Updates…and Farewell

A change (of scenery) gon’ come…ohhhhh yes it will!

Big news, y’all.

It’s been a BUSY few weeks in these genealogy streets, and I’m rapidly adapting my communications tools to better accommodate people’s interest in my work and setting the stage to expand my reach and project scope. So I wanted to make sure you had easy access to all of the edits and revisions.

First, it was an honor and a pleasure to get to share part of my story with host Heather Murphy on the Stories In Our Roots podcast. Heather stumbled on to The DNA Journey here on Medium and reached out to see if I’d like to join her to talk about some of what I’ve written about here, which was a treat! As noted in the graphic above, my conversation was featured on Episode 73, which you can link to here or find on your favorite streaming service.

SOCIAL MEDIA CONNECTIONS

If you have not heard, I’ve started IG and TikTok accounts for this work. You can find us at @thednajourney on both services, so please subscribe so you don’t miss any of our content. You don’t have to sign up for both. Use whatever service you prefer, and you’ll find us there at the same handle. While I write long-form about the big discoveries and insights, on SM you can get the more immediate casual moments of Wow and Oh My generated by my research. Like last week when I found documentation of one of my cousins’ two families: one with his wife and one with his not-wife. I’ll stop there and let you hear more about it on the clip. I’ve also started what I think will be a regular content feature called the DNA PSA. The premiere featured some background on the 10 Million Names Project (pictured below). Trust me, you’ll want to know more.

SAYING SO LONG TO MEDIUM

My final bit of news is that I’ve decided to move this conversation to the online platform Substack. I really appreciate the kick-in-the-tail that Medium provided just prior to the pandemic for me to document my work and begin to build community. Now it’s time to create a more beneficial financial scenario for the content and find passive income streams to fund the film version. Substack is the better option for that.

Once we’ve fully changed platforms, there will be a free and paid version of The DNA Journey available. As my Medium subscribers, I’ll be able to automatically add your emails to the new Substack list and all of my archived content here will be readily available over there. New essays and more multimedia content will be provided to paid subscribers, as a value-added plus for the support.

This move will also help me further streamline what info gets sent to who. I don’t want to send you notices about my artsy events and business if that isn’t what you signed up for. You should be able to opt-in rather than opt-out of how you choose to hear from me. That being said, if you ARE interested in learning more about my streaming radio station and upcoming live cultural events/performances, please go to Soul-Sanctuary.net and sign up for that list. Otherwise, we’ll keep it on the family research and gene matching tip.

So…THANK YOU MUCH for reading and commenting on the written work. It is wonderful to know that there are other people out here who see the value in knowing your personal history, family legacy, and connecting the two. To solve long-standing mysteries and unearth hidden truths. Let’s keep uplifting and encouraging one another, and I hope to have your support as I journey on!