What Our Ancestors Left Inside Us: Healing, Identity, and the Stories We Carry Forward with Joseph Bolton

About this episode

Joseph Bolton discusses the impact of ancestral connections on personal identity and healing.

Have you ever felt drawn to someone who lived centuries before you? Someone you've never met, yet somehow feel connected to? This episode is for anyone who has sensed that their roots hold something deeper than names on a family tree — and wondered how to find it. In this quiet and moving conversation, author Joseph Bolton shares how the discovery of his ninth great-grandmother, a courageous Algonquin woman named Madam Couch who lived in 17th-century Quebec, became the foundation for his illustrated folktale series, Old Grandmother's Tree. What unfolds is a conversation about ancestral healing, generational resilience, inherited emotional patterns, and how reconnecting with where we come from can reshape how we see ourselves today. About the Guest: Joseph Bolton is a West Point graduate, retired U.S. Army veteran, and author of the illustrated folktale series Old Grandmother's Tree. Of French-Canadian, Native American, Spanish, English, and Irish descent, he is inspired by the stories of his heritage. His three-volume series, featuring nearly 700 illustrations, brings his ancestral lineage to life through folklore, magic, and deeply human storytelling. He lives in Massachusetts…

People in this episode

Guest: Joseph Bolton

Topics covered

• ancestral healing
• generational resilience
• identity
• emotional patterns
• storytelling

Keywords

• heritage
• folktales
• Algonquin
• Madam Couch
• Old Grandmother's Tree

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Old Grandmother's Tree

Books & works: Old Grandmother's Tree

Places: Quebec, Massachusetts, India, USA

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