About this episode

Jessica Rae shares a life-changing discovery about her great-great-grandmother while researching her family tree.

What happens when a simple hint on your family tree uncovers a decades-old secret? In this episode of Stories That Live In Us, host Crista Cowan (The Barefoot Genealogist) sits down with nurse, history lover, and content creator Jessica Rae to discuss a discovery that changed her life forever. While researching her maternal line, Jessica stumbled across a U.S. federal census record that listed her great-great-grandmother, Susan, not in a household, but as an "inmate" at Mayview State Hospital...

People in this episode

Host: Crista Cowan

Guest: Jessica Rae

Topics covered

• family secrets
• genealogy
• historical discovery
• mental health
• family history

Keywords

• family tree
• census record
• Mayview State Hospital
• great-great-grandmother
• family history
• secrets

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: U.S. federal census record

Places: Pennsylvania, Mayview State Hospital

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• Delaware: Courage to Save the Words That Built America (with Anna Crowley Redding) | Episode 118 · July 2, 2026 · 47 min
• New Jersey: A Sentence of Survival | Episode 116 · June 18, 2026 · 57 min

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