Project Recipe: Encouraging the Reluctant Storyteller » Bridget Badoe McQuick

My introduction to Bridget Badoe McQuick came through professional genealogist, Emma Cox whom you might know for her Journeys into Genealogy podcast or here on Substack,

Emma - Journeys into Genealogy

. I found Bridget’s podcast episode with Emma inspiring so I was eager to meet her.

Bridget, who also goes by

Lady Esi (Bridget)

in her performances, shared several resources with us during today’s program, including:

• Windrush Day, each 22 June in the UK honors the contributions of migrants to the post-war economy

• Bruce Castle, the inspiration for the storytelling chair

• Anansi folklore stories from Africa

• During her talk, Bridget discussed building a library of topics you might focus on as starter questions to open a conversation. (More about this is in the recipe below.)

  • Childhood

  • Family

  • Travel & migration

  • Career

  • Religion

  • Relationships

  • Children

  • Significant life events

  • Hobbies & interests

  • People/influence 

  • Universal themes

    

    Project Recipe | Encouraging The Reluctant Storyteller

    2.24MB ∙ PDF file

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    This is the recipe Bridget shared to coax reluctant storytellers into telling their own stories. During her talk, she discussed patience and listening and how to facilitate a dialogue to build a connection. This recipe describes her process in more detail. (Prints to A4 paper, or reduced to US/CA Letter-sized paper.)

    Download

In her talk, Bridget explores all sorts of interesting strategies for opening conversations and engaging your reluctant storyteller, most importantly, Asking for advice!

I hope you enjoy the program. This is one of a collection of Project Recipes shared by Projectkin members with our membership in live sessions and recordings. To join us for another live session, explore our schedule of coming events at Projectkin.org/events.

Feedback

Today’s program was a bit of an experiment for us. Can you help us improve and innovate by answering a few short questions? (😉 Don’t miss the spot to suggest new program ideas.)

Next Week: Kathy’s Corner

This popular monthly session focuses on a challenge for every family historian: Sorting and digitizing collections of inherited family photos and artifacts. Our speaker, Projectkin member Kathy Stone, has decades of experience as a professional photo organizer and is now working on her family history projects. This is one of our most popular events each month. I hope you’ll join us.

Learn more and register at Projectkin.org/events

Do you have friends and family who might benefit from our programming at Projectkin.org? We’d love to have you share our work in any way that feels comfortable for you (here’s a nifty button to make it easy👇):