Project Recipes at Projectkin

Our guest today, Cynthia Nims joined us from her home kitchen in Seattle Washington. Cynthia is the voice behind two delightful Substack publications, SeafoodSavvy and LongLivetheRecipeBox , and her website of the same name . As a published food writer, and cookbook author, and teacher, Cynthia brings her unique appreciation for food, gatherings, and the conversations they evoke. Among the guests...

Our special guest today, Randy Seaver was an early pioneer in online collaboration in genealogy since the days of online bulletin boards. He has been blogging about Genealogy since 2006 at Genea-Musings on Blogger , and celebrating his 19th blogiversary in April 2025 . Recently, Randy’s brought his considerable talents to the growing genealogy community on Substack as the Randy Seaver (@geneaholic...

If you participated in our live program, I hope you enjoyed it and the conversation with other members and participants. It’s an example of the kinds of programs we host here at Projectkin . We publish these “ Recipe ” projects to help you get your stories told — without the heavy lift of figuring out how to do it first. You can explore the full series of Project Recipes here: Background: Connecti...

I don’t often get the chance to share our particular approach to family history storytelling. When I do, I always ask to share the recording with you here in the Projectkin Community. Valerie Schlink and the fine team at the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society were gracious enough to allow me to do that. I’d encourage you to look at their society and the incredible resources they develop and ma...

Lori Olson White , known in our community for her incredible publications, The Lost & Found Story Box and Culinary History is Family History , prepared for us today a fantastic film to tell her family story about Howard & Elvira and their love expressed in the form of a cake. After 60 years, the story took a twist that made it more memorable. You recognize from classics like O’Henry’s  The Gift of...

Stories have been told in fabric since the first quilts, tartans, and weavings left from their creator’s hands. Lynda Heines , one of our long-time Projectkin members and publisher of Heines Sight , shares her fabric-based storytelling approach in today's program. For years, Lynda shared family stories in scrapbooks, but she was hooked once she found her way into fabric. On her site, LyndaHeines.c...

Privacy for Storytelling From our start in 2023, the Projectkin Community has been incredibly generous with their ideas and projects to share. I’ve only rarely had the chance to share a project recipe. I started on this idea soon after joining Substack. The more I worked on it, the more I appreciated its potential. This could be important for you, too. Let me explain. As consumers, we’re often lur...

Conversations with loved ones suffering from cognitive impairment or dementia can be frustrating or even isolating. Professional genealogist and registered nurse Jude Rhodes of Yorkshire Family History takes us through an approach she’s used successfully to trigger meaningful conversations. The core of her approach starts with the medical conditions impairing memory formation. For many kinds of de...

My introduction to Bridget Badoe McQuick came through professional genealogist, Emma Cox whom you might know for her Journeys into Genealogy podcast or here on Substack, Emma - Journeys into Genealogy . I found Bridget’s podcast episode with Emma inspiring so I was eager to meet her. Bridget, who also goes by Lady Esi (Bridget) in her performances, shared several resources with us during today’s p...

Kathryn Graven , author of “ Memoirs of a Mask Maker ” did not disappoint with her talk today. She deftly combined the heart of her grandmother Helen’s story with the professional craft of storytelling. Tap the “Transcript” button to read along or even search the transcript of the recording to pick up on details you might have missed during the live program. Kathryn was kind enough to share the st...

As we celebrate just five months of these Project Recipe Events , Kerri Kearney stepped up today to show us how she’s been inspired to create a family cookbook spanning five generations as an heirloom gift for her daughter. This incredible project resulted in a beautiful full-color, hardcover book of over 175 pages. As a Projectkin project it was not only inspiring, but also instructive as to proc...

Earlier this evening I had the pleasure of hosting Sindi Broussard Terrien of My Many Mothers and Finding a Publisher to talk about how to create a kids’ Activity Book from your own family history materials. Whatever the passion or mystery that fueled you in your pursuit of family stories and records, it’s a fair bet that one of your goals is to share your stories and records with future generatio...

These project recipe events have become central to what we do here at Projectkin. They give us a way to share — in detail — what makes a family history project work. Today’s event centered on the idea of an interactive, multigenerational activity and was led by Projectkin member Anna Scheutz. Anna had mentioned these during one of our more creative Project Clinic events . With a few requests, she...

We were thrilled to host Simon Davies, founder of the family archive platform WeAre.xyz , in a project recipe event. The secret to this project is the combination of ordinary playing cards with an online archive to host his stories and of course, Simon's ready with his WeAre.xyz archive. QR codes connect each card to archive profiles for each ancestor. The archive provides a private and safe place...

Last night I had the very special honor of presenting a talk at the Oakland FamilyHistory Center here in the Bay Area. Though we had a short time window to schedule it, Denise Plaskett, Rudy Wolf, and the FamilySearch Center team and volunteers made it a success. I'm so grateful. Rudy was also gracious enough to share this recording with all of you here in our Projectkin community. In this event,...

“At age two, my daughter [through adoption] became captivated by fairies and fairy families, so I used the facts of her origin story to create a book about a fairy that I called Little Faerie Princess . . . “ — from Mothers as Keepers and Tellers of Origin Stories , a collection of essays edited by Professor Kerri Kearney at Oklahoma State University, our speaker for this Project Recipe. For more...

The concept for “Dress Your Ancestors” starts with the idea that an old photograph of a beloved ancestor can be the starting point for an investigation into the life they lived. When you think about their experiences, it’s as if you were dressing them the way you might dress a paper doll. Your work will give thoughtful consideration to who they were, where they lived, and whom they might interact...

I’ve had the good fortune to inherit an extraordinary recitation of our family history from my grandmother who passed away in the 1960s — I never had a chance to get to know her. Her legacy included a limited-edition, self-published book of family history. The book formed a fascinating trail of clues for her heirs to follow in our family history research. This particular project came about on the...