Thank you. Pip69, Jason Stephenson, Nina Gafni, Kyla Bayang, David Shaw, The Wicked Sommelier, Diane Burley, and so many more of you for joining Emma - Journeys into Genealogy and me today. I can’t tell you how much it means to me here on the American Pacific coast to see all of you joining from the UK continent, across the American states and Canadian 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 series a little more visibility. Feel free to create clips from this post to share with your friends.
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.
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.
