“What I know how to do well is follow an information trail. And that’s where people usually trip up. They just don’t go far enough.” ~ Jennifer Mendelsohn

We tell stories to ourselves, and to one another.

We tell stories to entertain, to educate, to enlighten, to indoctrinate. Some stories are heartwarming. Some are designed to dissemble, others to hurt. 

All seek to connect — some one, to some thing, in some way.

Journalist and genealogist Jennifer Mendelsohn likes to make those connections. She helps rediscover and tell stories that might otherwise be lost. Jennifer specializes in helping Eastern European Jewish families shattered by the Holocaust reclaim their history. In 2022, she co-founded the DNA Reunion Project at the Center for Jewish History, which seeks to promote DNA testing as a tool for helping Holocaust survivors find family.

Her curiosity practices have deep journalistic roots and she’d be the first to tell you: it’s not magic.

And then I think, “What made me say that?” And I always make myself go head to toe and figure out the details that made me come to that conclusion.

Listen to Choose to be Curious #214: Curiosity & Genealogy: The Stories We Tell, with Jennifer Mendelsohn

Find Jennifer Mendelsohn on Facebook and The Association of Professional Genealogists.

If you liked this episode, you might enjoy finding out what became of my husband’s grandfather and my conversation with storyteller Ronald Young, Jr.

Check out this great story about Jennifer’s work in The Washington Post, December 2023.

Help Holocaust survivors find family through the DNA Research Project at the Center for Jewish History.

Read up on narrative psychology and master narratives, from Jonathan M. Adler, at Olin College.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Homegrown” by The Pine Barrens, via Blue Dot Sessions.

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