What Was Hiding Behind the Brick Wall?

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Welcome to Names We Carry. In this premiere episode, I’m introducing myself—and the kinds of stories I’ve spent more than a decade uncovering. It begins with a genealogical brick wall and a road trip to a tiny Kentucky town, where I arrived just days after an 1850s boardinghouse had been demolished. What remained was a pile of old red brick, a souvenir I probably shouldn't have taken, and a family story far more complicated than the one I had gone there to find. Consider this episode part introduction, part trailer, and a glimpse of what’s ahead: DNA mysteries, forgotten histories, unexpected connections, and the people whose choices still echo through our lives generations later. Because sometimes the most interesting part of a family tree is what was hiding behind the brick wall.