I was born in 1978 to Leticia Lynne, just a few weeks before her 18th birthday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My dad, Mike, was younger, he was 16. His dad, Tony, taught Journalism at Louisiana State University. They'd only been in Louisiana for a couple of years before returning to their home state of California around the time I was born.

Grandpa Tony passed away in 1981 leaving Grandma Frieda to raise five children alone. She went to school and got her degree and became a Social Worker. I finally got to meet her in 2017 when my family and I decided to fly to California then take an epic road trip up the coast visiting friends and family members, as well as my dad's grave in San Diego. We knew we wanted to move to California after that trip and after the historic flooding that got both my husband's and my parent's homes.

I never knew any of the paternal side of my family until I found them as an adult. Unfortunately it was my dad's obituary that helped me finally find his family and let them know that I existed. It was just one and a half years after they'd lost him. I was his only child (that we know of, crossing my fingers that some day I will learn of a sibling). My Great Aunt Marlene, Grandpa Tony's half-sister and a family historian, and my Uncle Steve, my dad's brother, also a family historian, flew to meet me in Louisiana when the found out about me, and welcome me into the family. It was such an amazing thing to me that they wanted to know me! I know it doesn't always go that way when families learn of new family members many years after all of their bonds have already been formed. Thanks to their help I was able to confirm that Mike was definitely my birth dad and that my life-long search had finally come to a close. I now live just an hour and a half away from Grandma Frieda and we spent my 40th and her 80th birthday together. My birthday is one day (and many years) after hers! Coincidentally, my mom's dad, Grandpa Peyton, shares Grandma Frieda's birthday as well! He was exactly one year younger!

I grew up living mostly in Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, but we moved around a lot and I lived with a lot of different people. I counted once and I'd attended at least 23 schools from pre-school to college! For a while there, ages 7-14, I never saw any of my own family. I was taken by my mom's ex-husband for seven years. I finally found my mom the summer I turned fourteen and went and lived with her and her now-husband, my stepdad, Steve, who is like a dad to me. In case that's not enough Steven's, my other uncle, my mom's brother, is also named Steve, but we call him Stevie. My Grandma Dotty was only 36 when I was born. She was a manager at KFC and loved Tom Jones and Bingo. I loved going to the Bingo Hall with her, despite my eyes burning so badly that I could hardly see the Bingo card because of so much smoke! My Grandma is who I spent a lot of time with when I moved back to Louisiana after finding my mom. She was still married to Grandpa Patin then so I always still think of her as Grandma Patin, although she was married five times (and twice to one man)! She had a booth at the indoor flea market where she sold everything from porcelain dolls to jewelry. I loved walking around the flea market and had started making my own earrings and selling them. She gave me my own display case and I had a sign made by another market vendor-Designs by Christine. Riding to the flea market every Sunday with her listening to oldies music and just talking are some of my favorite memories of her. After I suffered a terrible tragedy, the sudden, violent death of my boyfriend, Dan, I dropped out of college and moved back home to Louisiana. I'd been at Kent State University in Ohio at the time. Grandma told me to come and live with her. She'd bought a mobile home and put it on her daughter's, my Aunt Misty, property. She had it fully stocked and furnished and was going to move there and we were going to be roommates, but she was taken very quickly with Early Onset Alzheimer's. She passed away at the age of 64.

It took a lot of working multiple jobs and supporting myself, but I finally graduated from Louisiana State University in 2005 with a degree in Political Science. I was pretty close to a degree in Journalism as well, before I changed course. I had no idea then that my Grandpa Tony was not only a journalist, but an editor and a professor of Journalism!

I married my college next-door neighbor, Mike, who I'd been friends with for a couple of years. We now have three children, a daughter and two sons. We moved to Southern California in 2018 just four weeks after my youngest was born from a C-section. Having my first child is what really led me to start doing genealogy. I never had enough information to find my paternal relatives and DNA wasn't able to assist until I'd already found his obituary, so I explored my mom's family and my husband's family as well as my half-siblings' families. Now I'm working on making sure all of my relatives are correct and documented in our family tree. I'm especially grateful to those who share information, photos and stories as well as those who create these online memorials and take the photos. Thank you so much.

I was born in 1978 to Leticia Lynne, just a few weeks before her 18th birthday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My dad, Mike, was younger, he was 16. His dad, Tony, taught Journalism at Louisiana State University. They'd only been in Louisiana for a couple of years before returning to their home state of California around the time I was born.

Grandpa Tony passed away in 1981 leaving Grandma Frieda to raise five children alone. She went to school and got her degree and became a Social Worker. I finally got to meet her in 2017 when my family and I decided to fly to California then take an epic road trip up the coast visiting friends and family members, as well as my dad's grave in San Diego. We knew we wanted to move to California after that trip and after the historic flooding that got both my husband's and my parent's homes.

I never knew any of the paternal side of my family until I found them as an adult. Unfortunately it was my dad's obituary that helped me finally find his family and let them know that I existed. It was just one and a half years after they'd lost him. I was his only child (that we know of, crossing my fingers that some day I will learn of a sibling). My Great Aunt Marlene, Grandpa Tony's half-sister and a family historian, and my Uncle Steve, my dad's brother, also a family historian, flew to meet me in Louisiana when the found out about me, and welcome me into the family. It was such an amazing thing to me that they wanted to know me! I know it doesn't always go that way when families learn of new family members many years after all of their bonds have already been formed. Thanks to their help I was able to confirm that Mike was definitely my birth dad and that my life-long search had finally come to a close. I now live just an hour and a half away from Grandma Frieda and we spent my 40th and her 80th birthday together. My birthday is one day (and many years) after hers! Coincidentally, my mom's dad, Grandpa Peyton, shares Grandma Frieda's birthday as well! He was exactly one year younger!

I grew up living mostly in Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, but we moved around a lot and I lived with a lot of different people. I counted once and I'd attended at least 23 schools from pre-school to college! For a while there, ages 7-14, I never saw any of my own family. I was taken by my mom's ex-husband for seven years. I finally found my mom the summer I turned fourteen and went and lived with her and her now-husband, my stepdad, Steve, who is like a dad to me. In case that's not enough Steven's, my other uncle, my mom's brother, is also named Steve, but we call him Stevie. My Grandma Dotty was only 36 when I was born. She was a manager at KFC and loved Tom Jones and Bingo. I loved going to the Bingo Hall with her, despite my eyes burning so badly that I could hardly see the Bingo card because of so much smoke! My Grandma is who I spent a lot of time with when I moved back to Louisiana after finding my mom. She was still married to Grandpa Patin then so I always still think of her as Grandma Patin, although she was married five times (and twice to one man)! She had a booth at the indoor flea market where she sold everything from porcelain dolls to jewelry. I loved walking around the flea market and had started making my own earrings and selling them. She gave me my own display case and I had a sign made by another market vendor-Designs by Christine. Riding to the flea market every Sunday with her listening to oldies music and just talking are some of my favorite memories of her. After I suffered a terrible tragedy, the sudden, violent death of my boyfriend, Dan, I dropped out of college and moved back home to Louisiana. I'd been at Kent State University in Ohio at the time. Grandma told me to come and live with her. She'd bought a mobile home and put it on her daughter's, my Aunt Misty, property. She had it fully stocked and furnished and was going to move there and we were going to be roommates, but she was taken very quickly with Early Onset Alzheimer's. She passed away at the age of 64.

It took a lot of working multiple jobs and supporting myself, but I finally graduated from Louisiana State University in 2005 with a degree in Political Science. I was pretty close to a degree in Journalism as well, before I changed course. I had no idea then that my Grandpa Tony was not only a journalist, but an editor and a professor of Journalism!

I married my college next-door neighbor, Mike, who I'd been friends with for a couple of years. We now have three children, a daughter and two sons. We moved to Southern California in 2018 just four weeks after my youngest was born from a C-section. Having my first child is what really led me to start doing genealogy. I never had enough information to find my paternal relatives and DNA wasn't able to assist until I'd already found his obituary, so I explored my mom's family and my husband's family as well as my half-siblings' families. Now I'm working on making sure all of my relatives are correct and documented in our family tree. I'm especially grateful to those who share information, photos and stories as well as those who create these online memorials and take the photos. Thank you so much.