This is my 13th year doing the A to Z Challenge. This year, although I knew that my topic would be family history related, I had not honed in on a specific subject. When I wrote my Reveal post I had no posts written. I think I wrote two before April 1. I fell behind once but was able to catch up and end on time.
Towards the letter Q some family members had questions for me. How handy was that? I was able to answer their questions using the remaining letters of the alphabet. There were several other times that my daughter Ayanna asked questions about posts that sent me looking for answers and gave me a post. During this year’s Challenge I wrote the posts as I went along.
I mostly followed people I had followed in previous years. My very favorite was The Tired Hampster’s continuing story of war, death, love, and the wrath of the gods on Very Important Stuff Here. Other blogs I read regularly were, in no particular order:
The Curry Apple Orchard
Tell Me Another | personal stories, creative non-fiction
Anne’s Family History
jillballau
Hot Dogs and Marmalade
CRACKERBERRIES
Musings of a Middle-Aged Mom
I visited fewer blogs and also got fewer comments. I checked the number of comments from this year with those from last year and I did get fewer comments.
I plan to write up my grandfather Cleage’s migration story with input from his letters and news articles. Same with Eliza’s children moving north, if I have the information to add. I’ll keep looking for Harjo and Bessie in the records.
Thank you to everyone who makes the challenge work and to everyone who read my posts and to those who commented. And to my husband Jim who proof reads my posts. Although I do sometimes change up afterwards, so he’s not to blame if some errors creep in!
You can find a list of my posts here -> A to Z Challenge 2026 – Community
