Genealogy Matters

Was She Pushed? Did She Jump? Or Did She Fall

Robin Stewart — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 23:14:48 GMT

You can read Was She Pushed? Did She Jump? Or Did She Fall? by here.

GenStack

Robin Stewart — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 18:30:41 GMT

GenStack

Discovery Your Weekly Genealogy Content

Blogs | Newsletters | Podcasts | Video | Books

It’s Here! Season 2 of GenClub!

Join the GenClub Panel as they talk with of Stories Behind the Records about his article, Adelaide Springett.

In this episode of GenClub, family historian Paul Chiddicks shares how one Victorian photograph of a young girl, Adelaide Springett, led him from "cold data" to a moving story of poverty, resilience, and survival in East London. The panel explores what the records reveal — and what they can't — asking: If we're not their voice, who will tell their stories?

Genealogy Matters Magazine

It’s Here!

Want a closer look?

Click through to get a sneak peek and flip the pages yourself.

S N E A K -- P E E K

Or read more about it in this article…

Or Get your copy of Volume 1, Issue 1 for $6.99 — or subscribe for a full year at just $4.92/issue.

Get Your Copy

If you’re a Paid Subscriber to Genealogy Matters, you received your Member-Edition delivered right to your inbox on August 9th.

How do I take my family history research and turn it into something my descendants will want to read?

The answer to the question can be found in the Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit. We invite you to an experience you won’t forget. You’ll learn how to…

Overcome the self-doubt that keeps so many family historians from ever calling themselves storytellers, and turn that hesitation into the confidence to finally start writing.

Navigate the Internet Archive as a family history contributor

Organize your research, identify turning points, and shape scattered facts into a focused narrative path so your family history becomes easier to write, share, and preserve.

Transform your family history research into richer, more meaningful narrative writing through microhistory — moving beyond isolated facts to build stories that feel grounded, human, and historically connected.

Build your family history counter-archive for public access that will future proof your family’s legacy, one story at a time or as a collection.

Five presenters. Five pieces of the same journey: from researcher, to storyteller, to steward.

Learn more about them here:

Support the Content Creators

How can you support these amazing Family Historian Community Authors and Content Creators? When you find the content that speaks to you…

✔️ReStack

✔️Comment

✔️Recommend

✔️Like

How can you get their posts right when they are published?

—Subscribe directly to their Newsletters.

Do you know of a Genealogy-focused newsletter you’d like to see added to GenStack? Do you want your blog, newsletter, podcast or video channel considered to be included on GenStack?

DM me! I’m always looking for new publications to add to GenStack.

Stacked Between the Leaves

Here is what you will find in this week’s GenStack

Stacked this Week (20 Stacked)

Videos (11 Stacked)

Podcast (17 Stacked)

Additional This Week (55 Stacked)

George Ratty (1813/16-1867)

This article follows on from an overview about my Ratty ancestors which you can find here…

19 days ago · 13 likes · 10 comments · Jane Chapman

Fireman Albert Victor Kite

Some families seem destined to endure more than their share of heartbreak…

16 days ago · 9 likes · 2 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The Chiddicks Observer Edition 68

Some weeks, the stories we uncover seem to have very little in common. This week is rather different…

18 days ago · 28 likes · 15 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Wanted: A man who can swear

| Part 1 of 1 …

17 days ago · 17 likes · 9 comments · Lori Olson White

Emma Explores… Influential Women

Special thanks to Linda Teather, Ann Rockley, and Jude Rhodes for your encouragement in today’s program, and to all of you following along with this recording. Your thoughtful engagement in Emma Cox’s presentation today, the lively conversation that followed (and your comments below), are what make this such a special program…

15 days ago · 2 likes · 1 comment · Emma - Journeys into Genealogy and Barbara at Projectkin

Live "Capturing the Lives of the Stigmatised & Marginalised" with Dai Davies

Thank you, Jude Rhodes, Noel Macdonald Peck, Jim the Historian, Shell Norman, Linda Teather, Diane Burley, Frances Ford, Dan at Genealogy Assistant, Katy Dalgleish, GrnEyedLdy, Jill Swenson, and all of you in the audience today. Truly, thank you for joining…

19 days ago · 13 likes · 4 comments · Barbara at Projectkin and GenealCymru

Migration Stories: Explore the Paths

Migration stories seem to be a universal in human history. All of us have such stories somewhere in our histo…

a month ago · 17 likes · 5 comments · Barbara at Projectkin

The Children of Anne Lovelace and Rev. John Gorsuch of Walkern

While I was away this summer, I received a message from a (very) distant cousin about where our Lovelace lines diverge…

16 days ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Alicia M Prater

Sarah Hall Rushton, Widow ~ Chapter Eight

As I wrote this, I thought of the quilt made by my great-grandmother. She died before I was born, yet I feel her love when I lie under its warmth…

25 days ago · 3 likes · Anne Wendel

Un-Appy? You Aren’t Alone

Tim was waiting in traffic to back into a spot. “Why don’t you get out and start the meter,” he suggested as he craned his neck…

14 days ago · 3 likes · 14 comments · Diane Burley

33. East Lansing- MSU - The Growth Years

Note: This is the next installment of It Takes a Pair, a 34-chapter memoir written by my grandmother, Helen Hinkson Green (1907-2003). It recounts her memories of raising her twin daughters as a single (& widowed) parent throughout the 1940s. It is being published posthumously in her honor, with new chapters released every Sunday. View…

19 days ago · 4 likes · 3 comments · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

Mundane to Magnificent - Australia Family History Month 2026

August is Family History Month in Australia. I haven’t really made any plans for posting, but I will be attending conferences and webinars during the month…

20 days ago · 11 likes · 3 comments · Jennifer Jones

Module 3 Assessment: Story Seeds & Expanding the Frame

You’ve done a lot of important work in Module 3…

24 days ago · Aryn Youngless

Lesson 4.1: Building Characters from Real People

Welcome to Module 4: Building Characters & Worlds…

17 days ago · Aryn Youngless

1904 St. Paul Cyclone: My Czech and Hungarian Immigrant Ancestors Survived the Storm

The daytime weather across the Twin Cities on August 20, 1904, was not unlike most summer days. It was a Saturday. The skies were clear, the sun was hot, and the people of St. Paul, Minnesota, were going about their day…

16 days ago · 17 likes · 9 comments · Kirsi Dahl

Introducing Young Genealogists Academy: Teaching the Next Generation to Become Family History Detectives

When we talk about genealogy, we often talk about our ancestors…

16 days ago · 2 likes · Barbara Jean May

Genealogy Storytelling

A Life Left Unfinished

14 days ago · 8 likes · Cynthia Boatright Raleigh

The Great American Migration

America is big…

15 days ago · 4 likes · 5 comments · David Shaw

💛Special Thanks!

To for sharing GenStack on his Best of Genea-Musings blog.

To everyone who restacks, comments, likes, and shares GenStack.

Genealogy Matters Magazine

A grassroots magazine by and for family history storytellers.

Our current Call for Submissions is now OPEN!

What does being part of Genealogy Matters Magazine really mean?

It means your family history story doesn’t disappear.
So much of what we uncover — the late nights tracing ship manifests, the courthouse records, the handwritten letters — lives in notebooks, blog posts, and memory. Here, it gets a permanent home. A citable, archivable, lasting home.
Genealogy Matters Magazine exists because family history deserves more than a footnote. It deserves a place on the shelf.
And it deserves to be written by people like you.

This magazine exists because of this community. Thank you for being part of it.

— Robin, Founder & Editor, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Genealogy and Family History Videos Published this Week

Genealogy and Family History Podcasts Published This Week

George Hill: The Trial

Happy Birthday to My Yenish Immigrant Ancestor Johanna Martha Gerbing, geb. Nicolai

Migration Stories: following the paths to Australia’s goldfields

Oma Manifests in my Kitchen

The Men Who Followed the Saw

What It Meant to Grow Up in Halls Hill

Naming One’s Selves

Merton Edward Johnson, Jr., September 13, 1915 - December 18, 1941

What Did You Do, Captain George Nelson?

The Records Are Online. The Knowledge Isn’t.

A Look Back and

The Rest of the Story Belongs in the Book

The hospital that disappeared (St. Vincent’s Hospital, Greenwich Village)

Tip Roundup for August

A View From the Kitchen Window

One Word Changed Everything: “Insane.”

Pride Is Cheap: What Actually Keeps a Community Alive

An Eastland Story Comes Full Circle: Martha Willig’s Eastland Survival

Why Your Ancestor Story Doesn’t Land

Tracing Revolutionary Era Pioneers Along the Streams and Backroads of North Carolina

New Notebook for Genealogy, the Flu and Records, Riley is Adverse

51. Erich Marx at MATRA

A Future Somewhere to the West

Clues to Find Your German Ancestors in America

In Defense of Slightly Unhinged Curiosity

Penturen Church and the Beltrami Island Resettlement Project

Yorkshire Miners

Worth a thousand words

Class in Cookery: 1 February 1952

Vegas Vows That Last a Lifetime

Can You Belong to a Place You’ve Never Lived?

Emma #235: May 1948

1949: Luncheon Muffins

“A very promising Female attendant.” | Ann Davies.

024 WWII Letters Chapter Twenty-Four: Physician’s Oath

Friday Find: A Dower for Jane Crawford

Postcards and Family History

Migration stories with Projectkin

Jane’s Illness: Home Life, Beginnings of Mania, and Mental Illness as a Cause of Death

The McKay Convergence

Vincent Keating

Editing a Cabinet Card in Photoshop

Ask AI: “Describe A Day In the Life of Lucretia (Smith) Seaver In December 1864”

Pre-1895: A Hungarian Birth Certificate Did Not Exist

Fourteen Souls: What the 1851 Michigan Colored Population Report Reveals About David Nelms

You Are the Realization of My Ancestors’ Wildest, Most Healed Dreams

Do You Have an Exit Strategy

Made Your Cemetery List Yet? Here’s Your Cemetery Week Challenge

Per Mundum : The Newsletter of The Clay of England Society

Want to see the real Creighton Cabin?

January 9, 1894 — Ethel the Peculiar School Girl

Part 5: The State of Iowa Vs Mathias Baldes

Questions to Ask Your Older Relatives Before It’s Too Late

Vera at Five Weeks (Updated for Nolan)

Walls come tumbling down

Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit

Five voices, one Summit - Meet your speakers

Robin Stewart — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 21:23:44 GMT

Hello!

When we sat down to plan the Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit, we didn’t want a lineup of similar voices repeating the same advice. We wanted five people who each hold one piece of the journey many family historians eventually experience, from the first flicker of self-doubt to the moment your research becomes something worth preserving.

Here’s who you’ll be learning from on September 18–19:

Rhonda Lauritzen opens things Friday evening with a session on imposter syndrome — turning the insecurity so many of us feel about telling someone else’s story into something that actually moves you forward.
Chris Freeland of the Internet Archive delivers Saturday’s keynote on preserving family history for the long game, because stewardship doesn’t end when the writing does.
Aryn Youngless teaches how a chronological timeline becomes the skeleton of a compelling narrative — the difference between a pile of records and a story with a beginning.
Lisa Maguire shows how zooming into a micro history can expand your family’s place within the larger historical record.
Robin Stewart closes out the craft sessions with why the counter-archive matters to our family history stories, and how leaning into the Internet Archive is the way to protect them.

As we get closer to the Summit, we’ll introduce you to each of them in more depth. But we wanted you to see the full picture first: a single event, five distinct perspectives, one shared goal of helping you move from researcher to storyteller to steward.

The Summit runs live over two days, Friday evening and all day Saturday (Eastern Time), with a Replay Pass available if you can’t make every session.

Early Bird pricing is available through August 18 — Summit Admission is $75, or upgrade to a Live + Replay Pass for $112. After that, pricing moves to our Standard tier.

Meet the Full Speaker Lineup & Register at Early Bird Pricing

We’ll see you there,

Robin & Aryn

Founders of the Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit

P.S. Early Bird pricing ends August 18 — after that, tickets increase to the Standard rate. If you know you’re coming, this is the best time to lock in your seat.

GenStack

Robin Stewart — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 18:30:07 GMT

GenStack

Discovery Your Weekly Genealogy Content

Blogs | Newsletters | Podcasts | Video | Books

It’s Here! Season 2 of GenClub!

Join the GenClub Panel as they talk with of Stories Behind the Records about his article, Adelaide Springett.

In this episode of GenClub, family historian Paul Chiddicks shares how one Victorian photograph of a young girl, Adelaide Springett, led him from "cold data" to a moving story of poverty, resilience, and survival in East London. The panel explores what the records reveal — and what they can't — asking: If we're not their voice, who will tell their stories?

Genealogy Matters Magazine

It’s Here!

Every family has a mystery, a memory, and a moment worth saving.

Volume 1, Issue 1 of Genealogy Matters Magazine is here — and we made you a little sneak peek. Watch the flipbook flip through its pages below and get a feel for the stories waiting inside: a century-old death that still raises questions, a harness maker’s shop frozen in a handwritten receipt, a wartime accident almost too dramatic to believe, and the one storytelling tool every genealogist needs.

Want a closer look?

Click through to get a sneak peek and flip the pages yourself.

S N E A K -- P E E K

Or read more about it in this article…

Or Get your copy of Volume 1, Issue 1 for $6.99 — or subscribe for a full year at just $4.92/issue.

Get Your Copy

If you’re a Paid Subscriber to Genealogy Matters, you received your Member-Edition delivered right to your inbox on August 9th.

We are accepting Dear Descendant pieces for the magazine. Have you written yours yet?

Give Your Family History a Voice.

Why We Built the Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit

We’ve spent years surrounded by researchers who found all of it…

a month ago · 2 likes · Aryn Youngless

Somewhere in your family there’s a photograph with no name written on the back, a letter folded into a shoebox, a name fading on a ship’s manifest. You’ve spent years gathering the facts. But facts and dates only tell part of the story. Who will tell the rest?

That’s the question the Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit was built to answer.

Join us September 18–19, 2026 for a first-of-its-kind virtual gathering created for family historians who are ready to turn research into narrative — and narrative into something that lasts. Proudly presented by Aryn Youngless’ From Research to Novel and Robin Stewart’s Genealogy Matters, this is where your ancestors’ silent records finally find their voice.

Over two days, you’ll learn from writers, researchers, and preservationists who have devoted their lives to this work:

Chris Freeland, Internet Archive

Chris Freeland, of the Internet Archive, opens the Summit with a keynote on preserving your family’s history in the Internet Archive — showing you how to make your research and stories part of the permanent record, safe from lost files, dead platforms, and time itself.

Rhonda Lauritzen, Evalogue.Life

Rhonda Lauritzen helps you move past the fear of hitting “publish,” reframing the doubt every storyteller feels as proof that you’re exactly the right person to tell this story.

Lisa Maguire, ancestory

Lisa Maguire shows you how to place your ancestors inside the wider sweep of history, so a name on a census page becomes a person shaped by the world around them.

Aryn Youngless guides you through organizing your timeline and building the habits that carry a story all the way to the page.

Robin Stewart, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Robin Stewart takes you through creating a counter archive and why it matters — building moments in your ancestors’ lives rather than settling for summaries.

You don’t need to be a professional writer. You don’t need a finished manuscript. You just need the willingness to believe that your family’s story — your story to tell — deserves to be more than a folder on a hard drive.

Here’s our promise: you’ll leave this Summit no longer a tenant of your own history, but its rightful owner and protector.

🎟️ Early Bird tickets are on sale now.

Click the link below to grab yours before they’re gone, and become the storyteller your family has been waiting for.

The Early Bird Prices end soon!

Source: Evalogue.Life.

I'm excited to share my personal recommendation:

Changing the Ending, the new book from Rhonda Lauritzen and Rachel J. Trotter.

When I attended their class at RootsTech, I was fundamentally changed forever as a family history storyteller. Their expertise and down-to-earth approach to family history storytelling has made all the difference for me. — Robin Stewart

Rhonda and Rachel have spent a decade at Evalogue.Life conducting thousands of oral history interviews, writing client books, and coaching students — and this book distills what they’ve learned into a practical guide for anyone writing a memoir, autobiography, or family history.

Inside, you’ll find:

The power of story — how writing personal and family history can reshape difficult experiences and strengthen family bonds.
Field-tested methods — photo prompts, journaling techniques, and oral history approaches refined from real experience.
Practical writing tools — storyboarding, vignette writing, dialogue, and advice for handling sensitive subjects.
Guidance for family history writing — how to craft engaging, accurate narratives with the right amount of historical context.

Get the book + a free workshop

Changing the Ending releases December 15, 2026 (Post Hill Press, distributed by Simon & Schuster). Preorder now and get access to their publishing/printing workshop as a thank-you:

Preorder their book
Fill out the form.
Confirm your email.
Attend the live workshop on Saturday, August 15, or watch the replay.

Available at Barnes & Noble and wherever books are sold.

If you’ve been meaning to write your family’s story, I’d recommend starting here.

Learn more and preorder

Support the Content Creators

How can you support these amazing Family Historian Community Authors and Content Creators? When you find the content that speaks to you…

✔️ReStack

✔️Comment

✔️Recommend

✔️Like

How can you get their posts right when they are published?

—Subscribe directly to their Newsletters.

Do you know of a Genealogy-focused newsletter you’d like to see added to GenStack? Do you want your blog, newsletter, podcast or video channel considered to be included on GenStack?

DM me! I’m always looking for new publications to add to GenStack.

Stacked Between the Leaves

Here is what you will find in this week’s GenStack

Stacked this Week (23 Stacked)

Videos (12 Stacked)

Podcast (17 Stacked)

Additional This Week (55 Stacked)

Photo by Lu Costa, used with permission…

Acadiann

National Acadian Day

a month ago · 8 likes · 4 comments · Ann G. Forcier

25 days ago · 11 likes · 12 comments · Jane Chapman

Ratty Relatives

What’s in a Name…

Fireman Norman Richard Charles Mountjoy

Some friendships shape an entire lifetime…

23 days ago · 8 likes · Paul Chiddicks

Every family tree has its mysteries…

The Mystery of F. Bevens

22 days ago · 13 likes · 25 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The Chiddicks Observer Edition 67

Every family leaves something behind. Sometimes it's a voice we can still hear in our minds, sometimes it's a story that has been passed from one generation to the next, and sometimes it's an object, a place or a memory waiting patiently to be rediscovered. As you'll see this week, the things we inherit are rarely just possessions or records. They are f…

25 days ago · 24 likes · 9 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Hiram Cronk: The Last Soldier of 1812: Part 2

The Finding America series explores the nation’s first 250 years through individual lives – ordinary people who lived close to history as it unfolded. These stories are grounded in records, memory, and place, and focus on how Americans lived while those historic decisions were being made. Together, they trace the slow, human work of building a nation – …

24 days ago · 11 likes · 4 comments · Lori Olson White

Legacy Carvers

No One Named the Pilot

a month ago · 3 likes · 3 comments · Nancy G. Carver

Speakers' Corner: Memories and Stories of Food with Lynda Heines and Lorinda Brandon

Many thanks to Linda Teather, Ann Rockley, Kathy Stone, Marian Beaman, Tamara Buzyna Adams, our showrunner, Jennifer Jones, and our fantastic guests, Lynda Heines of Heines Site, and Lorinda Brandon of Name on the Recipe Card. Your ❤️s, comments, and the ensuing conversation are a gift that helps bring this recording to others' attention…

21 days ago · 6 likes · Jennifer Jones, Lynda Heines, and Barbara at Projectkin

Looking for the Hoover-Ketcham family - I have pictures for you

My grandmother had a friend who hung out with the family at Lake George, New York (Roger’s Rock Campground) during their August vacations in the 1970s. Her name was Etta May Hoover. Her husband’s nam…

a month ago · 5 likes · Alicia M Prater

More on the Hackett Family of Perkins, Iowa Through Notes from the Past

I’ve…

23 days ago · 5 likes · Alicia M Prater

Sarah Hall Rushton, Widow ~ Chapter Eight

As I wrote this, I thought of the quilt made by my great-grandmother. She died before I was born, yet I feel her love when I lie under its warmth…

25 days ago · 3 likes · Anne Wendel

Last week I wrote how I spent months banging my head against my desk trying to keep track of all the players in Irish mythology. I don’t know that I am that much smarter, but I am fairly convinced that we Irish (wee or not…

The Facts Behind Faeries

20 days ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Diane Burley

a month ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

32. Golden Earrings

Goldfields And Family Ties

William Chamberlaine - Inquest 1861

William Chamberlaine died on 26 February at the Balaclava mine in Whroo, when a large amount of earth fell onto him, while working. Two miners were there with him and gave evidence at the Magisterial Inquiry. This was a common occurrence in the goldfields…

a month ago · 7 likes · 1 comment · Jennifer Jones

Migration Paths: Every Migration is More Than a Journey

Image: Lady Kennaway, Grosvenor Prints. Painted by JW Huggins. My 2x great grandmother Ellen Boyle came to Australia, on this ship, with the Earl Grey Schemes. She arrived in 1848…

22 days ago · 20 likes · 4 comments · Jennifer Jones

Letters from LaBelle

Part 11: The Legendary Life of Pennsylvania & Kentucky Frontiersman John Hinkson (1729-1789)

Note: This is the eleventh chapter of a multi-part story about my ancestor, John Hinkson. He was a Captain in the American Revolution, an influential pioneer in Kentucky’s founding, and a notable frontiersman and woodsman on the “Western Frontier.” You can find the other installments of his story as well as future chapters…

23 days ago · 3 likes · 7 comments

Module 3 Assessment: Story Seeds & Expanding the Frame

You’ve done a lot of important work in Module 3…

24 days ago · Aryn Youngless

Migration Stories: Explore the Paths

Migration stories seem to be a universal in human history. All of us have such stories somewhere in our histo…

a month ago · 17 likes · 5 comments · Barbara at Projectkin

Journeys into Genealogy

Researching Portuguese ancestry with Ariel Mcdonald-Smith

A short extract is below…

21 days ago · 2 likes · Emma - Journeys into Genealogy

Some history writers employ a prompt to find their voice. Others glean old newspapers to dig up a forgotten tale…

Sleep Little Babies

23 days ago · 15 likes · 11 comments · David Shaw

💛Special Thanks!

To for sharing GenStack on his Best of Genea-Musings blog.

To everyone who restacks, comments, likes, and shares GenStack.

Genealogy Matters Magazine

A grassroots magazine by and for family history storytellers.

Our current Call for Submissions is now OPEN!

What does being part of Genealogy Matters Magazine really mean?

It means your family history story doesn’t disappear.
So much of what we uncover — the late nights tracing ship manifests, the courthouse records, the handwritten letters — lives in notebooks, blog posts, and memory. Here, it gets a permanent home. A citable, archivable, lasting home.
Genealogy Matters Magazine exists because family history deserves more than a footnote. It deserves a place on the shelf.
And it deserves to be written by people like you.

This magazine exists because of this community. Thank you for being part of it.

— Robin, Founder & Editor, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Genealogy and Family History Videos Published this Week

Genealogy and Family History Podcasts Published This Week

Wake Up! Back Up! Don’t Lose Your Blog Content

The Story Chaser

George Hill: The Arrest, the Confession and What Happened Next

Off by Two: Observing the Military Spouse Commission

Migration Stories: following the paths to Australia’s goldfields

The Man I Got Wasted With, Once

Build Your Appalachian Research Toolkit

Family Day

Alnwick Road ‘The Pan’ - 1961

A day with the Shakers

Can’t Read Your Scottish Records? Old Handwriting, Explained

A 1913 Journey through Maramureș County: #2

The Distance Between

Cadwyn’s Chronicle

Buried Threads Season 2 Episode 15: Season Send Off and

From Minden to Winona to Portland - College and Work

Madonna in the index, and a name that wouldn’t sit still

When DNA Matches Start Acting Weird

American Ancestors Webinars

Hiding in the Shadows

Tragedies in our past

A Pitiable Sight: A Postmaster Remembers the Eastland

The Town That Made Room for Anne

Can’t Fight AI, Recent Tips of the Day, Is It My Peter Bieger

How to Un-Russify Your Ukrainian Family History

Building a Legacy — Preserving, Sharing & Publishing Your Research

John Riddell the unqualified sheriff in New Jersey 1752 and the petition against him.

What a Facsimile Preserves

Along the Mad River

Free Land for Irish Immigrants

A New Medical History

An extraordinary gift from Don Kakaygeesick

Those Indiana Girls! The AAGPBL’s Central Indiana Girls Baseball League

Missing Pieces coda

Knext Gen Weekly #2

1949: Aunt Mary’s Favorite Pie

I’m a Pantser & You?

Sarah Jane Thompson

Tale of Charlie - Part 3

Introducing the Glassmire Brothers

MoCoGenSoc’s Fall 2026 Programs

The Board Is Not Broken

How I Met Flood Survivor Lettie Hatcher Clark

The First-Class Carriage

A Time Traveling River

Ask AI: “Describe the Life of Rebecca Spangler at Age 14 in Mercer County, Pennsylvania in 1846”

Stop fearing the AI badge - trust the connection.

Unlock Your Surname’s Story — Register for My August 13th One-Name Studies Presentation

Per Mundum: The Newsletter of The Clay of England Society

All Roads Lead Back to... the Original Landowner Map

January 6, 1894 — The Nursery Maid Goes Back to School

The State of Iowa Vs Mathias Baldes Part:4

Sweet memories and lasting legacies: Remembering Ryan’s Nut Shop in Martinsburg

Mushroom at Thomas Mitchell Park

Coaching is the best strategy in life

Genealogy Matters Magazine - Open Call for Submissions

Robin Stewart — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 02:09:03 GMT

Call for Stories

When I started imagining what Genealogy Matters Magazine could be, I kept coming back to a single question: Where do family history stories go to last?

Genealogy Matters Magazine — Open Call for Submissions

If you write narrative family history — stories rooted in your own research, your own ancestors, your own discoveries, and your own effort to understand the people who came before you — this call is for you.

Genealogy Matters Magazine is a monthly digital publication of original and curated family history storytelling. Every issue brings together voices from across the genealogy community: researchers, writers, descendants, and storytellers who have done the work of uncovering the past and found the words to bring it forward.

This is a magazine about family history as a practice of stewardship — of honoring the people who came before us by telling the truth about their lives as well as we can.

Each issue is designed to be permanent, citable, and archivable. After three years, issues of Genealogy Matters Magazine will be added to the Internet Archive so they remain available for future descendants and researchers.

Your story, in these pages, will last.

We Are Looking For

We are currently accepting submissions for the following categories:

Feature Story — $75

The Feature Story is the heart of every issue. It is the lead narrative piece that anchors the magazine — a longer, more deeply researched family history story, written with care and intention.

Length: 1,500–2,500 words
Must be original, unpublished work — not previously published in any form, including Substack or a personal blog
Must focus on the author’s own ancestors or individuals to whom the author has a significant personal, family, or lineal connection
A high-resolution cover image submission is required
Includes your full byline, contributor bio, and Author’s Note

The Feature Story runs as the opening piece of the magazine — the first thing readers encounter after the Editor’s Note. It is the most prominent position in the issue.

Family Story — $25

A Family Story is a narrative family history piece: ancestor profiles, migration stories, discovery moments, family legends tested against records, or themed stories drawn from your own research.

Length: 800–2,500 words
Stories that originated on Substack or your personal blog are welcome
Must be about your own ancestors or individuals to whom you have a significant personal, family, or lineal connection
An Author’s Note is required — briefly describe the basis for your factual claims and any use of inference or imagination

If you have a piece you are proud of — one that deserves to exist beyond the algorithm — this is where it belongs.

Storyteller’s Craft Article — $50

Storyteller’s Craft articles share knowledge, techniques, and insights on the practice of family history storytelling. These pieces teach, guide, and explore the craft itself.

We are looking for original articles focused on one of these areas:

Writing — how to research, structure, draft, or refine a family history story
Publishing — how to format, self-publish, or submit family history work for publication
Preserving — how to make family history findable, archivable, and enduring for future generations

Additional guidelines:

Length: 800–2,500 words
Must be original, unpublished work, and not previously published in any print magazine
An Author’s Note describing your perspective or experience in the topic area is required

Rising Research Article — $50

Rising Research articles share knowledge, techniques, and insights on the research methods. These pieces teach, guide, and explore the research that goes before the story.

We are looking for original articles focused on one of these research areas:

New techniques
Tried and true strategies explained
AI as your research assistant
Fresh Approaches

Additional guidelines:

Length: 800–2,500 words
Must be original, unpublished work, and not previously published in any print magazine
An Author’s Note describing your perspective or experience in the topic area is required

What Every Contributor Receives

All accepted contributors receive:

Payment upon publication
A 6-month complimentary digital subscription to Genealogy Matters Magazine
Your byline and contributor bio in the issue

A Note on Our Standards

All submissions must focus on deceased individuals. We do not accept content that features, identifies, or centers living persons in any substantive way. This protects the privacy of living people and keeps our editorial focus on the historical record.

We ask that every submission include an Author’s Note — a brief transparency statement about the basis for your factual claims and any use of inference or imagination.

AI-generated content submitted as original work is not accepted. AI writing assistance — editing, brainstorming, reorganizing — is permitted, provided you are the originating author and take full responsibility for the content.

How to Submit

Ready to submit? Use the form below:

Submit your piece here

For more information about Genealogy Matters Magazine, visit:

Genealogy Matters Press

Questions? Reach out to Robin Stewart on Substack or at robin@cuzens.com.

Genealogy Matters Magazine is published monthly under Genealogy Matters Press, rooted in the Family History community. We exist to give family history storytelling a home worthy of the care that goes into it.

— Robin

Founder & Editor, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Chasing the Magic

Robin Stewart — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 23:07:05 GMT

Get the Magazine

Music by: Matthew L. Fisher

Song Name: Hope

License #: 2839255113

Member Edition - Genealogy Matters Magazine August 2026

Robin Stewart — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 06:45:32 GMT

Dear Genealogy Matters Paid Members,

The wait is over. Genealogy Matters Magazine — Volume 1, Issue 1 — is here, and because you’re a paid subscriber, your copy is already waiting for you.

Before anyth…

Genealogy Matters Magazine - August 2026

Robin Stewart — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 06:45:31 GMT

Hello, and welcome!

Some of you have been part of the Genealogy Matters and GenStack community for a while; some of you are brand new. Either way, I’m glad you’re here, because today I get to share something I’ve been working toward for awhile now.

Genealogy Matters Magazine — our August 2026 Issue is officially out, and it’s built on one simple belief: family history deserves a home that’s researched carefully, written beautifully, and preserved for good. Inside, you’ll find narrative genealogy, family history essays, and the kind of storytelling craft that turns a folder of research into a story people actually want to read.

Here’s a taste of what’s inside.

Get a Sneak Peek

I’ve put together a free preview of the August 2026 Issue so you can get a feel for it before you decide to buy or subscribe. Read the free preview here

What You’ll Find Inside the August 2026 Issue

Feature Story — Was She Pushed? Did She Jump? Or Did She Fall?

A routine search through a digitized newspaper archive leads Paul to an address he recognizes as his own family’s, and a mystery more than a century old that even the original coroner’s inquest never fully settled.

Why the Timeline Comes Before the Story

A practical, honest look at the tool most genealogists overlook, and how it turns a stack of research into a story worth telling.

The Harness Maker of Fulton Avenue

A granddaughter rebuilds her grandfather’s working life on Fulton Avenue in Evansville, Indiana, from two photographs, an old advertisement, and a single handwritten receipt.

Uncle Jim’s Accident

A family legend from a wartime Australian farm that Pauline couldn’t rest until she’d verified, and found, almost word for word, in a 1914 newspaper archive.

Dear Descendants

Thank you to for her entry in Dear Descendants!

Plus a full Name Index and a Contributors page introducing everyone whose work made this issue possible.

Ready for the Rest?

You have two ways in:

Buy this issue — Get instant access to the August 2026 Issue for $6.99.

Read the issue

Subscribe for a year — Become an annual subscriber and get every issue for as low as $4.92 per issue, and you’ll never miss a story again.

Subscribe here

Every family has a story worth telling. I hope you’ll let us help you find yours, and I hope you love this one as much as we loved putting it together.

One More Thing

If this issue moves you, or makes you think of someone in your own family tree you haven’t looked at in a while, I’d love to hear about it — please leave a comment!

If you love this magazine and want to share it, I’d love to invite you into something new: our Affiliate Partnership program. So many of you have already been telling friends, family, and fellow genealogists about this magazine — I wanted to make that a real partnership. As an affiliate, you’ll earn 30% commission on any annual membership you refer. It’s a small way to thank the people who are already doing the work of spreading the word about family history storytelling. If you’d like to join, you can become an affiliate partner here — it only takes a couple of minutes to get your own link.

With gratitude,

Robin Stewart

Founder & Editor, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Over-the-Moon Excited

Robin Stewart — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 21:18:52 GMT

Dear Family History Community,

The time is finally here! I am over-the-moon excited about the launch of Genealogy Matters Magazine! This magazine represents our remarkable community of family history storytellers. You are the inspiration, the engine, and the driving force behind the movement to preserve family history in a meaningful way. I have witnessed your expertise, style, and passion for writing your stories for the past three years here on Substack and beyond.

What I love is shining a light on all that you do to ensure your family history is carried through to the generations to come. While GenStack shines a light, I came to realize a need for something more permanent. Something that could be added to a counter-archive, a space designed to carry your stories into the future. Genealogy Matters Magazine is for that purpose. Within 3 years of publication, the magazine issues will be contributed to the Internet Archive, which is designed to be a counter-archive that will preserve our stories.

In each issue, you’ll find stories that deserve to be preserved for the future in Family Stories. These stories are submitted and drawn right from our community.

Once I started down this path, I recognized that the expertise found in this community and beyond is exactly what is needed for anyone wanting to write and preserve their family history in story form. Thus, the advent of Storyteller Craft.

Each month, Genealogy Matters Magazine will feature an incredible family history story that will make you see the work you’re doing through a new lens in Featured Family Story.

There is so much more that you just have to see for yourself. Here is the Sneak Peek!

So, thank you, family historians, for all you have done to make Genealogy Matters Magazine possible.

I want to extend a very special thanks to the amazing authors who had faith in this process from the very beginning and submitted their articles.

Thank you so much!

Until tomorrow!

Robin

GenStack

Robin Stewart — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 18:30:27 GMT

GenStack

Discovery Your Weekly Genealogy Content

Blogs | Newsletters | Podcasts | Video | Books

It’s Here! Season 2 of GenClub!

Join the GenClub Panel as they talk with of Stories Behind the Records about his article, Adelaide Springett.

In this episode of GenClub, family historian Paul Chiddicks shares how one Victorian photograph of a young girl, Adelaide Springett, led him from "cold data" to a moving story of poverty, resilience, and survival in East London. The panel explores what the records reveal — and what they can't — asking: If we're not their voice, who will tell their stories?

Genealogy Matters Magazine

launches August 10, 2026

In just 2 days!

We’ll launch Genealogy Matters Magazine — Volume 1, Issue 1, a new digital magazine dedicated to narrative genealogy and family history storytelling.

The magazine grew out of the Genealogy Matters and GenStack community and begins with one question: Where do family history stories go to last? It exists to give carefully researched family history writing a lasting home that is edited, designed, citable, archivable, and worth keeping.

Our inaugural issue will bring together narrative genealogy, family history essays, research stories, and practical craft guidance for people who want to move beyond charts and documents into meaningful, well-told family history.

The first issue will publish on August 10, 2026 in digital flipbook form, offering readers an easy, beautiful, magazine-like way to read and share it.

At its heart, Genealogy Matters Magazine is about family history transformed into story and preserved as record.

If you care about genealogy, storytelling, preservation, and the human lives behind the records, I hope you’ll follow along and help us welcome Genealogy Matters Magazine into the world.

If you’re a Paid Subscriber to Genealogy Matters, you’ll receive a copy of the magazine delivered right to your inbox on August 10th.

If you’re not a Genealogy Matter Paid subscriber and want to subscribe to the magazine itself, go to Genealogy Matters Magazine to get an annual subscription for 20% off for the first year. This is a limited time offer, so don’t wait. (Ends on August 10, 2026!) Use Coupon Code: PRELAUNCH to get 20% off for one year.

Give Your Family History a Voice.

That’s the question the Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit was built to answer.

Over two days, you’ll learn from writers, researchers, and preservationists who have devoted their lives to this work:

Chris Freeland, Internet Archive

Rhonda Lauritzen, Evalogue.Life

Rhonda Lauritzen helps you move past the fear of hitting “publish,” reframing the doubt every storyteller feels as proof that you’re exactly the right person to tell this story.

Lisa Maguire, ancestory

Lisa Maguire shows you how to place your ancestors inside the wider sweep of history, so a name on a census page becomes a person shaped by the world around them.

Aryn Youngless guides you through organizing your timeline and building the habits that carry a story all the way to the page.

Robin Stewart, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Robin Stewart takes you through creating a counter archive and why it matters — building moments in your ancestors’ lives rather than settling for summaries.

Here’s our promise: you’ll leave this Summit no longer a tenant of your own history, but its rightful owner and protector.

🎟️ Early Bird tickets are on sale now.

Click the link below to grab yours before they’re gone, and become the storyteller your family has been waiting for.

Source: Evalogue.Life.

I'm excited to share my personal recommendation:

Changing the Ending, the new book from Rhonda Lauritzen and Rachel J. Trotter.

When I attended their class at RootsTech, I was fundamentally changed forever as a family history storyteller. Their expertise and down-to-earth approach to family history storytelling has made all the difference for me. — Robin Stewart

Inside, you’ll find:

The power of story — how writing personal and family history can reshape difficult experiences and strengthen family bonds.
Field-tested methods — photo prompts, journaling techniques, and oral history approaches refined from real experience.
Practical writing tools — storyboarding, vignette writing, dialogue, and advice for handling sensitive subjects.
Guidance for family history writing — how to craft engaging, accurate narratives with the right amount of historical context.

Get the book + a free workshop

Changing the Ending releases December 15, 2026 (Post Hill Press, distributed by Simon & Schuster). Preorder now and get access to their publishing/printing workshop as a thank-you:

Preorder their book
Fill out the form.
Confirm your email.
Attend the live workshop on Saturday, August 15, or watch the replay.

Available at Barnes & Noble and wherever books are sold.

If you’ve been meaning to write your family’s story, I’d recommend starting here.

Learn more and preorder

Support the Content Creators

How can you support these amazing Family Historian Community Authors and Content Creators? When you find the content that speaks to you…

✔️ReStack

✔️Comment

✔️Recommend

✔️Like

How can you get their posts right when they are published?

—Subscribe directly to their Newsletters.

Do you know of a Genealogy-focused newsletter you’d like to see added to GenStack? Do you want your blog, newsletter, podcast or video channel considered to be included on GenStack?

DM me! I’m always looking for new publications to add to GenStack.

Stacked Between the Leaves

Here is what you will find in this week’s GenStack

Stacked this Week (16 Stacked)

Books (6 Stacked)

Videos (17 Stacked)

Podcast (18 Stacked)

Additional This Week (71 Stacked)

Kyeburn Diggings One-Place Study

McCready vs Veale / Veale vs McCready

Samuel Jeffery Veale and David McCready were neighbours at the Kyeburn Diggings in Central Otago, New Zealand. They had their differences…

a month ago · 4 likes · 3 comments · Jane Chapman

Themes that Underpin Migration Stories

I was recently listening to an interesting talk between Barbara at Projectkin and Lisa Maguire as they gave us a sneak peek into the Migration Stories Project due to start in September. It’s a ProjectKin initiative…

a month ago · 23 likes · 12 comments · Jane Chapman

The Heroes History Almost Forgot

Tucked away among the busy streets and towering office buildings of the City of London lies a small park that many people walk past without ever realising the remarkable stories it holds…

a month ago · 15 likes · 5 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The Funeral of the Nineteen

Some tragedies are measured by numbers…

a month ago · 16 likes · 6 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The Chiddicks Observer Edition 66

This week's edition is, in many ways, about looking beyond first impressions. Every article reminds us that there is always more to discover beneath the surface. Whether through poetry, diaries, newspapers, treasured heirlooms or forgotten court cases, these writers show us that every life deserves to be understood in all its complexity. They encourage …

a month ago · 20 likes · 10 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Building My Bridge to 2076: Episode 10

About “Building My Bridge to 2076…

a month ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Lori Olson White

Hiram Cronk: The Last Soldier of 1812: Part 1

| Part 1 of 2 | Next Chapter →|Margin Notes …

a month ago · 8 likes · 5 comments · Lori Olson White

This is the eighth article in Mom’s Diary series…

Beyond Her Own Life

a month ago · 10 likes · 8 comments · Lynda Heines

Livestream with Annette Gendler, “Explore the stories in family history”

Many thanks to all of you in the audience today. Through a strange glitch in Substack’s livestreaming software this morning, I couldn’t see any of you in the chatstream, but we both appreciated knowing you were there. Truly, thank you for joining Annette Gendler…

a month ago · 17 likes · 2 comments · Barbara at Projectkin and Annette Gendler

Two Different Hackett Families

I wrote a few years ago about a handwritten family history that made its way to me. I found additional copies while organizing my files to properly store them and ther…

a month ago · 3 likes · Alicia M Prater

Sarah Hall Rushton, Landowner's Wife ~ Chapter Seven

Writing this, I kept thinking how the kid I was drove the back roads of Nova Scotia in the back seat, sandwiched between plump elderly women in stockings and floral dresses, my grandmother and any one of her sisters. As they pointed out possums, foxes, and The Measured Mile…

a month ago · 2 likes · Anne Wendel

The People of the Gods of Art: Irony, Aspiration -- or Bull?

The first time I went to the Emerald Isle in 1981, I did so on a lark. I was living in London and decided to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland. Unfortunately, there was no green beer; all the pubs were closed. It was a Holy Day of Obligation…

a month ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Diane Burley

31. Toby joins the Family

a month ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

Goldfields And Family Ties

Annie Susan Dalcam 1855-1924

Anne Susan Dalcam was the daughter of George Dalcam and Anne Le Couteur, who came to Australia from Southampton, England. George was born in Jersey in the Channel Islands, and lived there until a few years before leaving for Australia…

a month ago · 7 likes · 3 comments · Jennifer Jones

Mary Was Home, but Where Was James?

Sometimes our ancestors are where they should be, but their names are hiding them. And if it wasn’t for Findmypast’s search by street feature, I might have been looking for another 50 years…

a month ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Jenny MacKay

💛Special Thanks!

To for sharing GenStack on his Best of Genea-Musings blog.

To everyone who restacks, comments, likes, and shares GenStack.

Genealogy Matters Magazine

A grassroots magazine by and for family history storytellers.

Our current Call for Submissions is now OPEN!

What does being part of Genealogy Matters Magazine really mean?

It means your family history story doesn’t disappear.
So much of what we uncover — the late nights tracing ship manifests, the courthouse records, the handwritten letters — lives in notebooks, blog posts, and memory. Here, it gets a permanent home. A citable, archivable, lasting home.
Genealogy Matters Magazine exists because family history deserves more than a footnote. It deserves a place on the shelf.
And it deserves to be written by people like you.

This magazine exists because of this community. Thank you for being part of it.

— Robin, Founder & Editor, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Books on Genealogy & Family History

Genealogy and Family History Videos Published this Week

Genealogy and Family History Podcasts Published This Week

George Hill: Part 3 — The Meeting

The President’s Military Spouse Commission: A Historian’s First Look

Intrepid lady motorists

Hermann Görbing - My Grandmother’s Yenish Cousin Who Perished at Auschwitz

How Do You Make a Line Out of a Circle?

The Bison Trails of Appalachia

Walking Freedman’s Village

Lost in 1878

Catch up for Week 15 - Expect the ‘Unexpected’

Mundane to Magnificent

The Record That Names the Father When the Birth Entry Won’t

Buried Threads Season 2 Episode 14: Hanging Threads - Christopher

From the New Girl to “Duck” Worrall

The baby brother

When DNA Matches Start Acting Weird

The Scuttlers: New tour coming autumn 2026

Modernized General Land Office Records System (GLO)

The Digital Erasure of Hyper-Local History

Pearl Harbor visit reminds me of the youth of war

The bribery detector

The 5-Thing A Day Challenge

Eastland “Hero,” Vaudeville Star, Octopus Wrangler: Meet Arthur Loeb

The Youngest Daughter’s Legacy

The Neighborhood

A Family Heirloom—The Story of Rebecca Campbell’s Rose

New features in Genealogy Assistant | August 2026

Is the Pension Proof Good Enough and Is Your Process the Problem?

What’s The Deal With All the Biblical Genealogies?

50. The Year is 1936

Early Morning Harvest, Stained Fingers, and a Family Recipe Passed Down Through Generations

Meet GenCreator: Your Free Genealogy Research Planner

Get Out! (or Not)

The children England never asked about

Where to Find Stories of Your Ancestors

Seventeenth-Century English Immigrant Motivation and the Making of New England Institutions

IT’S YORKSHIRE DAY 2026

The angel in the house

Class in Cookery: 28 December 1958

Field Notes for Lúnasa / Midsummer

Was Michel Deville (1738–1793) Maltese?

August 4th

Knext Gen Weekly #1

Emma #234: March-April 1948

Five Weeks of AI-Assisted Genealogy: Discoveries and Disappointments

1949: Pinwheel Dinner Rolls

023 WWII Letters Chapter Twenty-Three: Sad News and Old Maids

From a Narrative Report to a Family Story

Plain and Fancy Weddings in 1950s Pennsylvania

What AI Didn’t Do (And What It Did)

Neighbours and Community

A Deep Dive into Researching Deaths

Holding onto Vines

Jane’s Illness: Looking at Acute Mania in the 19th Century

The Town That Moved: Leavenworth, Indiana

Crofton Farm

ifOnlyi... Had Been In The Room

Sandals in the Snow: the gift of not fitting in

Emily and Lyle’s Story: Ordinary Days, January and February 1918

A Grave in Hungary Is Not Forever

21. POMPEO – 1701-1739

Augustus Wattles: The Quaker Abolitionist Who Drove Freedom’s Wagon into Union City

Two kinds of ‘done’ in genealogy.

The Story Is Looking for You: Uncover, Honor & Heal Your Ancestral Lineage

Why Sam Neill Reminds Me of My Ancestor

Breaking Ground: From Texas Dynamite to Pennsylvania Mine Dust

Per Mundum : The Newsletter of The Clay of England Society

Oh sugar! Corrections and connections

1893 Reading Guide — The correspondence begins

The State of Iowa versus Mathias Baldes

You Inherited Boxes of Family Photos. Here’s Where to Start.

Milestones

GenClub with Paul Chiddicks

Robin Stewart — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 15:31:52 GMT

GenClub — Season 2, Episode 1

The Girl in the Photograph: Paul Chiddicks and the Story of Adelaide Springett

From one photograph, a life restored.

Guest

Paul Chiddicks — Stories Behind the Records

Paul Chiddicks has been researching his family history for more than 35 years. Now 61 and recently retired, he lives in Cheshire, England, with his wife, having moved there from his native Essex around 30 years ago. Paul writes Stories Behind the Records on Substack and pens the regular “Dear Paul” column for Family Tree Magazine (UK). He is a founding contributor to Genealogy Matters Magazine, where his column Between the Lines explores the universal themes of memory, identity, and legacy found within family history records. An active member of several Family History Societies, Paul volunteers weekly with a local group in Cheshire and helps manage social media for the North West Kent Family History Society.

Panel

Robin Stewart — Genealogy Matters Magazine (Host)

Robin Stewart is a genealogist, curator, and writer with more than forty years immersed in family history. She is the founder of Genealogy Matters Magazine and GenStack, and the creator of the GenStack Coterie, a community for writers, researchers, and creators who treat genealogy as an act of stewardship. Robin is the author of Creative Agency and is completing her next book, Stewardship Matters: A Storyteller’s Guide to Preserving Family History.

Jane Chapman — BJNL’s Genealogy

Jane Chapmanhas been researching family history since the early 1990s and incorporating DNA evidence since 2013. In 2024 she started a one-place study, and her two Substack publications — BJNL’s Genealogy and Kyeburn Diggings One-Place Study — draw on her family archives.

Lisa Maguire — ancestory

Lisa Maguire earned her PhD in History from New York University, where she studied modern Europe. Through original archival research and creative nonfiction, she uses her family’s experiences to explore immigration, identity, religion, politics, and community in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canada.

Lynda Heines — Heines Sight

Lynda Heines is a writer, textile artist, genealogist, iris lover, and cat herder. Her sister’s death in 2023 pulled her back into writing about her ancestors and her own life journey. She lives on a small piece of land in Newburgh, Indiana.

Julie Dove — A Sense of Occasion

Julie Dove is a writer and researcher exploring food, memory, and the legacies we leave behind, weaving historical research and vintage recipes into stories that honor the women who rarely wrote their own down.

Anne Wendel — Grandma’s Granny’s Family Album

Anne Wendel is a lifelong genealogist and retired reading teacher who pairs family memories with photographs and research to keep her ancestors’ stories visible at Grandma’s Granny’s Family Album.

Episode summary

In 1901, a little girl stood before a camera in East London. Her name was Adelaide Springett, and her photograph became an enduring image of Victorian poverty. In this episode, family historian Paul Chiddicks joins the GenClub panel to talk about the article he wrote uncovering Adelaide’s life — moving beyond names, dates, and records into the deeper work of restoring a forgotten person’s story.

Paul walks the panel through how he first encountered Adelaide’s photograph, the research process that pieced together her life from birth records, census returns, workhouse and hospital records, newspaper reports, and family testimony, and the ethical responsibility that comes with telling someone else’s story. The panel — Jane, Lisa, Lynda, Julie, Anne, and Robin — bring their own close readings of the article, exploring questions of dignity, resilience, and what the historical record can and cannot tell us.

The conversation returns again and again to one central question: was Adelaide ever happy? And to Paul’s guiding belief:

“If we’re not their voice, who will tell their stories?”

About Adelaide Springett

1893–1986

Photographed by Horace Warner in 1901, Adelaide has been called the “poster girl for Victorian poverty in London.” Paul Chiddicks’s research follows her from that photograph through a life of hardship in Spitalfields and the East End, into her later years — restoring her from a symbol of poverty into a fully remembered person.

Credits

Guest: Paul Chiddicks — Stories Behind the Records
Host: Robin Stewart — Genealogy Matters Magazine
Panel: Jane Chapman (BJNL’s Genealogy), Lisa Maguire (ancestory), Lynda Heines (Heines Sight), Julie Dove (A Sense of Occasion), Anne Wendel (Grandma’s Granny’s Family Album)
Produced by: Genealogy Matters LLC
Images: used with permission and courtesy of Paul Chiddicks.
Music:
- A Voice in the Distance by Giorgio Dal Monte, License # 1462342917
- Where Our Story Begins by J Scott Rakozy, License # 8298508776
- Northern Light by Allen & Bright, License #7000175817
- Ezra’s Muse by Allen & Bright, License #1327694102
- Escape by Allen & Bright, License # 3691468390
- A.I. Generated Music, Roots and Branches. Generated by Genealogy Matters on Suno. Copyright 2025

No portion of this video may be reproduced, distributed, or republished without written permission, except as permitted by law.

Permissions: genealogymatterspress.com

GenStack

Robin Stewart — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 18:30:12 GMT

GenStack

Discovery Your Weekly Genealogy Content

Blogs | Newsletters | Podcasts | Video | Books

Genealogy Matters Magazine

launches August 10, 2026

In just 10 days, we’ll launch Genealogy Matters Magazine — Volume 1, Issue 1, a new digital magazine dedicated to narrative genealogy and family history storytelling.

The first issue will publish on August 10, 2026 in digital flipbook form, offering readers an easy, beautiful, magazine-like way to read and share it.

At its heart, Genealogy Matters Magazine is about family history transformed into story and preserved as record.

If you care about genealogy, storytelling, preservation, and the human lives behind the records, I hope you’ll follow along and help us welcome Genealogy Matters Magazine into the world.

If you’re a Paid Subscriber to Genealogy Matters, you’ll receive a copy of the magazine delivered right to your inbox on August 10th.

If you’re not a Genealogy Matter Paid subscriber and want to subscribe to the magazine itself, go to Genealogy Matters Magazine to get an annual subscription for 20% off for the first year. This is a limited time offer, so don’t wait. Use Coupon Code: PRELAUNCH to get 20% off for one year.

Dear Fellow members of the Family History Community,
We are so excited to announce our inaugural Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit!.
This Summit started with long conversations between the two of us about how to best serve people who want to transform their research into real family history stories — and how to preserve those stories in a meaningful way for future descendants and researchers.
We kept coming back to the same question: what would someone need to be successful at writing and preserving their family history?
So many of us do the hard work of research — the census records, the ship manifests, the courthouse archives — and the story never leaves the file folder. We wanted to change that.
We wanted to build a place where people learn to keep their family history — turning research into stories that outlast any single record, platform, or lifetime.
So, we reached out to the writers, archivists, and storytellers who could help bring this vision to life and invited them to present alongside us this September.
That is how, and why, the Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit came to be — born from a shared belief that this work deserves both the craft and the community to carry it forward.
We built this for you. We hope you’ll be part of it.
With gratitude,
& Robin Stewart

The Past is Waiting for You to Give it a Voice.

That’s the question the Genealogy Storyteller Virtual Summit was built to answer.

Over two days, you’ll learn from writers, researchers, and preservationists who have devoted their lives to this work:

Chris Freeland, of the Internet Archive, opens the Summit with a keynote on preserving your family’s history in the Internet Archive — showing you how to make your research and stories part of the permanent record, safe from lost files, dead platforms, and time itself.
Rhonda Lauritzen helps you move past the fear of hitting “publish,” reframing the doubt every storyteller feels as proof that you’re exactly the right person to tell this story.
Lisa Maguire shows you how to place your ancestors inside the wider sweep of history, so a name on a census page becomes a person shaped by the world around them.
Aryn Youngless guides you through organizing your timeline and building the habits that carry a story all the way to the page.
Robin Stewart takes you through creating a counter archive and why it matters — building moments in your ancestors’ lives rather than settling for summaries.

Here’s our promise: you’ll leave this Summit no longer a tenant of your own history, but its rightful owner and protector.

🎟️ Early Bird tickets are on sale now.

Click the link below to grab yours before they’re gone, and become the storyteller your family has been waiting for.

Source: Evalogue.Life.

I'm excited to share my personal recommendation:

Changing the Ending, the new book from Rhonda Lauritzen and Rachel J. Trotter.

When I attended their class at RootsTech, I was fundamentally changed forever as a family history storyteller. Their expertise and down-to-earth approach to family history storytelling has made all the difference for me. — Robin Stewart

Inside, you’ll find:

The power of story — how writing personal and family history can reshape difficult experiences and strengthen family bonds.
Field-tested methods — photo prompts, journaling techniques, and oral history approaches refined from real experience.
Practical writing tools — storyboarding, vignette writing, dialogue, and advice for handling sensitive subjects.
Guidance for family history writing — how to craft engaging, accurate narratives with the right amount of historical context.

Get the book + a free workshop

Changing the Ending releases December 15, 2026 (Post Hill Press, distributed by Simon & Schuster). Preorder now and get access to their publishing/printing workshop as a thank-you:

Preorder their book
Fill out the form.
Confirm your email.
Attend the live workshop on Saturday, August 15, or watch the replay.

Available at Barnes & Noble and wherever books are sold.

If you’ve been meaning to write your family’s story, I’d recommend starting here.

Learn more and preorder

The Storyteller Project (Final Week) is here!

Thank you to all who participated and followed the Storyteller Project!

The Storyteller Project is an 10-week guided experience for family historians who are ready to move their research into lasting story. Rooted in the principles of my book, Stewardship Matters: A Storyteller’s Guide to Preserving Family History, the project walks participants through the same arc of stewardship: shaping family history into credible, meaningful narratives, preparing those stories for publication, and making them findable for future generations. It’s free, community-centered, and designed for anyone who feels called to preserve the human record with care, intention, and purpose.

Welcome to The Storyteller Project

The Storyteller Project: Week 1

The Storyteller Project: Week 2

The Storyteller Project: Week 3

The Storyteller Project: Week 4

The Storyteller Project: Week 5

The Storyteller Project: Week 6

The Storyteller Project: Week 7

The Storyteller Project: Week 8

The Storyteller Project: Week 9

This Week:

The Storyteller Project: Week 10

Putting Your Family History Where It Can Be Found…

a month ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Robin Stewart

Support the Content Creators

How can you support these amazing Family Historian Community Authors and Content Creators? When you find the content that speaks to you…

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Stacked Between the Leaves

Here is what you will find in this week’s GenStack

Stacked this Week (16 Stacked)

Books (6 Stacked)

Videos (14 Stacked)

Podcast (22 Stacked)

Additional This Week (62 Stacked)

Introducing Heritage Hunters: Beyond the Episode!

We are launching a brand-new podcast series where we’ll watch an episode on our own, then get together on Zoom to discuss it, sharing our reactions, favorite discoveries, research strategies, and the genealogy lessons we can all take away…

a month ago · 3 likes · Barbara Jean May

So… I love creating junk journals and scrapbooks and such. And I wanted to create something that had to do with genealogy. I wound up creating genealogy-themed planner stickers for my journals…

Blending Two Hobbies

a month ago · 5 likes · 5 comments · Barbara Jean May

US Federal Census Passport Folio

Imagine if every ancestor had a passport... Every time you found them in a census, you earned another collectible badge. From 1790 to 1950, watch their story come together one census at a time. Even the missing 1890 census has its own memorial badge. This isn’t just another worksheet... It’s a new way to experience family history…

a month ago · Barbara Jean May

The First Telephone Connection in New Zealand

This article is a slightly modified version of an article I wrote and had published in the Journal of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists…

a month ago · 10 likes · 7 comments · Jane Chapman

Lesson 3.3: Expanding the Frame with the 5 W's

a month ago · 1 like · Aryn Youngless

Fireman Herbert Charles Wotton

For many of the men and women remembered through this project, the voices of those who knew them have long since fallen silent. Occasionally, however, a story survives through someone who lived through the tragedy themselves…

a month ago · 12 likes · 4 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The Chiddicks Observer Edition 65

Compiling The Chiddicks Observer each week has become a reminder that remarkable stories rarely announce themselves. More often, they appear quietly, in an overlooked newspaper column, an old family photograph, a parish register or a long-forgotten notebook. This week's selection celebrates those discoveries and the researchers whose patience and curios…

a month ago · 20 likes · 5 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The first thing you notice is the church…

Three Empty Cages.

a month ago · 19 likes · 11 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Smith Stimmel: The Last Witness

a month ago · 19 likes · 12 comments · Lori Olson White

Documentation for Silas England (1888-1973) and Cynthia Hale (1887-1955)

Continuing with the documentation posts, I’m moving on to another set of great-grandparents, my paternal grandmother’s parents Silas England and Cynthia Hale. I previously provided a list of their children with photos…

a month ago · 1 like · Alicia M Prater

Sarah Hall Rushton, Farmer’s Wife ~ Chapter Six

As I wrote, I channeled my mother and grandmother raising me, as well as what I brought into my own children’s childhoods…

a month ago · 1 like · Anne Wendel

On the Periphery: The Story I Almost Missed

“Your hair is the wrong color for you,” said Marie…

a month ago · 4 likes · Diane Burley

30. Sex Education- Second Grade Version

a month ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

Rev. John Felix Aiton and Nancy Hunter

Earlier this year, I made a connection with a fifth cousin, that has led to the smashing down of my most difficult brickwall, my 2x great grandmother, Janet Young. I now know exactly where in Scotland Janet lived before emigrating to Australia. I also now have information about the generations that went before her…

a month ago · 15 likes · 14 comments · Jennifer Jones

💛Special Thanks!

To for sharing GenStack on his Best of Genea-Musings blog.

To everyone who restacks, comments, likes, and shares GenStack.

Genealogy Matters Magazine

A grassroots magazine by and for family history storytellers.

Our current Call for Submissions is now OPEN!

What does being part of Genealogy Matters Magazine really mean?

It means your family history story doesn’t disappear.
So much of what we uncover — the late nights tracing ship manifests, the courthouse records, the handwritten letters — lives in notebooks, blog posts, and memory. Here, it gets a permanent home. A citable, archivable, lasting home.
Genealogy Matters Magazine exists because family history deserves more than a footnote. It deserves a place on the shelf.
And it deserves to be written by people like you.

This magazine exists because of this community. Thank you for being part of it.

— Robin, Founder & Editor, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Books on Genealogy & Family History

Genealogy and Family History Videos Published this Week

Genealogy and Family History Podcasts Published This Week

Case File Two: Finding George Hill – Part Two

Why There’s a Poem?

Tracing my 3rd great grandfather Wilhelm Bamberg

A Trunk for the Transatlantic Life

The Poor School Laws of Appalachia

Value What You Have To Hand

Summertime Blues

Mary “Lou” Louisa (nee) Lashbrook Rideout, Sept. 16, 1910 - March 13, 1981

The Missing Husband:

Sometimes just a small note can build a connection.

“My Ancestor Isn’t in the Records” — Why You’re Almost Certainly Wrong

Buried Threads Season 2 Episode 13: Hanging Threads - Florence

The Worralls and the Sweeneys

She saw the camera (86-88 Avenue B, Manhattan)

Same Name Resolution

A View From the Kitchen

Enrollment closes tonight, and a change to this newsletter

The “First” Great Depression

The Man From London Wanted a Quiet Word

Private detection in the 1890s

The Secret Life of the “Quarter Sessions”

Royal College of Surgeons of England

Projects, Pausing, Persisting

“You’ll Spoil the Boat”: Elmer Nelson, the Torch, and the Evidence

The Thinking Is Mine

Pioneers of Hunting Creek—Unraveling the Mitchell Family Legacy

Death Impact, Revolutionary Ancestors, Fictional Cow Story, First Time Name Giving, Pond Conenctions

The Soldier from Edgecombe: Robert Julius Lane

Working for Kin

The Family Story Doesn’t Align With the Truth

The book club that buoyed my Lake of the Woods book tour

Class in Cookery: 27 August 1965

A family affair

Stay Focused: Creating Aims & Objectives for Genealogy

Make that Call Part Three - Making the Ask

A Heritage of Gardening

1949: Dreambrosia Fudge Cake

Bringing an Ancestor’s Story to Life with AI

On The Photo Detective Podcast--The Wreck of the Mentor:

Research Both Sides of the Journey

Finding Your Ancestral Town: Your Go-To Resource

A Day in the Life

Kinship Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Access Some Articles Directly from PERSI for Free

The Trauma of Missing Origins

The Jondaryan Affair

Barn Sour

Ask AI: “Describe the Life of the David Auble Family in 1867 in Terre Haute, Indiana”

An Underground Railroad Route: John D. Zimmerman from Union City to Marshall, Michigan

Live with Kyla Bayang and author Durrone Schuler

On a bus to Brooklyn, landed in West Virginia

The Rear Admiral and the West Africa Squadron: A Wright Family Story

But “AI says [insert claim here]”

Per Mundum : The Newsletter of The Clay of England Society

Chasing Charles – Part II

Genealogian’s Notes for June 2026

December 17, 1893 — Ethel Before the Fire

The State of Iowa Vs Matthew Baldes

Returning to the Scene of My Death

TreeScope v4.0.5: Combined Search, Segment Sorting, and an Audit Trail

Generations Newsletter

How AI Helps Decipher the Handwriting

Roots and Directions by Jenny Grouiller-Ruhland

GenStack

Robin Stewart — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 18:31:37 GMT

GenStack

Discovery Your Weekly Genealogy Content

Blogs | Newsletters | Podcasts | Video | Books

Genealogy Matters Magazine

launches August 10, 2026

In just a few weeks, we’ll launch Genealogy Matters Magazine — Volume 1, Issue 1, a new digital magazine dedicated to narrative genealogy and family history storytelling.

The first issue will publish on August 10, 2026 in digital flipbook form, offering readers an easy, beautiful, magazine-like way to read and share it.

At its heart, Genealogy Matters Magazine is about family history transformed into story and preserved as record.

If you care about genealogy, storytelling, preservation, and the human lives behind the records, I hope you’ll follow along and help us welcome Genealogy Matters Magazine into the world.

If you’re a Paid Subscriber to Genealogy Matters, you’ll receive a copy of the magazine delivered right to your inbox on August 10th.

If you’re not a Paid Subscriber, and would like to get your subscription early, visit genealogymattersmagazine.com.

The Storyteller Project is here!

The Storyteller Project is an 10-week guided experience for family historians who are ready to move their research into lasting story. Rooted in the principles of my book, Stewardship Matters: A Storyteller’s Guide to Preserving Family History, the project walks participants through the same arc of stewardship: shaping family history into credible, meaningful narratives, preparing those stories for publication, and making them findable for future generations. It’s free, community-centered, and designed for anyone who feels called to preserve the human record with care, intention, and purpose.

Welcome to The Storyteller Project

The Storyteller Project: Week 1

The Storyteller Project: Week 2

The Storyteller Project: Week 3

The Storyteller Project: Week 4

The Storyteller Project: Week 5

The Storyteller Project: Week 6

The Storyteller Project: Week 7

The introduction that keeps changing.

Part of my Reading your roots series - on memory, identity, and small starts that shape who we become. Written alongside The Storyteller Project by Robin Stewart…

a month ago · 2 likes

The Storyteller Project: Week 8

This Week:

The Storyteller Project: Week 9

Feedback along the Path to Publishing…

a month ago · 2 likes · Robin Stewart

Support the Content Creators

How can you support these amazing Family Historian Community Authors and Content Creators? When you find the content that speaks to you…

✔️ReStack

✔️Comment

✔️Recommend

✔️Like

How can you get their posts right when they are published?

—Subscribe directly to their Newsletters.

Do you know of a Genealogy-focused newsletter you’d like to see added to GenStack? Do you want your blog, newsletter, podcast or video channel considered to be included on GenStack?

DM me! I’m always looking for new publications to add to GenStack.

Stacked Between the Leaves

Here is what you will find in this week’s GenStack

Stacked this Week (20 Stacked)

Books (6 Stacked)

Videos (10 Stacked)

Podcast (21 Stacked)

Additional This Week (65 Stacked)

The Holy Cards They Saved

Growing up Catholic in the 1960s, I always had a holy card or two stuck in my missal and my schoolbooks…

a month ago · 9 likes · 7 comments · Lynda Heines

The Teviot/Roxburgh Post and Telegraph Office

Postal communication was established with the Otago goldfields as soon as people began to flock to them. Gold was initially discovered at Gabriel’s Gully in 1861—other places soon followed. Teviot Junction—later to be called Teviot and then Roxburgh—was one of them…

a month ago · 4 likes · Jane Chapman

Lesson 3.2: Emotional Stakes & Conflict

a month ago · Aryn Youngless

Fireman Patrick Joseph Campbell

Some lives leave behind photographs, letters and family memories…

a month ago · 11 likes · 2 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Why You Should Really Kill Off Your Ancestors

When people first begin researching their family history, there’s a natural temptation to leap backwards as quickly as possible. We race through census returns, parish registers and birth records, eager to see how many generations we can add to our tree…

a month ago · 26 likes · 15 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The Chiddicks Observer Edition 64

One of the things I love most about family history is that, if we allow it, it teaches us as much about ourselves as it does about our ancestors. We may begin by searching for names, dates, and documents, but sooner or later we find ourselves asking much deeper questions: Who were these people? What shaped them? What did they leave behind besides posses…

a month ago · 23 likes · 8 comments · Paul Chiddicks

John Van Arsdale and the Greased Pole

a month ago · 11 likes · 6 comments · Lori Olson White

The Webb Family and the American Revolution

The Webb family is one lineage on my maternal side and attaches to the Lincoln lineage. Two of my non-direct ancestors in this line fought in the American Re…

a month ago · 3 likes · Alicia M Prater

Sarah Hall Rushton, Pioneer's Wife ~ Chapter Five

My grandmother would have never discussed this as Sarah does…

a month ago · 2 likes · Anne Wendel

Kathy’s Corner » Special Panel on Privacy Practices in Family History » July 2026

Thank you Linda Teather, Kyla Bayang, and so many more of you for joining Annette Gendler, Linda Stufflebean, Kathy Stone and me today. I can’t tell you how much it means to help more families feel comfortable in capturing, preserving, and sharing their stories. Thank you for your added…

a month ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Kathy Stone and Barbara at Projectkin

Projectkin Live: The View from Kathy’s Corner

Thank you Ann Larkham, Tamara Buzyna Adams, Linda Teather, Rita McConnell, Bill Moore, Lisa Maguire, Linda Stufflebean, Jim the Historian, The Wicked Sommelier, and many others for tuning into my live video with Kathy Stone! I can’t tell you how much it means to me here on the American Pacific coast to see all of you joining from the UK, the continent, across the American states and Canadian provinces…

a month ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Barbara at Projectkin and Kathy Stone

The Sins of Complicated Women

I’m so mad at myself. I’ve been eyes-bleeding-deep researching labor activist Leonora Kearney Barry for the last four years – and I missed her anniversary. I wa…

a month ago · 7 likes · 7 comments · Diane Burley

29. Griggsville - The Hiatus Years

2 months ago · 2 likes · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

Genealogy Storytelling

"Chicago Girl" Sequel

I wrote about Marie Thomann in my January 16, 2026 post entitled “Chicago Girl,” as part of my 1882 Autograph Book series. It’s here if you missed it: "Chicago Girl" - Marie Louise Thomann…

a month ago · 10 likes · 20 comments · Cynthia Boatright Raleigh

Genealogy Storytelling

The Lightning Strike

My response to anyone who says they don’t do genealogy because “my family would just be boring,” is “No, it wouldn’t.” Do the genealogy and always talk to your extended family members if you can. Not everyone’s family has a monarch or famous actor, but it will not be boring…

a month ago · 7 likes · 1 comment · Cynthia Boatright Raleigh

DearMYRTLE's Village Square

Revamped BLM-GLO Website

Thank you to Ann Staley 🤗 for offering, in the midst of her IGHR prep, to personally orient this Ol’ Myrt to the new BLM-GLO website. Ann’s institute participants will appreciate her new screen shots and the latest, greatest info on the subject…

a month ago · 7 likes · DearMYRTLE

A Sense of Occasion

Christmas in July, Courtesy of the Rochester Gas & Electric Company

Last week, Portland’s sunny weather was pushing 90 degrees. I came home with Christmas…

a month ago · 14 likes · 8 comments · Julie Dove

My 2x Great Grandparents: Thomas Waters and Elizabeth Ann Cock

This is the first of my series of posts about my 2x Great Grandparents. My plan is to write a post about each couple in a single post…

2 months ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Jennifer Jones

My 2x Great Grandparents Joseph Henry Jones and Ellen Virginia Lowe

This is another in the series of posts about my 2x Great Grandparents. My plan is to write a post about each couple in a single post. Thanks for reading Tracking Down The Family. Subscribe for free to receive new posts as they are published…

a month ago · 1 like · Jennifer Jones

💛Special Thanks!

To for sharing GenStack on his Best of Genea-Musings blog.

To everyone who restacks, comments, likes, and shares GenStack.

Genealogy Matters Magazine

A grassroots magazine by and for family history storytellers.

Our current Call for Submissions is now OPEN!

What does being part of Genealogy Matters Magazine really mean?

It means your family history story doesn’t disappear.
So much of what we uncover — the late nights tracing ship manifests, the courthouse records, the handwritten letters — lives in notebooks, blog posts, and memory. Here, it gets a permanent home. A citable, archivable, lasting home.
Genealogy Matters Magazine exists because family history deserves more than a footnote. It deserves a place on the shelf.
And it deserves to be written by people like you.

This magazine exists because of this community. Thank you for being part of it.

— Robin, Founder & Editor, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Books on Genealogy & Family History

Genealogy and Family History Videos Published this Week

Genealogy and Family History Podcasts Published This Week

Genealogy Just Ask - Robin

The Blacksmith Who Forged the Nelms Legacy

Hey GenFriends…

2 months ago · 1 like · Genealogy Just Ask - Robin

Exodus

From My Research Desk

Breaking the Line: Margaret Corbin, Military wife and “Molly Pitcher”

I Became That Person Who Chases Down Census Records

William Logan of Knox County, Kentucky (c. 1765–1824): What the records and the DNA Actually Prove

Freedman’s Village: America’s First Planned Black Community

A one-place study in 2500 words

Beyond the Obvious Record

The Shape of Silence

What’s Actually Inside ScotlandsPeople — And Why Scottish Records Embarrass Everyone Else’s

Buried Threads Season 2 Episode 12: Hanging Threads - DNA Match

A Girl from Norcatur

Welsh Family History Stories & FREE Talk

Hidden faces, a sacred knot, and a 1682 Franconian marriage

What My Husband Discovered About His Cousin Using AI - Part 2

First Day of Camp

The four ways people write about their ancestors (and the one that John used)

35,000 words no one will ever read

The Singing Detective

Yesterday Made It All Worthwhile

The Faux Pas That Gave Me Pause

The People in My Grandmother’s House

How to Audit a Family Tree for AI-Fabricated Sources

49.The Early 1930’s

And Yet There Are Those Who Love It

The Origin of the Scotch-Irish in the Northern Neck of Virginia

Road tripping across northern Minnesota

August 2026 WWII Research Classes

Rebuilding Monticello, New York

The Rockingham, the Leeders and My Mum’s Historial Novel

Not-so-silent influences

5 Records Every Genealogist Should Start with

AncestryDNA Updates Their Relationship Predictions

Genealogy Case Study: Using the FAN Method

Emma #233: January-February 1948

Reviewing an Old Document Often Reveals New Clues

How I Turned Gemini into my Research Co-Pilot in 19th Century Genealogy

1949: Mount Vernon Dessert

022 WWII Letters Chapter Twenty-Two: More Barbed Wire Around Heart Mountain

When Gemini Led Me to a New Genealogy Source

Reflecting on My DNA Results after 12 years

Finding Your Ancestral Town: Your Go-To Resource

A Source I Want to Understand Better

News from Montgomery History - Sween Library Closing Temporarily

Kuchnia Polska

Maria Jane Darragh’s Illness

The Map Is Getting Dangerous

Learning the Boundaries

Life Memoir of Samuel Vaux (1816-1880) of Somerset, New York, Wisconsin, Missouri and Kansas

The Card Arrived Before Belonging Did

John D. Zimmerman: From Frontier Craftsman to Statewide Abolitionist Strategist (1843–1847)

Before Time Edits the Story

The introduction that keeps changing.

I Get to Interview One of My Favorites...

Why Victorian Medicine Could Be as Frightening as the Illness Itself

Another Song

Some Stories Surface Unexpectedly

The quilting of Isabella Lawrence McDonald

Poking Holes in Centuries of Publications: Part 2

Per Mundum : The Newsletter of The Clay of England Society

Early December, 1893 — Morris Returns to a Godforsaken Town

What Can Census Records Tell You? More Than You Might Think

The Unforgettable: Using the Witness in Irish Birth Registration to Further Your Research

Who Was St. Clair Kelly?

GenStack

Robin Stewart — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 18:30:23 GMT

GenStack

Discovery Your Weekly Genealogy Content

Blogs | Newsletters | Podcasts | Video | Books

Genealogy Matters Magazine

launches August 10, 2026

In just a few weeks, we’ll launch Genealogy Matters Magazine — Volume 1, Issue 1, a new digital magazine dedicated to narrative genealogy and family history storytelling.

The first issue will publish on August 10, 2026 in digital flipbook form, offering readers an easy, beautiful, magazine-like way to read and share it.

At its heart, Genealogy Matters Magazine is about family history transformed into story and preserved as record.

If you care about genealogy, storytelling, preservation, and the human lives behind the records, I hope you’ll follow along and help us welcome Genealogy Matters Magazine into the world.

If you’re a Paid Subscriber to Genealogy Matters, you’ll receive a copy of the magazine delivered right to your inbox on August 10th.

If you’re not a Paid Subscriber, and would like to get your subscription early, visit genealogymattersmagazine.com.

The Storyteller Project is here!

The Storyteller Project is an 10-week guided experience for family historians who are ready to move their research into lasting story. Rooted in the principles of my book, Stewardship Matters: A Storyteller’s Guide to Preserving Family History, the project walks participants through the same arc of stewardship: shaping family history into credible, meaningful narratives, preparing those stories for publication, and making them findable for future generations. It’s free, community-centered, and designed for anyone who feels called to preserve the human record with care, intention, and purpose.

Welcome to The Storyteller Project

The Storyteller Project: Week 1

The Storyteller Project: Week 2

The Storyteller Project: Week 3

The Storyteller Project: Week 4

The Storyteller Project: Week 5

The Storyteller Project: Week 6

The Storyteller Project: Week 7

This Week:

The Storyteller Project: Week 8

Formatting Your Book in Reedsy…

2 months ago · Robin Stewart

Support the Content Creators

How can you support these amazing Family Historian Community Authors and Content Creators? When you find the content that speaks to you…

✔️ReStack

✔️Comment

✔️Recommend

✔️Like

How can you get their posts right when they are published?

—Subscribe directly to their Newsletters.

Do you know of a Genealogy-focused newsletter you’d like to see added to GenStack? Do you want your blog, newsletter, podcast or video channel considered to be included on GenStack?

DM me! I’m always looking for new publications to add to GenStack.

Stacked Between the Leaves

Here is what you will find in this week’s GenStack

Stacked this Week (35 Stacked)

Books (6 Stacked)

Videos (24 Stacked)

Podcast (22 Stacked)

Additional This Week (62 Stacked)

A few days ago marked the 76th anniversary of my father’s family’s arrival in the United States. On July 12, 1950, at just 12 years old, he sailed into New York Harbor with his parents and 4-year-old brother, after years of war, displacement, and uncertainty…

Tamara Buzyna Adams

Freedom

2 months ago · Tamara Buzyna Adams

Finding Burgenland: The Region My Ancestors Never Knew By Name

If you’re researching family history, especially German-speaking or Hungarian ancestors, Burgenland is one of the most fascinating — and confusing — regions in Central Europe. The biggest thing to know is that it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary until after World War I, but today it’s part of Austria. That single fact explains a tremendous amount of g…

2 months ago · 9 likes · 3 comments · Kirsi Dahl

This post was inspired by Kirsi Dahl’s post on verbal heirlooms…

The Squeaky Wheel

2 months ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Lynda Heines

Reat Allen's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

2 months ago · 7 likes · 8 comments · Lynda Heines

On Monday, in towns across Northern Ireland, streets will fill with orange sashes and the sound of the fife and drum. Orange marches are annual events celebrating Irish Protestant history and heritage. They are held on the public holiday commemorating the defeat in Ireland of the Catholic forces of James II by William of Orange…

Walking on the Twelfth

2 months ago · 13 likes · 11 comments · Lisa Maguire

Edmonton 1912: We Must Meet Apart

In the early decades of the twentieth century the Montreal Star featured a classified advertising section called “Missing Relatives” for people trying to locate lost loved ones…

2 months ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Lisa Maguire

Landing Page - Thomas Coop Series

Between 8 June 2026 and 6 July 2026, I wrote five articles, as a series of related posts, about Thomas Coop (1838-1924). These articles followed Thomas’ life from Marylebone, London, where he was born, through Australia and onto New Zealand where he eventually settled and built a successful career with the Post and Telegraph Department until his retirem…

2 months ago · 8 likes · 2 comments · Jane Chapman

Genealogy by Aryn

Hitting a brick wall

You’ve done everything right…

2 months ago · 17 likes · 3 comments · Aryn Youngless

Lesson 3.1: What Makes a Good Story Seed

Welcome to Module 3: Story Seeds & Expanding the Frame…

2 months ago · 1 like · Aryn Youngless

Despatch Rider Ernest Herbert Henly

Some stories survive through photographs…

2 months ago · 14 likes · 7 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Fireman Ernest Reginald Beadle

Some stories are impossible to tell in isolation…

2 months ago · 7 likes · Paul Chiddicks

The Village That Never Came Home

There are places that make you stop because they’re beautiful…

2 months ago · 18 likes · 18 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The Chiddicks Observer Edition 62

Genealogy is often described as the study of the past, but in truth it is equally about understanding ourselves. Every record, diary, photograph, letter, newspaper clipping, and family story offers more than evidence of a life once lived; it reveals the choices, relationships, challenges, and moments that continue to echo across generations. This week's…

2 months ago · 19 likes · 21 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The Chiddicks Observer Edition 63

This week’s Observer is about looking beyond the record. Birth certificates, census returns and parish registers may tell us when people lived, but they rarely tell us how they lived. Across this week’s collection, our writers explore memory, family, identity, material culture, social history and historical investigation, reminding us that genealogy is …

2 months ago · 17 likes · 11 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Building My Bridge to 2076: Episode 9

About “Building My Bridge to 2076…

2 months ago · 7 likes · 1 comment · Lori Olson White

2 months ago · 16 likes · 8 comments · Lori Olson White

An Incident of her Youth

The Arms of General Washington

2 months ago · 13 likes · 10 comments · Lori Olson White

Praters/Prathers From My Line in the American Revolution

Because of an uncertainty about a generation being parents or grandparents and pedigree collapse, I can’t say for certain what numb…

2 months ago · 4 likes · Alicia M Prater

Benjamin Adams (1749-1824) and His Relatives Who Fought in the American Revolution

My 6x-great-grandfather twice over Benjamin Adams was born…

2 months ago · 3 likes · 3 comments · Alicia M Prater

Sarah Hall Rushton, Evacuee's Wife ~ Chapter Three

As I wrote, I heard the voices of my grandmother and her sisters telling about their lives…

2 months ago · 1 like · Anne Wendel

Sarah Hall Rushton, Refugee's Wife ~ Chapter Four

Sarah speaks in the voice of my grandmother and her sisters…

2 months ago · Anne Wendel

“Braiding the Strands of History into your Story,” a Special Program with Diane Burley

If all of this resonates for you, take a moment to tap that ❤️ below. It’s a small thing that can go a long way toward help…

2 months ago · 3 likes · 6 comments · Barbara at Projectkin and Diane Burley

Stories250 | A Celebration: Our Ancestors at the Time of the American Revolution

Thank you, Linda Stufflebean, Diane Burley, Jennifer Jones, Lori Olson White, Bill Moore, MamaCarole, GenealCymru, Helene | Letters from LaBelle, An American Genealogy, Jane Chapman, Anne Wendel, Anne’s Family History, Erin Hoover, Garry E Moore, Kyla Bayang…

2 months ago · 13 likes · 4 comments · Barbara at Projectkin

A lifetime or two ago, I had a job that had me on the phone several times a week with an agent in France. A few years later, working as a beat reporter at a tradeshow, I heard a voice behind me – and immediately knew it was Paul…

Wired for Sound

2 months ago · 2 likes · Diane Burley

Letters from LaBelle

Part 9: The Legendary Life of Pennsylvania & Kentucky Frontiersman John Hinkson (1729-1789)

Note: This is the ninth chapter of a multi-part story about my ancestor, John Hinkson. He was a Captain in the American Revolution, an influential pioneer in Kentucky’s founding, and a notable frontiersman and woodsman on the “Western Frontier.” You can find the other installments of his story as well as future chapters…

2 months ago · 1 like · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

27. Bobby Bartles and Original Sin

2 months ago · 1 like · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

28. Of Floods, Frogs, and Pocket Flaps

2 months ago · 4 likes · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

Dale and Me - lesson from a serial killer

This story is not my usual fare of history-mystery and tales inspired from a grave marker. Yet some stories demand to be told. This is one of those. You’ve been warned…

2 months ago · 5 likes · 9 comments · David Shaw

New Additions & Updates to the Family History Archive - June 2026

Winter has arrived in Western Australia and where I live, it doesn’t get too cold. The rain comes for a few days, then disappears for a few days and the sun comes out. It really is a lovely time of the year as all the crops are growing nicely and the countryside is covered in green grass…

2 months ago · 5 likes · 5 comments · Jenny MacKay

Mission: Genealogy

What My Husband Discovered About His Cousin Using AI - Part One

As part of our move, we had to get rid of 2/3rds of our belongings. That meant scanning the boxes and boxes of genealogy papers I had. Since they were now on the computer, my husband (genealogy is boring, I’m never…

2 months ago · 13 likes · Deborah Carl

💛Special Thanks!

To for sharing GenStack on his Best of Genea-Musings blog.

To everyone who restacks, comments, likes, and shares GenStack.

Genealogy Matters Magazine

A grassroots magazine by and for family history storytellers.

Our current Call for Submissions is now OPEN!

What does being part of Genealogy Matters Magazine really mean?

It means your family history story doesn’t disappear.
So much of what we uncover — the late nights tracing ship manifests, the courthouse records, the handwritten letters — lives in notebooks, blog posts, and memory. Here, it gets a permanent home. A citable, archivable, lasting home.
Genealogy Matters Magazine exists because family history deserves more than a footnote. It deserves a place on the shelf.
And it deserves to be written by people like you.

This magazine exists because of this community. Thank you for being part of it.

— Robin, Founder & Editor, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Books on Genealogy & Family History

Genealogy and Family History Videos Published this Week

Genealogy and Family History Podcasts Published This Week

From My Research Desk

Campfollowing & The Unseen Backbone

Happy Birthday to One of My Immigrant Yenish Ancestors - Friedrich Gerbing

Chug, Chug, Choo, Choo!

Brine, Barter, and the Deed Books of Goose Creek

Queen Elizabeth II - Coronation

In this village, whose existence its geology has shaped

Bernadine Lucille (nee) Ellsworth Hubbell Thompson, January 17, 1916 - February 3, 1985

From the Archive: F. Shut’s Paint Gang, Sioux Center, Iowa, 1915?

The Vanishing Butcher

A chance encounter (or drive by) with the Goat Man

A Letter from Spain: The Thread That Crossed an Ocean

Under the Tower (Newtown High School, Elmhurst, Queens)

You’ve had the story of your ancestor all along

The suffragist detectives

Queensland records and Australian wills with Cathie Sherwood

The Space He Left on the Page

One Generation Apart

Fireside History: The Revolutionary War Pension Gold Mine of John Campbell

The Loss of a Precious Son

A Cousin’s Request, Stone Errors, Wet Basement, Divorce Report, Situation Wanted, Udder Book, Hoeing Taters, Day of Your Birth Stories

When Children Were Swept Under The Rug

My New Discovery about Cromwellian land grants versus William of Orange Grants

Not how long they cried

Three Pieces of Paper

Unexpected Family Connections

Stop Looking at Historic Maps Like a Modern Tourist

Brief Guide to Writing & Publishing a Veteran Book

Making the Kirkus Indies Award short list, Lake of the Woods book tour highlights, and Wham! Bam! Book! Slam!

Like mother, like daughter

Class in Cookery: 17 February 1956

How An Italian Wine Family Survived Hardship

When Vital Records Are Missing, Look in Unexpected Places

Emma #232: November-December 1947

Make that Call – Part Two

Reading What Survives: Newspapers, Gemini, and the Search for George Elliott

Pasty

1949: Strawberry Sunshine Dessert

Counting Generations Japanese American Style

Sharing More than Records

Polaroid Memories

How I Built a Visual Village Cluster Map to Guide My Galician Research

Finding Your Ancestral Town: Why Historical Geography Matters

Finding Your Ancestor’s Original Surname and Village of Origin

Mysteries Solved!

One Year of No Parents Listed

After the Highfields Years

The Offer I Could Never Accept

The early memories we hold

Ask AI: “Describe Sarah Knapp’s Life at Age 14 in Newton, New Jersey in 1832”

Gerhards Daughter

The Blacksmith Who Forged the Nelms Legacy

Attempted Murder Over a Rooster- Part 3

Assumed Catholic

The Research Log

Trifecta: One Genealogist, Two AI Assistants, One Folder

Does using AI for photographs matter for family history? Yes. How to use AI responsibly.

Chasing Charles – Part I

November 24, 1893 — Morris Awaits Friday

30th Anniversary Kick-Off at Upper Cumberland Event

Popsie’s later life

Summer Camp

Roots and Directions by Jenny Grouiller-Ruhland

GenStack

Robin Stewart — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 18:30:43 GMT

GenStack

Discovery Your Weekly Genealogy Content

Blogs | Newsletters | Podcasts | Video | Books

GenClub

Lively discussion, fresh insights, and plenty of fun with the panel.

The panel: , , , &

Watch for GenClub’s First Episode of Season 2 with Paul Chiddicks!

Our Next Season of GenClub begins in August 2026.

The Storyteller Project is here!

The Storyteller Project is an 10-week guided experience for family historians who are ready to move their research into lasting story. Rooted in the principles of my book, Stewardship Matters: A Storyteller’s Guide to Preserving Family History, the project walks participants through the same arc of stewardship: shaping family history into credible, meaningful narratives, preparing those stories for publication, and making them findable for future generations. It’s free, community-centered, and designed for anyone who feels called to preserve the human record with care, intention, and purpose.

Welcome to The Storyteller Project

The Storyteller Project: Week 1

The Storyteller Project: Week 2

The Storyteller Project: Week 3

The Storyteller Project: Week 4

The Storyteller Project: Week 5

Read:

’s reflections as she takes us through the process in finding “the moment” is so powerful. The difference between the summary of her life, and that moment makes remembering Wilhelmine personal.

The moment was in the map. I had to earn it.

Part of my Reading your roots series - on memory, identity, and small starts that shape who we become. Written alongside The Storyteller Project by Robin Stewart…

2 months ago · 1 like

The Storyteller Project: Week 6

This Week:

The Storyteller Project: Week 7

Giving Your Work a Permanent Form…

2 months ago · Robin Stewart

Support the Content Creators

How can you support these amazing Family Historian Community Authors and Content Creators? When you find the content that speaks to you…

✔️ReStack

✔️Comment

✔️Recommend

✔️Like

How can you get their posts right when they are published?

—Subscribe directly to their Newsletters.

Do you know of a Genealogy-focused newsletter you’d like to see added to GenStack? Do you want your blog, newsletter, podcast or video channel considered to be included on GenStack?

DM me! I’m always looking for new publications to add to GenStack.

Stacked Between the Leaves

Here is what you will find in this week’s GenStack

Stacked this Week (23 Stacked)

Books (5 Stacked)

Videos (10 Stacked)

Podcast (22 Stacked)

Additional This Week (47 Stacked)

In the summer of 1976, America celebrated its 200th birthday, and I celebrated my 7th. I asked my mom if she had any family photos from the Bicentennial. She promptly disappeared down a rabbit hole and emerged with these treasures, each one bringing back memories of summer birthdays and simpler times…

Tamara Buzyna Adams

My Bicentennial Summer

2 months ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Tamara Buzyna Adams

When we think of heirlooms, we usually think of physical objects—a piece of jewelry, a Derby hat, a recipe card in someone’s handwriting. Those things survive because someone intentionally kept them…

Verbal Heirlooms

2 months ago · 9 likes · 11 comments · Kirsi Dahl

Between Books and Letters

2 months ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Lynda Heines

Reat Allen's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

2 months ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Lynda Heines

Today the heat index here is 110 degrees (that’s 43 celsius). It’s a good day to stay home with the curtains drawn and read…

What I'm Reading

2 months ago · 25 likes · 6 comments · Lisa Maguire

Thomas Coop - #5 Retirement and Beyond

This article is the 5th—and final—part of a 5-part series…

2 months ago · 7 likes · 2 comments · Jane Chapman

Genealogy by Aryn

Hitting a brick wall

You’ve done everything right…

2 months ago · 8 likes · Aryn Youngless

Module 2 Assessment: Research Foundations

You’ve covered a lot of ground in Module 2. You’ve audited your research, learned to read documents through a writer’s eyes, identified the narrative signals hiding in your sources, built your dual-track timeline, and established a targeted research strategy that will carry you forward without pulling you into the spiral…

2 months ago · Aryn Youngless

The Chiddicks Observer Edition 62

2 months ago · 18 likes · 21 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Despatch Rider Ernest Herbert Henly

Some stories survive through photographs…

2 months ago · 8 likes · 5 comments · Paul Chiddicks

What Will You Leave Behind?

We often think of heirlooms as treasured objects passed down through generations. An old watch. A family recipe. A faded photograph tucked inside a drawer…

2 months ago · 17 likes · 10 comments · Paul Chiddicks

The Arms of General Washington

2 months ago · 10 likes · 9 comments · Lori Olson White

2 months ago · 7 likes · Lori Olson White

A Toast to America

| Part 1 of 1 …

Benjamin Adams (1749-1824) and His Relatives Who Fought in the American Revolution

My 6x-great-grandfather twice over Benjamin Adams was born…

2 months ago · 3 likes · 3 comments · Alicia M Prater

Sarah Hall Rushton, Evacuee's Wife ~ Chapter Three

As I wrote, I heard the voices of my grandmother and her sisters telling about their lives…

2 months ago · 1 like · Anne Wendel

Who Opened the Door for Leonora?

When the boys were six and eight, we took in an au pair. We were excited at the thought of a cultural exchange while also giving me a helping hand with two kids needing to be driven to countless events. What I didn’t know is that the program is a crap shoot – not so much for the fa…

2 months ago · 10 likes · 3 comments · Diane Burley

27. Bobby Bartles and Original Sin

2 months ago · 1 like · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

New Additions & Updates to the Family History Archive - June 2026

2 months ago · 5 likes · 5 comments · Jenny MacKay

Every Scrap of Paper Has a Story

One of the unexpected joys of family history is rediscovering research you’ve already done. Tucked away in a folder for decades was a small bundle of handwritten notes from interviews conducted in the 1980s. At the time they were simply working notes, hastily scribbled during conversations with family members such as my great Aunt Maggie Woodcock and my…

2 months ago · 5 likes · Jenny MacKay

💛Special Thanks!

To for sharing GenStack on his Best of Genea-Musings blog.

To everyone who restacks, comments, likes, and shares GenStack.

Genealogy Matters Magazine

A grassroots magazine by and for family history storytellers.

Our current Call for Submissions is now OPEN!

What does being part of Genealogy Matters Magazine really mean?

It means your family history story doesn’t disappear.
So much of what we uncover — the late nights tracing ship manifests, the courthouse records, the handwritten letters — lives in notebooks, blog posts, and memory. Here, it gets a permanent home. A citable, archivable, lasting home.
Genealogy Matters Magazine exists because family history deserves more than a footnote. It deserves a place on the shelf.
And it deserves to be written by people like you.

This magazine exists because of this community. Thank you for being part of it.

— Robin, Founder & Editor, Genealogy Matters Magazine

Books on Genealogy & Family History

Genealogy and Family History Videos Published this Week

Genealogy and Family History Podcasts Published This Week

Ask AI: “Describe the Life of Abigail Vaux (1844-1931) in Dodge County, Wisconsin in 1858”

Live Event: Discover the Story of the Gemello Winery

1949: Old Fashioned Wheat Rolls

Losing a Tree

How a Bass Fish Named Ethel Cost Me a Reunion

She Already Knew

Emma #231: October 1947

A Probate Notice that becomes a Family Tree

How Ancestral Birth Trauma May Shape Your Life Today

Across the Yorkshire border: Migrations & Missing Records

07: The Crested Crane

Two Miles from Nowhere: How Russell County Became the Road West

Widening the Lens — Ethel’s Sundays

The Genealogy Has to Wait

Changes, Projects, and What’s Next

MARKET DAY

The Geography of Love

Visiting Historical Sites, Living History Museums, and Folk Parks

From Slurs to Sources: Modernizing Genealogy for LGBTQIA+ Family

‘The Gas Is Bubbling Up and Burning on the Water’

Seventy and Seventy-Eight Church Street

The Martin-Horst-Longenecker Freindschauft: War and Peace, Rhyme and Reason + Book Trailer

Time is Relative

The Modern Immigrant’s Compass: A Practical Guide to Thriving, Healing, and Honoring Your Story

The Putyatin Myth: Putin’s Manufactured Genealogy

A Glimpse into Union City’s Industrial Past

Minus 47, Plus 46: A Life Measured in Degrees

Claude Fable 5: Use It, or Lose It

021 WWII Letters Chapter Twenty-One: One Year Anniversary, Dec. 7, 1942.

Where to go with MyHeritage?

The moment was in the map. I had to earn it.

Redrawing the Border

Lake Winnipesaukee in August

Not My Family History #2

Aunt Helen

Freedom 250: Revolutionary War Patriot Elias House

A New Life in Australia 1841 to 1874

Miss Mary Garland, Somewhere.

So... What’s My Story?

Every Research Session Becomes Part of Your Story

The Color of my Childhood

Class in Cookery: 4 October 1940

Just a Peasant Ancestor? Are You Sure?

Down Here on the Farm

Dwight Boyer: The Man Who Spoke for “the Little Feller”

FAN Club Research

Roots and Directions by Jenny Grouiller-Ruhland

GenStack

Robin Stewart — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 18:31:29 GMT

GenStack

Discovery Your Weekly Genealogy Content

Blogs | Newsletters | Podcasts | Video | Books

GenClub

Lively discussion, fresh insights, and plenty of fun with the panel.

The panel: , , , &

Watch for GenClub’s First Episode of Season 2 with Paul Chiddicks!

Our Next Season of GenClub begins in August 2026.

The Storyteller Project is here!

The Storyteller Project is an 10-week guided experience for family historians who are ready to move their research into lasting story. Rooted in the principles of my book, Stewardship Matters: A Storyteller’s Guide to Preserving Family History, the project walks participants through the same arc of stewardship: shaping family history into credible, meaningful narratives, preparing those stories for publication, and making them findable for future generations. It’s free, community-centered, and designed for anyone who feels called to preserve the human record with care, intention, and purpose.

Welcome to The Storyteller Project

The Storyteller Project: Week 1

The Storyteller Project: Week 2

The Storyteller Project: Week 3

The Storyteller Project: Week 4

Get inspired by ’s article here:

When the map is easier than the person.

Part of my Reading your roots series - on memory, identity, and small starts that shape who we become…

2 months ago · 1 like

The Storyteller Project: Week 5

Check out ’s project:

X-Factored - family stories

Mary's Wedding

I wrote this piece responding to a prompt from Robin Stewart for Genstack Coterie. It is a first draft depicting one scene in the life of Mary Byrn, my 3rd great-grandmother. This is a fictional piece of writing, drawn from a marriage record. I am actively looking for feedback on it: what works best for you, what might be improved and how, and whether you get a sens…

2 months ago · 3 likes · 3 comments · Xanthe Hall

This Week:

The Storyteller Project: Week 6

Making the Work Trustworthy…

2 months ago · 4 likes · Robin Stewart

Support the Content Creators

How can you support these amazing Family Historian Community Authors and Content Creators? When you find the content that speaks to you…

✔️ReStack

✔️Comment

✔️Recommend

✔️Like

How can you get their posts right when they are published?

—Subscribe directly to their Newsletters.

Do you know of a Genealogy-focused newsletter you’d like to see added to GenStack? Do you want your blog, newsletter, podcast or video channel considered to be included on GenStack?

DM me! I’m always looking for new publications to add to GenStack.

Stacked Between the Leaves

Here is what you will find in this week’s GenStack

Stacked this Week (26 Stacked)

Books (5 Stacked)

Videos (11 Stacked)

Podcast (12 Stacked)

Additional This Week (65 Stacked)

We Came for Ethan Allen. We Stayed for Mrs. Dewey

Legacy Carvers

The U.S. 250th anniversary is here, and family members have been asking me, “Did we have anybody in the Revolution…

2 months ago · Nancy G. Carver

Tamara Buzyna Adams

Before She Was "Grandma Frisk"

I always thought I knew who “Grandma Frisk” was. After all, she was my grandmother. I never knew her husband, Vladimir, my grandfather, as he died unexpectedly in 1962. Throughout my childhood, we spent holidays and parts of the summer with her every year. I thought I knew her well…

2 months ago · 1 like · 2 comments · Tamara Buzyna Adams

Calling All Genealogy Nerds: 5 must see films

Roots (1977 ABC Miniseries) ⭐⭐⭐…

2 months ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · David Shaw

Mons 1918: The Heart's Country

I have a single memory of my great-aunt Isabelle…

2 months ago · 14 likes · 6 comments · Lisa Maguire

Thomas Coop - #4 Community Contributions and Other Interests

This article is the 4th part of a 5-part series…

2 months ago · 7 likes · 9 comments · Jane Chapman

Kyeburn Diggings One-Place Study

Margaret Mary Alexander (1839-1919)

Margaret was known as Maggie amongst her friends. She was born Margaret Mary Alexander in Dublin, Ireland in about 1839 and was a child when she left Dublin with her mother and younger sister. Both mother and sister died at sea and Margaret was taken to Tasmania where she spent her early life…

2 months ago · 5 likes · Jane Chapman

Lesson 2.5: Targeted Research Strategy for Writers

If you’ve been a genealogist for any length of time, you know the feeling. There’s always one more record to find. One more archive to check. One more question the research hasn’t answered yet. And as long as there are unanswered questions, it doesn’t quite feel safe to start writing…

2 months ago · Aryn Youngless

The Chiddicks Observer Edition 61

One of the pleasures of putting together this newsletter is spotting unexpected connections between the articles I read each week. This time, I was struck by how many of the stories centred on memory, preservation and legacy. From recordings of family voices and cherished family homes to forgotten lives uncovered in the archives and stories being delibe…

2 months ago · 19 likes · 16 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Some stories stay with you long after the research is finished…

Firewoman Hilda Dupree

2 months ago · 10 likes · 5 comments · Paul Chiddicks

Fact or Fiction? How Genealogists Separate Truth from Error

A father’s name on a birth certificate, is that a fact…

2 months ago · 7 likes · 7 comments · Paul Chiddicks

I know this is going to sound Rockwellian, but for me, it’s real. This isn’t a story about patriotism—not exactly, anyway. It’s a story about the Fourth of July at our small cabin on a northern Wisconsin lake, where our family has built its own tradition – one humid, mosquito-filled summer at a time…

What America Sounds Like

2 months ago · 2 likes · 7 comments · Kirsi Dahl

Threads, Memories, and the Records We Almost Miss

This post is the final one in a series about a “memory quilt” my mother made in 1990: twenty‑four embroidered squares that together form a visual record of my life, from birth through college graduation. If you’d like the full backstory on the quilt and this series, you can start here…

2 months ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Kirsi Dahl

The Most Precious Manuscript on Earth

2 months ago · 8 likes · Lori Olson White

Building My Bridge to 2076: Episode 8

About “Building My Bridge to 2076…

2 months ago · 9 likes · 2 comments · Lori Olson White

Mercy Tillinghast and Solomon Drowne's Sons in the American Revolution

The Mercy Tillinghast in my line was born about 1706, presumably in Providence…

2 months ago · 1 like · Alicia M Prater

This is the last part of this personal feature exploring my life through my pin collection…

Pin It Aside #15 - U.S.A

2 months ago · Alicia M Prater

Esther Crank and John B. Acker ~ Who They Left Behind

In the US, siding with England in the Revolutionary War makes you at best a loser and at worst a traitor. But in Canada, being a United Empire Loyalist is a badge of honor. If you can prove your descent from one, you can apply for a lineage society, earning the right to put UEL after your name and on your license plate…

2 months ago · 6 likes · 10 comments · Anne Wendel

Joel and Christian Simms, Revolutionary War Patriots

My partner’s 6th great-grandfather Joel Simms is the ancestor of fifteen different members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). If fifteen people took the time to document Joel’s service and their lineage from him, he must have been a brave and dashing hero. Right…

2 months ago · 4 likes · Anne Wendel

The Fabulous Firemen's Races

Been feeling a bit melancholic about the country’s 250th birthday. It’s not that the mercury is pushing 100 that I feel like the country is in flames. So, ignoring the calendar, I had a teacher story planned for this week, but I woke up this morning remembering how much I loved this holiday and decided to fill this essay with Fourth of July treats…

2 months ago · 7 likes · 11 comments · Diane Burley

26. When Nuns go Dancing --?

2 months ago · 4 likes · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

Letters from LaBelle

“Grannie Green” memories

Note: I thought I’d take a small break between my John Hinkson chapter releases to document this recent family letter discovery. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to publishing the final Hinkson chapters next week. In the meantime, here’s a small entry for the…

2 months ago · Helene | Letters from LaBelle

Mission: Genealogy

What to Do With Unwanted Yearbooks

When this tip posts, I’ll have been on the road for two days, moving from New Hampshire to Utah. (I’ll be four hours from the Salt Lake Family History Library, so I don’t expect I’ll get there very often.) In the process, we had to reduce our belongings to fit on a 26-foot U-Haul. Not everything on the four six-foot bookshelves of genealogy and photo al…

2 months ago · 12 likes · 7 comments · Deborah Carl

She Almost Took It All With Her

Forty years ago I sat beside my grandmother in her dining room with a cassette recorder and more enthusiasm than technique…

2 months ago · 5 likes · 8 comments · Jenny MacKay

A Little Boy and a Kangaroo

It started with a photograph I had completely forgotten I had…

2 months ago · 3 likes · 4 comments · Jenny MacKay

Stories250 with guest Helene McClanahan of Letters from Labelle

Thank you, Mira Romaine, Kyla Bayang, Jennifer Jones, Linda Teather, Tamara Buzyna Adams, Jim the Historian, Sheri Handel, Becky Hetchler, Karen - Your Family Stories, Bill Schock, Nolene, MamaCarole, John Higginbotham, Todd Wilson, Judith Dianne Ely…