Genealogy, inspired!

Hello there! I’m so glad to share a cuppa with you! How the heck are you?

Can I offer you some hot tea? I can happily put the kettle on for you if you’d prefer coffee, too, or maybe herbal or iced tea is more your style? We have it all so just let me know :-)

We’ve gotten a lot of rain the last couple of weeks (broken up by some rather hot spring days and one horrible hail storm) so the farm is bursting to life in every shade of green! Shall we sit on the front porch and watch the hummingbirds flit about at the feeders while we chat?

Last weekend was filled with the high school graduation and celebration of one of my favorite humans on the planet as well of memories of my oldest daughter’s graduation from the same school exactly ten years ago! Sometimes the flying of time simply boggles my mind!

This weekend will, with more rain in the forecast, be likely a combo of farm tending and inside time. A perfect balance will surely be struck!

What’s on tap for your weekend? And what have you been up to since we last met?

Here’s a little peek into what’s been going on in my life:

Writing

While my regular writing practices are still being reestablished, I’ve almost found my groove with a weekly posting schedule… though, this week saw three posts and last week saw none only because I simply got busy and didn’t complete my final edits soon enough.

That being said, in addition to my first Over a Cuppa post and updating my About page, I published five additional posts in the month of May:

The DNA post offered up a wonderful conversation on my bold+queer Instagram page that I found both helpful and insightful!

I am pleased with my progress here and hope to establish a set writing schedule in the coming weeks and months ahead but with Summer officially upon us I’d be crazy to think that this will be an easy task.

How’s your writing groove going? Anything recent you’re super excited to share? Or maybe something still in the hopper you can’t wait to put out into the world?

Giving Away on Social Media

Speaking of my Instagram page, in celebration of the summer months and Pride month, I’m offering up a Giveaway over there for my US followers (sorry International peeps, still working on shipping challenges).

Please pop on over if your interested in throwing your name in the hat for a free t-shirt or mug from my Shop or if you just want to follow this genealogy journey in another way :-)

I know social media isn’t for everyone, but I still enjoy a couple of platforms from time to time. Mostly Instagram (for staying in touch with people and posting about this site and the farm) and TikTok (just for watching). I dropped Facebook about a year a half ago and have not regretted it at all.

How about you? Do you participate in social media? And if so, which platform is your favorite?

Hi there! Although I’ve been at this Family History thing for years now, it’s only been a couple of months since I launched this page & the bold+queer site! I have to say, I am so pleased with the community I’ve found & thos

So, you’re thinking about taking a DNA test, ha? They’ve remained wildly popular in the United States (and abroad), are easy to get and take, and with regular sales offered, it may seem like a simple undertaking. It is also a valuable too

If I had to wager a guess, I’d say we all have that one favorite family photo that calls to us. That one photo that reaches into our hearts and asks us to look deeper. That one photo where everyone is looking at the camera (or no one is looking

There may be a thousand opinions about how to document your family history, and I may be going against the grain here, but I believe there is no one correct way to write about your genealogy. Some of our paths may be a bit windier than others but, in

Researching

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been deep in research mode as I try to find out more about one of my great-grandmothers, Delia. I’ve heard back from two of the kin I reached out to (two 2nd cousins, so equally her great grand children) and, unfortunately, neither of them know anything at all.

I’ve reached out to four other relatives and still have my fingers crossed that someone heard stories about her (and her hubby) and just maybe someone holds a photo of her.

Reflecting

All my research on Delia has me reflecting on the wildly dynamic lives we all live and how the legacies we will leave behind might be remembered. It all has me thinking about a new-to-me word: sonder

sonder - n.

the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own

In my Googling, I found this gem and so I thought I’d share it with you here.

Yes, yes…deep thoughts, but here we are ;-)

Wondering

I was invited, last minute, to the Diana Gabaldon talk at the Santa Fe Literary Festival a couple of weeks ago. Then, the person who invited me was feeling under the weather the day of and, faced with no one to go with (I asked my Dad, but he had plans already), the Introvert in me decided against driving an hour into town and Peopling for a few hours and, instead, enjoyed a quiet afternoon with my family.

However, as a massive fan of the Outlander book series (yes, I’ve read them all and cannot wait for the next one…no, I don’t watch the TV series), the whole thing got me thinking about Jamie and Clare’s combined family tree (direct link here) that Diana pulled together at the front of the latest book, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone and how I’d like to pull something similar together for my own tree, one showing the dynamic relationships and honoring the biological and non-biological relationships that make up my family.

There’s much more to this that I need to marinate on, but surely I’ll make a proper post about it soon ;-)

In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your adventures in family tree making! Do you have unique relationships you’ve found a way to document in Tree format?

Alrighty then…

That’s it!

For now ;-)

Thank you so much for joining me for a cuppa! If you’ve popped over from Natalie’s weekend link share, thank you so much! I’ll make my way through the list in the coming days and am so happy to catch up! If you’ve found this post from another direction, WooHoo!!! I’m just so glad you’re here! The comments are open but recently a little wonky, so please do your best to say HELLO and I’ll do the same!

Onward,

Melis

Over a Cuppa: Two