familystories | Carolyn Stearns Storyteller

Category Archives: familystories

Half Broke Horses, a Book Review

Posted on June 30, 2023 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Book Review: Half Broke Horses Jeannette Walls

Are you looking for a heroine? I was given the book Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls, what a story! I owe my friend a huge thanks. I love a good story, adding horses, is even better. This novel is based on the life of the author’s grandmother. Her lifetime tumbled from the ranch, horse breaker, schoolteacher, pilot, wife, and parent. This dynamo of a woman lived a real life that is the stuff legends are made of. The author calls it a novel as she needed to fill in detail that was not left in the treasure of family stories.

I love historical family stories. That is what made this book such a delight to read. The author Jeannette Walls has taken the oral history of her grandmother’s life and made us never forget it. I highly recommend this book to the reader who loves historical stories, the West, and a powerful woman.

Skungamaug Childhood

Posted on November 23, 2019 by carolynstearns • 2 Comments

There was a particular day when my childhood was left behind. That day my innocent view of the world and my home territory was shifted forever. I call it a territory for it was large, more acres and roads than many children call their domain. The day I speak of I was sixteen, beyond… Continue Reading

Dig Up a Family Story

Posted on February 8, 2016 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Don’t tell me you don’t have a family story. I will pry one out of you in the blink of an eye! We all have a family and a personal set of stories, they are part of what makes us who we are. That family story may not be the 1950’s family image, family to… Continue Reading

Take Back Childhood

Posted on August 14, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Can you count 10 moments in childhood that you remember as being near perfect? Here are some of mine. These memories have a new job…. #1) Lazy summer days, no agenda, just staying outside all day! #2) Ice Cream Cones – take it back tonight, go out for ice cream! #3) Swimming, the Beach or… Continue Reading

5 Moments that Pulled Heart Strings

Posted on July 6, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Everyone has experienced a moment that pulled at their heart strings and exposed emotions raw and so close they overflowed, usually with tears. It might have been a departure for a trip, a loved one leaving for military service and the great unknown expanse of time before seeing them again. Think back to WWII.… Continue Reading

Prompt July 4 Family Stories

Posted on June 28, 2015 by carolynstearns • 2 Comments

July 4th and you are planning a picnic. Nothing newsworthy just some family and friends coming over. This year make it special, collect a few memories from your guests. Ask ahead for a couple of favorite recipes to prepare and share. Be sure everyone gets a copy of the recipe to take home. Then ask for the story behind… Continue Reading

Ancestors at Sea

Posted on June 13, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Did your ancestors work the sea? What immigrant ship did your ancestors arrive on? Tell family stories with accuracy to detail, with a visit to a nautical museum or website. Here are some places to begin your voyage of discovery, the family stories from the sea. The whale boat above, is an image from Mystic Seaport,… Continue Reading

You Spent How Much?

Posted on June 7, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

How many arguments have been started with that phrase, I bet you can remember a few of your own. It may be that whom ever it is questioning your financial savvy, just doesn’t understand the economics of I love this I want this I need this This is perfect for or I’ve been… Continue Reading

5 Ways to Preserve Family Stories

Posted on May 30, 2015 by carolynstearns • 2 Comments

The teen sat on the park bench, hungry, tired, jobless, a boy of New Haven, Connecticut. He wondered what the world would hold for him. He sat staring into space, after awhile his focus landed on a beautiful girl across the street, near the corner of Church and Chapel Streets. She was made of wood! It was… Continue Reading

5 Tips for Memorial Day Family Stories

Posted on May 24, 2015 by carolynstearns • 3 Comments

Memorial Day 2015 Who in your family has a story that needs to be collected before it’s too late? How did they serve our nation? Where were they sent in the service? What branch of the military were they in? My father; the late Herman F. Marshall, a member of the U.S. Army, during WWII.… Continue Reading

3 Hauntingly Interesting Connecticut Places

Posted on May 17, 2015 by carolynstearns • 2 Comments

History and Haunting seem to go together, ever have an eerie feeling at some historic site? Remember a time when you felt the chill on a warm day, you were some where historic of course! There is so much history in Connecticut, I thought I could share a few places I have had a sense of time… Continue Reading

5 Questions About a Power Outage Lead to a Story

Posted on May 11, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

The power is out. That always makes for a family story. Next time you get together with family, ask them if they have a story from a time the power went out. 1.) How long was it out? 2.) What season was it? 3.) Was there a blizzard or hurricane? 4.) Was the cause some accident… Continue Reading

A Fairy Tale from a Family Story

Posted on May 4, 2015 by carolynstearns • 2 Comments

You finally have the kids bathed and in bed. They have had a glass of water, you read a story and they still won’t sleep. Don’t despair they need a family story from the best storyteller in the world – YOU! HOW? What Fairy Tale, Aesop Fable or Mother Goose story or folk tale are… Continue Reading

Family Recipes, 5 Questions for Family Stories

Posted on April 26, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Food and Family, the two can hardly be separated. Family events and every day suppers hold lots of food memories and they are a good place to start collecting family stories too. Everyone has a food story to share! Are you ready to collect a family story? You can ask your kids your elders… Continue Reading

What Does Your Family Sound Like?

Posted on April 13, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Every family has a certain playlist. That constant background music or noise that is seldom acknowledged. When I was a teen I babysat for a family, it was a no TV house, the constant background there was classical music piped softly to every room. It was a serene household, but I always had to fight… Continue Reading

Ties to a Shipyard Story

Posted on April 3, 2015 by carolynstearns • 11 Comments

Allen, that is a family name, my Paternal Grandmother was Pauline Allen Marshall. She was from Port Greville, Nova Scotia Canada. Here she is as a young woman in Rye New Hampshire. She came to the United States as a young teen to work in the Amoskeag Mills in Manchester, NH. Allen is an… Continue Reading

5 Questions to Ask Collectors for a Family Story

Posted on March 26, 2015 by carolynstearns • 6 Comments

Almost everyone I know collects something, from rocks to cars, the collections are a hobby and a glimpse into a family story. So how do we unearth the story from the dusty collection? Of course this is simpler if the collector is still collecting, grab a recording device, audio or video and a pen and… Continue Reading

3 Prompts to Collect a Family Story

Posted on March 15, 2015 by carolynstearns • 5 Comments

Just ask a few questions, and with that you can collect a family story to share in the oral tradition of storytelling, or write in a journal or memoir. Here are 3 questions you can ask, you can change them, or rearrange the order. Make a point each week to ask a family member some… Continue Reading

Erebos – Art and the Family Story

Posted on February 28, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Why should we bother to collect a family story? Who cares what Grandpa did in the war or where Grandma learned to drive a car? Does it really matter that some family members lived through the Depression? Yes, it all matters, it is part of the threads that make our family fabric, it is where… Continue Reading

I Need a Time Machine – Focus on Family Stories

Posted on February 24, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

I need a time machine! I would like to whisk back in time to another era and have a look around. What was there, what wasn’t how can I describe the place so others can see it as it was in a time passed? I looked on Ebay and Amazon – no time machine suitable… Continue Reading

The Button Box – Focus on Family Stories

Posted on February 18, 2015 by carolynstearns • 2 Comments

I have my Grandmother’s button box. Most women saved buttons back in the day, back when people counted every penny and certainly didn’t want to spend any extra on something like a button. Buttons were salvaged from clothes going to rags, buttons found, buttons saved when a coat made shorter, buttons for shirts and… Continue Reading

Archaeology and Family Stories

Posted on February 14, 2015 by carolynstearns • 4 Comments

It was as if I entered a portal to time and crossed over to the American Revolution. Was this a table in the offices of Archaeological and Historical Services, Inc or my great, great, great, great- Grandmothers kitchen table? http://www.ahs-inc.biz/mainpage.html While researching a family story online I found an archaeological report… Continue Reading

Who was Caleb Barnes; Focusing on Family Stories

Posted on February 8, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Sometimes the search isn’t easy! I am trying to find out just who Caleb Barnes was, not the name and date in a genealogy, but the man. How did he make a living and where did he live? Did he build his own house, where was it. What were his ties to the Connecticut River… Continue Reading

My Father Built Me…..Telling Family Stories

Posted on February 4, 2015 by carolynstearns • 5 Comments

Here is a great line to start a conversation and collect a story from someone. “My father built me….” What did your father build for you? Feel free to share in the comments. It might have been a tree house a dollhouse, a toy, a piece of furniture. I was prompted by this photo to… Continue Reading

The Patriot Gave Everything – Focus on Family Stories

Posted on February 1, 2015 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Are you aware of the thousands who died for the cause of America, not in battles of our Revolution, but as prisoners of war held by the British under the most horrific of conditions. Their story is mostly forgotten, their lives given to the new nation undervalued by history, unserved by classroom text. The stories of… Continue Reading

Grandpa in WWI a Developing Family Story

Posted on January 24, 2015 by carolynstearns • 2 Comments

Where to begin, I have a collection of letters my Grandfather, George Brooks Armstead sent home from the front when he worked for the YMCA in WWI. I have read them all, now the big question how to go from a batch of letters to a story to share? I read them straight through in chronological… Continue Reading

A Story From a Silver Teapot – Family Stories

Posted on January 4, 2015 by carolynstearns • 4 Comments

The inspiration for a family story may come from a simple object. It need not be an antique, it could be an everyday item that inspires a favorite family tale. One such item for me is a little teapot. I received this as a teen from my mother, she got it from her mother. The… Continue Reading

Focused on Family Stories – Riding for Uncle Samuel

Posted on December 27, 2014 by carolynstearns • 2 Comments

I plan to focus my blog on family stories past and present. Previous postings have skipped all over the place much like my interests and attention. Over and over again I am reminded of the importance of family stories and our connections to people and places through story. So here we go, New Year… Continue Reading

To Stave Off Alzheimer’s, Learn a Language? Tell a Story!

Posted on February 23, 2011 by carolynstearns • 0 Comments

Dementia and Alzheimer’s a cruel duo that have played out the last few years as they have stricken my father and left him a shadow of the man he was. How sad the memories of Grandaughter’s weddings have slipped away and memories of the days when brides were little girls. How much we lose when… Continue Reading