S05EP06 - 'The Cousin' with John Erickson

The Family Histories Podcast

NOTE: This episode contains discussion on the topics of eugenics, suicide, and abuse. Please consider others when listening aloud.
In this sixth episode of Series Five - The Cousin, host Andrew meets Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and now family history author John Erickson. Andrew will be finding out about how John's 30 years in journalism has helped him with researching his family, how his mother surprised him with news of her younger brother, and how the life of his Grandmother has affected him.
The Life Story - Carolyn Phillips
John has chosen to tell the story of his cousin Carolyn Phillips who, despite a lot of painful memories of her traumatic loss of her father, brother, and sister, was able to help him establish facts and write his book When Mortals Play God.
The Brick Wall - Patricia and Robert Anderson
Anderson is a rather common surname in the USA, and so this brick wall has been hanging around for quite some time. John wasn't able to discover much about his cousins, but he does know that they were the children of Raymond Anderson (b. 1925) who served active military service as a young man in World War Two.
John thinks that both Patricia and Robert would have been born in the 1940s, and in at least the 1980s, they were living in Minnesota, USA... but that's it!
This is a real needle in a haystack, but if you think that you have a research idea or clue that can help John's brick wall to come tumbling down, then you can send him a message via our Contact Form and we'll pass it on to him.
Meanwhile, John is unsure about the safety of Andrew's offer of help... and what IS that noise?
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Episode Credits:

• Andrew Martin - Host and Producer
• John Erickson - Guest
• John Spike - Sándor Petőfi

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1. Content Warning (00:00:00)

2. Intro (00:00:20)

3. The Interview - John Erickson (00:01:15)

4. The Life Story - Carolyn McClain (00:19:22)

5. The Brick Wall - Patricia and Robert Anderson (00:29:13)

6. The Departure (00:36:30)