Projectkin Live: Speakers’ Corner Preview with Guests Marian Beaman and Xanthe Hall

Thank you Jill Swenson, Kyla Bayang, Kathy Stone, Kristin Rapinac, Jane Chapman, Sylvia Jacobs, Linda Stufflebean, Jill Swenson, Linda Teather, Bee Lilyjones, and many others for tuning into Jennifer Jones live program today with Marian Beaman and Xanthe Hall. Projectkin is free. We always welcome fellow travelers on the path of family history. Learn more Projectkin.org/about.You won’t want to miss our full program via Zoom meeting on Thursday (or Friday in Asia/Pac). Please register for your personal link:Exploring the Cliffhangers in our Family StoriesWith apologies for the glitchiness in the video, today’s program should give you a glimpse into the storytelling talents Marian and Xanthe bring to their genealogy work. Marian Beaman’s StoryMarian is a former English professor turned memoirist so she brings her superb writing skills to the challenge. Her publications at Marian’s News and “Plain and Fancy” on WordPress at MarianBeaman.com reflect her life now as a writer in Florida. Her work as a conservator of her Swiss/German family and their migration to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is the basis for the story she shared today about her relationship with her father. * Her first memoir, “Mennonite Daughter: The Story of a Plain Girl,” can be purchased online in the US and in Europe. Xanthe Hall’s StoryXanthe joined us from her home in Berlin, where she’s a former NGO administrator who has now turned her talents to her own family history. In her extraordinary publication, Xanthe shares compelling stories about her family and extended relatives. It was in that context that we heard the story of “Uncle Len,” which became an integral part of her Alphabet posts, starting with “A is for Ashworth.”Read on, I won’t spoil the story. Join us on Thursday/Friday to hear Marian and Xanthe step up at the Speakers’ Corner. The key concept behind this series is that an oral story is very different from one in written form. The idea for this series is to create a platform for any of our community members to step up and share an important story from their family history. All speakers will get a copy of their recording as a downloadable video they can add to their own archives. As Jennifer shared this morning, all of our speaker slots for 2026 are now booked, but if you’re eager to join, drop your name, and we’ll put you in the queue for 2027. We’d love to include you. Please message Jennifer with any questions, or complete our simple form to get into the queue. 🎉If you enjoyed this recording, you’d be doing us a favor by dropping a little love ❤️ and sharing your thoughts in the comments below. If you think it’ll be valuable to others, share it individually or in group pages. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe