Meet Natalie Kinsey

We recently connected with Natalie Kinsey and have shared our conversation below.

Natalie , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I grew up on a Vermont dairy farm in a region known as the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, USA, where my Scottish ancestors settled two hundred years ago. The idea for the Storykeepers Curriculum that I do in schools probably began when I was a young child, when my father, mother, sister and brothers, instilled in me a love of history. It was my sister’s genealogical research that led me to begin writing books, almost all of which are based on family history, like my book, The Bear That Heard Crying, which is an amazing story of my great-great-great-great-great-aunt who was lost in the woods in 1783, when she was three years old, and a bear that took care of her.

As the author of twenty published children’s books, I have been conducting author visits and writing workshops in schools across this country for thirty years, telling students and teachers how my books are based on my true family stories and encouraging students to search for their family stories. I strongly believe that the way to get children excited about history is to make it personal and relevant, and I believe this is best done by connecting family history to historical events.

Every family has stories that are too good to be forgotten, stories that need to be written down and told and passed on to the next generations. A study done by Emory University found that children who know their family stories have higher self-esteem, suffer less from depression, and are better able to handle peer pressure and times of crisis.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Growing up on a Vermont farm gave me a good work ethic, and also instilled in me a love of nature, the outdoors, a strong sense of family, and history, being that I lived where my Scottish ancestors had settled two hundred years earlier. I am an athlete, outdoorswoman, birder, bagpiper, author, artist, quilter, animal lover and rescuer. Much of my life and work is connected with history; my books are based on my family history, and I developed the school program, Storykeepers, to teach children how to do historical research based on their family stories.

In doing Storykeepers, I spend 3-10 days in schools teaching units on genealogy and family trees; photography (where students do detective work by looking at fashion, hairstyles, etc.); primary/secondary sources; artifacts; old tools; census records; and other online research such as findagrave.com, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov (newspaper archives), and ancestryclassroom.

Students then choose an ancestor to research, and create a culminating activity—- poster, multimedia presentation, scrapbook, etc.—-using at least three tools of research. Students usually work 1-3 weeks on their research and their projects, and then schools usually have a community finale event, where parents, family, and the community, come in to see the students’ projects. That event is so powerful: I’ve had many families tell me Storykeepers was a transformative experience for their family.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Growing up in a family that valued education, and reading, and history, probably had the biggest affect on me, and my siblings. My mother, a teacher, instilled in us a love of books and reading, and a curiosity about everything, and my father had a lifelong love of history. We worked very hard on the farm, and even though we were cash-poor, we were rich in all the ways that mattered; family, friends, neighbors helping neighbors, that sense of community. We were raised to be civic-minded. We learned perseverance, resilience, tolerance.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

While I did author visits for over 30 years all over the U.S., with Storykeepers, I have mostly been in Vermont and New Hampshire schools. I feel Storykeepers is such a worthwhile program, and has such a positive effect on children and family, that I would love to have someone to partner with to have it gain a wider audience, and I would like Storykeepers to continue beyond me, to help me shepherd it into the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kinsey-warnock.com; www.storykeepersinourschools.com

Image Credits

Children’s Literacy Foundation; Tom Warnock