Posts by Ora Smith

How Many Ethnicities Do You Think You Have in your DNA?

Ora Smith | September 29, 2022

I’ve been to 48 states and always find that North Carolina has the friendliest people. A recent visit was no exception when I met many members of who I think are my African-American side of the family. White Oak River…..

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Nature or Nurture? How About Both – Epigenetics

Ora Smith | September 29, 2022

The science of epigenetics fascinates me. I studied and wrote on the subject in my book Unacknowledged. Epigenetics is the idea that the trauma your ancestor(s) experienced could have changed their genes, and those genes were passed down to you……

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Visiting Your Ancestral Homeland

Ora Smith | September 29, 2022

If when you have your DNA tested for ethnicity and you find where your ancestors were from (or if you already know), does this make you want to travel there? It does me. There’s an intriguing phenomenon of feeling at…..

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For Book Unacknowledged, Guest Speaker on Podcast – A Reel Page Turner

Ora Smith | March 22, 2022

The podcast A Reel Page Turner is a show that compares the movie to the book. On A Reel Page Turner I was a guest speaker for the comparison of the movie The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, and Kate…..

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Interview with Nancy E. Turner of “These Is My Words” novel

Ora Smith | March 22, 2022

Nancy E. Turner wrote about her ancestors in these four books based on the Prine family of the Southern Arizona Territory 1880s-early1900s. The full title of her first novel (a Willa Cather Literary Award finalist) is These is My Words:…..

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Was Howard Hughes Jr.’s eccentricity born of one woman’s checkered youth?

Ora Smith | November 30, 2021

I didn’t expect to consider that possibility when I set out to write Unacknowledged: The Possible Biological Mother of Howard Hughes. But as I researched, I had to wonder. Hughes was a household name for decades, but was his oddball…..

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