OTT ONE OUT

Most modern societies are patrilineal, so most of the ancestry information is focused on the male line. When I started this journey, I was no different. I followed the male line and found women who made a name, left a mark, and influenced history. So, my research began to focus on the women, especially the rebellious ones, the disgraced ones, the missing ones and came to understand my place among them. I want to record their lives before their oral history is lost forever. 

My role is researcher, compiler, writer and keeper of memories. My grandmother, Essie Thornsberry, used to call me the truth teller. Even as a child, I was unfiltered.  I was the only one of my kind, an Ott/Hefner mixed with Geddis/Thornsberry, and I was an only child. But, I was also the scapegoat, the troubling and troubled child. My mother would say she tried. Embracing my life as one of the disgraced ones in my family hasn't been as empowering as I would have liked. But being the odd (Ott) duck of a dying dynasty has been tragically delicious.