Thank you Lori Olson White, Kristin Rapinac, Ann Rockley, Kathy Stone, Linda Teather and more for joining us today on Zoom and in the comments section for today’s special Speakers’ Corner program. In today’s program, Jennifer Jones was joined by Marian Beaman of Marian’s News and Xanthe Hall of X-Factored - Family Stories.
Your ❤️s, comments, and the ensuing conversation are a gift that helps bring this recording to the attention of others.
This week’s Speakers’ Corner explores secrets in our speakers’ family stories. Xanthe shares a troubling story she uncovered in her research, while Marian shares adult insight on a relationship she experienced as a child. While every story is captivatingly different, the notion of secrets, hidden tales, or unspoken relationships is often at the heart of our family history research.
As background leading into today’s program, you may enjoy viewing the preview livestreamed earlier this week:
Projectkin Live: Speakers’ Corner Preview with Guests Marian Beaman and Xanthe Hall
Thank you Jill Swenson, Kyla Bayang, Kathy Stone, Kristin Rapinac, Jane Chapman, Sylvia Jacobs, Linda Stufflebean, Jill Swenson, Linda Teather, Bee Lilyjones, and many others for tuning into Jennifer Jones live program today with Marian Beaman and Xanthe Hall
Since the preview above includes details about the background of each of our speakers, I’ll instead reference here the key links you may find useful for context:
Marian Beaman
In her talk, Marian shared a deeply personal story from her memoir, “Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl.”
Marian’s story is compelling for the ways in which it runs counter to the external expectations for her very peaceful Swiss/German family and Mennonite community. This is the kind of work that can be so deeply helpful to others as they struggle with parallel challenges.
Xanthe Hall
As Xanthe shared in her remarks, the discovery of Len’s crime unfolded in a series of posts in response to the Alphabet challenge last April. The series begins with a description of the characters in
The series continues with letters B for Berkshire, Basingstoke, Burnley, through part 9 in T for Transport.
While there, you won’t want to miss the post for X, which contextualizes Xanthe’s own background and story.
If you think you remember reading this series last year, now might be a good time to circle back to them because Xanthe has added much more detail, citations, and a compelling voiceover you won’t want to miss.
Join Us and Support Our Speakers
Like all Projectkin events, our program is free, and recordings will be shared with subscribers a few hours after its conclusion.
I hope you can join us in February for Speakers’ Corner, where guests Kyla Bayang from Rootsquad Roundup and Jude Rhodes from Yorkshire Family History will bring us migration stories from their family history. All event details are below.
Archives of past programs are always available from Project.org/speakers-corner. You’re very welcome to share this, or any of our recordings.
Please note that the timing of each event is arranged for our speakers’ convenience. Matching speakers and time slots is a special challenge, but I’ve done my best to make this work by referencing our two established Pacific- and Atlantic-friendly time windows.
On our events calendar, explore upcoming previews and events in your local time zone. Tap any event to view the event and time details or register for the link to our free Zoom program.
Are You Ready to Step Up?
Perhaps we’ve inspired you to step up to the soapbox and share your story at the Speakers’ Corner, too? Join us, won’t you?
I’m currently filling in the calendar for 2026, and would love to include you. Kindly complete this simple form to help me balance speakers, timing, and topics: Join the queue at Projectkin.org/speakers-queue.
This is a community effort. Barbara and I wholeheartedly welcome your participation as an audience member and a speaker. As described in the initial post in June, all speakers will receive a video file with a copy of their talk after our program. We hope this will be of value to you and your family in future years.
Archives of past programs are available from Project.org/speakers-corner.
Note: Apologies for failures of both my audio and video in this recording. Thankfully, it only affected me. I neglected to disable the separate mic in my headphones, causing a slight echo. You’ll also notice a blur in my video that appears to be a bug in the camera software I use. It’s now disabled.
