Shows / Stories That Live In Us
Stories That Live In Us
What if the most powerful way to strengthen your family’s future is to look to the past?
I’m Crista Cowan, known online as The Barefoot Genealogist. I created this podcast to inspire you to form deeper connections with your family - past, present, and future. All families are messy and life is constantly changing but we don’t have to allow that to disconnect us. I’ve spent my whole life discovering the power of family history and I know that sharing the stories that live in you can change…
Episodes
- Stories That Live In Us
A Person Dies Twice: How Family Stories Keep Us Alive | Episode 135
What will your family remember about you when you're gone? And how do we keep the stories of the people we love alive for generations? When I pulled over on an…
- Stories That Live In Us
All the Beautiful Things: What Really Brings People Back to Faith (with Shelley Graham) | Episode 134
How many times have you sat across the table from a child or sibling who sees faith completely differently than you do, and felt an aching gulf between you? In…
- Stories That Live In Us
The Countess of Cons: Uncovering Scandalous Ancestors (with Deborah Holman) | Episode 133
"When I noticed a yellowed piece of paper physically taped over a portrait in an old family book, I knew there was a secret waiting to be found." My guest…
- Stories That Live In Us
Black-Market Adoptions to Broadway Stars (with Lisa Elzey) | Episode 132
What if the secret to breaking through your own genealogy brick walls is stepping away from your family tree entirely? In this episode, my dear friend…
- Stories That Live In Us
Why You Probably Have Cousins Everywhere (And How to Find Them) | Episode 131
What if the person sitting next to you right now (at work, in church, or at a wedding) isn't a stranger at all? When I started doing descendancy research and…
- Stories That Live In Us
Breaking a 150-Year German Brick Wall (with Jenny Ashcraft) | Episode 130
When a 150-year-old German brick wall kept my friend Jenny Ashcraft stuck for nearly two decades, she decided to stop pushing straight backward and try a…
- Stories That Live In Us
The Heirloom Portrait & The Danish Flood: Verifying Family Lore (with Rhonda Budge) | Episode 129
Growing up, my guest Rhonda Budge spent hours sitting beside her grandmother, staring at a massive framed portrait of her great-great-grandfather, Johann…
- Stories That Live In Us
From Utah to Iceland: Passing Living Heritage to the Next Generation with Eric Allen | Episode 128
How do you take dry facts on a family tree and turn them into something your kids can actually feel? In this episode, Eric Allen joins me to share how a trip…
- Stories That Live In Us
From Belarus to the Boston Meat Wars: Uncovering a Rebel Ancestor (with Suzanne Hoffman) | Episode 127
When Suzanne Hoffman sat down to help her daughter with a middle-school history project, she never expected to uncover a radical rebel in her own family tree…
- Stories That Live In Us
How the Air Force Saved My Father’s Life (with Victoria Robinson) | Episode 126
When Victoria Robinson’s father stepped in to defend an elderly coworker at an Arkansas sawmill in 1952, he had to run for his life. Shaken and hiding in the…
- Stories That Live In Us
The Adoptee, The Next Door Neighbor, and The DNA Twist No One Saw Coming | Episode 125
When I handed an adoptee a paper with his biological siblings’ names, he burst out laughing. Turns out his long-lost brother was his neighbor! After connecting…
- Stories That Live In Us
Raising 8 Kids After Divorce with Music, Faith, and Family Roots (with Bubba Page) | Episode 124
When my guest Bubba Page walked into the studio holding his grandfather’s 1960 vinyl record album, I knew we were in for a special conversation about legacy…
- Stories That Live In Us
Bootleggers, Mine Massacres, and Brooklyn (with Linda Stasi) | Episode 123
Long before mobster legends took over New York, Italian immigrants were riding in rodeos, surviving coal mine massacres, and brewing bootleg wine in the…
- Stories That Live In Us
Alex Haley is My Uncle: The Rest of the Story of My Family “Roots” (with Chris Haley) | Episode 122
Growing up with a world-famous uncle whose book transformed American history, Chris Haley spent decades pursuing stage lights and applause before realizing his…
- Stories That Live In Us
A National TV Crew Showed Up At My House: Discovering a Lost Legacy (with Melissa Stafford) | Ep 121
What if a national TV crew showed up at your door to reveal a family secret? Have you ever felt a missing piece in your family tree that you couldn’t quite…
- Stories That Live In Us
Stories That Connect Us (And Why DNA Isn't Enough) | Episode 120
Shared ancestors make us related. Shared stories make us connected. Can I tell you a secret? My absolute favorite part of family history isn't just discovering…
- Stories That Live In Us
Fifty Nifty United States (with Lisa Elzey) | Episode 119
What happens when you spend a year chasing family stories across all fifty states? I'm Crista Cowan (known online as The Barefoot Genealogist), and for this…
- Stories That Live In Us
Delaware: Courage to Save the Words That Built America (with Anna Crowley Redding) | Episode 118
How close did America come to losing its foundational words forever? In this episode of Stories That Live In Us, host Crista Cowan (The Barefoot Genealogist)…
- Stories That Live In Us
Pennsylvania: Stashed-Away Secrets and Forgotten Family (with Jessica Rae) | Episode 117
What happens when a simple hint on your family tree uncovers a decades-old secret? In this episode of Stories That Live In Us, host Crista Cowan (The Barefoot…
- Stories That Live In Us
New Jersey: A Sentence of Survival | Episode 116
Imagine diving into your family tree to discover that your ancestors left you a secret message more than 300 years ago, encoded into the literal names of their…
- Stories That Live In Us
Georgia: Two Lives, Two Coasts, One Massive Secret (with Julie Merrill) | Episode 115
A dapper playboy, a broken plantation safe, an embezzlement scheme, and a grandfather who completely vanished. What happened to William H. Wheeler? 🕵️♂️🔍 When…
- Stories That Live In Us
Connecticut: The Windsor Witch | Episode 114
〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts…
- Stories That Live In Us
Massachusetts: From Rags to Riches to Ashes to Starting Again (with Laura Tasse) | Episode 113
〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts…
- Stories That Live In Us
Maryland: A New Kind of Identity | Episode 112
Four months pregnant, two babies already buried in German soil, Anna Maria Niccum boarded a wooden ship in 1749 and crossed an ocean she'd never seen. Not for…
- Stories That Live In Us
South Carolina: Ancestors Leading the Charge in Battle and in Life (w/ Anne Mitchell) | Episode 111
A wounded soldier refuses to dismount. His boot overflowing with blood, his hat riddled with three bullet holes, he rallies his troops up a South Carolina hill…
- Stories That Live In Us
New Hampshire: Chosen Family, Jewish Roots (with Nancy Kotz and Lynne Snierson) | Episode 110
Chosen family and Jewish roots run so deep in New Hampshire's Lakes Region that two families spent generations wondering where one ended and the other began…
- Stories That Live In Us
Virginia: One DNA Match and a Woman Who Didn’t Want to Be Found (with Nicole Palsa) | Episode 109
What must it feel like to grow up knowing your mother walked out the door when you were just three years old and never came back? After Nicole Palsa heard her…
- Stories That Live In Us
New York: A Melting Pot of Resilience (with Scott Pratt) | Episode 108
What would you do if a single letter revealed that everything you thought you knew about your family was only half the story? Scott Pratt walked into a…
- Stories That Live In Us
North Carolina: Buried Treasure, Buried Stories | Episode 107
He buried a fortune in gold under a bent white oak. Then he died before anyone could find it. My 6x great-grandfather Abraham Kuykendall lived 93 extraordinary…
- Stories That Live In Us
Rhode Island: A Spirit of Independence (with Maureen Taylor) | Episode 106
What can a single vintage photograph tell you about your ancestors? Maureen Taylor, know as The Photo Detective®, has spent decades proving that old family…
- Stories That Live In Us
Vermont: Conversations of Green Mountain Kingdoms (with Mike Brousseau) | Episode 105
Ever wonder how a "Hallmark movie" setting shapes a family for generations? In this episode, Mike Brousseau shares stories from the Northeast Kingdom of…
- Stories That Live In Us
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…
- Stories That Live In Us
Tennessee: A Patriot From the Holler | Episode 103
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…
- Stories That Live In Us
Ohio: Family Roots, Foundational Soil | Episode 102
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…
- Stories That Live In Us
Louisiana: Red Lipstick, Hidden Heirlooms, and Family Secrets (with Arlene Rome) | Episode 101
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…
- Stories That Live In Us
Indiana: Been Here All Along (with Lisa Fanning) | Episode 100
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…
- Stories That Live In Us
Mississippi: Finding Far East in the Deep South (with Larrisa Lam) | Episode 99
What happens when a California family walks into Mississippi and walks out forever changed? Filmmaker and music executive, Larissa Lam, director of the…
- Stories That Live In Us
Illinois: Scoundrels and Scandals (with Sue Talbot) | Episode 98
When Sue Talbot's grandmother casually mentioned items belonging to "Arthur," Sue discovered a family secret buried for decades. But that revelation was just…
- Stories That Live In Us
Alabama: Generations of Joy (with Noah Lapidus) | Episode 97
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…
- Stories That Live In Us
Maine: Memories Making History (with Steve Bromage) | Episode 96
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…
- Stories That Live In Us
Missouri: Disaster in the Heart of America (with Kim Harrison) | Episode 95
〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts…
- Stories That Live In Us
Arkansas: Nana and the Aunts | Episode 94
〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts…
- Stories That Live In Us
Michigan: Broken Headstones & Unearthed Stories (with Justin Frost) | Episode 93
〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts…
- Stories That Live In Us
Florida: A Good Deed Is Never Lost (with Meredith Kratzer Sellers) | Episode 92
〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts…
- Stories That Live In Us
Texas: Christmas Card Culture Connections (with Sylvia Hernandez) | Episode 91
When Sylvia Hernandez discovered vintage Christmas cards in a university archive, her coworkers didn't understand their significance. But for her, they…
- Stories That Live In Us
Iowa: A Love of Food and Family (with Rosie Grant) | Episode 90
When archivist Rosie Grant stumbled upon a gravestone with a spritz cookie recipe carved into it, she had no idea it would change her life. What began as a…
- Stories That Live In Us
Wisconsin: Great Grandmothers and the Great Migration (with Dani Allen) | Episode 89
When Dani was in eighth grade, she watched her grandmother wash and braid her own mother’s hair. In that moment, she was witness to a ritual passed on through…
- Stories That Live In Us
California: Stars Shooting Out of Silence (with Candace Dixon Horne) | Episode 88
When Candace Dixon-Horne's husband bought AncestryDNA kits in 2018, she hesitated before sending hers in. Raised by a single mom in Arkansas, Candace spent her…
- Stories That Live In Us
Minnesota: Santa Claus, a Corn Cob Pipe, and Nellie Oleson (with Lisa Elzey) | Episode 87
What if your family's pioneer past looked exactly like your favorite childhood TV show? When Lisa Elzey discovered her great-great-grandfather's story, she…
- Stories That Live In Us
Oregon: Trail of the Unclaimed | Episode 86
When Phyllis Zegers discovered her cousin died alone in Oregon State Hospital in the 1890s, she never imagined it would lead to reconnecting hundreds of…
- Stories That Live In Us
Kansas: A Calling From the Ancestors (with Calvin Osborne) | Episode 85
Calvin Osborne, a Washington D.C. attorney and Civil War reenactor, spent nearly three decades studying African American military history before Ancestry…
- Stories That Live In Us
West Virginia: Fame or Infamy in the Mountain State (with Mallory Peterson) | Episode 84
When Mallory Peterson discovered she had Scottish ancestry instead of Cherokee heritage, she uncovered something intriguing that has captured her imagination…
- Stories That Live In Us
Nevada: The Well-Worn Path | Episode 83
〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts…
- Stories That Live In Us
Nebraska: Connecting to the Land Through Stories (with Greg Wagner)
When Greg Wagner's great-great-grandmother made her dying wish to be buried not in a cemetery but beneath an oak tree on their Nebraska homestead, she planted…
- Stories That Live In Us
Colorado: Braving the Wild Frontier (with Chris Trainor) | Episode 81
〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts…
- Stories That Live In Us
North Dakota: Creating Community (with Sarah Walker) | Episode 80
When Sarah Walker's grandfather checked his mail one last day before leaving for World War I, he discovered a neighbor had intervened to keep him home—a…
- Stories That Live In Us
South Dakota: Finding the Girl in the Middle (with Marni Sandweiss)
When historian Marni Sandweiss discovered an 1868 photograph of six prominent Civil War generals standing around an unnamed Indigenous girl, she couldn't let…
- Stories That Live In Us
Montana: Love, Loss, and Everything In-Between (with Mary Anne Mercer) | Episode 78
💕 When Mary Anne Mercer discovered her great-grandmother's diary in a trunk that had sat untouched since 1915, she knew she had found something extraordinary…
- Stories That Live In Us
Washington: Replanted Roots Now Evergreen (with Cyndi Ingle) | Episode 77
〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️ 🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts…
- Stories That Live In Us
Idaho: Unboxing Gems of the Past (with Jen Iverson) | Episode 76
🎵 When Jen Iverson said "What I wouldn't give to hear Grandpa's music again," she had no idea what she was about to discover just two days later. Join me as…