Weekly LIVE Updates at Projectkin

Thank you Jennifer Jones, Robin Stewart, Diane Burley, Lisa Maguire, Kevin E Beasley, Chris Wright, Linda Teather, Kyla Bayang, Erin Hoover, Marci Keats Rudolph 🇨🇦, Jane Chapman, Kristin Rapinac, Barbara Jean May, Anne’s Family History, Kathy Stone, Lynda Heines, Mary Hardenbergh, and so many more! Projectkin is a free publication supported by the generous contributions of our Patrons. Join us for more of these programs: Projectkin.org/events.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!Storytelling can be hard enough, but when you weave in those most difficult stories in a family, everything gets compounded. That’s what my guest today did in her first published book. I was joined today by Shell Norman of ShellNorman.Substack.com, the author of “My Father’s Daughter.”Through a process that began with journaling into a diary, Shell found her voice and discovered that she had a book in her. Now that her book is out, she’s sharing the tale with her readers around the world. The story is one that peels back layers of deception in a family to get to the heart of an origin story and where the love lies in a family. As Shell shared in our conversation it’s a tale that inspires retelling of related stories. If you’d like to talk to Shell about your book club, she’d love to hear from you. Just drop her a message here: 👇 As she concluded our conversation: Storytelling is healing. Indeed it is. Join us next week, Sunday or Monday (depending on your region) as Jennifer Jones hosts a Substack Live preview of our Projectkin Speakers’ Corner program with two special guests, Bill Moore and Aryn Youngless who will be sharing stories about remarkable women in their family tree. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

A special hat-tip of thanks to our friends and members joining from around the globe. From our homes in Calgary, Canada, and Berkeley, California, it was a delight seeing names popping up from as far away as Aberdeen, Scotland, to our East, and White Hills, Victoria, Australia, to our West! Thank you Bill Moore, Jennifer Jones, Diane the FH Bowerbird, Ann Larkham, Erin Hoover, Lisa Maguire, Bonnie Larson, Nancy G. Carver, Alan H Zeller, Kyla Bayang, MamaCarole, Diana’s Substack, and so many more!Is Projectkin new to you? Welcome! Learn Projectkin.org/about, then join us. 👇.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!Coming to Kathy’s Corner This Week!It’s always fun to welcome Kathy Stone to any Projectkin event as she always takes us back to the key principle of any family history collection: Preservation. As much as we may come to love the documents, artifacts, and photographs we inherit from our ancestors, they are only ours briefly. We are their guardians. In time, we will pass them down to the next generation, perhaps with a little more order and supplemented with the stories we’ve captured to contribute. For Thursday’s episode, Kathy decided to explore terminology, a topic that came up at the conclusion of our July episode. I hope you’ll join us: In our conversation today, Kathy referenced the “8-Steps.” That’s a foundational blog post that Kathy wrote for Projectkin: If this field is new to you, that post is a great place to get started. Kathy walked through each of the eight steps in her first few episodes for Projectkin. You’ll find those beginning here: I hope you can join Kathy’s Corner this week. Like all Projectkin events, these are free to attend. I host these over Zoom so you can learn more about our community and get to know us. Learn more at the Projectkin.org/events calendar.If you have friends and cousins who are just getting started too, feel free to share these recordings and invite them to join usProjectkin events are free and made possible through the generous contributions of our Patrons. Thank them by exploring their publications at Projectkin.org/patrons. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

What a delight to see Bill Moore, Kyla Bayang, Kathy Stone, Maur Murray, Deborah Walker, Marian Lippard, Diane the FH Bowerbird, Robin Stewart Anne’s Family History, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, and Dr. Mary M. Marshall help me in welcoming my guest today, Jane Chapman. This was a special event because it allowed us to kick off this new Stories250 series that will take us to the 250th Fourth of July in 2026, when Americans celebrate the founding of our country based on an idea—the Declaration of Independence. It’s an important event and a great joy to celebrate with all of you. If Projectkin is new to you, learn more at Projectkin.org/about, then join us. 👇Your generous ❤️ s, restacks, and shares have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. Truly, thank you!Stories250 and Jane’s StoryWhile listening to Jane retell her story, you might want to have her posts handy. This first one is about Samuel Gray (1752-1837), who fought for the Patriot side. As you’ll learn from Jane’s wonderful publication, BJNL’s Genealogy, her connection to these American stories was already unlikely, as someone born in Britain. Her deep DNA research into her American father’s ancestry led her to make the connections that yielded these stories. Her second story is even more remarkable in that it follows the trail of Richard Lang (1744-1817), whose tale takes us on a journey through the American Southeast during the Revolution. In his nine-part story, you’ll see how and why he shifts sides from Loyalist to Spaniard and ultimately to American. Stories on a Map & TimelineSo many delightful stories have already appeared here in our growing Family History community on Substack that wanted a way to explore them together, yet in the context of time and place. That’s what led to the notion of a shared map and timeline I talked about in my post yesterday: You can read about the plan there ☝️, but the key bit is that you are all welcome, as Projectkin members, to share your stories in this timeline and map. All you have to do is give me permission and share the link. 👉 Specifically on this form: Projectkin.org/stories250-form. And, so you don’t have to look them up, here are the two links: * Projectkin.org/stories250-map* Projectkin.org/stories250-timelineI’ll keep adding to these forms at least until July 4th, 2026. So, there’s no rush. I’m also inviting guests who have new stories to publish to write on a Projectkin byline and join me each month as Jane has in a Substack live program. Next month, my guest is Kyla Bayang of RootSquad Roundup, where she’ll share more about Elisha Richards and, importantly, his wife and children as they ran in the Battle and Massacre of Wyoming Valley, PA. It’s an incredible story, I hope you can join us: This week at ProjectkinAs many of you know, I use these Sunday events to also give you a preview of what’s ahead for the week. We were so busy with today’s program, I didn’t get much time to come back to Thursday’s episode of Emma Explores. In case you missed it, Emma joined me at a special time on Friday for a quick preview of her program this week, which will focus on Wills and Probate. As serious genealogists know, this seemingly obscure set of records can reveal some fascinating stories. Join us as Emma shares intriguing stories found through her family research. I hope you can join us. Like all Projectkin events, these are free to attend. I host these over Zoom so you can learn more about our community and get to know us. Learn more at the Projectkin.org/events calendar. If you have friends and family who are interested in this area, feel free to share these recordings and invite them to join us.Projectkin events are free and made possible through the generous contributions of our Patrons. Thank them by exploring their publications at Projectkin.org/patrons. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Wow, many thanks to Dr. Mary M. Marshall, jennifer pinder, Linda Teather, Kathy Stone, PamC, Erin Hoover, Bill Moore, Annette Gendler, Jude Rhodes, David Shaw, Paul Hawthorne, Lisa Maguire, and all of you who joined us live for this special time and broadcast. It was lovely seeing you on a Friday. Stay tuned for timing as we refine the best times/days to do these sessions. Your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. Truly, thank you!Learn more at Projectkin.org/aboutEmma - Journeys into Genealogy and I came up with this time for a Livestream preview of her monthly program, Emma Explores, because we thought it might work a bit better for our community members in the UK and Europe. Thinking about it, 4 pm on a Friday does seem a bit better than 10 pm on a Sunday. 🤭 Stay tuned as major time changes are coming with the seasonal crossover. My Sunday Live schedule is still in place. I hope you can join me on Sunday (Monday in Australia and New Zealand) as I welcome Jane Chapman as my guest to kick off our monthly Stories250 series.Emma has a delightful way of showing us the fun professional genealogists get into as they explore will and probate records. Using examples from her family in England and Scotland, she shared several stories that pour from these structured documents. Along the way, she shared some of the practical mechanics of finding wills and probate in Britain. Our wonderful audience chimed in with experiences from the US and Canada as well. I hope you can join us on Thursday: Like our other Projectkin events, this program will be recorded, and the recording can be found at Projectkin.org/emma-explores. For more in this fascinating series, explore the archives. Many of you will already know Emma for her Journeys into Genealogy podcast, where she interviews guests from around the world. As a well-known professional genealogist in the UK, who is also on Substack, she penned a series of articles for the UK-based Who Do You Think You Are magazine. Her recent post describes the first post released in September: We hope you can join us for the program on Thursday/Friday next week. Check the events calendar listing for your local time. See you then. 👋 Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Many thanks to Kathy Stone, MamaCarole, Diane Burley, Liz Gauffreau, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Kyla Bayang, Bill Moore, and so many more! I truly appreciate your taking time from your busy day to join us live. Your enthusiastic participation makes these programs so much fun. We enjoyed sharing this afternoon with you.Your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. You’re welcome to share this video post to invite friends and family to join us!Learn more at Projectkin.org/about.To give our new Speakers’ Corner series a worthy start, I was delighted to welcome Jennifer Jones and Anne Young as my guests today. Perhaps it’s just that as family historians, we’re swimming in stories, but it seems to be especially fun when we can swap angles on shared stories. In our conversation about Australian humanitarian Caroline Chisholm, we were soon talking about how younger adults and children have very little sense of who she was. Older adults who remembered her on the national currency still hold her in high regard. We’ll talk some more about that in our program Thursday/Friday, which will be held on Zoom: If you think you might have a story of interest to the larger Projectkin community, we’d love to hear it. If you’d like to join in with a story to share or learn more about the program, we have a simple form to complete that will put you into the Soapbox queue at Projectkin.org/speakers-queueThis will be an ongoing program, and all subscribers are welcome. Jennifer has the challenging task of matching speakers and time windows, so we ask your patience. We have slots filled now through the middle of 2026. To learn more about the whole program, see our first post: We hope you can join us for the program on Thursday/Friday this week. Check the events calendar listing for your local time. See you then. 👋 Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Kathy Stone, Jane Chapman, Sarkis, Ann G. Forcier, Saphyre, Ruth Stroud, Daniel Nilan, Dominus Owen Markham, and so many more, for joining us this afternoon. I truly appreciate your taking time from your busy day to join us live. Your enthusiastic participation makes these programs so much fun. We enjoyed sharing this afternoon with you.Your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. You’re welcome to share this video post to invite friends and family to join us!Learn more at Projectkin.org/aboutMy guest today, Lisa Maguire of Ancestory, gave us a wonderful preview of a new way to look at our family history using the tools of Micro-history. As she’ll share in her talk for Projectkin later this week, this approach lets us ask new questions about the life experiences of our family members.To join us, please register for your free Zoom link. shared some of this background in my post last week:During our conversation today, Lisa added a few more examples of where the tools of micro-history can add revealing new insights to the stories of ancestors. She gave two fabulous examples from David Shaw’s work, In this piece, David’s drawn from his knowledge of regional flora to share stories about Union Cemetery. In other pieces he draws on his experience in the field of archeology. Lisa also referenced this example in her mention of stevedores in Quebec City, and the role of the Irish community in the city: Lisa’s approach lets us see how micro-history differs from family history narratives peppered with historical context. I hope you’ll join us for her talk on Thursday (or Friday in your area) to learn how your work can create artifacts that feed a better historical understanding of the life and work of our ancestors. See you then. You may know that the Substack app is a terrific place to sit back and read, watch, or listen to Projectkin (or any of your publications), but did you also know that its use by your readers can vastly increase their exposure to new publications?If you find yourself struggling to get the most out of this platform, know you’re not alone. It can be confusing and sometimes even lonely. Join us at one of our two Roundtable gatherings on Tuesday (or Wednesday in your area) to meet and compare notes with other family historians and genealogists as part of our Mission: Genealogy community. It’s a free sister publication designed to create a free clubhouse where we can gather and learn. I hope to see you there. Learn more and register at MissionGenealogy.org/events. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Jennifer Jones, Linda Teather, Jane Chapman, Tim McGlue, Bill Moore, The Family Histories Podcast, Shelley Lieber, Lester Larrabee, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Brodee Myers-Cooke, Nancy Feagans, Naomi Yaeger, and so many more. Your enthusiastic participation makes these programs so much fun. We enjoyed sharing this afternoon with you. Your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. You’re welcome to share this video post to invite friends and family to join us!Learn more at Projectkin.org/about & join us!.I was delighted today to welcome Diane Burley from Musings of a Storyteller as my guest in anticipation of her program for Projectkin on Tuesday, July 29th, at the Atlantic-friendly time of 10 am / 1 pm PT/ET or 6/7 pm BST/CET. Like all Projectkin events, this one is free and open to everyone. To participate, though, you will need to register: As with all of our programs, a recording will be shared with all Projectkin members within a few hours of the program’s conclusion. We started today’s program with a reference to the story Diane tells about the title “The Scoop on Memories,” a reference to the different ways she and her sons remembered an event in their childhood. It’s a story she also recounted in this post that first got my attention: Diane reminded us why asking our elders about their ordinary lives is so important. “What were chores around the house?” for example. One of Diane’s other posts offers excellent pointers for guiding conversations to sort lore from truth: The fun bit about these Substack live programs is that our conversations on video, get supported and expanded in the chat. In our conversation about Diane’s grandmother making outerwear for the Buffalo winters out of burlap led Julieann to add a recollection that Marilyn Monroe was once photographed wearing a dress made of a potato sack. If Instagram photos, TikTok and YouTube videos are to be believed, there might have been some truth to that.Family myths, lore, and exaggerations are a little like that. Do you have such stories? Add them here and join us for the conversation on Tuesday! An Insider Tip:You may know that the Substack app is a terrific place to sit back and read, watch, or listen to Projectkin (or any of your publications), but did you also know that its use by your readers can vastly increase their exposure to new publications? Nearly 30% of the viewers of my last post came from the app. It’s astonishing. Check your stats and support this community. Still have questions? Join your fellow family historians and genealogists here on Substack when we gather on Tuesday, August 4th. Each month, my sister publication, MissionGenealogy, hosts an Office Hours/Q&A session. These are recorded, but why not join live and get to know other community members? See ya then! Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Kyla Bayang, Jane Chapman, Jennifer Jones, Bethalee Klopfleisch, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Bill Moore, Paula Collins, Ann Larkham, Alan H Zeller, Naomi Yaeger, Lynda Heines, Tom Hendricks, and, of course, also from Calgary, Linda Teather and so many more… It was lovely to share this afternoon with all of you.Your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. You’re welcome to share this video post to invite friends and family to join us!On this cold and cloudy day in the San Francisco Bay Area, my dear friend, Kathy Stone joined me from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In today’s session, we talked about a slight change coming to our monthly Kathy’s Corner series this week. Is this all new to you? Join us and participate in these ongoing conversations. It’s free! 👇 Coming on Kathy’s CornerThis week, Kathy’s going to come back to a survey she shared last month to check in with each of us about where we are in our challenge of digitizing materials. (Go ahead and add your own replies using the link if you haven’t already). Our sessions are free and everyone is welcome to join. You’re more than welcome to forward this post to friends and family who might find it just inspiring enough to share their pictures of shared ancestors 😉. In talking about our family photos, Paula, Kyla, and Mary each mentioned that they had postcards in their collections. Some were personal, others were collected as found photos at antique shops. That led to a more general conversation about retaining the context for postcards and various ideas for ways to use them to capture and share stories. * Kyla described a collection that she mailed herself as a pre-teen while on vacation. (What a fun way to hear your own voice in history.)* I described an idea suggested for an upcoming wedding: Give reception guests self-addressed stamped postcards so that they can send the newlywed couple nuggets of advice.* Paula described postcards from antiques fairs.* Mary described a collection of postcards that her great-grandmother and grandmother passed down to her.Kathy talked about a postcard with Frankie's heartbreaking message to Frances. Coming Next WeekSince these weekly Live programs give us all a chance to catch up, I took the opportunity to share a snippet of next week’s special program with Diane Burley of Musings of a Storyteller. Diane is a veteran journalist and editor turned narrative essayist. This event came together after a conversation in the comments of one of her posts. ⮕ How do you handle different living memories of the same event? I keep talking about it as the Rashōmon effect, but it’s a larger topic in sociology and family history. Join me in my conversation with Diane on Sunday for our Substack Live program and again on Thursday for this special event. SneakFor those of you who stayed right up to the end, you’ll have heard about a special new “column” I’m thinking about for Projectkin about the American War for Independence (or what we call the Revolutionary War). I was inspired to think about the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 2026, by the special Bicentennial Memory Project. I'll provide more details in a note I'm preparing, where I will ask for your feedback. 😉 Finally, Substack always likes to see me include a quick reminder about the Substack app.There’s a method to it. If you have your publication, you’ll appreciate how generous the Substack app is as a referral network. Once you’re using the app, you’ll see more content that interests you. Yes, Substack’s algorithms are tracking you. This time, their interests are aligned with yours. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Danine, Jane Chapman, Kathy Stone, Alan H Zeller, Emily Gravelle, Anne’s Family History, The Family Histories Podcast, Alex Daw, Greg WoodhouseNancy Feagans and so many others for joining us live! Along with your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares, you have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. You’re more than welcome to share this to invite friends and family to join us!It was a delight to share this sunny California Sunday with Projectkin member, and now Speakers' Corner producer, Jennifer Jones. Jennifer is the voice behind the publications Tracking Down the Family and her one-place study, Haverfordwest History. You may have seen her gracious “Sunday Snippets” roundups of posts over the last week.I've asked Jennifer to join me today to update us on this fun Speakers' Corner she's been working on. Before we get to that, we talked a little what’s ahead next week and our incredible event last week: Coming soon: Thursday, July 17.On Thursday with Emma Cox joining me from Kent in the UK over Zoom. You'll probably know Emma Cox as a genealogist for her fabulous podcast, Journeys into Genealogy and Substack of the same name or her substack divining into her own family stories. In her Emma Explores series for Projectkin, she takes a thematic view of her stories and shares sources and research strategies with us each month. This month, she'll be talking about the wool trade across the Atlantic between about 1600 and 1800. This period involved everything from piracy on the high seas to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. The event is free.Last Week: Using a Potluck to Spark Family StorytellingIn case you missed it, you can still watch the inspirational talk Cynthia Nims gave about using a Potluck to inspire conversations about family history. You’ll see the recording in our section on Project Recipes. One of the things we touched on was the power of food to evoke conversations about memories. And what better way to circle back to our Speakers’ Corner soapbox? Here’s the original post from a few weeks ago when we laid out plans for a series that would involve the telling of stories. So many of our programs for Projectkin involve the “how” of encouraging you to tell stories, this one is all about the actual stories. As our queue of storytellers has grown Jennifer has been able to put together some delightful combinations of speakers paired by themes while concurrently alternating times for these events between our Pacific and Atlantic time windows (more about that at Projectkin.org/events.) Though she’s booked events out into June 2026, there’s still room in the queue. Why not join us? In our enthusiasm, one thing that slipped by was a reference to the Members’ Map. This simple idea came up during my last Live conversation with Jennifer when I realized that she didn’t have a geographical sense for what regions members are in. A simple map would not only help her in planning, but really help all of us anticipate the scope of other members’ work and perhaps even help put people together so that they can help each other. So, though it’s entirely optional and requires an explicity signup, here’s the start to our Members’ Map: Projectkin.org/members-map. Care to join us and put yourself on the map? A simple form will do it: Projectkin.org/members-map-form. (I try to be predictable. 😉) Finally, a quick reminder about the Substack app: If you’re already a subscriber, consider the app for a comfortable reading experience on tablets and mobile phones. If you have your publication, you’ll appreciate how generous the Substack app is as a referral network. While thinking about that, did you know you can add or update recommendations for others at one convenient link: “your.substack.com/publish/recommendations.” Why not 👉 👈 try it now: Thank you so much for all you do for Projectkin, our members, and everyone in this generous community! Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

I’m deeply grateful to the near twenty of you who were able to join me live during my live conversation with Cynthia Nims of Seafood Savvy and Long Live the Recipe Box. Without the means to grab your names as they floated by, I’m afraid I cannot thank you all directly. We both appreciated your participation, even as we struggled with the video hiccups. Thankfully, the good people at Substack were able to share the full live stream video with me this morning, and after a few edits, you’ll find it updated above and easier to watch with those gaps removed. I’m also very grateful to the team at The Getty Center for their inspiring collection. If you can visit, make a reservation, and find a way to make it happen. I am also incredibly grateful for their warm welcome to my live stream initiative.Now, to the topic at hand: Food and family storytelling! You already know that food brings people to the table and will invariably get people telling stories. Today’s conversation was a lead-up to Cynthia’s program for Projectkin on Thursday, “Using a Potluck to Spark Family Storytelling with Cynthia Nims.” Cynthia is a professional food writer, teacher, and cookbook author, so the crossover to family storytelling wasn’t far behind. This all came together when Lori Olson White tipped me off to Cynthia’s post, “Consider a Beloved-Recipes Potluck.”During our conversation, we talked a little about her storytelling potluck with her Tai Chi group, then what it takes to engineer a gathering so that everyone is in the right state of mind to share stories. During the second glitch in the recording, I mentioned Priya Parker’s “The Art of the Gathering,” which is a wonderful resource to put you in the right frame of mind. Unlike storytelling alone, planning an event can be complicated by expectations and mechanics. One key idea we discussed was how much of this is new. We talked about a “progressive” recipe box we can all add to and draw from with best practices. I’m not quite sure how we’ll do that, but join us on Thursday to discuss it! We’re thrilled to have Cynthia join our family history community by participating in our Projectkin events. Please join me in welcoming her. If Projectkin is new to you, why not subscribe and get these and other event recordings directly in your inbox — free. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you so much to the many friends, members, and followers who joined us for today’s surprise live program. Your names were flying by so quickly in the chat, I could only catch a few of you, Kathy Stone, Jill Swenson, Randy BergmannBecky Hetchler, Cynthia Boatright Raleigh, Lawrence Siphiwe Masuku, Lori Olson White, Adrienne J, and gosh so many others! Thank you for joining on such short notice!Today’s fun program picks up on a theme for our special program scheduled for Tuesday, July 29th, at the Atlantic-friendly time of 10 am / 1 pm PT/ET or 6/7 pm BST/CET. I hope you can join us!Since today is a prep day for many of us around the United States for our Fourth of July celebrations, it seemed like the right time to mention a new publication introduced by two Projectkin members and friends, Lori Olson White and Denyse Allen at the Bicentennial Memory Project. The mere suggestion of memories from that remarkable day on July 4th, 1976, certainly had me thinking back to a party we had at home.Perhaps it was a special day for you as well? These memories and talk about memories are a fine preparation for our semi-sesquintennial a year from tomorrow, right? How we remember will be the topic of Diane’s program on July 29th, “The Scoop about Memories.” Few things could be more relevant to these important holidays when we both remember and make new memories. Join us for a preview of my regular Sunday Substack live on July 27th, when Diane will be my guest as well. This program came about after my follow-up to an article she posted for her publication, Musings of a Storyteller. The post conjured lessons from a memory her son brought up.Perhaps you’ve had similar experiences? Let’s talk about that in the comments and at these coming special events. Talk then, and in the meantime, enjoy the holiday.Did someone forward this post? Let’s get you your own free subscription, eh? Drop your email here, and you’ll be in. Learn more at Projectkin.org/about.An Insider Tip:By the way, did you know that the Substack app is a terrific place to sit back and read, watch, or listen to Projectkin — any your entire reading queue of materials. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Andrea Montgomery, Bill Moore, Jim Bowers Kyla Bayang, David Shaw, Maud Boom, Jane Chapman, Jennifer Jones, Diane the FH Bowerbird, Marian Beaman and of course, also from Calgary, Linda Teather.…. It was lovely to share this afternoon with all of you. Along with your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares, you have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. You’re more than welcome to share this to invite friends and family to join us!On this sunny day in Berkeley and Calgary, my dear friend and collaborator, Kathy Stone of Kathy's Coaching, joined me Live. We chatted about the important—and changing—role of photos in our lives. Kathy shared a little about her approach with her new publication, Kathy’s Coaching, and some terrific tips we can all learn from.Not only are Projectkin events free, but you get all recordings sent directly to your inbox when you subscribe! 👇 We talked about the process of managing your photo and artifact collection. These are topics we generally cover on Kathy’s Corner, but you might have missed Kathy’s original post about her organization strategy: Now that she’s taken the wraps off of her publication at Kathy's Coaching, she’s introduced a survey. Answers will help her understand where she can be most helpful to all of us. Take a moment to explore her publication and answer her survey: * Kathy's Coaching ResourcesA few other helpful resources we mentioned in our conversation: * Helping the elderly using old photographs: * Projectkin’s Recipe event featuring Jude Rhodes: * Photo reminiscence therapy discussions and strategies as presented by the software and scanning device company, Vivid-Pix. Learn more at vivid-pix.com/reminisce * Strategies for managing old travel photos when you have trouble identifying a location: Explore Picarta.ai* If you’re struggling with the cost and hassle of getting the equipment to get your scanning done, consider free resources made available at locations around the world through FamilySearch. Their centers often include extensive free scanning equipment. Learn more, find a local center, and reserve time here. Also, quick update on coming events this week: * For Mission: Genealogy, our shared Substack clubhouse for family historians and genealogists we have an event this week, and two more next week: * Office Hours session on Tuesday, Canada Day, July 1st, in the Atlantic-friendly time window of 10 am/1 pm PT/ET, 6/7 pm BST/CET. * This fun session has turned into a fascinating swap of Questions and Answers. It seems that everyone learns something new each month. If you’re out and about on holiday, no worries; it’s recorded for everyone’s benefit. * Learn more and register here at MissionGenealogy.org/events* See recordings of episodes here at MissionGenealogy.org/office-hours* Next week, on Tuesday, July 8th in Europe and the Americas, and Wednesday in Australia/New Zealand, we have “Round Table” events at Atlantic- and Pacific-friendly times. * Learn more and register here at MissionGenealogy.org/events* For Projectkin our next program isn’t until next week when, on July 10th, at our Atlantic-friendly time of 10 am/1 pm PT/ET, Cynthia Nims of Seafood Savvy and Long Live the Recipe Box joins me for a special “Project Recipe” event. * We’ll be talking about how storytelling can be triggered by the simple tradition of a “Potluck” (or, as it’s called elsewhere in the English-language universe, a “Share-a-dish” or “Share-a-Plate” party. Join us, won’t you? * Learn more and register at Projectkin.org/events* Here’s Cynthia’s original post that led to this special event, “Consider a Beloved Recipes Potluck.”Finally, here is a quick reminder about the Substack app. If you’re already a subscriber, consider the app for a comfortable reading experience on tablets and mobile phones. If you have your publication, you’ll appreciate how generous the Substack app is as a referral network. While thinking about that, did you know you can add or update recommendations for others at one convenient link: “your.substack.com/publish/recommendations.” As long as you are logged in, the “your” subdomain will automatically redirect to your Substack domain and dashboard, where you can add recommendations for anyone. Neat, huh? Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you, Kathy Stone, Bill Moore, Lori Olson White, Richard Francis Hogan, Iowa Roots, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Taneya Koonce, Jane Chapman, Story Carrier, Ryan Shields and all of you who joined us live today. It’s always a delight to feel your warmth and support! Along with your generous ❤️s, restacks, and shares you have helped turn this publication into the supportive community we all want to see. You’re more than welcome to share this as a way to invite friends and family to join us!Today, as with each of these programs, we focused on highlighting key events for the coming week. This week, I’m excited to describe two programs that build on suggestions and encouragement from all of you, our members. Kathy’s Corner on Rights & RelativesI started the recording with this to follow up on my conversation with Kathy Stone during last week’s Substack Live program when we talked about Fair Use and Deborah Carl’s fabulous Tip about Copyright. This week, on Thursday, Kathy Stone will build on that to talk about copyright in images and tips on strategies to get your extended family members to share the digital photos they have. In fact, over in the Projectkin Subscriber Chat threads, you’ll find the discussion has already started: It’s a fascinating topic. Join the conversation, then join us on Thursday. It’s free, and the details with timing are here in our calendar: Jennifer Jones at the Speakers’ CornerThis next one was a special because it’s a sneak about the launch of a whole new series featuring all of you! As I shared in the video, Jennifer Jones will be our Projectkin producer in curating speakers on different topics for a monthly “Speakers’ Corner.” We’ll share the details in a post and on the calendar on Tuesday. Stay tuned for that! In the meantime, if you already have an idea and would like to join the queue to take the soapbox and speak, share it! Let’s see if we can’t make it work. * Projectkin.org/speakers-queue Each event is going to take some curation of topics, people, schedules and international time zones, so I ask your patience. Stay tuned for more. Oh yes, then there was that observationWhile we were chatting up the challenge of negotiating meeting times across international time zones, I mentioned the idea of collecting addresses to put everyone (who wants to) on a global map of membership. I was thrilled to see one arrive already. Give me a month or so, and I should be able to get a little program in place. I know just what to do. These plates are spinning already. But hey, I’m feeling better!Finally, I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you have a publication, did you know that you can directly see how many new subscribers you have that discovered you through it app. Really. Just go to your publication Stats page with this link: * your.substack.com/publish/stats/network (Substack will magically redirect that to your own URL). That shows you the percentage of new subscribers who came to you from each source. For me, over 25% of new subscribers came from the app. That’s eye-popping. How about you? So… «ehem» I’m always happy to recommend using the app. Who knows what other interesting publications you’ll discover? Gosh, if you aren’t already a member, let’s take care of that right here: 👇 Meanwhile, stay tuned for next week when we’ll talk about Tuesday’s Q&A session “Office Hours” for Mission: Genealogy. Till then! 👋 Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

I was delighted to see that the Substack support team were able to pluck this video from the abyss. I’m reposting it with the comments I circulated without the recording Sundaay afternoon.Greetings from my summer garden, cooled by an ocean breeze here in Berkeley, California. Many thanks to those joining today from locations ranging from Aberdeen, Scotland, to central Australia and Wellington, New Zealand. So good to see you joining us, Ann Larkham, Linda Teather, Jennifer Jones, Lynda Heine, Bill Moore, Lori Olson White, David Shaw, Ann Shettles, j.e. moyer, LPC, and so many more. 🥰 Special thanks to Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Paul Chiddicks, and Jane Chapman for taking the time to give my video-free notes a little visibility with your restacks. In today’s program, I highlighted a little about what’s ahead this week, including:Emma ExploresOn Thursday, Emma Cox, of the Journeys Into Genealogy podcast and her family publication, joins me for another episode of Emma Explores. These fun programs take us on thematic journeys through Emma’s family story. This week’s program explores the stories of two compelling family members, “Rosalinda” and “Gylby.” The stories include pedigree collapse, a home called Moat Mount, and the Royal Navy. Join us, won’t you?New in July: Cynthia Nims’ “Potluck” StoriesThen, in July, I’m delighted to welcome Cynthia Nims of Long Live the Recipe Box and Seafood Savvy for a special program, “Using a Potluck to Spark Family Storytelling.” This special program will be part of our Project Recipe series showing you how you might stage a gathering as a way to inspire the sharing of family stories. I read her post, “Consider a Beloved-Recipes Potluck,” and was smitten. You’ll see why.New in August: Lisa Maguire’s “Microhistory”I’m very excited to introduce this next event in August with historian, Lisa Maguire of Ancestory, introducing us to the discipline of microhistory through her talk “Family History Asks Large Questions in Small Places.” Microhistory is not, as we’ll learn, the same as a case study or a one-place study. We’ll learn how to use this approach to untangle the threads we discover in our own research.Professionals & InsightsHere at Projectkin, we love delving into professional toolboxes. They’ve given us new ways to explore facts, preserve artifacts, and become a de facto creative. 🤭 Which brings me to my special guest today, Kathy Stone. Kathy, our “Corner Stone” here at Projectkin, stepped up to share a sneak preview of a post due out tomorrow from Deborah Carl for her Tips column for Mission: Genealogy.Fair Use!The general topic of Fair Use relates to the legal concept of Intellectual Property. The digital images we use in our Substack posts were likely the result of someone’s effort to photograph, illustrate, and/or scan. Who owns the product of that work, and what do they control? That makes the topic highly relevant to our everyday work. I am guilty of posting a piece last month that may raise questions on this point. It’s a fascinating topic full of twists, turns, and international distinctions.In our conversation today, I mentioned the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org) on the topic of Fair Use. This pioneering advocacy team has made the fair use of Intellectual Property a central part for their work:“When the system works, it can be an engine for creativity, innovation and consumer protection. When it doesn’t, IP rights have the opposite effect, giving IP owners a veto on innovation and free speech”Critically, as Kathy pointed out, Fair Use is a legal construct, and the laws related to it vary, depending on jurisdiction. I can’t wait to read Deborah’s article, due out in less than 24 hours. Watch for it! Or save yourself the time and subscribe to our sister publication, Mission: Genealogy.Are you new to Projectkin? Learn more at Projectkin.org/about and join us! Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you so much for joining us today. So many of your names flew by faster than I could follow, but I know I saw you, Jennifer Jones from tomorrow morning in Australia, and Jane Chapman in New Zealand. Meanwhile, this afternoon across Canada and the US, we watched as Bill Moore, Lisa Maguire, Linda Teather, Kathy Stone Emily Gravelle, Kyla Bayang, Dan our Genealogy Assistant, and gosh Paula Collins, B Toni and so many more chimed in. 😊 Truly, it was lovely to see so many friendly, welcoming profiles. I love using these sessions to give you a preview of the week ahead. I’m afraid that I was so excited about my special guest today, Randy Seaver, (and constrained by a voice-swallowing cold) that I neglected to mention the TWO (count ’em 2!) special Mission: Genealogy roundtable sessions scheduled this week. More on that below! First, here’s a quick link to registration for Randy’s event on Thursday: Randy Seaver is an old pro at helping others in genealogy and family history storytelling. You may recognize him from his GeneaMusings.com site on Blogger that includes an archive that goes back to 2006. Since 2014, he’s been an active participant on DearMYRTLE’s remarkable bimonthly Live program hosted on YouTube, Mondays with Myrt. I’m afraid I neglected to mention that her next session is on… Monday! 9 AM PT and 12 PM noon across the Americas. In today’s session, Randy provided a preview of what he’ll be discussing and demonstrating on Thursday, as well as a compelling discussion of how AI-based storytelling can fit in the larger scheme of genealogy research and the larger challenge of getting our family excited about our stories. He shared a remarkable list of examples of the storytelling forms that AI can help you with, including Poetry, Lyrics, Films, Children’s Books, and more.Randy offered a handy breakdown of which AI platforms provide which kinds of online research (ChatGPT, Grok, CoPilot, Perplexity, and Gemini, but not Claude, for example). I love the simple, straightforward explanation he offered for each platform and how we might use them to leverage profiles already accessible today, and the context for this kind of writing. Part of what makes Randy’s work so compelling is the openness of it to welcome the work of so many others. This is so important right now as we’re all learning how to make the best use of these, too. Randy cited many others we might know from RootsTech, Facebook, YouTube, or right here on Substack like Denyse Allen, Carole McCulloch, and Thomas McEntee. Hang on, are there others you think might appreciate this? Just share the post!Also This WeekCircling back to my sister publication at Mission: Genealogy: Did you know that I started it with my remarkable GenStack friend Robin Stewart? We could see just what a delightful place Substack had become for family historians and genealogists and we knew that we needed a clubhouse. I was first thinking about a place to get pointers on using the platform (last week’s Office Hours.) It was Robin who realized we’d also benefit from roundtables to just talk about our work. That’s what’s coming at our two events this week: At Atlantic- and Pacific-friendly on Tuesday and Wednesday. Joining me for these programs are two special co-hosts: Bill Moore and Jane Chapman, who bring the real genealogy chops to the effort. See details and registration links at: MissionGenealogy.org/events. You can learn more about the publication-based community itself, of course, at (you guessed it,) Mission: Genealogy.Did someone forward this post? Let’s get you your own free subscription, eh? Drop your email here and you’re in. Unsubscribe anytime.An Insider Tip:By the way, did you know that the Substack app is a terrific place to sit back and read, watch, or listen to Projectkin — any your entire reading queue of materials. Did you know that an increasingly higher percentage of views of our work are generated from the app? I therefore conclude that, as publishers, we have an incentive to encourage our readers to use the app. I know Substack gets more data about us when we use the app, but I wondered why I should use it. I found this a convincing argument. 😉 Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you so much for joining us from across the Americas, Bill Moore, Linda Teather, Kathy Stone, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, DearMYRTLE, Lori Olson White, and out into the Pacific, Jane Chapman, Jennifer Jones, and Diane the FH Bowerbird, and so many of you whose names flew by faster than I could thank. Truly, it was lovely seeing you join us. As we step into June, we’re doing so with an eye to remembrances. We had our Memorial Day in the US last week, and earlier in May came the WWII celebrations for VE Day eighty years ago in 1945. Today we highlighted both Tuesday’s “Office Hours” program for Mission: Genealogy, and a special program on Thursday for Projectkin. Since many of us have direct ancestors who were involved in military combat during WWII, I asked Jennifer Holik to speak to us in a special program for Projectkin on Thursday, titled “War Stories and Healing Paths with Jennifer Holik.” As my special guest today, Jennifer shared a little of what led her into her specialized research work in military history, and some of the books she’s written. She shared a little about some of her books about military research, like her four-part series, “Stories from the WWII Battlefield” and “The Tiger’s Widow.” You’ll find all of her books on her site, Ancestral Souls Wisdom School. I hope you can join us on Thursday. Meanwhile, if this is all new to you, take a moment to explore the Projectkin publication, our event recordings, and join us for an upcoming event. Learn more at Projectkin.org/about, and then join us!If you haven’t already downloaded the Substack app, you may find it an easier way to explore your favorite publications and discover new ones. Oh, and if you find navigating around Substack a challenge, why not join fellow family historians and genealogists in our regular events for Mission: Genealogy. It’s a publication and community here on Substack dedicated to simply helping each other get the most from the platform. Coming up this week is our monthly Office Hours and Q&A session. Come as you are and bring your questions. We’ll see if we can’t help each other. Learn more and register here. View recordings of past episodes here. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Story Carrier, Jane Chapman, Jennifer Jones, DearMYRTLE, Iain Mackie, and so many others for tuning into our Projectkin live stream today.As we got started, we shared a little about the week ahead including tomorrow, Memorial Day here in the United States where we recognize the contributions of those who’ve given their lives in the service of this country. You’ll see more about that in posts in the coming week. Tomorrow, Monday is our next Mondays with DearMYRTLE. These fun programs bring the genealogy community together and occur every other Monday. I’ve added it to my calendar, go ahead, add it to yours. Then tap this link at the appointed time: 9 AM / 12 PM PT/ET or 5/6 PM BST/CET: * YouTube.com/@DearMyrtleArchive/liveMonday is also the unofficial start of summer, famously celebrated with cookouts and… potato salad (among other fun side dishes, but this one is special because of this bit of love that Lori Olson White started circulating in our community:)So, to our main event today: As a follow-up to last week’s Kathy’s Corner program, I asked Kathy Stone to rejoin us today to discuss her planned launch for her new Substack publication: Kathy's Coaching!In our conversation, Kathy shared * Some of the work she had been involved in led to her photo management business, including the famous post she wrote sharing tips for handling water—and smoke-damaged images.* One of Kathy’s most important posts for Projectkin has been this one that highlights what she’s described as the 8-steps from tubs to tales. It’s where I learned the magic of sorting before scanning: Other resourcesWe shared several resources (as one does), so here are the links: * Kathy was eager to use her newfound publication credentials to start making recommendations for others. Here’s the article from Mission: Genealogy she mentioned that describes some best practices for using recommendations in the family history community on Substack: The whole idea is for family historians to help each other here. Recommendations and tips are like wayfinders along our shared paths.* Kathy shared an April gift her family shared with her: A collection of Daguerrotypes and Tintypes from Facebook Marketplace. 🎉 * Related: * Make sure to mark the preservation papers you use to store your originals and any digital files to note that these people are not members of your own family. (Save someone else trying to figure that out later.) * Do future generations a favor and upload the scans to sites like DeadFred.com where they’re actively using facial organization technologies to connect descendants with old photos. Finally, if this was forwarded to you and you’re not yet a Projectkin subscriber, gosh, there’s an easy fix to that. Just subscribe! It’s a free peer group of family historians all hooked on stories? We share tips, creative ideas, and boundless encouragement. By the way, Substack always likes to promote their mobile app in each of these Live videos. Here’s why: Using the Substack app on phones and tablets gives you an elegant reading experience and a wonderful way to listen to recordings or watch videos on the go. Plus, to start your own Substack Live program you pretty much need to use the mobile app. That’s what Kathy and I did! If you have a story to share and are interested in joining me for one of these weekly Substack Live programs, send me a message. Let’s see what we can do! See next week, my Projectkin Live special guest will be Jennifer Holik of Soul Traveler. Take this link below and add it to your own calendar. I use it to join myself! This is ahead of her special program for Projectkin, “War Stories & Healing Paths,” on June 5th in our Atlantic-friendly time, 10 AM/1 PM PT/ET. We’ll see you then, again thank you all for your warmth and encouragement. That’s what it’s all about — well, that AND your storytelling. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Jane Chapman, Lori Olson White, Christopher Padgett, Cynthia Boatright Raleigh, Daniel Nilan, Ann Larkham, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, Jill Swenson, Iain Mackie, and many others for tuning into my Projectkin live stream today. It is always fun to talk to Kathy Stone, but special today as we used the session for a preview of this week’s 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. You can explore past episodes of Kathy’s Corner at Projectkin.org/kathys-corner. Like all of our programs, it’s free and held over Zoom, so you will need to register: On Thursday, Kathy will share her insights and experience on ways to identify artifacts, documents, and mementos relating to a loved one’s experience in national or military service. Kathy has invited you to bring your artifacts to the call and share your stories. Kathy joined our call today from the road. She’d just returned to Calgary from a visit to her hometown of Edmonton. With a quick stop at Peter’s Drive-In, Kathy shared the compelling power of stories. She was home in Edmonton to attend memorial services, an experience that reminds us all what we’re all here for. Finally, with a little sneak, Kathy tipped her hand to a special release coming next week. I’ve asked her to be my guest again (this time from her home) to share her announcement. I hope you can join us then. Here’s the link: Please note that you must be a Substack account holder and Projectkin subscriber to view these livestreams, though you can join from the web or your mobile device. It's easy to become a member. Just drop your name here to subscribe. More Projectkin.org/about Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you to everyone who tuned in to my live video! See the full post here 👇 Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Coming MissionGenealogy Events with Bill MooreI was thrilled to have Bill Moore of Family History with Bill Moore join me today. Until he mentioned it today, I’d not realized he’s only been on Substack for a few months and already he’s an active participant in both of my Substack publications, Projectkin Community Forum and Mission: Genealogy. While Projectkin is all about inspiring you to Family History storytelling projects, Mission: Genealogy is our shared space to collaborate as family historians and genealogists and connect as peers. More about the publication here:It happens that Mission: Genealogy events are bunched together during the first two weeks of the month. Here’s what’s coming this week. On Tuesday, May 6th, in the “Atlantic” time window, I’ll be hosting one of our Office Hours programs featuring an open-mic Q&A. * These sessions are designed to help family historians and genealogists feel comfortable with the platform. Register here for Tuesday’s program. The program will be recorded with notes like these, plus resources and links. You’ll find the archives at MissionGenealogy.org/office-hours.I wanted Bill Moore to join me today because he will join me as a guest co-host during the first of the two Mission: Genealogy Roundtables we have scheduled next week. Joining me as a guest co-host during the second Pacific version will be Diane the FH Bowerbird of Family History Bowerbird. * Our Roundtable sessions give us all a moment to share what we’re up to and even ask for help. We try to keep the conversational groups small enough for meaningful conversations, using “rooms” if necessary. Unlike the Office Hours sessions, these programs will not be recorded. Please register Pacific and Atlantic-timed Roundtable sessions. I generally host these Substack Live programs every Sunday in our local time in California. I’m going to skip our event next week, however. I don’t like to intrude on local holidays, especially as they land on weekends. I’m finding my way around holidays and always welcome your feedback. Feel free to drop me a note: Join us at our next Substack Live: May 18/19Looking at the calendar, next Sunday is Mother’s Day in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Since mothers are at the heart of so much of what we do in Family History, I thought it prudent to skip the date. That means that our next Substack Live session will be Sunday, May 18/or Monday, May 19, on the far side of the date line. I keep the schedules for all events at Projectkin.org/events.Thank you again for following along on these live sessions and recordings. I think it’s another way for us to connect and get to know each other.Special thanks to all of you sharing love LIVE during the program today. It’s hard to keep up and capture your names here, but let me offer a hat tip to each of you I caught in my screenshot… Nigel Bird, Thomas Potgieter, Linda Teather, Mishell Erickson, Lynda Heines; Thank you for your insights DearMYRTLE ,Dr. Mary M. Marshall, and Christopher Padgett… There were so many more of you I know I missed. Now perhaps you’ll have a chance to explore each other’s publications and get to know fellow travelers on this journey into genealogy. 🥰Is Projectkin new to you? Take a moment to explore. We’d love to hear your insights about storytelling in family history. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome DearMYRTLE! It was a special treat today to welcome DearMYRTLE as my very special guest on our weekly Live update. She shared details about her next Mondays with Myrt episode coming tomorrow at 9 AM PT/noon ET/ 5 PM BST. This week, she has Michelle Tucker Chubenko joining as her guest to explore the map of Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Though she usually follows the panelists of Mondays with Myrt with her bi-monthly book club, she’s skipping that this week in anticipation of a new publication to track. Hm… you know that if you want to know what’s going on, you check in with Myrt! You can find her now here on Substack at DearMYRTLE's Village Square. Several months ago, Daniel Loftus, who is also a regular “Mondays” panelist, shared Substack as a viable option for genealogists looking for community alternatives to Facebook. Just last week, he delivered an excellent presentation for Family Tree Webinars about Substack, “Hot Off the Digital Press: Utilising Substack for Blogging and More.” It’s available free until April 30th here. In our conversation, we shared perspectives on the tremendous changes in technology and how they have affected us in the genealogy community. Our DearMYRTLE was one of the founders of Geneabloggers, a community of content creators that dates back nearly two decades to the very earliest days of blogging. I’m delighted to see some of the first members starting to explore these Substack “halls.” Welcome! Projectkin & Podcasting!We chatted briefly about new tips and tricks for Substack Live programs and my latest addition to the Projectkin Community Forum with podcasting configurations. You’ll find more details about that in my post yesterday: My news for today was simply that your positive support has encouraged me to add this “Live” series to the channel as a new podcast show. Since Myrt asked, I just might have to do a little video somewhere talking about my tips and tricks for using Substack Live. You’ll find some of those on Projectkin’s sister publication, Mission: Genealogy in a special section called “Office Hours.” Thank you again for following along on these live sessions and recordings. I’d like to think it creates another way for us to connect and get to know each other. Special thanks so many of you sharing love live during the program today. It’s hard to keep up and capture your names here, but thank you: Kathy StoneLynda Heines, Bill Moore, Kathleen Newbill, Anne’s Family History, Gadsby Family History, Danine, Marcia Diederich 👋 And of course, my very special guest, DearMYRTLE!Is Projectkin new to you? Take a moment to explore, then come on back and subscribe. We’d love to hear your insights about storytelling in family history. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you to everyone who tuned in to my live video! It was lovely to see so many of you join us for today’s program: From my east here in California… Ann Larkham in the north of Scotland, Dr. Mary M. Marshall, and Lynda Heines here in the US, Linda Teather, in Calgary (with our own Kathy Stone) and moving to my west across the Pacific to, Jane Chapman, in Wellington, New Zealand, and Jennifer Jones from Victoria in Australia. Welcome to so many of you joining from places in between. It never gets old for me to think about how a live connection can bring us all together on this special Spring day in the northern hemisphere, and I hope a lovely Fall day to our south. Mentioned in today’s program:First, of course, is Kathy’s Corner, our fabulous monthly program with Kathy Stone. Be sure to register to get the free Zoom link:We also talked a little about timelines, referencing them as a strategy for sorting through your family collection of old photos and artifacts. Here’s the recording of last week’s Project Recipe event, where I gave you the instructions for creating a timeline based on my project tracking the Marquis de Lafayette’s Farewell Tour, 1824-1825: As I mentioned in the program, I’m seriously considering creating a generic timeline that anyone could reuse by copying the Google Sheet. The question is… what are the kinds of events that would be helpful to have in there? Have ideas for me? Thank you again for joining us today. These are busy times, I can only hope that sessions like this are helpful and maybe even a little inspiring. Enjoy the week, I hope we might even see you at Kathy’s Corner. 👋. If this is all new to you, learn more at Projectkin.org/about. We’re delighted to have you visit and would love for you to join us. 👋 Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Kathy Stone, Linda Teather, and really all of you for joining us in today. These sessions are always a fun way to stay connected as a community and look ahead to the coming week. As you probably know, you can now use the Substack app 👇 for mobile devices to view and record your own Live sessions. For our family history community, I’ve also posted a recording about Getting Started with Live in our January program MissionGenealogy.org/office-hours.I’ve discovered that by tracking the chat thread on my desktop browser while broadcasting live from my iPad (🎉). Unfortunately, chat threads don’t persist so I’m afraid I can’t thank all of you individually. It is a delight to see you join. 🥰 I gave a couple of shameless plugs for coming events on the Projectkin Calendar. First is Thursday’s Recipe event to wrap up my Lafayette Project. You can learn all about it, and register here: Second is next week’s Live event, followed by our April Kathy’s Corner event. Kathy plans to pick up on the idea I’ll be talking about with timelines to show you how you can use timelines to help manage your family's archive of artifacts. The thing is, for Europe and the Americas, our timing for Live programs lands during Easter Sunday. Is this a conflict for you? Let us know what you think. 👇 Resources mentionedI want to follow up on a few links mentioned during the conversation. While discussing platforms and studies, we touched on the work of many projectkin members. Among specific links were…Jennifer’s sites* Tracking Down The Family (Substack)* Haverfordwest History One Place Study (Substack)* Jones Family History (on WordPress)Of challenges, studies & platforms* Jennifer Jones’ currently “A to Z Blogging Challenge” she’s actively posting about (as are many others) on her many sites. Here’s the home for that challenge at the A-to-ZChallenge.com.* Jane Chapman’s One-Place Study Kyeburn Diggings One-Place Study (Substack)* Carole McCulloch’s One-Place Study using the WeAre.xyz platform: For example, her public pages on the Cutting-Robinson-line* Paul Chiddicks who writes individual posts and notes here on Substack as well as for a well-known WordPress publication, ChiddicksFamilyTree.com.* DearMYRTLE who is so well known for her bi-monthly Mondays with Myrt and Bookclub programs, is now active on Substack with DearMYRTLE's Village Square.* Randy Seaver whom many of you already know for long-time Blogger site GeneaMusings.com is now active on Substack too! * Program in January about platforms including both Jane & Jennifer: Earl Grey Girls* Jennifer’s post for the Projectkin Members’ Corner in 2024: * The commemoration site for the Earl Grey Girls is called the Irish Famine Memorial. Under “Orphans” you’ll find a drop-down menu with links the to orphans database we talked about. Wow, that was a lot. Did I miss any? Add notes and more in comments. Was this post shared with you? Wonderful & welcome. Learn about what we’re up to here, then subscribe to join us! Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Each Sunday when I do these Substack live programs, I’m always astonished at how fun they are. I hope they’re as entertaining for those watching from home (live or as a recording). As Bill Moore put it, the simple idea is to start the week with a little shared perspective about the week ahead. Today, I was delighted to welcome my collaborator in Mission: Genealogy, Robin Stewart. Many of you will recognize Robin of course from her fabulous weekly newsletter for the genealogy community on Substack, “GenStack.” It’s released each Saturday with a compendium of interesting genealogy-related (or adjacent) posts released during the past week. You can see past archives in the dedicated GenStack section of her publication, Genealogy Matters . While you’re there, take a moment to subscribe! Robin and I created Mission: Genealogy when we realized that the growing genealogy community on Substack needed something of a nexus, a place to gather and connect. Our little “welcome wagon” has two components playing out this week, so it seemed like just the right time to focus on it. First, we have our “Atlantic” and “Pacific” Gatherings: Tuesday in Europe and the Americas or Wednesday in Asia/Pacific. We don’t record these sessions so that they can be more comfortable and candid. Just come as you are and meet new friends in family storytelling.Next is the “Office Hours” component. As I shared in an emailed survey for Mission:Genealogy subscribers last week, we’ve explored a few different ways to handle Office Hours. Based on members’ feedback, I’ve decided on a new approach using Substack Live and live discussion. This a bit of an experiment. I’ll share the details and a Live scheduling link with Mission: Genealogy subscribers in a new post in a day or so. Stay tuned.If you’re interested in connecting with fellow genealogists here on Substack or just want more tips and tricks about using the platform, join us: Again, Mission: Genealogy is a second substack of mine and a collaboration with Robin Stewart. My primary focus is on the Projectkin Community, where we’re focused on exploring the best ways to share family stories.If you aren’t yet a subscriber, join us. Subscribe to get our posts sent directly to your inbox. Learn more: Projectkin.org/about Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Crystal Lorimor, Saphyre, Anne’s Family History, Bill Moore, and many others for tuning into my live video with Bill Moore and Jane Chapman! By focusing on One-Place Studies, we have a chance to get everyone focused on the potential for this extraordinary approach to family history storytelling. Today’s program is in anticipation of our workshop on Thursday, April 2nd, with Janet Barrie, chair of the Society for One-Place Studies. It might have been difficult to follow along with links to the sites Bill and Jane referenced. To be sure you have ready access, please see the references below:References Bill Moore mentioned: In describing his planned projects, Bill shared the town of Hamlin, Monroe County, New York. * The Town of Hamlin: Link (https://hamlinny.org)* The Morgan Manning House: Link (https://morganmanninghouse.org)* The Rochester Genealogical Society: Link (https://nyrgs.org)* Bill’s website: Link (https://bill-moore.us)References Jane Chapman mentioned: * WeAre OPS: “Kyeburn Diggings, New Zealand”; the full link is (https://app.weare.xyz/public/kyeburn-diggings-one-place-study/places/j3y4j1b6qy4l)* Which is linked to her Kyeburn Diggings One-Place Study* Papers Past: Has a wide range of historical papers, including newspapers; it is free to access (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz)* NZ Ancestor Search Helper: A free-to-access search tool that gathers information from a wide range of NZ-based resources, including Govt agencies such as Archives NZ and Department of Internal Affairs Births, Deaths and Marriages. (https://ash.howison.co.nz)To her very popular series on the “Murder at the Diggings” Murder Mystery, Jane revealed: * Episode 6 will drop on April 2nd (at 7 AM New Zealand time), with episode 7 following a week later, on April 9th. During our conversation, we mentioned WeAre [xyz] as a platform for family history with a module now explicitly for One-Place Studies. You’ll find Simon from WeAre.xyz here on Substack. Finally, we also talked about some new project ideas including: * Using Substack’s premium features to create a fundraiser for a community project (such as rebuilding the Morgan Manning House.) * Creating an online course, such as for high-school students during a summer semester or other defined period that focuses on a One House Study. These are both simply ideas. Have more? Please share them below or send me a message. Like a Ferengi barkeep, I’m all ears. 😉 You know this is the right community to expand on ideas and encourage their development. Know someone who might benefit from this recording or conversation? Please share this post and invite them to join us! We’d love to have you join us. Projectkin is a free community of family historians hooked on stories. Learn more Projectkin.org/about. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

What fun to welcome you all live in today’s program as Kathy Stone and I chat about the week ahead. Today, we focused on Kathy’s upcoming expansion on the Who-What-Where challenge and a few new features coming for Substack Live. Kathy’s Corner: Who-What-When & Where of your PhotosThis week, Thursday (or Friday for those of you in tomorrow-land across the date line), we’ll pick up where we left off in last month’s Kathy’s Corner discussion of the clues we can find in the photos left behind by our ancestors. In our session today, Kathy reminisced about a photo shared in our first conversations about photos and the clues they contain about the stories of our loved ones. This was the photo of mine she mentioned today.That sent us into a discussion of the:* ages and age differences of children in photos* modern technologies, like cars, cameras, appliances, and such things * counting birthday candles and other tricks in Kathy’s toolkit.I hope you can join us. Substack Live featuresDuring today’s recording, we also chatted briefly about new features anticipated from Substack that will support things such as RSVP reservations. This was part of a Substack Live “Masterclass” held last week. If you’re curious about using Substack Live for your own programs, this post from the Substack team last month might be helpful. I’ve committed to weekly live programs and anticipate rolling out some new variations. To explore those, I invited all of you to reach out in comments or in a DM if you’re interested in joining me in an expansion of my own live streaming techniques. I’d love your input.With that, I’ll leave you to explore the recording. Remember, if this was shared with you, we’d love to have you join as a subscriber.Our community is free, and subscribing gets you all these recordings directly in your inbox. Learn more at Projectkin.org/about. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

These live sessions with all of you chiming in create a wonderful way to plan for the week ahead. Today, we focused on two programs ahead this week: Forget Me Not: How We Memorialise | Ailsa PiperIn the last of Jane Hutcheon’s six-part Forget-Me-Not series, Jane interviews Ailsa Piper. Ailsa is a well-known actor, director, audiobook narrator, and writer in Australia. After her husband died suddenly, Ailsa focused on the art of moving forward. Her latest book, "For Life," is a moving exploration of loss, hope, and starting again.* Our program is free. Register here to get a personal Zoom link. Emma Explores…Stories, Mysteries and Fame | Emma CoxAs part of our ongoing series about exploring your own stories in genealogy, led by Emma Cox. Emma is a professional genealogist in the UK and a podcaster with Journeys into Genealogy. Each month, Emma joins us to share stories about her own family history — usually following creative themes. This month, her theme is the Suffrage movement. On Thursday, Emma will share her discoveries about her 2x great aunt, Florence de Fonblanque. At 43, Florence organized a Women’s March over 375 miles from Edinburgh to London to deliver a petition to the Prime Minister for women’s rights. General ChatOne of the fun elements of these weekly chat sessions is how the medium encourages perspective and conversation. You can watch the video to follow along. These are links to the additional mentioned sites: * A coming project related to the bicentennial of the American Tour of the Marquis de Lafayette: Projectkin.org/lafayette.* Talks on the topic of AI that were captured during the RootsTech conference and how we might want to look at AI. Explore the 100+ talks relating to AI during the 2025 conference. * I invited Projectkin members to join me during these Substack Live events (send me a message, and let’s talk about how it works).Was this your first introduction to the Projectkin Community Forum? Well, welcome! We’re delighted to have you. If you’d like to stay connected, subscribe. It’s a newsletter, events, and a community of family historians. We’re simply hooked on stories and delighted to encourage each other.You can unsubscribe at any time. To learn more about what we’re up to and how we support ourselves, please visit Projectkin.org/about, or join us for one of our coming events. We’d love to learn more about what you’re working on. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

It's great to see so many of you making these live programs part of your weekly routine. I find them both fun and a good way to focus my thoughts on my special guests each week. Though these sessions are only available to Projectkin subscribers, I make the recordings available to everyone on our website. You’re welcome to share them with friends or explore the full archive of these programs at Projectkin.org/live.Today, we welcomed my collaborator on the Projectkin Community Forum, Kathy Stone. Kathy brings her decades of experience as a professional photo organizer to the challenge of managing the original photos, documents, and other artifacts in our family history collections. This week’s program will explore the Who, What, and Where in your family photos. You can explore past episodes at Projectkin.org/kathys-corner. If you haven’t already, register to get the Zoom link for her program on Thursday. Mentioned in today’s program… * The previous Kathy’s Corner episode Kathy mentioned in which we’d discussed photo organizing tools was this one: * Relevant news: MemoryWeb, a creative online tool for capturing stories in the metadata of photo files recently announced that they were taking the platform offline. In our conversation, we discussed the central challenge of managing custom metadata forms. Maureen Taylor, now active on Substack as the Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, has been actively posting about this. Her articles may be helpful to you. RootsTech is Coming!!I know, you know, but still. Counting both on-site and online participants, RootsTech is the single biggest family history and genealogy conference in the world. You’ve probably already… * registered at RootsTech.org…* are signed up for Relatives at RootsTech…* planned a playlist for the events for talks… * AND signed up to join me for my “RootsTech Ride Along”…Here’s what that means to my routine schedule for Projectkin programs:* I’ve cleared my calendar. No special programs the week of March 2 to 8. For the week, it’s all about RootsTech.But there’s that Ride Along!That’s right! Even better, the RootsTech Ride Along will be delivered as a Substack Live series in collaboration with my Mission: Genealogy partner, Robin Stewart. If you’re a subscriber to one or more of our publications… * Mission: Genealogy * Genealogy Matters or* Projectkin Community Forum … you will see an email, nudge, or view the live stream in your reading queue. News: Our FIRST program of the series will be a Substack Live program at a special time on Saturday, March 1 with Robin Stewart as she packs up and readies for her trip to Salt Lake City. See it in the Projectkin.org/events calendar—adjusted to your local time. Remember, this is using Substack, no need to register. ⮕ If you signed up to join me in the Ride Along, stay tuned. I’ll be getting an email out shortly with an update with times and guests for each of the time slots during the RootsTech Week. 🥁 QUESTION: Was viewing from a browser or desktop app a good experience for you? I’d love your thoughts. Share them: Do you have the Substack mobile app? It’s a useful way to keep up with stories while on the go 👇.Remember, Again, there is no Projectkin Live program on Sunday, but join me on Saturday when my special guest will be Robin Stewart If you’re not yet a Projectkin subscriber, no problem, easy fix. Just drop your email here. 😎More about Projectkin here. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Many thanks to the score of you who could join us live from your mobile devices or now the web. Your warm greetings and joyous participation are what make these sessions such fun. Though the sessions are only available as they happen to Projectkin subscribers, I make the recordings available to everyone on our website. You can access the full archive of these programs at Projectkin.org/live.Since these recordings can be viewed and shared with anyone, I always try to include useful links so that others follow along with the resources we mentioned. Schedule referencesFirst, our highlighted programs during the week:Monday, 17-FebruaryI’ll be DearMYRTLE’s guest in her bi-monthly series Mondays with Myrt on YouTube live. The whole series is a fabulous education as is Myrt’s ongoing Book Club. You’ll find all of her programs streaming live every other week at YouTube.com/@DearMyrtArchive. Programs are scheduled Eastern Time Zone (daylight when applicable), and these are the playlist links: * Mondays with Myrt Noon to 1:30 pm (EST)* Myrt’s Book Club 1:45 pm to 2:30 pm (EST)Tuesday/Wednesday, 18/19-February (Asia/Pac Region)I’m thrilled to welcome Jane Hutcheon back for the fifth of her six-part series, Forget-me-not: How We Memorialise. In Episode 5, Jane interviews journalist and obituary writer James R. (Bob) Hagerty. During the years of the Pandemic, James was the lead obituary writer for the WSJ. He continues to write obituaries and other stories on a freelance basis. He’s also the author of "Yours Truly," a guide to writing life stories. I hope you’ll join me: Thursday, 20-February (Atlantic Region)On Thursday, we look forward to our next installment with Emma Explores, where JourneysIntoGenealogy podcaster and professional genealogist, Emma Cox joins us to her own family history. Each month, she takes a thematic view of her family history, innovating new ways to look at their stories, motivations, and challenges. Join us, won’t you:With two active publications now, Journeys into Genealogy and her personal stories, Emma is now an active member of our growing genealogy community on Substack.Referenced Substack Tools * Mission: Genealogy — the “welcome wagon” for family historians and genealogists on Substack I host with my collaborator Robin Stewart.* GenStack — A newsletter on Robin’s Genealogy Matters pub that creates a not-to-be-missed “town paper” that family historians and genealogists have come to rely on. How could I forget the very connection that brought me to DearMYRTLE: * Dan's ThinkTank — Daniel Loftus has been a regular panelist on Myrt’s Monday program, and to me he has been the pied piper introducing me to a range of platforms from Podia to Pebble. His unflinching work on mother-and-baby homes is inspirational. Topics today:As with all of these programs, we covered a lot of ground in a very short program, including: * How family history teaches resilience, and why our own struggles are so important to our descendants.* Myrt’s antique steamer trunk and how she’s using it to capture and curate her own stories for her kids — including a charming show and tell. * Our shared global view of genealogy in the Anglophone world from the European shores of the Atlantic, across the Americas, to the Pacific Rim. Feel free to discuss in the comments. I’m sure many of our readers will be interested in this fascinating area.Was viewing from a browser or desktop app a good experience for you? I’d love your thoughts. Notice the new feature that allowed me to align the video in a landscape view ☝️. Nice, eh? Do you have the Substack mobile app? It’s a useful way to keep up with stories while on the go 👇.Finally, it was fun welcoming Myrt and meeting so many of you who are new to this community. We’re delighted to have you and see so many of you joining on the live stream. Have a topic you’d like me to cover? Till next week when Kathy Stone returns as my guest ahead of her program, Kathy’s Corner on Thursday/Friday, February 27/28. 👋Subscribe and hear about these live programs before they start! It’s free. Learn more at Projectkin.org/about. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Lori Olson White, Lynda Heines, Shell Norman, Tyler Loiselle, and so many others for tuning into my live video with Lori Olson White! Join me for my next live video in the app — OR now in your web browser. Though the sessions are only available as they happen to Projectkin subscribers, I make the recordings available to everyone on our website. You can access the full archive of these programs at Projectkin.org/live.Since these recordings can be viewed and shared with anyone, I always try to include useful links so that others follow along with the resources we mentioned. Schedule referencesFirst, our highlighted programs during the week: Thursday, 13-FebruaryFor starters, you won’t want to miss the program on Thursday, 13 February, in our Atlantic time window, “Howard & Elvira: Love and the German Chocolate Cake.” It’s the perfect Valentine’s Day love story. Tuesday, 11-FebruarySince I’m a part of both publications, I also get to talk about Tuesday’s Atlantic gathering of MissionGenealogy, the welcome wagon for genealogists here on Substack. These monthly programs are part of my collaboration with Robin Stewart you’ll know from her extraordinary GenStack newsletter and include a brief “Office Hours”-style presentation of topics that can help users get the most out of the platform, as well as informal roundtable discussions. Only the office hours portion of the program is recorded. You can find the full collection here. This week, we’ll discuss using video on Substack. Next, we have a program that’s special to me, but external to our Projectkin Community Forum. Saturday, 15-FebruaryI’m giving a talk for the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society about how a cabinet card took me (virtually) into my family history in Indiana. I call it “Riding a Cabinet Card into Indiana's Historic Past.” Again, it’s free. When you register for the Zoom link, you’ll join their community for their monthly meeting. NEXT SUNDAY Projectkin LIVE session:I’m excited to announce a very special guest at next Sunday’s Projectkin Live session: DearMYRTLE herself of the Dear Myrtle’s Archive on YouTube. She was gracious enough to invite me to participate in her Monday’s with Myrt program on Monday, Feb 17th, so how could I not make that the feature? To learn more, visit her at DearMyrtle.com. I feel like I should bring a gift. 🥰Serious conversationYou’ll have to watch the video to feel the joy and passion of the moment, but during our conversation, Lori Olson White mentioned a psychologist she’d interviewed at one point who had talked about the importance of shared storytelling… oh, that led to a deeper conversation about those moments in stories and stories in objects. The psychology term, “Elaborative Storytelling” leads to a treasure-trove of articles, for example: * “Growing Memories: Coaching mothers in elaborative reminiscing with toddlers benefits adolescents' turning-point narratives and wellbeing.”Feel free to discuss in the comments. I’m sure many of our readers will be interested in this fascinating area. Was viewing from a browser or desktop app a good experience for you? I’d love your thoughts, drop me a note in chat 👇. Again, it was a thrill to see so many of you joining in on the live stream. That’s really the secret to the joy of coming together as a community. I hope you can join us for these coming programs this week. If you can’t, you tune back in for the recordings and we’ll share as much as we can in the notes.Till next time, enjoy your Superbowl, puppy bowl, the snacks — and the commercials. 👋 If this was forwarded to you (your friend has good taste 😉). Now, you can sign up to get these directly in your inbox. Learn more at Projectkin.org/about Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Though the sessions are only available as they happen to Projectkin subscribers, I make the recordings available to everyone on our website. You can access the full archive of these programs at Projectkin.org/live.To watch these sessions live, you must be a member and download the Substack app. However, don’t worry—it’s free, as is the Projectkin subscription membership.This week, we caught up with Janet Barrie, Chair of the Society for One-Place Studies. Janet will be our guest at the first of a series of two talks on Thursday, February 6th, in our Atlantic time window.I first learned about the Society for One-Place Studies in 2023 as they were celebrating the anniversary of their tenth year with an extraordinary program over ten days called “All About That Place.” As you’ll see in that link 👈, the program was involved the collaboration across a dozen or more organizations. I was smitten. In 2024, the UK-based Society of Genealogists team invited theProjectkin Community Forum to participate in their 2024 variation of the event as hosts for a Pacific Edition. (You can see the full 2024 series on YouTube here and all ten of our talks at Projectkin.org/AATP24.) Since then, I’ve been casting about for ways to bring one-place studies into the programming series for Projectkin and was delighted that Janet accepted my invitation to help us get started with this educational series. Resources mentioned in today’s program included: * Janet Few’s book “Ten Steps to a One-Place Study,” available in print and Kindle forms from Amazon. * Janet Few’s expanded perspective in her November 2024 book, “Putting Your Ancestors in their Place: A Guide to One Place Studies,” on Amazon in a Kindle edition.One of my favorite aspects of the Society for One-Place Studies is the notion of registering a study on their map and using that reference for collaboration. At an economical (￡10/annually) their membership program also adds more features such as access to collaboration and research tools. I expect we’ll go into this further during our program on Thursday, but I was delighted to see further experimentation in using online platforms to both archive learnings and engage collaborators in one-place studies. We talked specifically about: * New features released by WeAre [xyz] to add a new type of archive for One-Place Studies* Combining platforms to achieve your own objectives for sharing your research and working with others. We’ve seen a terrific example just this week from Projectkin member, Jane Chapman:Again, I hope you can join us on Thursday for part one or in April for Part two of this delightful series.Feel free to share these posts by using the share button up top. If this was shared with you, join us! Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

As we all navigate new experiences and tools, these live sessions have become a fun way to connect personally and spontaneously. Though the live sessions are only available to Projectkin subscribers, I make the recordings available to everyone on our website. On my home page, I’ve endeavored to keep the focus on the current week’s recording, but you can access the archive at Projectkin.org/live. You’ll have to download the Substack app to watch these sessions live. Don’t worry. It’s free, as is the Projectkin subscription membership. This week, we caught up with Jane Hutcheon of The Juvenile Geriatric and had a few minutes to talk about her fabulous series “Forget-me-not: How We Memorialise.” You can watch past episodes of the series at Projectkin.org/forget-me-not and register for coming episodes at the link below:In today’s conversation, Jane shared a little of the back story to the series and shared snippets of learnings from each of our speakers, including: * Professor Gordon Coonfield of Villanova University in Philadelphia, PA. Watch episode one here.* Peter Billingham, author, celebrant, eulogy writer and guide. Watch episode two here.* James Ware, experienced as a business consultant, professor, and speaker in his role celebrating his wife and partner, Cindy Booth Ware. Watch episode three here. * Rhonda Lauritzen, biographer, memoir coach, teacher, and most recently author of “A Child in Berlin.” Watch episode four here. Jane gave us a sneak peek into episodes five and six with insight into the books written by her speakers: * James R. (Bob) Hagerty, reporter and editor for The Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune, and author of "Yours Truly," a guide to writing life stories.* Ailsa Piper, actor, director, audiobook narrator, and writer whose latest book is "For Life," a moving insight into loss, hope, and starting again. A post I remember mentioning during today’s chat (next time, I’ll keep a list handy):* The Birthday Letter Project by Victoria Olsen — this one’s been sitting with me since I read it several hours ago.I briefly mentioned a database of “crazy” project ideas. I often think about this in the context of “get lateral” as Jane suggested, to break barriers between silos for memorials, eulogies, celebrations of life and obituaries. In that conversation, I mentioned an old post of mine with a database of project ideas, here’s that link: * Step-by-step creativity » Project Recipes. It’s a bit dusty, but perhaps worth reviewing to inspire ideas. Join us next week, same live stream time, same live stream channel, as we talk about a special new two-part series we have coming about One-Place Studies. Join us here as a recording, or live on the Substack app!As always, feel free to share these posts. If this was shared with you, join us! It’s free, just drop your email to get our next recording directly in your inbox — as soon as it’s ready. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

What fun to see so many of you taking the time out of your busy Sunday afternoon or Monday morning to join us for a look at the week ahead. Thank you for joining us!If this Substack Live thing is new to you, take a moment to download the Substack app 👇 If you have a publication of your own, you can host your own Substack Live session. As you’ll see ☝️ it’s fun and easy! Oh, and did I mention it was free?One thing to note… the recording starts abruptly. That’s a tad awkward; I’ll see about anticipating that in our next recording future. That’s one of the fun things about doing these weekly: you tend to get better at what practice. In today’s session, we covered several topics, including two fun new programs coming up this week: * Tuesday “Pacific Time,” or the afternoon/evening here in the Americas or Wednesday morning in the Pacific Rim, we’ll host the fourth of our remarkable “Forget-me-not: How We Memorialise” series with Jane Hutcheon of the The Juvenile Geriatric. In this week’s episode, Jane will be speaking with Rhonda Lauritzen, a well-known speaker in the Genealogy community, author, and memoir coach at Evalogue.Life. She has two new books out. I can’t wait. Second is the first 2025 episode for:* Kathy’s Corner featuring Kathy Stone. As she shared in today’s program, she’ll focus today’s episode on those mystery photos, the ones you just don’t know why they were preserved. Sometimes, those are the most important. Let’s talk about why.During today’s short program, we referenced several recent articles circulating on Substack, including: * Archives for Forget-me-not at Projectkin.org/forget-me-not* Archives for Kathy’s Corner at (surprise) Projectkin.org/kathys-corner* All events are free, and you can register at Projectkin.org/events. They’re also in almost every case, recorded with recordings shared here with Projectkin members.By the way, did you know you’re also welcome to share links to our recordings? My secret reasoning is that if your friends watch and like what they see, they’ll join Projectkin, too. (Pretty sneaky, huh.) To the Substacks, I remember mentioning during today’s chat (next time, I’ll keep a list handy): * A conversation about mystery photos and the stories they hide led to a reference to a post by Crystal Lorimor, “Old Picture ID - Your Thoughts?” which led to a whole series of references, including: * A comment by Lori Olson White which mentioned another post by David Shaw, “Grandma, Uncle Frank and the Red Baron.”* I’d added a long note mentioning my previous company, Ponga, about strategies to identify who is in a photo. Let me know in a DM if you’re interested in more. I can talk your ear off. 😉 * We talked briefly about the American TikTok ban that wasn’t (or at least not yet) #GenealogyTok, (Cynthia Boatright Raleigh and her TikTok goodbye). The key takeaway was the complications of archives and backups when you use cloud services.* That also led to a conversation about my post about social media and saying goodbye to X and Meta properties, and the complexity of that when you have deep roots in a community and extensive collections of documents and media on these platforms. So, that was a lot. I hope you find these notes helpful. I know they help me review the details. I look forward to your thoughts and feedback in the comments.Join us next week, same live stream time, same live stream channel, as Jane Hutcheon joins me for a conversation about the next two speakers she has planned for her Forget-me-not series. Join us here as a recording, or, live on the Substack app!As always, feel free to share these posts. If this was shared with you, join us! It’s free, just drop your email to get our next recording directly in your inbox — as soon as it’s ready. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

Well, now, THAT was fun. A hearty debt of thanks to the dozen or so of you who were able to join us for our very first WEEKLY Projectkin Substack LIVE program.The idea here is to have a simple broadcast out there you can choose to preview if you’d like with what’s coming each week. Like many of the features here in Substack, I’ve discovered that I can’t figure them out by reading about them, I have to just play with them. So far, (and with your kind support) it’s been working out. In exchange, I try to be as transparent as possible about what I’ve discovered so that you can apply what I’ve learned to your own Substack publications and communities.Since this was our first one, here’s what I learned: * Substack LIVE as a feature is limited to the mobile app both for creating live broadcast streams and for viewing them live. You currently cannot see it on the desktop browser: * Starting a live session is “stupid easy.” You just tap the prominent red “+” button in the app's “Home” interface.This is where you would be creating a post or note from the mobile interface, but instead, select “Live.” I don’t know if this is an option for you if you don’t have a publication… but there’s much to learn from here. * I’ve planned to do these each week, as I said I would in my New Year’s post here. You have my events calendar, but this gives you a super-short preview and commentary on the coming week. I’m working on a global time calculator for the site, by the way. * As I have special guests or new programs we’ve never done before, I’ll invite the guests to say a few words. Robin Stewart of Genealogy Matters and my collaborator on Mission: Genealogy joined me today.Now, THAT conveniently brings me to the two events we talked about in our 12 minutes this week: We have two entirely new and fun events this week, both timed for our Pacific cohort. It just worked out that way. 🤫, Europe, you should be asleep. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered the following week.* On Tuesday/Wednesday, Robin and I will host the first of our Pacific Edition Gatherings for MissionGenealogy. As we discussed in the video, we’re still working out topics for: * Focus of the Office Hours segment (I usually demonstrate something)* Break out room topics. How about a poll since “❤️” taps didn’t do it: * On Thursday/Friday I will host the first of what I expect will be a new series about using Substack and other platforms for your family history. I’m calling this series the “Push & Pull of Platforms,” for Projectkin. This one has two special guest members: * Jennifer Jones of Tracking Down the Family on Substack and Jones Family History on WordPress.* Jane Chapman, you may know as @bjnlsgenealogy and of The Dual Genealogist, a blog on her WeAre.xyz archive. See why this is going to be interesting? You have the full transcript of what we said up above and I’ll plan to do this each week with recordings appearing on the top of the fold on my publication at Projectkin Community Forum. Since you’ve cared enough to read this far… another question for you. I don’t want to exhaust my Projectkin email list, so…: * I did NOT opt for the “email subscribers” button when starting the LIVE video. I sent one to announce that it was coming about 15 minutes before the hour. Sending another one seemed annoying. * I won’t email THIS post to everyone (I have another one coming after the “Push & Pull” event on Thursday/Friday). NEXT WEEK, I’m currently planning to change that. Since I’ve now announced it starting next week, I’ll…* Add it to the calendar.* Trigger the email announcement when I start the video on the hour.* Post the video to the top page of my publication but remove past episodes.What do YOU think? Can you tell me why in the comments? This sort of feedback is invaluable. This Live Video feature is a terrific example of a feature we’re all trying to figure out. I’m more than happy to share what I’m doing and why. Thank you, thank you, thank you! If this post was shared with you (🥳 HUZZAH!) It’s a pleasure to meet you. To make sure I rush all of our recordings and articles as they’re available, just drop your email below 👇. Learn more About Projectkin here. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe

You may already know that Emma Cox is an extraordinary genealogist. You may not know what an adventurer she is—always willing to try the next shiny new toy. Emma - Journeys into Genealogy was gracious enough today to experiment with me with this new live program to highlight her upcoming Emma Explores program on Thursday, November 21st.In today’s program, you’ll hear about* What she has planned for this month’s episode about the actors, theatre, and Hollywood people in her family tree — and how to explore them on your own!* How the study of our ancestors affects us.* New programs added to the Projectkin.org/events calendar:* An exciting new Project Recipe with Lynda Heines highlighting fabric arts as a storytelling form on December 12* Two One-Place Study episodes with Janet Barrie in February & MarchI hope you enjoy today’s short Live program recording. Let me know what you think of this format! I look forward to your feedback. If this was forwarded to you, why not subscribe and get every recording delivered directly to your inbox — FREE! Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe