What will your family remember about you when you're gone? And how do we keep the stories of the people we love alive for generations?

When I pulled over on an empty desert road near Utah Lake and handed my 18-year-old nephew the keys to my convertible, I felt my late Aunt Rhonda sitting right there with us. She was a larger-than-life woman who never had children of her own but left an unforgettable legacy of love.

From a wild ride down Sunset Boulevard in the 1990s to a quiet moment beside Utah Lake decades later, I'm reflecting on grief, remembrance, and the power of family storytelling. Because family history isn't just about remembering the people who came before us. It's about how their lives continue to shape who we are, how we love, and what we pass on to the next generation.

And stay tuned until the end for a HUGE announcement about something I've been working on for the past two years!

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🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

How many times have you sat across the table from a child or sibling who sees faith completely differently than you do, and felt an aching gulf between you? In those moments, our first instinct is usually to defend what we believe, but my guest today is here to help us flip the script. Playwright and BYU theatre professor Shelley Graham joins me to share the incredible stories behind her verbatim stage production, All the Beautiful Things, revealing what actually brings people back to faith and how radical listening can heal our deepest family divides. Listen in to discover how to hold space for your loved ones' hardest stories and find hope in God's relentless pursuit of us all.

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🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!

"When I noticed a yellowed piece of paper physically taped over a portrait in an old family book, I knew there was a secret waiting to be found."

My guest today, author Deborah Holman, set out to uncover that hidden identity and ended up spending two years untangling the unbelievable life of her husband’s great-grandmother. We’re talking about a 19th-century woman living under dozens of aliases, pulling off high-stakes cons, breaking into 50 homes in a single weekend at age 60, and keeping handwritten accounting ledgers of her crime sprees. In this episode, we share this wild historical investigation and discuss how confronting the unpolished "black sheep" in our family trees gives us a richer, more honest connection to where we come from. Listen in for a story you truly couldn't make up if you tried!

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 Ready to discover more stories that could transform your family connections? Subscribe to 'Stories That Live In Us' wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to help other families find their path to deeper connection through family history. Together, we're building a community of families committed to preserving and sharing the stories that matter most.

🖼️ Ready to get your family tree out of your computer and onto your wall? Visit FamilyChartmasters.com to create a family tree chart that will help your family share stories for generations.

♥ Want more family history tips and inspiration? Follow me @CristaCowan on Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes looks at my own family discoveries and practical ways to uncover yours!