This Is Nashville
This Is Nashville
WPLN News - Nashville Public Radio
Genealogy: Family history is American History
49 minutes Posted Sep 16, 2026 at 6:00 pm.
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Show notes
We’re searching for headstones and sifting through dusty documents in our attics.
It’s a show about investigating our family histories. We can all become amateur genealogists as we ship off our spit to see where our DNA fits, but there’s more to it than a simple spit take if you really want to help fill out the picture for future generations. We’ll have a few folks speak from experience and some pros talk to us about how to use local libraries and archives as we talk about the why and how of mapping our family trees in Middle Tennessee.
This episode was produced by Josh Deepan. 
Guests:
Gloria Ballard, genealogy researcher
Charlie Peacock, musician, genealogy researcher
Kelley Sirko, Metro Library Archivist 
Trent Hanner, Tennessee State Library Archivist