Olivia Jewell | The Power of Connections

Stories in Our Roots 0:03
Welcome to the Stories in Our Roots podcast. I'm your host Heather Murphy. In this podcast, we dive deep into how knowing the stories of our ancestors can make a difference in our lives today, discovering our family history is more than a hobby. It is a way to connect deeply with ourselves, those we love, and the world around us.

Heather Murphy 0:26
Hello, and welcome to the podcast. This is Heather Murphy. I am glad to have you here. Today I talk with Olivia Jewell who is the founder of the 21 day family connection experiment. If you haven't heard of this project, the links are in the show notes, so you can be sure to go and check it out. Olivia shares how family history has played a part in her life with making connections to grandparents who have passed on, as well as living family members with whom she shares a common history. We talk about why she started this 21 day project and what it has meant in her life, the actual tangible benefits that she has seen, and the responses of other people who have been involved in this idea of participating in family history by making connections 21 days in a row and seeing how you feel after. I'm glad to share with you this interview with Olivia Jewell. Hello, Olivia, thank you for joining me on the podcast today. I am excited to talk with you.

Olivia Jewell 1:35
Me too. I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Heather Murphy 1:39
Could you start by giving a little introduction of yourself?

Olivia Jewell 1:42
Sure. My name is Olivia Jewell. And I am a mom of four kids. I live in Utah, and I am a busy person, I really enjoy being busy. And so as part of that I've kind of found myself very highly involved in family history. Because I love it. I have just a passion for it. And I love it. And so I'm a director at our local Family History Center. I teach classes at different centers at different discovery days before the pandemic, of course, at rootstech and different things like that just genealogy conferences and tech stuff, BYU Education Week, and then I also do PTA stuff and just try to be as involved in crazy as I can. Because it's fun. That's my story. Thanks.

Heather Murphy 2:31
How did you start being involved or interested in learning about your family history?

Olivia Jewell 2:37
I love that question. Because I think some of us are just born this way. I think there's like a degree of that. But it's funny because you know, you talk to some people who are younger that do family history, they've been doing it since they were little kids. And that's not quite my story. But the reason I think that I was born with it is because I always had a love for photos. Like photos were always important to me. And I always loved my grandma and like getting to know stories and things. But it never like transitioned into genealogy for per se. Until I was older. I was actually living in Virginia. And I was put in charge of doing some public relations stuff for my church. And when I did that, I was like, Okay, what am I going to do with this? And we had a family history center there, which I knew nothing about. But I was like, let's try this. So I was like, Oh, we should let the public know about this. So I put an article in the newspaper and we got so many responses. I didn't think anyone would care. And we got so much response that suddenly I had to become a genealogist because I had basically promoted that we would teach you how to do geneology. And so because I didn't prepare, I was like, okay, so I really hurried and just learned like I taught myself I actually it was around the first of the roots tech classes, like one or two years into roots tech. And so I watched all the tech videos online to just educate myself on how to do family history. Around that same time, I made a book of my grandma's life story, because I was doing scanning as a business just like door to door knock door to door because it wasn't door to door sales. But like I'd find people who needed scanning and I would go scan their photos for them. And so at about that same time, all of these things came together. And I started to love it. Because when I built that book for my grandma's life story, it changed my heart and like I fell in love with her and in love with my grandpa in whole new ways. Because you just bond with people when you learn that much about their life. So that's that's kind of what got me into just doing family history and family and genealogy work.

Heather Murphy 4:32
Could you share with us some of the experiences you've had since then have those stories that are meaningful to you?

Olivia Jewell 4:39
Yeah, forsure. I love talking about it. So yeah, so of course, I actually moved back from Virginia shortly after this whole experience of teaching and learning really fast and all of this and it was kind of cool because I started off with helping other people. And when I found out I was going to move back to Utah I was a little sad because I loved my home. But I suddenly was like oh my goodness, my whole family. History is in Utah. So now I can go reach out. And so I was like young mom age, I had two little kids. So my I still had great aunts living and great uncles, I still do now, but more so than and so I just started reaching out to all these extended family members. And so I called one of my aunts and pero in Utah. And it was like, hey, do you have any, you know, everyone has a choose the one who has the records. And so I just started going from house to house to have all of my extended family members, and scanning digitizing everything that they had. And they all had like, chests of stuff, you know, like genealogy stuff, photos, heirlooms, and I just went and we just had the greatest time connecting over these stories, because of course, the person who collects that just has that same love that I think they're born with that same thing. So it's just it creates this bond that like, you just can't replace, like, that great aunt and I are, I love her so much. Like, like my own grandma. You know, she's just, we're so close now. And I love it. And so that's for me, like that bond that I gained with all of my grandparents, even the ones who had passed on, gained, that relationship with their siblings was so valuable to me just kind of connecting with the living connecting in a way that I never would have had I not been trying to dig into my past.

Heather Murphy 6:16
Why do you think that is? Why do you think that you were able to develop those relationships through that?

Olivia Jewell 6:22
That's a really good question. I feel like because there is there's something that connects like, it's interesting, because actually, as part of roots tech for this year, I helped put together a series called The power of connection. And so it'll come out in February. But basically, we we did some research, like as part of a project that I'm currently working on is called the 21 day family connection experiment. So we created the series through that at roots tech, and we brought in psychologists and mental health workers and some just professionals who could kind of teach us and help us understand. And what is super cool is that, like, you know, and every person that comes on your podcast knows that when you start digging into genealogy and family stories, and connecting with your family, there is power there, like it just feels so good. As I've started kind of meeting with these different professionals in the space of like psychology and mental health, I'm starting to realize there are like physical chemical reactions that create those good feelings. And that's what's happening. It's actually scientific. It's not just like, it just feels good. It's like scientific that there's power and connection. And so I believe it's, it's the connection, it's being present with them. There's power in that story in that relationship relating to one another. Even though my great aunt is so much older than me, like two generations, you know, before me, she still can we can relate to each other with experiences as we're going through this box of photos. As she shares stories from her parents and grandparents, I'm suddenly feeling that same. What's the word, you know, connection bond with those grandparents and those great grandparents. And so there's just like, there's power, there's chemicals that are actually like dispersing in your body. And I am not a scientist but but what I'm learning is that it's true. And it's real, and that the lack is just as dangerous as some of the other things that we face in our time, the lack of connection is also is as dangerous as the presence of connection is powerful.

Heather Murphy 8:25
Do you think that it would have been different if she would have been like sending you stuff and you weren't there physically with her? Do you think that that had to do with it? Or do you think you'd still have that connection? Even if it was remote?

Olivia Jewell 8:39
Great question. I love that. I actually think there's still a bond there. Because I can relate with with some of that with some other relatives that I had. Obviously, the the bond coming in person was stronger, for sure, I think. But I was able to when I was building that book for my grandma, I reached out to some of her siblings, and I was still living in Virginia at that time. So we couldn't meet in person. But you know, when you're on the phone, and she's telling you how your grandma was a bossy teenager, and she would make them mop the floor. And she was like she tried to be the mom of the house. Like you just love like you connect with that with that great egg. So that was another one. And, you know, you connect with her in a way because you're bonding over your shared love of your grandma who has passed on right and, and so no, like, I don't I don't think the fact that you if you can't be together physically, I don't think it takes away. I don't think it means that you can still get those bonds and have those really incredible experiences. I think they still can exist as long as you're reaching out and making that contact.

Heather Murphy 9:38
Great. Could you tell me more about this book that you made about your grandma?

Olivia Jewell 9:42
Sure. I love it so much. I love it. Yes. So we dug it and my mom had you know, my mom wasn't I don't think she has the same love the idea of so she had boxes of crap everywhere. And I just came home from to Utah when when one trip and I brought my scanner with me because I told you and so we went down into your base I just started just scanning like I didn't organize first, I just started sticking it through the scanner, you know, and anything that was too big I would photograph and my sister was like, wouldn't it be so cool to put this book together? And I was like, no, that sounds like a ton of work. But she talked me into it. And it did end up being a ton of work like I will not, I will not say I didn't. At the time, I was working for a company called heritage makers, which is just like a digital scrapbooking company. So I took theirs. And now I actually use more like a mix book or something like that. I took their books, and I just built it but makes the cats like cool templates for family history. And so that's usually what I recommend to people now, but I built it from scratch. And so that was the labor of love. But we put a timeline at the beginning, we scanned she, my mom, or my grandma, I guess had kept him and my mom had just inherited him. All of these documents, you know, birth certificates, graduation grades, like all these cool things that like we take for granted. You know, it was so cool to have my grandma's stuff like that, and my grandpa's, and so I just put it in chronological order. So it was about her, but I still put in a whole like I put her growing up years and he put me grandpa's growing up years, then they brought them together and have their wedding pictures and their newspaper, in sir. And just all these different documents, which that was what was so cool about putting it into a book is that it, it brought it all together all these little pieces that could just be sitting in a box that it put it into all together and made a story you know, and then one of the cool connection things too, was I reached out to all my cousin's people who I hadn't talked to in a long time, because you know, I was really young and busy and whatever. So I reached out to all my cousins, and I asked them to share a little, just little quotes, little little memories of grandma. And so at the end when I was just putting in, because obviously the later in her life, there's lots more photos, I would put in all those pictures and I just dispersed quotes among it from her grandkids, her, her children and her anyone who is still living that quotes about her. And so I dispersed a ton of quotes. Or if this was like visual, I would totally show you the book. Maybe I can give you the link so you can share it because it is really it turned out great. I love it. It's beautiful. And of course we gave it to every woman. Everyone else loved it too.

Heather Murphy 12:05
And about how many pages was that when you finished?

Olivia Jewell 12:08
I could look but it was probably 40 she wasn't a time it was I would call it a scrapbook book with added text, you know, with like, for with words, but it was mostly photos and documents and then added text for Yeah, storytelling. Yeah. It's like, Yes.

Heather Murphy 12:26
How old were you when your grandmother passed?

Olivia Jewell 12:29
I was in college. It was right before I got married 2006. So I don't know how it was. Okay.

Heather Murphy 12:35
So you were able to get her nowhere pretty well in life. Do you have a good relationship with her before then?

Olivia Jewell 12:42
Well, I love that you asked that. Because yes, with her, me and my sisters, we all love my grandma so much. So that was what was so fun. It was different with my grandpa though, because he died when I was two. So I really didn't know him very well. But what was so fun was when we started to put this book together and we decided we wanted to collect some stories from his life and stuff. And as we did this research, I started reaching out to his his siblings, which most of them had actually passed away too. But what was really fun is I got to know this aunt, my aunt Emmeline, and she was passed away. But she had done so much work with research and genealogy while she was living, that I tapped into this incredible resource of details about his life and about all of his parents and grandparents lives. And so I came to just love this great app. So here's the story. I fell in love with my grandpa I learned so much about him, I learned what a great person he was, how, how warm and kind and he took care of all the widows and you know, he's just such a good person. So it made you feel good to be related to him and to and to be his granddaughter. But I also fell in love with this great aunt who had who had collected so much and and really put me on another path of discovering more about genealogical research because she had so much and she done such a good job. And it was so fun to discover her research, that it just kind of opened up this whole new world for me. So just through her research, I came to discover so much and so so what's really cool is as I go back, and I think about your question of like, what impacted me and and truthfully these relationships with these extended family members that has really like kind of paved the way for me to go further and find more things in my genealogical research, but also just to connect more with both my my living and my past family and have made it so that I could be close. Like if my timeline hadn't done that work. I wouldn't be as close to my grandpa as I am. You know, I have this great love and kinship for him that I couldn't have had without her gift of love, you know. So anyway, so I hope that kind of answers your question.

Heather Murphy 14:43
Yeah, that was great. Some people may think that those more distant relations like you know, a great aunt or his people who have passed on like, Why spend the effort to get to know them because they're gone. What would you say to that?

Olivia Jewell 14:59
No. Way, oh my gosh, no way they are the best, especially the older generation, there's so much fun to get to know. And they have such a wealth of information. And they'll all tell you, I will tell you, I'm sure you've encountered this though, I'll be like, Oh, I don't remember anything. I'm not worth interviewing, you know, they all say that they I don't, you know, you should have interviewed me and agender. But they if you get them talking, first of all, they need the connection. So it's just like a total bonding experience. Because you can feel how, how much they love it. But as you get talking with them, like you learn things that are so cool, and maybe they wouldn't be cool to anyone else. But because they're your story and your ancestors stories like that, just the excitement that comes from learning some of those simple stories, like you know, what happened when they were herding sheep, or, or you know, even just little things that happened and being able to relate to them and understand that they that these ancestors were real people, and they were your grandparents, parents and grandparents and like, they went through some of these same experiences and emotions and feelings that you did so much that comes from that I can't like I wish I could put my word. I wish I was a scientist that could tell you All of the explanations of why it's so great. But But anyone who's experienced it can feel it. And it's totally worth I would never ever discount someone in your family who, who is older, because they are so full of great, great resources of just memories and a lifetime of experiences. Right?

Heather Murphy 16:25
Yeah. And I think it's important to keep in mind that while you might not have a connection with them to start, they had a connection to people that you have a connection to. And I think it's easy to kind of overlook that and forget what stories they might have that you had no idea that they would have known. Yes, yes.

Olivia Jewell 16:47
I love Love, love, love, love what you just said that right there. There's just so much that you just you would you would miss out on so much if you don't open the door, is how I would look at it just like you got to open the door to find out the treasures that are on the other side. Yes, love that love that.

Stories in Our Roots 17:05
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Heather Murphy 17:49
One of the things you mentioned, when we were talking before the interview is that when one of the things that you loved about learning your grandmother's and your grandparents story is those day to day details of life. Can you talk about that?

Olivia Jewell 18:05
Yeah. So I'm actually like, I really, really love my church that's just like part of my life, right. And it was actually kind of fun. Because even though I knew my grandma really well, as an older person, I didn't know her younger version of herself. And it was really fun to get to know that she was really a lot like me, I told you, I like to be busy. And so with church stuff, I'm like, highly involved, I just like to get really involved. You know, same with, I'm thinking of church because I'm thinking of a specific role I did with youth and working with the youth in my church. And she was in that same role. And she she served in that same way. And she did all these crazy fun things. And so when I started to learn those stories, I was like, Oh, I got that from her. Or maybe I didn't maybe we just have the same bag, whatever. But the point is, like we're the same and, and it made it more fun. I found some pictures of her with some of the young girls that she served and seeing them in like their camping gear back in the you know, I don't know 15 Prowler No, it would have been like 40s or 50s. And I and it was just so much fun to like relate and take a picture of me with young girls that I was serving and going camping with and teaching them these camping skills. So that was really fun. But she was also in PTA and you know room like I don't know if it was their version of your mom was but you know, my mom told me all these stories about how she would be at the school and that's totally me So, so it was just really fun to go, oh my gosh, she was just like me like she she was just trying to go make friends and be involved and be part of our kids lives too. And those same things were important to her, you know, her love for her church and forgot and all of those things that are important to me. So I think just like relating in those ways, but even if you go further back being able to relate like you know, I think you can all relate to when you have the stories where they lost, you know, most of their kids died. They only got to keep a couple around and when you read those stories, just being able to relate to how hard that must have been because now you as now you've been a mom now you know what it is to love something so much that you can't even fathom losing And then knowing that they had to go through that so many times, you know, it just meet your heart just, I don't know, just grows in ways that you couldn't have comprehended without putting yourself through that and experiencing that almost for them or with them.

Heather Murphy 20:13
I think that's interesting that you can learn about an ancestor. But as you change and your experiences change, then when you look at that same ancestor, you see them differently, because you're looking at them from a different perspective.

Olivia Jewell 20:27
Absolutely. Well said absolutely. Like as you change your relationship with them changes and your perspective of them changes. I totally agree with you. That's a great point.

Heather Murphy 20:38
Another thing you mentioned, when you're making the book about your grandparents is putting them in historical context. Can you share some examples of how you did that?

Olivia Jewell 20:47
Let me think, Well, one of the funnest ones with the with the pandemic, I so I told you that about the 21 day connections experiment, like as part of that, I kind of got excited, and I was like, Hey, kids, let's do some videos. So it was I guess it was a little bit independent. But I wanted the kids to do videos. And so we started looking into different tools that are out there. And we made a little video series on YouTube with the kid just because pandemic we were bored. So let's let's make stuff right. So we made a YouTube series. And so we started looking up as part of that different life events that are different events that had happened. And obviously we were going through a pandemic. And so we started looking at different pandemics that had come and you know, when I was their age, I didn't know anything about pandemics like that wasn't on my radar, but they do. They know a lot about it, they're experiencing it. And so we went in and looked up all of our ancestors who had who had lived during that time, and we looked at when they lived and how old they were. And we talked about what their experiences might have been like how they their experiences might have been similar to ours. familysearch has a really cool tool for doing that makes it super easy. And so we did that as one of our little videos that we shared with our subscribers, our small amount of subscribers. But it was totally fine because the kids got excited, and it related it to them and to us. And it made it more personal the experience we were having and helped them to understand why it might be important to write down what they were experiencing during this, you know what they were feeling because now they can relate that oh, maybe someone 100 years down the road might be interested in what it was like for me.

Heather Murphy 22:23
So you've mentioned your 21 day family connections experiment? Could you describe that and tell us what that is about?

Olivia Jewell 22:29
Oh, for sure. I'm sorry, I keep referencing it because it's consumed my life this year, like the pandemic kit. And I actually want to give like a slight back backstep. I told you that I was doing family history when when I moved to Utah, I had a friend invite me to do a 21 day family history challenge. And so we've talked about that it feels good, right? Well, every time I did this challenge, I would like have these really cool experiences, like I learned something really awesome or whatever, every time it was totally worth committing 21 days of doing family history for 21 days is fast forward, and I hit pandemic and I'm like, Oh, this is miserable. Like most of you, you know, you're feeling great. I had the thought that I needed to do that again. So I started reaching out to people. And really quickly in like less than two weeks, we threw together a project because we just wanted to invite everyone we knew to try doing family history for 21 days. And we wanted them to realize that it wasn't family history doesn't have to be dates and charts. It can be stories and memories and journaling and connecting with your kids and your family and asking the questions to get to know them and calling the relatives and just all these different things you can do to connect with your family that maybe you don't typically realize our family history related, right? So we just compiled a whole bunch of resources, we put together some pre made plans. So people could just like get a daily prompt that said, do this today to connect do this today just to make it easier. And then we made a survey, because we had the theory that it would boost your mood during this pandemic, we all feel like blah. So let's let's see if we can boost our moods. And so we took a survey at the beginning of the end. And basically people would just say, Come take the survey, they would do 21 days of connecting through these ideas and then take a survey at the end. And what we found not to our surprise was that people were like we had 75% of people report that their mood had improved. And you know, they had done connected for 21 days. And the the amount of comments that came in, were just endless, like people loved it. People were so grateful. They are grateful that they tried it wanted to do it some more. And so we kind of turned it into an ongoing project. We did it again in October. The first one was in May. And now we've turned it into an ongoing resource because so many people are like I want to do this but I want to do with my family or whatever their business or different church groups, things like that. So we've changed it. So now it's just an ongoing project every month. On the first of the month. You can join we have a different theme that we focus on. It's a featured featured plan and it'll have a theme so like January is All about me. And it's all about journaling and tools for journaling. And helping you kind of tap into, you know, you read a timeline of your life and, and different tools that help you like really connect in in new ways. It's kind of cool. I've been doing it this time, for the first time the about me, and I'm loving it, it's helped me reconnect with my family, because I did the timeline with my parents, and it was so much fun to go through and kind of think of the different events in our lives that have affected us, you know. So anyway, connect for 21 days use these different plans and themes. And you can basically just experience those mood improvements. So our goal is just to share it with the world. It's a free resource. And it's just something that you can come and use at any time, or you can join us to make it easier because you're with a group doing it at the same time. And you can join any month, you can come and go as you please. But the idea is just connect more, connect more with your living family, connect more with your past family, and see if that helps you with your mood and, and other psychological benefits.

Heather Murphy 26:00
That's great. And you said that you had feedback from it. There's other times that you've done it, what kinds of things are people saying when they would give you comments back?

Olivia Jewell 26:11
I love that too. Because it was so much fun to read through those those comments. I mean, it was like, you know, we're all volunteers just putting our time in, and we love it. We absolutely love it. But when you read those comments, it makes it it's like the, that's the payment, you get to feel the feels that they're feeling. Let me think so. Okay, there's several one was a very like serious one. And so I don't want to take it lightly. One of the participants had recently lost her son right before pandemic. and their families, she said was really, really struggling, obviously. And she said they committed as a family to do this one in May. By the end, she said, we were so close, even closer than we had been before we lost our son. And you know, she was just basically expressing all of the gratitude for the work that had been put in to make it so that they could do that as a family and it brought them so much closer. But we also had some that were just you know, we'd be fighting all day, every day, because they were, you know, in quarantine and they were so sick of each other. And then at the at whatever point in the day, they'd selected to come together as a family to do the experiment. They would she said every time we would end with laughter, and love and and it always felt so good. So thank you, you know, and there was just so many like that one other one that I have to share is there was a lady who, because of it, she was older, I think she was an empty nester based off of the comment, but which you know, didn't have kids at home. Basically, she had planned a storytime a family storytime with her family. And she did this with her siblings and her and her parents as well. She said she had a couple of siblings who hadn't spoken in years, like lots of years, when they came together for this storytime over zoom, they started talking and laughing. And she said I like her comment to us was Thank you for helping me think outside my box. You know, she she had done family history for years, but she hadn't taken the time to think outside the box. And because of the experiment, because that is like a big part of what we do. Like one of our goals is to help people realize that things can be family history that they don't normally think of these family connections are all part of it. And these outside the box, I did like unique things, you know, talking around the dinner table and those types of things, having a story time over zoom, during game time over zoom connecting, even during pandemic, even when you're long distances apart. And she was just so grateful for the outside the box thinking so i was i was so grateful that we were able to provide that when you hear those. It's like, heck yeah, we'll keep this going. Of course, we will, as long as we keep having people have good experiences will continue to provide more opportunities, provide more ideas and build that. And it is a community project, which is cool. We've made it so that the community can submit their own ideas to share with the others because we just want to make it this incredible resource. I always say for the community, by the community, because we all came we all come together as family history lovers, and we're just trying to let other family history lovers add their ideas and their thoughts and participants just help spread the word and tell people Hey, this might make you feel good. It's like I'm try it.

Heather Murphy 29:13
Yeah. And you've got lots of ideas of just little ways to make those connections not sit down at a computer for an hour.

Olivia Jewell 29:21
Yes. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Even though that's fun for some of us. Yes. So yes.

Heather Murphy 29:29
So how has been involved in this project and making these connections through the project outside of your family impacted you personally?

Olivia Jewell 29:39
Well, okay, so honestly and sincerely, so I to go a little personal. I had actually had cancer the year before the pandemic, so I had been through treatments and things like that. And for the first time in my life, I experienced what it was to truly, truly feel depressed. I had never felt that before I had felt little little side effects of it. Hearing there in life, I think all of us do to some extent, but I remember when pandemic hit at first I was okay. But into about April, I started to slip and start feeling those, those same feelings coming back. And I started, like, It scared me because I had felt it before. And I'd experienced it in a real way. So I, I, you know, started to feel that feeling again. And that was when I felt like you need to do the 21 day family history challenge. And that's when you know, the connections experiment came to life. It literally flipped me 100, like a full 180 like I, I got focused on something that was bigger than myself more important. I focused on helping other people, I focused on spreading the word and sharing the benefits of family history, and genealogy and family connections. And, and it totally changed my heart, like I just went from being like very, you know, in this kind of dark place that was starting to hit again. And you know, I didn't, I'm not going to tell you that no one would have you but you know, I didn't have to go on to antidepressants again, or really anything like that. It gave me something to work on that was outside of myself. And just so rewarding, you know, plus, it helped me engage with my kids in a new way, because we were stuck at home. And so that just that it completely. I don't know how to say other than it completely changed where I was headed at the time. And I had recognized those those warning signs at the time. And so, so yeah, it changed my 2020 when people complained about Tony, Tony, I'm like, Hey, I thought it was great. Because I loved it, I made new friends. I met new like participants, I would get a hold of me through, you know, my social channels. And we would talk like, I had some incredible, incredible long conversations with participants just sharing their experiences and, and the team like, I can't tell you how much I love them so much like we've become such good friends. And most of us have never even met each other in person, you know. And then of course, the connections during like doing that with my kids is just, you know, I've got my kids asking to do, can we do one of the activities because they just love it. Because it's fun, it's unique, it's different. It's not your typical old way of doing things, for lack of a better way to say it?

Heather Murphy 32:08
Well, I really appreciate you sharing that part of your personal story, because I think sharing that will strengthen people's belief that this project can actually make a contribution to their life, because they know that this project comes from where you were at at that time. And that makes it even more powerful. Rather than just some family history fanatic who decided to just put together a project, you came from a place of need, and it solved your problem. And if people know that, then they can think maybe it can solve my problem too.

Olivia Jewell 32:50
Yeah, we have teamed up with a mental health therapist who is going to do mental health nuggets every month for us. And basically just help us draw attention to the fact that there is that power in connection, but she also has a ton of more resources too. So I feel like it's, it's a great way for people to go, Hey, I'm gonna come here. And then you know, what, if this isn't feeling enough better, like maybe I have something more serious, and she has a bunch of free resources online to help you through it. If it is a little bit more of a serious thing. There's like a further place. You can even go beyond if this isn't enough, if that makes sense, right? It's not a cure all.

Heather Murphy 33:25
Yeah, it's not. Yeah. But it can be part of your package of of how you get through life.

Olivia Jewell 33:31
Yeah, yeah, totally.

Heather Murphy 33:33
Now, with all this experience that you've had this few years, what would you tell yourself, you're pre interested in genealogy self, what would you say?

Olivia Jewell 33:46
I'm pretty interested, I would say to just start doing it. And don't be afraid to spend a lot of time on one thing. Don't feel like you have to get all the photos. And today, or all the stories collected today. Enjoy every step of it, let's find a duster living relative that you love and just go like, go and just dig in, just take your time with it and experience it. Because there's so much that can be learned and found and experienced in so many ways. And you don't want to like sell yourself short on any of those experiences. So just don't put pressure on yourself in like a negative way. Like oh, but someone's gonna die soon. And so I've got to get that done. Like I think that negative pressure but like can be so inhibiting for especially for me. So if that is something that stops you just say okay, I'm just going to make one phone call and I'm going to call this one person and just see where it takes you don't feel like you have to get to the next person. Just see where that one takes you and then just take it each step you know and enjoy the journey. That's probably the the takeaway would be enjoy the journey as it happens, because you'll look back. Like now I'm like, I don't know. 10 years in probably. And you'll look back and go Wow, those were some incredible experiences. But along the way, maybe you didn't realize how incredible they were until you until you reflect back.

Heather Murphy 35:04
I think that's great because sometimes we can get in the mindset that we have to get it all done. But there is no checklist. It's about what adds value to your life at this point in time and spend time there.

Olivia Jewell 35:17
Yeah, I love Yes, perfectly said.

Heather Murphy 35:20
Well, thank you so much, Olivia for talking with me. I really enjoyed our conversation and family history is amazing.

Olivia Jewell 35:27
as it is go and try it if you haven't. It's true.

Olivia Jewell 35:31
Thank you. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed this too.

Stories in Our Roots 35:36
Thank you for joining me today for stories in our roots. Please help this podcast grow by subscribing, leaving a review and sharing it with your friends. If you have feedback or would like to recommend someone to share their story head storiesinourroots.com and fill out the form. Thanks again for listening and I look forward to being with you again next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai