I saw my new biological sister, Donna*, at the Post Office a few months ago. I saw her again a few weeks ago at a program held in the same building where I work. The reality is, she and I live in the same small community. And we will continue to see each other, I’m…
The letter I wrote to my new bio sister was brief, simple and sincere. I knew I was the innocent outcome of a decision made by my mother and her (our) father. But every single NPE* letter I’ve read like this has the between-the-lines message that we are low-key apologizing for existing. It’s so…
“I fully expect you to say no,” my fellow *NPE friend Bill Griffeth wrote to me in a Twitter message in the fall of 2018. What he expected me to say no to was being interviewed about my NPE story. He knew what an introvert I was. But he knew from his own experience…
RootsTech will be all virtual and FREE again beginning March 3, 2022. Registration is now open by visiting here. There are over 1,500 sessions being offered across nine categories. You can even search by language! Planners of RootsTech are saying that they want to take connecting with other participants to the next level this year,…
What would Hattie say? I’ve mentioned Hattie Potter Chase before if you read my earlier blog post, The Shameful Secret of David Edgar Chase. She was left a widow at age 45 in 1900 when her husband, David, put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger in their upstairs hallway while she was eating breakfast…
My grandmother never liked to talk about her father, Charles Comp. When I became interested in our family history when I was 15 years old, I would ask about him when we visited her in Beavercreek, Ohio. She would simply say that when she was 13 he disappeared. And then she would change the subject….