite them to join this thriving and generous long-form family history storytelling community on Substack, WordPress, Blogger, and dozens of other blogging platforms.

Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this community together. Your added ❤️s help ensure others can see this conversation, too. Thank you. Did I miss you? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

’ guests today of Knext Gen Genealogy and The Knext Chapter, and of BJNL’s Genealogy and Kyeburn Diggings OPS, lured us Down Under teasers about their full program later this week.

As family stories, each of these tales is personal, with lives lived and lost, leaving their imprint on our collective stories. It’s an honor to have these two gifted writers join us to share their stories.

If your parents were anything like mine, you were often encouraged to “just write about the good stuff,” as if bad things don’t happen to good people. But they do, and it’s how we get through them that future generations learn about resilience and the perils ahead.

Readers’ Tip 👀

To set the scene for our program this week, you might want to take a gander at two of our writers’ publications:

Kyeburn Diggings One-Place Study

This publication draws on my one-place study research to write about people and events associated with the Kyeburn Diggings in Central Otago, New Zealand. It links to relevant information in my One-Place Study Archive on the weare.xyz platform.

By Jane Chapman

Pay particular attention to Jane’s series “Tragedy on Mt. Nobbler.”

Knext Gen Genealogy

I’m Lex Knowlton and I’ve been doing family and local history research for over a decade. I publish most of my findings here on Substack.

By Lex Knowlton

Though Lex coyly refused to tip her hand on her story, I think you’ll find several delicious pieces in her collection to set the scene. I know the “Parramatta Female Factory” has me getting comfortable 🍿.

I think we have a terrific program set ahead for us. I know you’ll join me in thanking Jennifer Jones for putting this incredible series together. You can follow her and her A-Z Blogging Challenge this month at Tracking Down the Family, one of her two publications. (Where does she find the time!)

Add Recommendations

While I’m featuring so many publications, may I suggest you consider recommending our fellow writers so your followers can consider them, too. The button takes you to your recommendations page. Thank you.

In case you missed it, Jennifer mentioned Projectkin’s sister publication at MissionGenealogy. Our monthly gatherings ARE this week.

MG was an effort Robin Stewart and I started back in 2024 to help everyone get comfortable with Substack. While it still does that, it’s turned into a bit of a clubhouse. ’s tips series gives us some credibility while our monthly (unrecorded) gatherings have become a place to pause with fellow travelers. Learn more and register, 👇

Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this community together. Your added ❤️s help ensure others can see this conversation, too. Thank you. Did I miss you? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

Exploring Ideas / Cooking Up Projects

Today was a rare hole in my event calendar created by the combination of longer months and changing schedules. I knew I wanted to use this time to explore an idea, but I only called in of Tracking Down the Family at the last minute. Many thanks, once again, to our brave time-turner for stepping up to join me from 4 am tomorrow in Australia.

The idea for today’s episode was to explore a new idea I’ve been mulling over for a series to follow Stories250. This comes to mind as I start working on the commemorative magazine I’ve promised to participants.

• More about the series, the magazine, and the 30-June deadline here:

The effort has me thinking about how we got here, what worked well, and where I might go from here. My goals for Projectkin center squarely on encouraging more people to get their stories told. Stories250 worked in part by celebrating the unexpected connections between our stories.

As one story crests, it leads to another. It’s the heartbeat of our community.

That led me to think back on the stories we’ve collected about our family history in our own blogs, websites, and publications. So many of them relate to migration stories. Why our family got here, was sent here, or left that terrible famine. These are stories intertwined with place and resilience. We’re already telling them, let’s share them to inspire each other.

Unlike Stories250, this series will be a bit more complicated from a theme perspective, so I’m going to be sorting through the details over the next few weeks. I’ve been thinking about articulating categories, then inviting writers to submit their own posts (on any accessible platform) to be pulled together into the themes and with each in a

• A web page (as I did with Stories250, though I have some new “open CMS” tricks)

• Perhaps contributing to a timeline (though this may focus on moments instead of posts, as I did with the Stories250-timeline)

• Perhaps a magazine of posts, perhaps quarterly or after we have a certain number of posts on a topic.

As for themes, gosh, you can think of them quickly. In the call today, we touched briefly on a few that were opportunistic and others that were forced. I’d love to hear your examples in the comments below.

Leave a comment

A few from the chat and my own notes include:

• Earl Grey Girls (my initial connection to Jennifer came from her 2024 post about her 2nd great-grandmother, Ellen Boyle, an Irish “Earl Gray Girl” sent to Australia in 1848.

• English convicts were sent to Australia as punishment for crimes.

• British Home Children sent to Canada

All of this combines with the great migrations we think of here in the US, including:

• Puritans who left England, Quakers who left New England

• Migrations of African Americans from the Jim Crow South for job opportunities in the North and West.

• Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese farm workers who were recruited to work sugar and pineapple fields of Hawaii.

There’s no shortage of examples, I think the challenge here will be finding ways to thematically pull them together to inspire each other. For that, I hope to have a plan together to launch by September. I welcome your thoughts in comments here or in DMs.

This idea will intertwine nicely with our plans for the 2026 All About That Place series coming in October in partnership with the Society for One-Place Studies, the UK-based Society of Genealogists, and the British Association for Local History.

Along the way, please let me know which Member Stories we’ve used as vehicles, what’s worked and what hasn’t, and what you’d like to see more of.

One slight twist we added at the end was a discussion of storytelling forms: from written and recorded posts to visual storytelling in scrapbooks and junk journals.

We’ll certainly be talking more about that in the coming months. Know that I’m always open to new ideas and approaches.

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories. Do you have friends or family members who may benefit from this? Feel free to share.

Do you like what we’re up to? Tell your subscribers.

Recommend Projectkin

I can’t tell you how much it means to us to see you join us from the cold of winter in the north of Scotland to the heat of summer in the outback of Australia. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this community together. Your added ❤️s help ensure others can see this conversation, too. Thank you. Did I miss you? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

At Kathy’s Corner, a Treasure Box of Postcards Awaits

Since last December’s holiday episode, where six guests, Jill Swenson, Linda Teather, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Ellen Thompson-Jennings, Jayme Blenkarn, and Paula Collins stepped up to share the stories of postcards in their family, the topic of ephemera and specifically postcards has been top of mind.

• Here’s that memorable holiday event:

This month, Kathy has invited of BJNL’s Genealogy to join her at Kathy’s Corner to talk about her own remarkable “treasure box” collection. Unlike the pieces discussed in December’s program, Jane’s collection was assembled by an ancestor. Her research has helped to piece together the story from the artifacts themselves, a process she’s talked about in a series of posts for her publication:

BJNL's Genealogy

Our Treasure Box

When his mother died, my husband inherited a box of family treasures. At the moment it sits on our bookcase, its contents begging to be explored…

Read more

10 months ago · 25 likes · 24 comments · Jane Chapman

Remember, Thursday’s program is held via Zoom so you will need to register for your personal link.

About Kathy Stone

Kathy has been the “cornerstone” of Projectkin since we were a “Rōnin” gang called “PostPonga.” That was just over three years ago, just after RootsTech 2023. Her commitment to the physical artifacts of family history now inspires our whole community. Learn more about what Kathy is doing today at her own publication:

Kathy's Coaching

After years of helping people organize their photos, I now share tips and inspiration to help you tell your family's story — one photo, one keepsake, one memory at a time.

By Kathy Stone

As Projectkin, we’re here to help families tell their stories in any form. I feel strongly that our collections of photos and other artifacts are key to our memories and, in turn, our stories. Do you have friends or family members who may benefit from this?

Your generous ❤️ s, restacks, and shares have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. Thanks for all you do to be so kind, curious, and creative!

Today, Linda treated us to a master class in the unsung research skills every genealogist needs: perseverance, creativity, and patience. Her story about her ancestor, John Adams, begins with mythbusting. Many celebrated family stories do. In this case, her long-held family belief of a close connection to the John Adams who was fabled in American History.

Nope, that wasn’t true.

Her journey of discovery peels back the layers to reveal a story that may be even more interesting with a case study in “FAN club” research techniques, and the impact of divided loyalties in a family.

As background, you may want to review Linda’s original post about John:

Linda Stufflebean

John Adams & the American Revolution: The Other Side of the Story

No, this isn’t about John Adams, American Patriot and second President of the newly formed United States of America…

Read more

8 months ago · 7 likes · 11 comments · Linda Stufflebean

In addition, Linda submitted two other stories to the Stories250 series:

• Revolutionary War Soldier Joses Bucknam: Another Unexpected Military Experience

• The Revolutionary War Experience of John Stufflebean: Probably Not What He Expected

Learn more about Linda’s blog, Empty Branches on the Family Tree, featuring a detailed archive and index (including over 100 posts about the Adams family alone).

• EmptyBranchesontheFamilyTree.com

While she maintains a profile here on Substack and reads many publications, she does so using Feedly, a useful “skybridge” between platforms. Learn more about that in a Tips post on my sister publication, MissionGenealogy.

Mission: Genealogy

Using Feedly to Read a Substack Publication Without Email

The first I’d ever heard about Feedly was from Linda Stufflebean. She subscribes to “a LOT of genealogy blogs” (see Additional Reading/Viewing), and her inbox was flooded with emails. To avoid that, she uses Feedly. She says “it’s an aggregator—like an electronic file cabinet.” Instead of an email, when a new post goes live, Feedly adds the URL to a list for her to visi…

Read more

8 months ago · 10 likes · 9 comments · Deborah Carl

About Stories250

Learn more about the series at Projectkin.org/stories250, view all recordings and posts, then explore the posts in an interactive timeline here:

The series will conclude in a Zoom meeting session featuring the stories of contributors on July 9th, followed by the publication of all posts in a commemorative magazine. Learn more in this post released yesterday:

Finally, free to share this post with your genealogy friends and family. While you’re there, invite them to join this thriving and generous long-form family history storytelling community on Substack, WordPress, Blogger, and dozens of other blogging platforms.

Share

It always means a great deal to us to see you join us live or in the comments from across the planet. Your ❤️s, thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this global community together. Were you there? Did I miss you? The chat isn’t captured, but you can add them in the comments below.

A Sneak Peek into Emma’s Tree

Though we try to be very disciplined in the formal Emma Explores program each month, these previews allow us to be a little more exploratory. Today was no exception as our conversation lingered over cultural differences in our Anglophone world.

As with any artistic expression, we can expect more of this in next week’s talk as Emma takes us on a journey through the artists, sculptors, and painters among her ancestors. A diversion into fairy paintings took us from children’s art to the darker worlds of adult fantasies. John Anster Fitzgerald (1819-1906) is an example.

As you’ll quickly see in the recording, a conversation about fairies quickly led to remembrances of beloved childhood stories and characters. Emma shared a story about her involvement with a BBC Two film crew preparing a documentary series, “Secrets of the Museum” for the Victoria & Albert Museum.

As an American, I’d not even known who “Pumpie the Elephant” was. Clearly, my childhood was lacking. In our conversation we also talked about quilts and Emma mentioned her interview with for the Journeys Into Genealogy podcast. Here’s that episode:

Journeys into Genealogy

A Little Piece of Cuba with Barbara Caver

I recently interviewed Barbara Caver regarding her Cuban ancestry and the book she has written about it…

Read more

6 months ago · 1 like · Emma - Journeys into Genealogy

Join us, Thursday, March 19

You won’t want to miss next week’s program. Our Emma Explores programs are held via Zoom, which allows you to join in on the conversation that follows each presentation. Zoom requires you to register to get your personal link:

I’m able to offer these programs for free because of the generous support of our Projectkin Patrons. Learn more about each of them, their publications, and their work at Projectkin.org/patrons.

Finally, a quick programming note. Emma has a holiday planned next month, so we’ll be skipping the April episodes for Emma Explores. She’ll return in May for a preview on Friday, May 15th, and the main program on Thursday, May 21st. Please see your local times on the linked event pages.

Get more from Barbara at Projectkin in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

I can’t tell you how much it means to us to see you join us from across the planet. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this global community together. Were you there? Did I miss you? The chat isn’t captured, but your additions can be by dropping them into the comments below.

Sneak Peeks into Crystal and Kelli’s Stories

As so many of us settle back into our pre-RootsTech routines, somehow something seems a little different, eh? Our Ride-Along was incredible, and I expect that many of us (like Jennifer and me) are still catching up on everything that happened. From my vantage point here in California, I have a sense of connection reaching from Europe and Britain, out across the Pacific to Western Australia and the Asian continent.

All of that makes today’s conversation all the more poignant. We gathered to peel back the movie myths of the American Old West to understand real life among the native and European immigrant peoples in these lands, newly opened to Western settlers in the early 19th century.

Crystal Lorimor & The Creighton Cabin

As background, you may want to explore not only Crystal’s GIS project accomplished with her associates in Belmont County, Ohio, in the historic Seven Ranges area.

Learn more about Crystal’s Creighton Cabin in her recent post,

The Creighton Cabin

Are you related to the neighbors?

When I first started this little writing journey, I did not expect to be writing mainly about genealogy and local history. While I named this Substack “The Creighton Cabin,” my intention was to use the physical house concept as a metaphor of the different “rooms” and topics I might explore related to Appalachia, business, history, and a little bit of g…

Read more

3 months ago · 15 likes · 20 comments · Crystal Lorimor

The connections she referred to among community members came about as a result of the RelativeFinder.org, a remarkable tool produced by the BYU Family History Lab and updated during the RootsTech. To find community members, navigate to Groups and search for Projectkin. You’ll need to request access. I should grant it within 24 hours or so.

Kelli Cedarfield and Pawnee Language Learning

Kelli is a writer of historical fiction who also loves food gardening, quilting, family, and culture. As she shared with us today, it was in the context of genealogy research that she found her way to exploring her cultural inheritance from the Pawnee side of her family. In her publication, Pawnee Language Learning, you might want to explore her series focusing on the Pawnee people and early Americans:

Pawnee Language Learning

#137 - Pawnee and Early Americans

Pawnee Language Learning is a reader-supported publication. To support the Pawnee Language Program, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber…

Listen now

8 months ago · 5 likes · Kelli Cedarfield

Pawnee Language Learning

#138 - Pawnee and Early Americans(con't)

A story shared by Ronnie O’Brien about her husband’s ancestors and their friendship with the Pawnee people…

Listen now

8 months ago · 7 likes · 2 comments · Kelli Cedarfield

These are exactly the kinds of untold stories Projectkin’s Speakers’ Corner was designed to celebrate. Stories, told in your own words. Shared, they inspire others, and create a record your family can appreciate for generations to come. All speakers get file copies of program video recordings to archive for themselves.

Our soapbox queue is filled for 2026, but if you’re eager to share a story, drop your name in the form anyway: Projectkin.org/speakers-queue. We might turn to you if we have any cancellations or find a way to work your story into another series. Certainly, we can put you in the queue for 2027.

We’d love to help you get your story told. Video, with an eager audience, is such a compelling form. You can message Jennifer or me, , with any questions, or complete our simple form to get into the queue. 🎉

I can’t tell you how much it means to us to see you join us from across the planet. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this global community together. Were you there? Did I miss you? The chat isn’t captured, but your additions can be by dropping them into the comments below.

Today’s Tips and Takeaways

The first takeaway is a tremendous sense of gratitude to our DearMyrtle, and to all of you as members of our shared and Projectkin community. You’re amazing. I hope you all appreciate what just happened here. On a shoestring budget, we managed to connect an online community with a few dozen individuals on-site, creating a community larger than any of us. We’ve inspired each other to learn, create, and inspire others.

Yeah, there’s still a little “Kum Ba Ya” out there in this complicated world.

Today’s conversation included many ideas we will expand on in future events as a collaboration and as individuals. My biggest takeaway was in…

• The compelling power of a story. We talked about the example of a heartbeat in the way one story might rise to a stressful point, then conclude with a resolution. One story leads to another. Together, the stories remind us how we’re connected as a group.

  For context, don’t miss the interviews Myrt was doing on the show floor. You’ll find them at the top left of RideAlongPartners.org/recordings.

  

That storytelling pattern was in full display in my conversation yesterday with . We went from the Japanese tea ceremony to family artifacts and finally the WeAre community, a new feature of their software.

And truly, since our session was immediately followed by Kyla & Bill’s Excellent Adventure (in the Ride Along), it seems only appropriate to tuck that link right in here too. You won’t want to miss it:

Family History with Bill Moore

RootsTech Ride Along - Kyla and Bill's Excellent Adventure

Listen now

3 months ago · 6 likes · Bill Moore and Kyla Bayang

Unloading 🚙 our Ride

I’m confident now that we’ll do this again, perhaps even a few times before the next RootsTech. One of the elements I thought was important (and want to improve on) is the RideAlongPartners.org website. After this circulates, I’m going to run back and update it with your many additions (including this recording). But keep them coming.

In the meantime, I’ll endeavor to continue to update the site through the conclusion of the scheduled meetings for my sister publication, MissionGenealogy, next week. I hope you can join us for a debrief at either of the two times. Please note that this is a simple Zoom meeting and won’t be recorded to encourage candid conversations.

I hope that by next year, I’ll have come up with an automation scheme (still cheap or free) that would allow the updates to happen without me, but we’re not quite there yet.

I can’t tell you how much it means to us to see you join us from across the planet. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this global community together. Were you there? Did I miss you? The chat isn’t captured, but your additions can be by dropping them into the comments below.

Today’s Tips and Takeaways

If you know Simon or his software, WeAre.xyz, you’ll already know how a conversation can wander in any direction — and always be fun. Today’s discussion took us from the magic of artifacts to the nature of memory and time travel. As we paused for a moment to talk about a shared fascination with artifacts, it was an audience member, , who chimed in to note how powerful it was to be…

“…handling what they handled and cherishing what they cherished.”

A few references from our conversation:

• The new WeAre Community

  This is a new free section of the software that creates a shared space that’s accessible to anyone. More about that in the PDF Simon shared in the chat, “The WeAre Community.”

In our conversation, we talked about extraordinary times in our political history that have created vast separations of people through wars, migrations, and more. In that context, Simon mentioned the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. This is the Archive I mentioned:

• The 1947 Partition Archive

  This archive is an incredible achievement designed for a very specific challenge, but could be applied to any number of other projects, large international or small and personal. The latter is something WeAre excels at.

Ride Along Announcements

We have one more of these programs scheduled for tomorrow, though there may be a change to the speakers to announce. Stay tuned for that. You won’t want to miss yesterday’s delightful program with :

We’re now two days into the three-day conference, and you’ll want to refer to the RideAlongPartners.org site for the latest. Two updates so far today have added photos and scheduling for three Watch Parties.

From the start, Geneabloggers and Projectkin have shared a passion for family history and storytelling since the beginning. We both see the extraordinary value of pursuing this work with the support and encouragement of a community. So, with RootsTech approaching, it only made sense to do this together.

Have suggestions for this Ride Along? Visit the RideAlongPartners.org page and tap that “Add” button. Think others might benefit from all of this? Everyone’s welcome, feel free to share it with a friend!

Share

I can’t tell you how much it means to us to see you join us from across the planet. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this global community together. Were you there? Did I miss you? The chat isn’t captured, but your additions can be by dropping them into the comments below.

Today’s Tips and Takeaways

Wow, with the first day of the conference excitement swirling around her at the Expo Hall, Lori had to step into the Media Hub for a little quiet to chat with me about her recent travels and the larger topics of the day like AI.

To keep these notes brief, here are just a few references from our conversation:

• To her remarkable series about Annie Deihm and the Century Safe:

  The Lost & Found Story Box

  Annie Deihm and the Century Safe: Part 1

  | Part 1 of 5 | Next Chapter →…

  Read more

  4 months ago · 21 likes · 11 comments · Lori Olson White

• About AI and our discussion of topics related to photo restoration and the human skills that require emotional intelligence, reference the panel discussion this morning:

  • “Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Genealogy in 2026,” featuring David Ouimette, Steve Little, Katherine Borges, James Tanner, and Lynn Broderick

• A brief visit with , long-time supporter of genealogy programming around the world now. Tami is also the creator of ConferenceKeeper.org, a free online calendar of genealogy events.

Ride Along Announcements

In my post yesterday, sharing the recording of my conversation with Bill Moore we filled in more details about two ideas shared in my earlier conversation with : The photo shoot and watch parties. Here’s the recording with Bill:

All of these, along with news updates, have been posted to the RideAlongPartners.org site. Watch as photos are now flowing in.

Ride Along Ready! 🚙💨

From the start, Geneabloggers and Projectkin have shared a passion for family history and storytelling since the beginning. We both see the extraordinary value of pursuing this work with the support and encouragement of a community. So, with RootsTech approaching, it only made sense to do this together.

Have suggestions for this Ride Along? Visit the RideAlongPartners.org page and tap that “Add” button. Think others might benefit from all of this? Everyone’s welcome, feel free to share it with a friend!

Share

I can’t tell you how much it means to us to see you join us from across the planet. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this global community together. Were you there? Did I miss you? The chat isn’t captured, but your additions can be by dropping them into the comments below.

Today’s Tips and Takeaways

We started with a focus on the conference agenda, which starts today (Thursday in Asia/Pacific). Bill had a few terrific suggestions, building on others we’ve heard in the last few days:

• Printing out the handouts allows you to make notes and stay focused during the program. Oh, that’s a nice fit for my large-sized notebook!

In our conversation about Relatives at RootsTech1 we went on to a discussion of both font-sizes (increase fonts on your screen if needed), and strategies for viewing different sides of the family by ancestors.

• Related is the Wilford Woodruff Papers project launched this year. This can be a useful project to explore if you have family lines in America in the mid-nineteenth century. With parallel family trees, my cousin Bill and I have thousands of family members who intersected with the remarkable documentarian Wilford Woodruff.

• Then we got into an extended discussion of RelativeFinder.org from the BYU Family History Technology Lab. This tool revealed a major upgrade over the last few days, and will be a vendor in the expo hall. (Find them at booth #1519, or in the live Chat once that opens.)

  • Explore that link, then log in using your FamilySearch login.

  • Once you’ve done that, please visit our group, “Projectkin,” and request access. I’ll let you in, and you can join the 25+ community members collaborating on our family trees.

  • Best of all, there’s no limit on this project to the 30-April deadline for Relatives at RootsTech.

Ride Along Announcements

I made two announcements yesterday in the notes from my conversation with , and then later added to the RideAlongPartners website. In case you missed my conversation with Lynda, here’s the link:

These are the announcements:

• Group Photoshoot for the Ride Along!

  Yep, we’re going to do one! Commemorate your participation in this crazy venture by getting your photo taken on Friday/Saturday (in Asia/Pac).

  ⮕ Learn more on the RideAlongPartners page and the event pages:

  • On-site group photo (at Ride Along Partners booth)

  • Atlantic-friendly online photo (from a gallery screenshot over Zoom)

  • Pacific-friendly online photo (from a gallery screenshot over Zoom)

• Watch Parties!

  We’re taking the simple route with a scheduled Zoom call, so we follow along with the chat. The most obvious one to start with was the AI Guidelines panel tomorrow morning:

  • We’ll start with this remarkable program, “Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Genealogy in 2026.” The panel includes David Ouimette, Steve Little, Katherine Borges, James Tanner, and Lynn Broderick. If you think you might be interested in watching the program with friends, join us!

    • Learn more and register for the Zoom link.

New Idea!

In today’s conversation, Bill and I also discussed the idea of adding a tab to the Ride Along Partners page for posts about vendors, feedback, suggestions, and tips. I’m interested.

• Here’s my offer: If five of you submit posts, notes, or some digital commentary that will embed on the page, I’ll create the page. Use the Add page, or let me know what you think directly:

Ride Along Ready! 🚙💨

From the start, Geneabloggers and Projectkin have shared a passion for family history and storytelling since the beginning. We both see the extraordinary value of pursuing this work with the support and encouragement of a community. So, with RootsTech approaching, it only made sense to do this together.

Have suggestions for this Ride Along? Visit the RideAlongPartners.org page and tap that “Add” button. Think others might benefit from all of this? Everyone’s welcome, feel free to share it with a friend!

Share

Postscript: So this happened

If you do your own livestreams, you may want to fast-forward or hold out to the very end. Consider it a blooper reel. After I tapped “end” to end the livestream, it somehow kept going. This appears to be a known bug that the Substack team is still working on. It’s awkward, and you can basically ignore it, but know that if it happens to you, the way to get out of it is to quit the app. (I was on an iPad.) There’s an awkward 15 minutes or so there while I figured it out. 🤦‍♀️