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…..
Read moreNature 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……
Read moreVisiting 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…..
Read moreFor 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…..
Read moreInterview 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:…..
Read moreWas 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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