In this sixth episode from Series Five, host Andrew meets Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist, and now family history author, John Erickson. He’ll be finding out how John ended up researching family history, how his mother surprised him with news that she had a younger brother, and how his family were directly affected by the eugenics movement – leading him to write his book When Mortals Play God.

NOTE: This episode contains discussion on the topics of eugenics, suicide, and abuse. Please consider others when listening aloud.

Listen to the episode

Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, and others…

The Life Story – Carolyn Phillips

John has chosen to tell the life story of his cousin Carolyn Phillips, the daughter of his mother’s half-brother, Ernie.

Ernie, in John’s words, was ‘a bad man’, not least because he pulled a gun and shot a number of people in a court room before killing himself in 1979. His behaviour, and the loss of Carolyn’s brother and sister, all left terrible traumatic times to live through and deal with.

Yet, John recalls how Carolyn was able to help him, despite the painful memories, to piece together the story of this part of his family whilst writing his book.

The Brick Wall – Patricia and Robert Anderson

John has chosen his cousins for his Brick Wall.

Despite John’s journalistic research skills, the details of his cousins Patricia and Robert Anderson have remained elusive.

With Anderson being a very common surname in the USA, it had been hard for John to track down some information, but after finding an obituary, he does know that Patricia and Robert Anderson’s father was Ray Anderson, and that he’d been born in 1925 and had been in active military service during the Second World War. Therefore, he believes that Patricia and Robert would have likely been born in the late 1940s.

The family did move around a bit within the USA, but they are known to have been in the Minneapolis area of Minnesota during the 1980s – not far from John’s mother.

Can you help John find these sibling cousins?

If you think you can help, then you can send us a message via our Contact Form and we’ll pass it on to John.

In the meantime, John isn’t too sure about how safe Andrew’s offer of help will be… and just what is that noise?

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Episode Credits

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

Support is available to those who are affected by abuse, and suicide, or if you are feeling suicidal. You can find your local support lines and resources here: https://findahelpline.com/