What happens when you uncover the truth about your ancestors? What would you do if you discovered something difficult in your family history? Not just a small detail, but something that shifted how you saw yourself entirely. In this episode of the Know Your Ancestors Podcast, I sat down with Hilary Giovale, author of Becoming […]

What RootsTech Is Really Like Every year, thousands of genealogists gather in Salt Lake City for RootsTech, the largest genealogy conference in the world. There are thousands of people attending in person, thousands more joining online, and hundreds of classes to choose from. But the real question I wanted to answer after attending this year […]

What if history isn’t just kings, queens, and wars…but brickfields, shipyards, and crowded East London homes? In this episode of the Know Your Ancestors podcast, I sat down with public historian Charlie Eve — known online as @thehistorymagpie — to talk about his journey into history, why ordinary stories matter, and what happens when you […]

Last week, I talked about how we may inherit traits from our ancestors — the things we’re naturally drawn to, the ways we think, and the patterns we find ourselves in. But the more I sat with that idea, the more I realized… it goes so much deeper than that. Your Origin Story isn’t just […]

We like to think we start at zero. That who we are – our strengths, our insecurities, our tendencies, our instincts – are simply personality. Or maybe upbringing. Or maybe just chance. But as a professional genealogist, I have seen too much to believe that. We do not begin at zero. We begin mid story. […]