Projectkin Live: Stories250 with Diane Burley of Musings of a Storyteller

Thank you Linda Teather, Marci Keats Rudolph 🧓🏻, Kyla Bayang, Jennifer Jones, Sheri Handel, Kathy Stone, The Family Histories Podcast, Charlie mcmilliom, Alex Daw and many others for tuning into my live video with Diane Burley. Whether you’re joining by app or by web, live or in comments, it’s lovely to have your insights as part of this community.

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Today’s program was our first Stories250 program in the new year. Today’s episode featured not one but two stories from Diane Burley, both of which centered on how women in her family were impacted by the war. To the extent that her stories involve regional geography, this contemporary map may be helpful:

You’ll find Diane’s first story on Projectkin.org/stories250 along with links to it in the timeline and map. This story, “Jane Ryerson: Revolutionary War Wife and Flame Keeper,” tells the tale of this fiercely independent woman living alone on a farm inconveniently located between New Jersey battlefields.

Diane also mentioned her story “Raid of Royalton, VT: Lucy Anna Durkee,” a harrowing tale involving descendants of the heroine of her first story, Jane Ryerson.

Take a moment to explore Diane’s stories as she characterizes them in the video, then let us know about your own stories from the Revolutionary War period. These strong women and the families that survived are, as Diane put it, living statues to the resilience of our ancestors.

This series allows us to explore our stories of this remarkable historical period together. Each contributor adds their own context of time and place. Learn more:

With a calendar that’s quickly filling up, we now only have enough time for two more live speakers ahead of a special program for July 2026. If you have a story to contribute, I’d love to include you. The full details are at Projectkin.org/stories250-form. I’d also love to include you in an upcoming Live program. Think you’d like to talk about it first? Drop me a message and we’ll set up a time.

I hope that this Stories250 series provides all of us in this community of family historians with a way to participate in exploring this history within the context of our ancestors’ lives, from around the world.

February Stories250 Guest: Diane Burley

My guest for the Stories250 series in January is Dr. Mary M. Marshall. I’m especially excited about her story as she’ll weave in a tale that includes a legacy of both people and a place. More about that in the coming weeks after she releases her post.

Finally, free to share this post with your genealogy friends and family. While you’re there, invite them to join this thriving and generous long-form family history storytelling community on Substack, WordPress, Blogger, and dozens of other blogging platforms.

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