ancestory

Building a community on Substack for genealogy as a viable alternative to the noise and bravado of social media. We are free of fees and platform-independent. Join us for our monthly roundtables and office hours for family historians and genealogists.

Personal Essays

An author and genealogist using in-depth research and storytelling to bring to life a collection of lost and found stories collected over a lifetime.

Stories about the families and people in my past, near and far, as well as posts about doing the work of genealogy.

An exploration of family history

Breathing life into the past and bringing it to the present.

Reflections on death, memory, and meaning for the morbidly curious. A lot of history, cemetery, and flower content.

Get started writing your family history with chronicle writing. Chronicles help you capture the big moments of your ancestors' lives and easily share them with family.

Learn about and share Acadian experiences.

Where 200 years of Appalachian family history meets 21st Century ponderings and doings.

A periodic sharing about the Story Carrier Movement. We are all carrying stories whether we know them, or not. I share ways to bring stories into being, through language, where we can celebrate and enjoy them.

We invent and refine creative ways to capture, preserve, and share our family stories. Won't you join us in FREE events, shared resources, and online conversations?

Excerpts and writing guidance from my family memoir about my father Earle Olsen's art career, especially in 1950s New York City. Plus other thoughts and tips on life, writing, life-writing, and the writing life....

Connecting the dots in history, genealogy, culture, archaeology and historic grave marker conservation.

Join me for a weekly glimpse into researching why the great-grandchildren of Kakaygeesick, were dispossessed of their ancestral homeland and what that has to do with me, a white woman whose great-grandparents homesteaded on Lake of the Woods.

Building Organized Records & Preserving Family History that are easy and accessible, because genealogy matters.

My family history, centred around my great-grandmother Sara Marx, related families, European history and World War 2.

Journeys through Genealogy and Family History

I cook dinner every night and I am the laziest person I know. This is a diary of daily cooking out of what's in the cupboard.

How to turn food that helps you lose weight into food you most want to eat.

“So howled out for the world to give him a name. The indark answered with wind.” ― Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren :: Reflections on fiction and worldbuilding, on diasporas and elsewheres.

I write to encourage people to write their own stories; to show who they are, what they love, and how they live. And to save their stories, photos & mementos safely, thereby leaving a legacy for future generations.

Welcome to Dr. Mary Marshall’s Collection, a newsletter discussing the intersection of family history and American history, culture, and politics including general information on basic genealogy.

Stories about men & women, immigrants & trailblazers, farmers & railroad workers -- the seemingly mundane people in my family tree, but each with a fascinating story. A companion podcast tells about research challenges, successes and tips.

Family history is rich with stories.

New writing on landscape, music, books, folklore, psychedelia, the natural world and other misty magical things outside the mainstream.

The story is not about what happened, it's about what the narrator makes of what happened.

Deborah Carl, a professional genealogist, shares her findings and research tips. For her Blog see https://www.facebook.com/YourFamilyHistory

Slow reads of great books. Book guides and readalongs to help readers get more from the best historical fiction.

Widely authentic stories delivered to you every Sunday morning.

my writing to recover lost family history, with prompts so you can, too.

Veteran author & MFA advisor Aimee Liu offers graduate-level insights into creative writing and book publishing, with an emphasis on memoir and fiction.

Not your grandaunt's genealogy blog

Get a behind-the-scenes look at how we create webcomics and collaborate as a couple. View comic exclusives here as well! Make sure you're the first to get notified so you don't miss anything!

Check your spam mail. "Yesterday" Newsletter features genealogy & historical articles. Free subscribers receive an occasional article. Paid subscribers receive genealogy articles with clues & historical data to help trace families.