Hello and Welcome to Z Day! The last day of the 2025 Challenge! WooHoo! When I was first thinking about signing up for this challenge, a few ancestors came straight to mind because of their unique names: Orvetta, Permelia, Una, Xainte, and of course, Zacharie for Z. It helped that he is probably the best…
Author: Melissa Willis
A to Z Challenge: Delia
Hello and Welcome to D Day! We’re four days in! How are you doing with the challenge? Are you finding it challenging to post daily? Are you participating in the Blog Hop? Popping around to see how others are doing and what they’re up to? I have to say, as much as I love the…
A to Z Challenge: Cora
Hello and Welcome to C Day! Name: Cora Mae Gill Vital Information: Cora was born on 16 January 1874. She died on 12 July 1894 in childbirth with her first and only child, my great grandpa Philetus. Relation to Me: Paternal 2x great grandma. Tidbits/Characteristics/Commonalities: Cora and I were both young moms (she 20 and…
A to Z Challenge: Benoni
Hello and Welcome to B Day! Name: Benoni Of course, right out of the gates on Day Two, I cannot find a single direct (proven) ancestor whose first name begins with B. Goodness. So, instead of first name, we’re heading all the back 250 years (!) to reach a B middle name. Vital Information: Francois…
A to Z Challenge: Arthur
Hello and Welcome to Day One: A Day! Kin Name: Arthur Cloutier Vital Information: Born 5 April 1923 in New Hampshire, USA to Camille and Delia. Died 5 March 2010 in Connecticut, USA. Relation to Me: Paternal Grandfather Tidbits/Characteristics/Commonalities: While I did not have the opportunity to meet Arthur due to his death before my…
My NPE Experience on the DNA Surprises Podcast
If you have experienced an NPE event, I imagine you know how earth-shaking it can be to have the very fabric of your being ripped apart and woven back together into a 3-D tapestry with brand new threads. Had you asked me in 2019 if I thought I might talk about the whole experience on…
World Tuberculosis Day
Today marks the date in 1882 that Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of the bacteria that causes Tuberculosis, also known as TB or (for us family historians) Consumption. To commemorate World Tuberculosis Day, I’d thought I’d share a personal story about TB. A story about how it brought my maternal Grandma from her hometown…
Rookie Reminder: Circle Back (Newspaper Articles and Photos)
Last Spring I reached out to the Marion (Indiana) Public Library about some research I was doing about two young siblings, Leah and Dale, who passed away tragically in separate incidences. I was trying to untangle the threads of oral history from fact and thought there might be a newspaper article or two about the…
A Feeling
Have you ever felt like you were the only one who felt or thought a certain way? Like you were a black sheep because no one else you’ve known in your life has reacted to or perceived things in the same way as you do? Maybe you’ve felt foolish or misunderstood or maybe you just didn’t even know how to explain to anyone what you were thinking or experiencing?
Let me tell you, I felt this way for decades.








