Our Stories250 | Celebrating as a Community of Family Storytellers: July 2026
You’ve heard about Stories250, our Projectkin twist on American celebrations on the national theme of America250. Make time to join us in July for a joint celebration of all we've accomplished.
You’ve heard about Stories250, our Projectkin twist on American celebrations of the branded semi-quincentennial, America250. As Projectkin, we wanted to recognize that the Independence Day we honor affected our ancestors wherever they were in the world. That leads to a simple question:
Where were YOUR ancestors on July 4, 1776?
Stories250 Coming Together
This special program collects and shares the stories of our ancestors around the time of the Declaration of Independence (give or take 50 years). Stories could be set anywhere in the world and published on any public platform as long as they are true and related to your ancestors. Together, we’ve
…compiled stories on a website (Projectkin.org/stories250),
…created an interactive timeline (Projectkin.org/stories250-timeline),
…shared the stories on a map (Projectkin.org/stories250-map),
…retold your stories in live recordings (Projectkin.org/stories250-live),
…and by September, we’ll have published a commemorative magazine collecting the stories (more here).
Have you been thinking about it?
There’s still time to join us (but not much). We have just about 45 days until my June 30th deadline for the final contributions to the series. Seriously, I can’t do this without deadlines!
Remember YOUR ancestors. Share their stories with YOUR descendants. In case you need any more encouragement, I had the opportunity to present the essence of this Stories250 idea to a gathering assembled for DearMYRTLE’s Mondays with Myrt earlier this week. Perhaps my answers for Myrt will convince you to take a look:1
We started roughly ten months ago; I’m immensely proud of what we’ve accomplished together. Here are the rough stats I can see from the inside:
Sixty articles submitted to the collection (so far, at least a half-dozen more are in the queue);
Twenty different storytellers submitted these articles and recordings, with some contributing as many as nine different stories
Some were stories of patriotic heroism, but many just captured the experiences of loyalists, family members, and non-combatants an ocean away.
In my view, one of the most important consequences has been a demonstration of the experiences our families survived during this remarkable period in world history. The series has brought three digital components, each designed to provide a collective context to the individual stories on a shared website, timeline, and map.
Through our Speakers’ Corner series, I’ve come to appreciate how powerfully different the spoken word can be as a form of storytelling. Eleven of our writers have stepped up to join me at my Stories250 livestreams to talk about their submitted stories. After each event, I share a link so our speakers can download the digital video file and clips for their talk for their own archives.
Then I realized that this is so special, it might be nice to have something we can hold. Why not a commemorative magazine? As I assembled the draft with the first 60 or so posts, I could already see how transformative the piece would be. I want a copy now, too.
The idea is to give everyone participating a memento of their involvement and something they can share with their siblings and descendants. All participants will receive a PDF of the magazine they can print themselves, as well as a published magazine they can purchase from Lulu.com. This is a learning experience for me, so I’m not charging for my time.
The Penultimate Episode 🥁
Just in time, we have the penultimate, or second-to-last, in our series of Stories250 livestreams scheduled tomorrow, Sunday (Monday in Asia/Pac) as Anne Wendel joins me to share her stories. With four contributed stories in the series, she’s one of our most prolific writers. You won’t want to miss this fascinating combination of stories from Patriots, Loyalists, and the squishy middle.
This is a livestream program, and everyone is welcome. If you have an active Substack account, you might appreciate that a feature change now allows everyone with a modern web browser to view these programs. As a host, be sure to toggle “everyone” when configuring access.2
One more thing: Let’s Party! 🎉
(You knew that was coming, didn’t you?) Here in the US, we’re approaching the semi-quincentennial with national hoopla that’s undeniably intertwined with a cocktail of international politics. Let’s put all of that aside for a day and look back into history, at the unlikely way we were all touched by ideas, notions of freedom, and the Enlightenment.
Let’s celebrate every way all of our ancestors were involved: Patriots, Loyalists, mercenaries, neighbors, librarians, craftsmen, artists, mothers, children, servants, and spies. There were so many stories. Most of us had to pick from a fraction of the tales we discovered to share in the series.
Since I wasn’t able to include every one of our storytellers in the livestream series, I’ve invited them all to join me at one of two special events on Thursday, July 9th (and Friday, July 10th in Asia/Pac) at each of my Atlantic and Pacific time windows. Both events are free and open to everyone.
It’s planned as a pair of Zoom events so that we can see each other and everyone can tell stories. I will give each writer submitting a story priority so that they can say a few words and share insights about their story or stories. You’re welcome to join me at both, if you wish. You’re also welcome to bring your family along.
Together, we’ll share our experiences researching these stories and the stories themselves. This was an effort we accomplished together; let’s celebrate.
As a bonus, my photobombing cat Zarabeth ᓚᘏᗢ takes a bow at the start of it, as if on command. It’s a fair bet she’ll join me at this party too.
Nerdy point: if you have multiple publications, you’ll have to select “everyone” in the web interface. In the mobile app, the Everyone selection affects both access and notifications. You might accidentally trigger your livestream notifications about flyfishing to all of your quilting friends. That could be awkward. 🤭 Use the web browser for this.
Aw, thank you, @Lori Olson White
Such a terrific and ambitious project, Barbara. So indebted to you for taking it on! Had no idea the pdf was going to be available. As I reading this I was thinking I should have told you I wanted more! They will make wonderful gifts for family.