Kentucky: Postmasters & Snapping Turtles (with Caitlyn Bruns & Paul Abell) | Episode 104

Paul Abell has never wanted to leave Kentucky, not even when he moved 90 miles away for college. When his daughter Caitlyn was born, he finally had the reason he needed to dive into the family tree in a way his uncles had been nudging him toward for years. In this episode, I sit down with Ancestry colleague Caitlyn Bruns, a genetic scientist turned strategist. She invited her dad Paul to join us. He’s a man with roots so deep in Adair County that the post office practically runs in his blood. Together, they recount their family's journey from post-Revolutionary Maryland to a Kentucky creek hollow. Here three log cabins, once the general store and post office for the community, have become a gathering place for a hundred cousins, a legendary turtle cook, and quilts hand-stitched by women who held the family together. Their story is a beautiful reminder that family history isn't just about the names on the branches of the family tree.  It's about the land, the heirlooms, and the connections to the people who choose to keep showing up.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️  🎧 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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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 would it take for you to enlist in a war, march hundreds of miles in winter, survive one of the worst defeats in American history — and then turn right around and do it again? My own Revolutionary War ancestor, Daniel Jones, went from the backcountry of North Carolina to a tiny holler in Northeast Tennessee, where a single pension file, a stray boar, and a rundown farmhouse porch brought his story roaring back to life. I've stood on that porch. I've walked that field. And I promise you, once you start seeing your ancestors as real people who were terrified and brave and stubborn all at the same time, you'll never look at your family tree the same way again. Some stories don't just tell us where we came from. They show us who we're made of.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️  🎧 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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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 names your ancestors gave their children were actually breadcrumbs leading straight to the neighbors who helped shape their lives? In this solo episode, I trace my own Cowan family line from a young Irish weaver who had to register as an alien citizen during the War of 1812 to a doctor who built a house that became a historical society, a saddle maker who outfitted the Union Army, and a U.S. Representative who somehow kept his personal life completely out of the newspapers. But the discovery that surprised me most was buried in an 1830 census. And it's the reason two of George and Jane Cowan's thirteen children carry the names they do. Ohio wasn't just where this family landed. It was the foundational soil that grew a posterity now living in 47 states and seven countries.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️  🎧 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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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 most precious pieces of your family history were ones you had to secretly carry home five steps at a time? In this episode, I sit down with my cousin Arlene Rome, a Louisiana native and retired nurse whose story of love, loss, and quiet rebellion will stay with you long after you finish listening. Arlene grew up in the golden summers of Metairie with a grandmother who drove a red convertible, played "These Boots Were Made for Walking" on an 8-track, and loved her fiercely — until a family rift tore them apart. What Arlene did to stay connected, and what her grandmother gave her the day before she died, is the kind of story that reminds us exactly why family stories are worth preserving. If you've ever felt the ache of a family relationship cut short too soon — or wondered what it means to be the last one standing with all the memories — this episode is for you. 〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️  🎧 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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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 does it mean to be an American when your family has been here longer than America itself? Lisa Fanning, a board member of the National Genealogical Society and DNA expert, has spent decades uncovering a story so layered, so uniquely American that it stopped me in my tracks. She descends from four of the six families who packed up a covered wagon and caravaned from North Carolina in the 1820s to build a thriving free Black settlement in southern Indiana called Lost Creek. But the story doesn't start there. It starts with an enslaved woman named Kate Anderson, a contested will, and 600 acres of prime Virginia land that was rightfully theirs. Land that is now the site of a U.S. Naval installation. This is also our 100th episode, and I can't think of a better story to mark the milestone. Some families don't just live through history. They are history.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️  🎧 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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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 happens when a California family walks into Mississippi and walks out forever changed?Filmmaker and music executive, Larissa Lam, director of the documentary Far East Deep South, joins me to share how a simple trip to visit a family grave in the Mississippi Delta unraveled a mystery decades in the making and revealed a hidden chapter of American history most of us never learned in school. Together, we trace how her father-in-law's search for the father he believed had abandoned him led to an extraordinary discovery about Chinese immigrants in the Jim Crow South, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and one remarkable artifact that unlocked everything. If you've ever wondered how a single genealogy discovery can heal a wound that's been carried across generations, this conversation is for you.Learn more about Larissa’s film here:  https://fareastdeepsouth.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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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 Sue Talbot's grandmother casually mentioned items belonging to "Arthur," Sue discovered a family secret buried for decades. But that revelation was just the beginning of a journey that would uncover scandal, betrayal, and tragedy stretching from Victorian England to the streets of Chicago.In this episode, I sit down with British genealogist Sue Talbot as she shares the shocking story of her great-great-grandfather John Jenkinson—Methodist preacher, mayor, and jeweler whose respectable facade concealed darker truths. What Sue discovers forces her to reconsider everything her family believed about their "good stock" and reveals how one man's choices created devastating ripples across generations and an ocean.From mysterious disappearances to courtroom drama, from England's small market towns to Chicago's jewelry district, Sue pieces together a story of crime, consequences, and unexpected connections that ultimately bring her family full circle back to America.Sometimes the ancestors who shock us the most teach us the deepest truths about resilience and family bonds.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️  🎧 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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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 Noah’s car broke down in rural Ukraine, he discovered something unexpected: the warmth of strangers who knew his ancestors had once called their town home. It's a moment that captures the heart of Noah's journey. As a professional genealogist his childhood obsession with family history led him from the Birmingham Public Library to the decimated streets of Kobryn, Belarus, searching for the roots of Alabama's surprising Jewish community.Join me and my guest, Noah Lapidus (Research Manager at Ancestry ProGenealogists and African American specialist), as he shares how his family's immigration story connects a small Russian shtetl to the coal mines of Birmingham, Alabama, where his ancestors established one of the South's unique Jewish communities in the 1880s. Through heirlooms, tall tales, and painstaking research, Noah uncovered the truth about how the "Magic City" became an unlikely home for Eastern European Jews and how that community, born from Kobryn, still thrives today. His story reminds us that family history isn't just about the past; it's about understanding the joy, resilience, and connections that live in us across generations.💭 What family stories have you been told that turned out to be beautifully, unexpectedly true?〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️  🎧 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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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 history isn't just about the past—but about creating connections that shape who we become?In this episode, I sit down with Steve Bromage, Executive Director of the Maine Historical Society, whose childhood road trips to a family camp sparked a lifelong passion for preserving Maine's stories. Steve shares how his organization has revolutionized history-making by putting communities at the center—from small-town historical societies to middle school students scanning precious photographs. Through the innovative Maine Memory Network, they've proven that when people share their own stories, history becomes living, breathing, and deeply personal. Steve also reveals Maine Historical Society's incredible plan to take one of only 26 surviving original copies of the Declaration of Independence on a statewide tour for America's 250th anniversary, ensuring every Mainer can encounter this sacred document in their own county. Discover how one state is redefining what it means to preserve history—not by locking it away, but by making it accessible, participatory, and profoundly meaningful for everyone.〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️  🎧 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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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!

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️  🎧 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 get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? 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!