THE ANCESTORS Mother’s Day Special

What’sHerName presents our very first Mother’s Day Special! Come “meet the ancestors” as six What’sHerName listeners introduce some truly remarkable women from their own family history!

From Ukraine to Japan, Uzbekistan to Mexico, we’re traveling around the world, and through 275 years, to discover these amazing ancestors in this special double episode. Our guests are What’sHerName listeners Irit Namatinya, Susan Stone, Lisa Williamson, Adrienne, Sachiko Burton, and Michelle Thorley.

Rosalia and her daughter Sophia survived Nazi invasion, a train explosion, a month in a swamp, and famine and disease in a rural Russian village. Sophia’s granddaughter Adrienne, the cohost of the Dear World, Love History podcast, tells their story. All photos by permission of Adrienne.

In 18th century colonial Connecticut, Prudence Punderson was ignoring all the “rules” of needlework to create astonishing works of art. Lisa Williamson brings us the story of this truly remarkable “noted needlewoman.” [Correction: The man who brought Punderson’s embroidery to the State Fair after her death was her grandson, not her son-in-law as we mistakenly said.]

Young Highland Dancer Margaret Stewart Haldane could never have imagined that her life would lead her from urban Glasgow to a career as the Postmaster of Rattlesnake, Florida, USA. Her granddaughter Susan Stone, producer of the Dead Ladies Show Podcast, brings us her story. All photos courtesy of Susan Stone.

Michelle Thorley is an artist and family history researcher. Her instagram is FloraFamiliar.

Irit Namatinya is a Bollywood dance teacher in Thailand. She brings us the story of her grandmother Sarah Chaminov’s escape from Uzbekistan to Israel, and the unusual solution she discovered to an unusual and frightening problem.

Rebecca Sachiko Suzuki is a writer in Washington state. She shares with us the ways her grandmother Fumie Suzuki Swenson and great-grandmother Hisa Shitagaki Suzuki gave her a legacy of courage and resilience, “even if you have to walk through fire.” All photos courtesy of Sachiko Suzuki.

Music used by permission in this episode performed by Cindy Henderson, Trialogo, Doug Maxwell and Zac Zinger, Nat Keefe and Hot Buttered Rum, Sláinte, Boston Sing and Robert Stoddard, Audionautix, Sir Cubworth, Radio Jarocho and Zenen Zeferino Huervo, Jeff Cuno, Aaron Kenny, and Son Jarocho.

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