About the desk
How My Family Quotes is edited
An independent editorial desk covering how American families speak about closeness, distance, and the rituals in between.
What we do
My Family Quotes is a small editorial desk publishing curated quote collections, explanatory essays, and long-running cultural reporting on the way American families speak about each other. We treat quotes as primary documents — they carry the period they were written in, not the period they're being shared from.
Our editorial reports — including the public dataset behind Family Vocabulary, 1925-2025 — are released under a Creative Commons license so journalists, researchers, and educators can re-use them without permission friction.
Editorial standards
- 01
Attribution before convenience
Every quote attributed to a named source is checked against a primary edition or a verifiable secondary source. When attribution is contested or unknown, we write “unattributed” rather than guess. Reader corrections are honored within seven days and noted in the article.
- 02
Long-form context over listicle padding
We write headers, not filler. If a section cannot earn its place against a tight word budget, we cut it. Editorial pieces are anchored by a stated thesis and a named author, not by a templated structure.
- 03
No paid placements in editorial columns
Sponsored content, pay-for-play link insertions, and undisclosed affiliate relationships are not accepted in the editorial columns. Service vendors and affiliate disclosures, when relevant, are clearly labeled as such.
- 04
Public corrections, not silent edits
If a factual error is found, we update the article, append a dated correction note, and — for material errors — push a follow-up to anyone who linked to or syndicated the original. Cosmetic edits do not require a note; substantive changes do.
The desk
My Family Quotes is edited and written by a small team. Reach individual writers via their author pages or contact the desk at press@myfamilyquotes.com.
Editor-in-Chief
Hannah Ellsworth
Hannah Ellsworth founded My Family Quotes after fifteen years editing literary anthologies and cultural commentary. Her work focuses on how families talk about themselves across generations — the rituals, omissions, and inherited turns of phrase that carry more weight than the headlines do. She writes the desk's editorial reports and oversees attribution review.
- family discourse
- quote attribution
- cultural lexicography
- editorial standards
Senior Writer
Marcus Bell
Marcus Bell covers religious and intergenerational language at My Family Quotes. He has spent a decade writing on faith, fatherhood, and the way scriptural framing migrates between traditions. Before joining the desk he edited a regional history quarterly and contributed reported essays on American religious life.
- religious framing
- fatherhood literature
- intergenerational rhetoric
Contributing Writer
Priya Anand
Priya Anand writes on mother-daughter rhetoric and the language of estrangement at My Family Quotes. Her interest is the bridge between immigrant-family vocabulary and contemporary American boundary discourse — and how those registers borrow from each other in unexpected ways.
- mother-daughter rhetoric
- estrangement vocabulary
- diasporic family language
Contact & corrections
- Press inquiries
- press@myfamilyquotes.com
- Corrections
- corrections@myfamilyquotes.com
- Rights & permissions
- Use of editorial datasets and reports is governed by CC BY 4.0. Quote collections are excerpted under fair use; rights holders may request takedowns via the corrections address.
- Editor-in-Chief
- Hannah Ellsworth