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We've flipped a bit, with a short focus-post to end October and a full entry here at the midway point of November. I'll send another regular post like this at the end of the month, which will tie to my upcoming National Geographic story. Can't say more until it's published, so we're exploring the other half of what's consumed my brain lately.

I'm hosting another CreativeMornings event to teach some Genealogy 101 this Wednesday, so I've thought a lot about family.

Knives Out was the last movie I watched in theaters, about this time a year ago, and I replayed it this weekend (still great). Perhaps your family is like that Thrombey clan, though if you have $60 million to spare, we should talk about you sponsoring this newsletter.

Helen Levitt's depiction is more relatable, and one that sticks in my mind. However, your family might resemble our current sociopolitcal moment or our shifting boundary between the digital and physical world.

Whoever they are, I encourage you to talk to them, particularly anyone older than you. They have stories that will surprise you, and set against a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands, those stories demand even more urgency.

My virtual field trip this week will explain the documents that propel a family search. At its most basic, though, genealogy means understanding the legends of simple, extraordinary people whose lives tracked in such a way that you now exist.

Poetry this month offers a prep for the family phone calls in your future.