Real Stories, Real People

I also have a passion for writing. I’ve written things like short narrative profiles about my ancestors, captured family vacation adventures, and even journaled about the daily joys of my life. I find there is always something to write about.

In 2020, my family of four made a huge life change. We moved 700 miles to Georgia from Indiana where we had been born and raised. That meant a career change for me. So, after 21 years of teaching, I took a step into the unknown, and I joined the team at Storied. Each day I get to combine my love of family history and writing…dream job!

My tips to you…

1. Write every day. I try to add a story (or at the very least add to a story) each day.
2. Don’t worry about how long a story is. Think about this - if you had one line written by your great-grandfather, wouldn’t you be thrilled? I would be!
3. Don’t worry about spelling and grammar. I used to teach high school English, and I’m telling you - STOP worrying about spelling and grammar. You want your writing to be authentic. Be YOU.

Don’t wait another day to share the stories of your family. While the facts of family history are important, I believe the stories are the heart. Happy storytelling! See Less

It’s amazing the connections that can be made across a single generation, and it’s even more amazing to find those connections across many generations. I am not a professional genealogist; I haven’t personally researched very far back, but I do have ancestors I feel connected to, and I want to build those connections with my past, create memories and connections with my present that I can then pass on to my future family. Right now is my living history, and I’m working to learn and preserve what I can.

I love to read the family stories of other people on Storied. It inspires me to get out of my shell and talk to more of my living family to learn more about their perspectives on experiences they have had. Something I have loved about working at and writing on Storied is that every single person can have a different take on the same event. I’ve been able to have family members share pieces of a memory I had forgotten or may not have known, and that has been priceless. See Less

They love hearing about my adventures as a balloon artist, the time I had to put my dirty socks in my mouth as a punishment, and when I was nearly struck by lightning. They laugh uproariously at the memory of me as a toddler, venturing into the street in nothing but my Mickey Mouse underwear, forgetting to pants on before joining my friends. These memories help me connect with and teach my children in a fun and engaging way.

The idea of preserving these cherished memories became a passion. As I started to gain momentum, more childhood memories started to surface, and I felt compelled not only to capture my own stories but also those of our ancestors, making them accessible to my children, nieces, and nephews. With the emergence of AI image generation, I am now able to make the stories even more engaging and bring them to life in situations where a photo may not exist.

I’m capturing my stories so that my children might better understand their heritage. I want them to realize the challenges they face are not as unique as they may think. My hope is that my stories make me more relatable and make it easier for them to confide in me when life knocks them down. I write because it is a way for me to give back to those who sacrificed before, ensuring their stories live on forever. See Less

Speaking of adventures, did I mention that I got lost inside the Great Pyramid of Giza when I was 10 years old? Yeah, it was quite the experience!

I have some pretty fun bucket list items I'm working towards – like visiting all 63 national parks in the USA and strolling through every single Costco warehouse in the country (591 and counting!). So far, I've been to 38 Costcos, and I’m just getting started!

If you enjoy a short good story and a bit of humor, you're in the right place. Come along with me on my adventures because who knows what crazy shenanigans I'll get into next? One thing's for certain – it'll be one fun ride!

Follow me on Storied.com and let's explore, one story at a time! See Less

What I think is important… The most important thing I do is encourage others. I would encourage you, whoever you are, to do the same. Encourage them to capture a memory. Encourage someone to talk about a photo or event that happened in their life. Encourage yourself to stick with it and be the person a future you would be so thankful for. Just imagine if someone took the time to do more than write the names on the back of a photo 60 years ago. That’d make your research and discoveries much more engaging if you knew the story behind the frozen smiles in time, wouldn’t it?

What you can do… So I encourage you to be that person to capture, preserve, and create a colorful montage of your family so a great-great-grandchild one day remembers and appreciates what you’ve accomplished. You can do this through photos, writing, and capturing audio and video without too much trouble, AND you can tie it all back to a simple family tree nowadays! I hope you enjoy and feel that encouragement if you have some time to read through my family journeys.

How I evolved… Initially, I moved past what I call my BMD phase, birth/marriage/death. Things started to get a bit more interesting then and I found more motivation with every discovery. Even with so much history to search through and information to clip out of the newspapers, I was still left juggling with organization. How in the world do I keep track of this bit and that bit and tie it back to a person that made sense? Family groups on one site or another and trees spread across platforms made it a real pain to navigate my own tree! Fast forward through trial and error, failures, and some successes, I was lucky enough to be part of Storied.com. No platform is perfect, but I’m happy to say I can finally have a home to grow our tree, and each leaf gets to have every shade of every season instead of just one dimension.

I again encourage you; paint the picture of everyone you can in your family tree with the richest and most vibrant colors you possibly can. The old who, what, when, where, and why still applies if you ever get stuck on what to write. Future you and your great-great-grandbaby will appreciate it! See Less

I was captivated by pictures of ancestors I never knew, like my gorgeous great-grandmother Bernadette in her drop-waisted 1920s dresses, and the funny old pictures developed on tin instead of paper. Who were these people? Well, nothing delighted my grandfather more than telling me all about them! Grampy Phil had the most incredible stories. He shared the tale of his uncle Bootlegger Joe who used my grandfather and his own young sons as a cover during Prohibition. He figured no one would suspect that a man taking three young boys fishing had a second gas tank full of moonshine in his car! I learned that all the women in our family got our fiery tempers from his beloved grandma, Georgie. It took a lot to make her angry, but when she blew, watch out! And then there was my favorite story – the grisly tale of his granduncle Theophile who slipped off a catwalk and fell into a vat of acid at the paper mill in our hometown. “And all they found were three brass buttons!” Grampy whispered dramatically as he rattled a jar of brass buttons for maximum effect.

In college I began helping him with his research and really fell down the genealogy rabbit hole! I’ve been hooked ever since. The entire process excites me whether I’m building my tree, researching historical events, or discovering some thrilling new fact that makes the puzzle pieces of my family history suddenly fall into place. As much as I enjoy the process, it always, always circles back to what hooked me in the first place -- the stories. They make our ancestors come alive in a relevant and meaningful way. See Less

Earlier in his career, Kendall led product management at Ancestry, where he oversaw the search engine, international growth, mobile app, AncestryDNA features, and where he co-created the iconic “shaky leaf” hint and family tree.

Kendall has an MBA from Wharton and lives in Provo with his wife, Carolina, and their 3 kids. They love to travel and learn about new places and cultures—Kendall and Carolina made a pact when they first got married that they’d travel to at least one new country every year, so the crazy stories from their adventures grows by the year. See Less

From the earliest I can remember, whenever I was around anyone older than me, I asked questions: how did you meet your partner, what did you do for entertainment when you were younger, what games did you play, what was food like, how have clothing styles changed from when you were younger, what’s your best memory of your mother/father/grandparent, are there events that stand out in your memory? Although, I have also been known to say to an 18-yr old – you aren’t old enough to say “back when I was a kid”.

I am a happily retired special education teacher who still firmly believes in being a lifelong learner. I am having a blast learning new skills in genealogy hunting. See Less