Weekly LIVE Updates at Projectkin

Thank you Kathy Stone, Bill Moore, Stephanie Kolonko-Weet, David Shaw, Arik Hesseldahl, Loretta Rockwell, Diane Burley, Jennifer Halsey, Corlett, The Family Histories Podcast, Kyla Bayang, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, and many others for tuning into my live video with your generous comments for Dai Davies, the poetic voice in Welsh behind @GenealCymru at GenealCymru.com and on Substack, YouTube, and Bluesky Whether you’re joining by app or by web, live or in comments, it’s lovely to have your insights as part of this community.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!Projectkin programming is offered free with the kind support of our Patrons worldwide. Explore our story and join us 👇.Literacy at the Heart of a DemocracyWith 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)God save the rights of man, and give us hearts to scan, blessings so dear.May they be spread around,wheresoever man is found,and with the wholesome sound,ravish the ear.See from the universe, darkness and clouds disperse, mankind awake.Reason and mirth appear, freedom advances near, despots with terror hear, see now the quake.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 Stories250Learn 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. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you, Linda Teather, Anne’s Family History, John Cass, Kyla Bayang, Diane the FH Bowerbird, Jim the Historian, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, and so many more of you for joining us on this special Spring or Fall day. I know it’s a busy one for those who celebrate, and always a cherished time with family. I appreciate you spending a little of that time with us.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. Explore our story and join us 👇.Jennifer Jones’ guests today Lex Knowlton of Knext Gen Genealogy and The Knext Chapter, and Jane Chapman 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: Pay particular attention to Jane’s series “Tragedy on Mt. Nobbler.”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!) 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. Deborah Carl’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, 👇 Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Linda Teather, David Shaw, Kathy Stone, MLKR, Giggym 🚫👑, Jim the Historian, Linda Stufflebean, Marian Beaman and several more who swam by before I had my head on straight, thank you so much for joining us this Spring (or Fall) day. I know it’s a busy one for those who celebrate Christian holidays and cherish time with family. I appreciate you spending a little of that time with us. 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. Explore our story and join us 👇.Exploring Ideas / Cooking Up ProjectsToday 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 Jennifer Jones 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. 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. Get full access to Projectkin at pro

Thank you, Jennifer Jones, Bill Moore, Linda Teather, Ann Larkham, Lori Parker, Lisa Rex, My Family In History, Marcia Keats Rudolph, MamaCarole, and so many more of you for joining Kathy Stone and me today. 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.Projectkin programming is offered free with the kind support of our Patrons worldwide. Explore our story and join us 👇.At Kathy’s Corner, a Treasure Box of Postcards AwaitsSince 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 Jane Chapman 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: Remember, Thursday’s program is held via Zoom so you will need to register for your personal link. About Kathy StoneKathy 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. Do you have friends or family members who may benefit from this? Please share our work and invite friends and family to join us: Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Linda Teather, Jim the Historian, Joy Path, Aimee Liu, Cindy Gibbons, Rob Riley, Remembering Them214, and many others for tuning into my live video with your generous comments for Linda Stufflebean, the voice behind Empty Branches on the Family Tree. Whether you’re joining by app or by web, live or in comments, it’s lovely to have your insights as part of this community.If Projectkin is new to you, know you’re among friends here. Subscribe to get these free posts delivered to your inbox. More Projectkin.org/about.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: 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 ExpectedLearn 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.comWhile 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. About Stories250Learn 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. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Bill Moore and Lisa Maguire and many others for tuning into Emma - Journeys into Genealogy’s live preview of her Emma Explores program next week highlighting the “Artists Hiding in my Tree.” 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.As a fellow traveler on the path of family history, we’re happy to have you join us at Projectkin. Learn more Projectkin.org/about.A Sneak Peek into Emma’s TreeThough 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 Barbara Caver for the Journeys Into Genealogy podcast. Here’s that episode: Join us, Thursday, March 19You 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 full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Garry E Moore, Jill Swenson, Bill Moore, Kristin Rapinac, Jane Chapman, Nancy G. Carver, Linda Teather, Sheri Handel, Kyla Bayang, Bill Moore, Becky Hetchler, Lisa Rex, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, MamaCarole, and many others for tuning into Jennifer Jones’ live preview of this week’s program with Crystal Lorimor and Kelli Cedarfield. 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.Projectkin is free. We always welcome fellow travelers on the path of family history. Learn more Projectkin.org/about.Sneak Peeks into Crystal and Kelli’s StoriesAs 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 CabinAs 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 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 LearningKelli 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: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, Barbara at Projectkin, with any questions, or complete our simple form to get into the queue. 🎉Thanks for exploring our Speakers’ Corner stories! Sharing the post is a simple way to say thank you to Jennifer, Kelli & Crystal. 🥰 Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you, Kirstin at Our Growing Family Tree, Jennifer Jones, Linda Teather, Lynda Heines, Felix Rendina, Ruth Stroud, Bill Moore, Lori Olson White, Kathy Stone, Lacie Madison, Becky Hetchler, Kimmy Win, Sheila Breeden and many others for tuning into my live video today with DearMYRTLE!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.Projectkin programming is offered free with the kind support of our Patrons worldwide. Explore our story and join us 👇.Today’s Tips and TakeawaysThe first takeaway is a tremendous sense of gratitude to our DearMyrtle, and to all of you as members of our shared GeneaBloggers 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 Simon from WeAre.xyz. 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: Unloading 🚙 our RideI’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. 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. It was an honor to have YOU on this ride-along. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you, Linda Teather, Bill Moore, Jane Chapman, Ann Larkham, Our Growing Family Tree, Gadsby Family History, Linda Stufflebean, Sheri Handel, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Kristin Rapinac, Lisa Rex, Becky Hetchler, David Shaw, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, Xanthe Hall and many others for tuning into my live video today with Simon from WeAre.xyz!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.Projectkin programming is offered free with the kind support of our Patrons worldwide. Explore our story and join us 👇.Today’s Tips and TakeawaysIf 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, Ann Larkham, 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 CommunityThis 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 AnnouncementsWe 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 Lori Olson White: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.As the RootsTech conference wraps up, I’m all ears for ideas on how to continue these powerful conversations in the weeks and months to come. Have ideas? Send ‘em my way!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! Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe