The Story That Lives In Me | Stories That Live In Us | Episode 1

From a childhood rooted in family stories to a long-standing family mystery that required solving, follow me on my journey into family history.
Be reminded of the painstaking efforts once required to climb a family tree -from county by county searches in Ohio courthouses to scrolling through microfilms in Salt Lake City's vast library. And rejoice with me in how the digital revolution changed everything (and continues to do so).
But, never forget - whether doing it old school or with all the new technology - that the true essence of genealogy is still in the stories that give life to the names and dates and places on a pedigree chart.
_____________________________
✅ Click the SUBSCRIBE button above.
🎙️ Listen to recent episodes of Crista's podcast on your favorite podcast app or visit StoriesThatLive...
➡️ For ideas on how to connect more deeply with your family through family stories, follow Crista on CristaCowan
📧 Get family history tips and tricks from Crista delivered to your inbox every week. Sign up for her email newsletter now at CristaCowan.com
_____________________________
#familystories #podcast #podcasts #genealogy #familyhistory #ancestry #familytree #ohio #neworleans #louisiana #mystery

[@bdgies2721]

My mother started her journey of discovery in 1967. Your early efforts sound much like hers, except she was tracking down family in Soviet-era Russia, Germany and the UK. Almost 40 years later, I used my experience as a graphic design and book designer to help her publish her magnum opus on her father’s family. She and two overseas relatives managed to trace the paternal line back to the year 1150, and at time of publishing, there were over 3200 in the database. She also helped her mother-in-law find her family. They left Illinois in the early 1900s and moved to southern Alberta where my grandma was born, never know any of the family back in the US. Mom’s finely honed research skills found them and a wonderful rich history.

[@cherylbrooks7005]

My Grandma did the same old-school genealogy work. She started in the 1940s. She had books and books of family trees and included the stories.❤ ❤❤

[@phaedraswearengin6927]

I have a relative whose mystery inspired my love of genealogy. I discovered who she really was through stubbornness and a little help from dna. She came alone from Finland in 1887 (when she was 18), settled in the Bay Area of Northern California, married, and had three children before tuberculosis robbed her of a future. She was 29. I hunted for her grave, I tracked down relatives, I did everything I could think of to maintain that connection to Maria. I’m still thrilled when I discover a new connection, human or on paper. She will always be special to me. She wanted to be found - they all did, these descendants and relatives of hers. And she led me where I needed to go to find the answers I sought.

[@CristaCowan]

Love that!

[@virginiahouser1060]

Great, great story! Not only in its heartwarming details, but in its showing how intrepid efforts can lead to astounding discoveries. Thank you, Crista!

[@aliciahamblin8087]

Well now I’m crying! What a beautiful story, thank you for sharing!

[@sharontabor7718]

My father began the family history search in the 1960s. He had the opportunity to talk to his grandparents born in the 1870s and 1880s who remembered their grandparents born before the Civil War. He would take my sister and me to the university library to sit in front of the microfilm readers doing exactly as you did - there were no indices. We would tramp through cemeteries - no Findagrave. I took up his hobby after he died in 1992. I spent hours at county health departments looking through death certificates - no digital versions. Having spent time researching the old-fashioned way leads me to a huge level of frustration for people who copy other people's trees which are copied from other family trees from people who are name collectors without determining they have the correct person in their tree.

[@marlowehardy4499]

I love hearing about family.

[@lindasusandelozier1567]

So excited about this new idea. Can't wait to listen to other Stories.

[@sarahphipps9799]

So excited for this podcast!! Everyone has a mystery in their family. My maternal grandfather was adopted by family...we think??...and have come to a standstill in research on him but found my mother's half siblings a few years ago and her family grew exponentially!

[@BuckeyeBurnz]

My mom got me hooked! I wish I can share what I know now with her and it hurts that I can’t. Love you mom 😢

[@deb7844]

Thanks for the inspiration. I also had a mystery to solve for a cousin that I’ve dropped. His health is not good and that thought of me not finishing the story before he is gone has troubled me. I found the answers he wanted but I found much more and I’m not finished but close. Thanks for the encouragement to keep going.

[@loispolley6339]

I really enjoyed your story. I'm new to genealogy. I am excited to hear more of these stories.

[@elainefiveland1462]

I began my genealogy journey because as child I knew (but wasn’t supposed to know!) that my mom was adopted. In my little head I was collecting information and after my mom passed in 2001 and my family was grown, I began my serious search, joining Ancestry a few years later. Now I know her story and her birth family. The journey continues ….

[@pat56458]

This gave me chills and made me cry. Your story is similar to my story re my ggf. ❤❤

[@lenovovo]

Thanks for sharing the story Christa!! Persistence pays off, doesn't it! Your story makes me think about a saying I heard from an old centenarian man, who said, I may give out sometimes, but I never give up. I hold on to that saying myself, and it keeps me going with my research of my family tree, and with life in general. Thank you so very much for sharing your story. I'm looking forward to the next podcast! Until next time, take care and have a safe and happy weekend! -Melvin - Friday, July 05, 2024 - 6:04 PM - Colorado Springs, Colorado

[@CristaCowan]

Thank you, Melvin!

[@lenovovo]

@@CristaCowan You're most welcome, Christa :-)

[@warrensmith2902]

I'm still looking for my GG-Grandfather John L Smith parents. Been looking for his parents for over 23 years now. Now my wife on the other hand, she loves to create memory books of Family History for friends. Amazing what she's able to find.

[@CristaCowan]

With a name like John Smith I can only imaging how challenging your search must be.

[@warrensmith2902]

@@CristaCowan Sorta, I know ALOT about him, once he marries his first wife in Indiana and moves to Illinois. There he become the city manager for the county, helps to create the first bank, creates the first cemetery, loses a son in the Civil War, and eventually joins the UNION army.as well. After the war his kids marry other veterans kids, his marries his second wife, and I've taken pictures of all their headstones. But who his parents are, and did he really come from Maryland ???? I've gone through many a book on early (1800's) Maryland families. still waiting for t find his family. But my other lines, we've made great progress over the years, just not John L Smith, yet!

[@merryindiana2754]

@@warrensmith2902 Where in Indiana? Curious…someone has to know.

[@stephaniepitz9077]

Amazing story, I am from the Ashland area myself. We all have that family member.. persistent definitely pays off

[@CristaCowan]

It really does - eventually. 😉

[@Lula_F]

Thank you for sharing. Although I have been active with research with my family history and other people’s history and search, I still require information and tips from you and others to continue trying to locate where in Ireland my paternal side originated. When I began being curious about my family history, I had no information to start with on my father’s side. My parents had a volatile relationship. Mom ‘escaped’ from him and returned to her childhood home and her mother in NYC with 4 of us in tow. He made one effort to collect us after about 2 weeks. However, my maternal grandmother was tough and he respected and feared her. He was 6’4” and she about 5’4”. She would not let him into the apartment. As he plead in the hallway, she smacked him and told him to go home. That he would no longer be able to put his hands on Mom or any of us again. Armed with my memory and the little information that Mom let me know, I began looking for my paternal side about 35 years ago after having some health issues. This was at the beginning of the now popular genealogy craze and online sites. Ancestry.com was barely new and didn’t have as many records as now. familySearch.org was not available yet. And before DNA was a project. I did this by traveling to the Boston Archives . Writing to local county clerks. I found a cousin through Ancestry.com who was searching for the same great grandparents. She had much information on that line and made my search a little easier. We have since been in contact for years and uncovered that Lupus runs in the family. Many of our female relatives have it. So I wasn’t alone and cracked my brick wall for health commonality in my paternal side of the family. Thank you for continually bringing information and sharing your own life’s work for those of us who continue to move back in the past for more information.

[@debnraleigh6062]

Lovely story! Excellent kick-off for your podcast! All the best Crista!

[@CristaCowan]

Thank you!

[@deborahcook8376]

I am so looking forward to this venture, thank you so much for sharing. You and I are distantly related thru the Shipman line I think, so learning that was one thing that kept me searching. Thanks for being you.

[@CristaCowan]

Thanks for being here, Deborah!

[@YT4Me57]

You, are ME! 🤣

[@KarenCure]

I'm so glad I happened on to this broadcast Crista. I had forgotten you were going to make it. So enjoyed the story of Carrie Inman. I am still looking for information on my turn all grandfather, John Elmer Smith April 15th 1902 died August 27th 1962. He is buried in Mill Creek Randolph county West Virginia. I have not been able to determine where he died or even who buried him. Today I called the clerk in Mill Creek and I'm afraid she didn't know much she said she didn't think they had any records beyond 6 years we talked for a few minutes and she said she would ask the mayor where are there may be some records. I just don't understand why I can't find a death certificate or who is responsible for burying him there. This is his home state West Virginia but he lived with my grandmother and his family in Newport Kentucky and also registered for the draft (WW2) in Cincinnati, Ohio with three addresses on it. I have concluded that he actually could have died in Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania or West Virginia but I cannot find a death certificate. We all have those rogues in our family but there's always good people and interesting stories and I have found some in the Smiths tree this is one of my roadblocks, my brick wall that makes me move on for a Time. They are always calling back to me, to solve their mystery.

[@LindaSchreiber]

This is fantastic!! I am so looking forward to hearing more episodes in the future!!!

[@CristaCowan]

So glad you found me here, Linda.

[@slighthouse1]

Crista! This is fabulous, I so enjoyed this episode, but then I could listen to you all day. I think we all have that one person in our family tree that drives us like no other and I am so glad you were able to uncover her place in history. You always remind me of how much I love family history and inspire me along the way.

[@CristaCowan]

Oh. What a lovely compliment. Thank you.

[@denisebunker6674]

Thank you for sharing!

[@ascoutingmom]

I love listening to your stories! I started on this genealogy path because I saw how much fun my grandparents had working on it! My mom worked with my Grandpa typing all the information into a book form for him. Now I work with my Mom to see what discoveries we can find! We are working on my GGG grandpa now.

[@moonoggin]

I cant believe I found such an interesting video! I believe I have a Cowan relative, but I will have to find the information again. I dont have my genealogy organized, but that is my goal for the rest of this year. I also have a roadblock with a GGrandmother that just disappeared with no records. She and the woman that replaced her are my only brick walls. I pray my story will be like yours, although I may have run out of places to look, but I do have a few more ideas. Thank you for your inspiring story. This gives me so much hope.❤I will come back on here and write a review, day after tomorrow.

[@1whitkat]

Thank you for info on Google Alerts. I set that up immediately. I intend to put several other of your ideas into motion in the morning. You've been an amazing inspiration.

[@valhenning1504]

loved your story very much, so glad you found Carrie, but also family connections. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Looking forward to more of your podcasts.

[@CristaCowan]

Thank you!

[@BonnieDragonKat]

Thank you so much for finding Carrie. Can you imagine my reaction when I discovered our connection? You quit made me cry with this story.

[@user-fg2ts3wq9q]

He met her soul after he crossed over to the other side❤

[@waterwoman901]

I have a "Carrie" too, my ancestor Margaret Logan. It takes a lifetime but miracles happen. Through DNA I finally know where she was born in Ireland.

[@cindydawson3815]

❤ this! Thanks for sharing. You are an inspiration to me!

[@kathyastrom1315]

What a wonderful story! I too have a great-great-grandmother Carrie who has been my gateway to family research. I’ve filled about 75% of her timeline, using research tools that I’ve taught myself to fill in that life. She was also a single mom, and she went on to have a wide variety of careers in her life after leaving her first husband. She was also a dressmaker in both Michigan then later in Oklahoma, a barber in Chicago, a farmer turned restauranteur in Montana, then in her last decade, a trance medium and Spiritualist minister in Oklahoma. I have been lucky enough to connect with descendants from all three of my great-grandfather’s siblings, cousins through Carrie (one has become my genealogy buddy!). However, nobody has known anything about her at all. I actually knew the most about her-my great-grandfather Jesse, her youngest child, was also a Chicago barber, so I think that’s the only reason he told that much to his girls. My paternal grandmother knew practically nothing about her parents’ families. In my research, I have come to the conclusion that both of them had very painful childhoods and shut off any memories they had of family anecdotes. Jesse only had three pieces of info to pass on: his mom was a Chicago barber, his family was Canadian and English, and one of my 6th great-granduncles was Alexander Hamilton. Turns out the first was true, the second was also true but not complete (Grandma’s line was majority Dutch being from pre-1700 New York on both of her parents’ sides), and the third was technically true, but that Alexander Hamilton was not the famous one. When I connected with two of Jesse’s sublings’ descendants, that Hamilton story was known to both of them, so it was a family anecdote. I have briefly connected with descendants of Carrie’s eldest daughter Rose. She had followed Carrie to Oklahoma, so I hold out hope that they might have some info about her. So far, nothing. I have already done an initial pass at writing her story down. I have six pages of solid text, most of it firm information but some of it speculation, mostly about her second and third husbands. Husband #2 might not actually have been married to her, since I have yet to find either marriage records or divorce records. I am 99% sure that Husband #3 was using a false identity-my third cousin and I have found the person whose name and family background he seems to have borrowed from to bolster his already-in-use fake name. In all of the tools I’ve learned while researching Carrie, the one that has honed my tactics the most is to expand beyond the narrow search techniques. Think beyond the target to look into family and friends, because you might just get more info that way. That’s how I found Husband #3’s name twin, and also how I got the specific dates on Carrie’s life in Montana, by researching her restaurant in its subsequent existence beyond her ownership.

[@CristaCowan]

She sounds like quite a woman. Thank you for sharing part of her story with me. You are right - that network research is a great methodology for getting at the information we often need to learn more about our ancestors.

[@dwlee9138]

My grandfather searched for his own mother. With the clues he left, I found her, her family, and generations back. The only thing that makes me sad is I can't share it with Grandpa!

[@shannonwelsh5830]

I to am working on a family mystery in Ashland County,Ohio. Does your brothers name happen to be Chris? If so, we went to middle school together in Stow. Anyways, this was a wonderful story of hope! Thank you!

[@dldove22]

We may be distant cousins. I am descended from Simon Beman and his son Nathaniel who married Phoebe Parke.