An Honest Witness | Episode 63

What happens when cultures collide and choose connection instead of conflict?To launch our America 250 series and Season 2 of the podcast, I sit down with Mike Daniels — former mayor of Pleasant Grove, Utah and a dear colleague from our early days at Ancestry — to explore his family’s extraordinary journey to and through Hawaii. From war and immigration to love, loss, and discovery, Mike shares how his family’s story became a living example of what it means to build unity through difference.“It is a melting pot, and it's really possible for people to live together in peace.”Along the way, we talk about picture brides, holiday feasts with 50+ cousins, and a name change that reshaped an identity. This heartfelt conversation about belonging, resilience, and multicultural legacy reminds us how place becomes a character in our family stories—shaping not just where we come from, but who we become.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

What if the story of America isn't just in history books, but living right now in your family tree? As we approach America's 250th birthday in 2026, I'm taking you on an extraordinary journey across all 50 states through the intimate family stories that shaped our nation. Starting in July 2025, Season 2 of Stories That Live In Us will reveal how your ancestors' choices and experiences are still echoing through your family today.Over 50 weeks, we'll travel from Hawaii to Alaska, Arizona to Oklahoma, following each state's admission to the union in reverse order. You'll discover tales of immigration, migration, courage, and community. These moments of resilience that defined entire families and continue to influence generations. These aren't stories about famous names and places; they're about real families whose experiences show us that American history lives in our DNA, our traditions, and our family trees.Whether you're a longtime listener or just discovering the transformational power of family storytelling, this season will inspire you to see your own family history with fresh eyes. Because every family tree holds stories connected to places and times that can fuel your imagination, inspire your resilience, and deepen your family connections.Join me as we discover, from sea to shining sea, the stories that live in us—and learn how your family's journey is beautifully woven into the larger American story.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🛏😴 What if you found out that the bedtime stories you were told as a kid were really true?When Hopwood DePree finally traced his unusual first name to its origins, he discovered something extraordinary: a 600-year-old ancestral estate in England that had been waiting centuries for him to find it. When Hopwood, author of "Downton Shabby," began exploring the childhood stories he dismissed as fairy tales, it led to the adventure of a lifetime. From growing up in Michigan, embarrassed by his name to dedicating his life to restoring Hopwood Hall Estate in Middleton, England, his journey reveals how our ancestors' stories can literally reshape our entire lives. You'll hear about secret priest holes, hidden tabernacles, and the moment he realized his grandfather's "bedtime stories" about a castle were actually family history waiting to be reclaimed.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🌍 After decades of dead ends and false leads, one $27 payment to a county archive changed everything for Diana O'Connor. She didn’t just get a record. She got a photograph that made her weep with recognition.Diana grew up knowing almost nothing about her family history. Her father was placed in foster care at two years old when his mother died. He then died tragically young and Diana’s own mother’s death followed a short eight years later. With virtually no family stories, no extended relatives, and no sense of her roots but armed with a single legal document and unshakeable curiosity, she embarked on a journey that would transform her from a woman with no family connections into someone discovering an abundance of Irish cousins and ancestral homes.Diana shares the emotional highs and lows of researching her Irish heritage, discovering orphanage records, connecting with cousins across continents, and finally standing in the cemeteries of County Tyrone and County Mayo where her ancestors are buried.This episode is a heartfelt reminder that even the smallest clues can lead to life-changing discoveries. And that it’s never too late to find your people.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🎂 What do cake and cemeteries have to do with one another? Maybe not much but both have quite a bit to do with family history.Betheny Tomseth, known on Instagram as @BethenyCakes, takes us on a journey through her family’s complex history. From the mysterious circumstances surrounding her great-grandfather Omer's hunting accident in 1921 to the Scottish immigrant family she discovered buried together in an Ogden cemetery. We explore how a 140-year-old cake recipe connects generations of women who understood that food brings families together.As the middle child in a family of 14, Betheny shares how her great-aunt Edith's stories about a grandmother who died in childbirth became family treasures, and how her genealogist sister Rebecca's Christmas gift may be the most meaningful one she’s ever received. Our conversation celebrates the beautiful ways our ancestors continue to gather us together.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

When Aimee Cross discovered her French ancestor's will in a 1904 newspaper, she found something more precious than gold - a grandmother's heartfelt advice to her children. Professional genealogist Aimee Cross joins me to share how her second great-grandmother Estelle Dumont left behind more than an estate. She left a legacy of wisdom that continues to shape her family today. From Pierre Dumont's journey from France to the goldfields of California, to Estelle's courageous choice to run a business as a widowed mother in 1897 San Francisco, this story reveals how family wisdom survives even when original documents don't. Discover how one woman's deathbed counsel speaks directly to today's grandmothers and learn why the most powerful family stories often hide in the most unexpected records.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

Linda felt there was "something special" in her dad's family but couldn't get answers. She never imagined a single phone call would connect her to relatives she'd never met and a Civil War-era ancestor whose story would change how she celebrates Juneteenth forever.In this deeply moving episode, I sit down with Linda Epps Parker, whose connection to the Hawkins Wilson documentary reveals the extraordinary power of genealogy to heal generational separation. Linda shares her journey from growing up with unanswered questions about her father's Southern roots to discovering her relationship to Hawkins Wilson, the formerly enslaved man whose 1877 letter became the centerpiece of an award-winning film from Ancestry.What else Linda discovers feels less like coincidence or chance and more like ancestral guidance. This episode beautifully demonstrates how family history research can move us from longing to belonging, creating profound connections that span generations.Link to Hawkins Wilson film:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wDwDR6yjhkLink to Episode 11:https://www.cristacowan.com/blog/the-letter-that-waited-how-one-ancestry-tree-uncovered-a-155-year-family-story〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

What if one of history's most famous authors unknowingly documented your ancestor's immigration journey? In 1863, my three-times-great-grandmother Rachel Smuin sailed from England to America aboard the Amazon—and Charles Dickens was there to witness it all. Expecting to find chaos and disorder among 800 Mormon emigrants, Dickens instead discovered remarkable organization, cheerfulness, and dignity that completely challenged his preconceptions. His detailed letter about that day provides an incredible window into Rachel's actual crossing experience, from the crowded London docks to the careful inspections before departure. I'll read you Dickens' account and share how I discovered this hidden gem that brings my ancestor's journey to life. This episode will inspire you to search for the contemporary records, newspaper articles, and historical accounts that might capture your own family's pivotal moments in surprising detail.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

🚢 When 11-year-old Lydia escaped Russia on the last evacuation ship in 1920, she began documenting her extraordinary journey in beautiful handwritten diaries.Tamara Buzyna Adams discovered her grandmother’s childhood diaries during COVID lockdown. What started as a mother-daughter translation project unveiled an incredible story: a young girl who lived on a refugee ship for two and a half years, finding joy and wonder even amid the chaos following the Russian Revolution.Through meticulous research, Tamara pieced together not just dates and places, but a moving story of childhood resilience. Her most surprising discovery came when she decided to research the mysterious friends Lydia mentioned throughout her diaries - children with nicknames like "Zhenya" and "Kolya."Lydia's story reveals how family histories preserved through a child's innocent perspective can illuminate our ancestors' humanity and inspire resilience across generations._____Visit Tamara's website to see pictures of Lydia and her friends and for information about her book, Last Ship to Freedom:  https://www.tamarabuzynaadams.com/〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

What if your ancestors' darkest moment could teach you the most about resilience? While chasing down a DNA match with my dad, I uncovered a shocking story about two sets of my 8x great-grandparents that kept me awake all night. Roger and Anne Park and Andrew and Olive Smith were Quakers who fled England seeking religious freedom in colonial New Jersey, but found decades of land disputes and corrupt officials instead. When my 7x great-grandfather John Park and his brother-in-law, Thomas Smith faced an impossible choice - pay twice for land they already owned or lose everything - their response involved tar, feathers, and a decision that haunts me as I consider how we respond to injustice today. This discovery reminded me why family stories matter: they teach us resilience even when our ancestors made questionable choices, and show us we can choose to be better in the face of hardship.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most. 🖼️ Ready to turn your family discoveries into a beautiful conversation piece? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!