Crista Cowan

Crista Cowan Need help building your family tree or exploring your AncestryDNA® results to make more discoveries? Sign up for my email newsletter now! Visit CristaCowan.com

08/27/2026

Do you know how much education each of your four grandparents had?

08/22/2026

Every family history reveal is different. When you share the identity of long sought after biological family members with an adoptee, everyone reacts in their own way. Some cry. Some go quiet. He laughed.

I've delivered this kind of news more times than I can count. I've never seen a reaction quite like this one. And for a reason I never could have predicted. (Turns out, I was the one who ended up crying.)

DNA has a wild way of showing us how connected we really are. 🧬❤️

🗨️ What would you do if a stranger handed you a missing piece of your family story?

🎙️ Comment “125” to get the link to the full episode and find out just how these two men knew each other. It’s almost unbelievable.

08/16/2026

He had an embarrassing realization but admitted it out loud anyway.

This week's podcast guest didn't sign up for being a part-time dad. No parent does. But since his divorce, he's had to face something that some parents never have to do in quite this way: counting time.

His son turns 18 in two years. Technically, that's one year of "every other week" left.

It breaks his heart. (It broke my heart to hear it.) But he said it anyway. Because he'd rather be honest about the cost than pretend it doesn't have one.

Sometimes the most intentional parenting doesn't come from having more time. It comes from realizing you don't have as much time as you thought.

Has a hard season ever made you more intentional with the people you love? I’d love to hear about it. 👇

🎙️ To hear my full conversation with Bubba Page, comment “124” and I'll message you the link.

08/11/2026

I'm playing with three new features on Ancestry this summer. Hear all about them here.

We’re heading into the final hours! 🌸I know I’ve been talking about our Spring 2026 Workshop Series for a couple of week...
04/18/2026

We’re heading into the final hours! 🌸

I know I’ve been talking about our Spring 2026 Workshop Series for a couple of weeks now to those of you on my email list, and so many of you have already claimed your seats (I can't wait to see you tomorrow morning!).

But I also know how busy April gets. Between "RootsTech recovery" and spring break, it’s easy for an email to get buried or for a "I’ll do that later" to turn into "Wait, is that tomorrow?!"

The answer is: Yes! We start TOMORROW at 9am PDT / 12pm EDT.

If you’ve been sitting on the fence, this is your official "Last Call" to join us live for the whole series.

🛠️ Foundations: To start or fix your family tree.
📖 Storytelling: To find and share stories that they will listen to.
🧬 DNA: To finally make sense of your match list.
🧱 Brick Walls: To bust through your toughest challenges.

Pick whichever workshop you need most (or join us for all four!).

A quick heads-up: I still have a few $50 Family Chartmasters gift cards left for those who grab the All-Access Bundle. If you want to spend the Spring turning your research into a beautiful heirloom, now is the time to jump in.

👇 Grab your spot soon:
https://www.cristacowan.com/workshops

Can’t wait to get started with you!
~ Crista

P.S. - I only run this full workshop series once or twice a year. So, if you can't make it live tomorrow, the 60-day replay access has you covered. You can sign up now and watch the Saturday sessions in your pajamas on Sunday morning!

04/12/2026

Three sisters. One photo album. A mystery that didn't make sense until Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective looked at the family tree.

Each sister inherited the album, rearranged it, added her own photos, and passed it on. By the time it reached Maureen, nothing seemed to fit. Pages were out of order. Photos didn't match the timeline. It looked like chaos.

But it wasn't chaos. It was love.

When they broke it down piece by piece alongside the family tree, they realized each sister had left her fingerprints on the album intentionally. They had a plan for it. They were each adding their chapter to a shared story.

How many of us have inherited photo albums or boxes of pictures that seem like a jumbled mess and we just assume nobody organized them? What if someone did? What if the "mess" is actually a story we haven't figured out how to read yet?

This is one of many reasons why I love talking to Maureen Taylor. She doesn't just look at photos and identify them. She looks at the whole story.

💭 Have you ever inherited a photo album or box of old pictures that felt like a puzzle? I'd love to hear about it.

🎙️And if you want to hear Maureen tell this story herself, the full episode is here:
https://www.cristacowan.com/blog/rhode-island-a-spirit-of-independence

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Lehi, UT

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