"They're going bad... these photos in your basement are actually eroding." When Eric Allen inherited thousands of family slides, he realized the urgent race against time to save precious memories.  As a VP of Marketing at Ancestry, Eric knows all about encouraging people to preserve their family stories. But, his grandfather’s vast collection of deteriorating photos made it deeply personal. Now a passionate digital preservationist, Eric discovers that every image holds a story worth saving – from mysterious strangers in Hawaii to relatives who died too young to share their own tales. His mission to rescue these visual time capsules shows how technology can bridge generations and keep family stories alive.

Want to uncover similar stories in your own family? Visit CristaCowan.com/blog to find practical tips and story prompts from this episode.

📸 Follow Eric's preservation journey: Instagram.com/bliss_it_was

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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!

Ruth Hale, an icon in Utah theater circles, always dreamed her birth mother was an actress. But it wasn't until her grandson, Tony-nominated actor Will Swenson, took an AncestryDNA test at the urging of my producer, Lisa Elzey, that Ruth's story began to unfold. You won't believe what we uncovered during our five-year journey to solve this family mystery. Listen in as Will reacts to our shocking discovery that proves sometimes our deepest instincts about who we are are written in our DNA.

Want to uncover similar stories in your own family? Visit CristaCowan.com/blog to find practical tips and story prompts from this episode.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 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!

A 30-year quest to find my great-great-grandmother Carrie began with a teenage promise and a stack of yellow legal pads. Follow my journey from hand-cranking microfilm readers to the digital revolution that changed everything in genealogy. But in this deeply personal story, I discover that the most precious family treasures aren't found in courthouse records or online databases—they're in the stories that bring our ancestors to life. In this debut episode, I share how one mysterious ancestor shaped my path to becoming The Barefoot Genealogist.

Want to uncover similar stories in your own family? Visit CristaCowan.com/blog to find practical tips and story prompts from this episode.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 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!

I created this podcast to inspire you to form deeper connections with your family - past, present, and future.  All families are messy and life is constantly changing but we don’t have to allow that to disconnect us.  I’ve spent my whole life discovering the power of family history and I know that sharing the stories that live in you can change everything.

〰️ 🌳 🧬 〰️

🎧 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!