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What’s in a name?

Left to right: Gene Glandon, Tillie Bromley, George and Hilda Glandon, Caroline and Margaret (girls in front) Glandon. Abt 1935

Back in September one of my readers asked me how I happened to come up with Boatman as Danielle’s maiden name. She was curious because it’s not a common name, and it happened to be her maiden name.

I explained to her that I snatched the name from my family tree. We then entered into a private email exchange and discovered we are distant cousins!

Well, at least I suspected we were. I had been investigating that particular branch of my family tree—my father’s paternal grandmother’s line—yet I wasn’t quite sure I was on the right track. I knew no family along that branch to share information.

But then after Christmas, I took one of those Ancestry.com DNA tests, and guess what? I discovered I had been on the right track, and I could rightfully claim the Boatman surname—as well as that distant cousin I had met online, after she read Haunting Danielle.

For those who have already read The Ghost and the Leprechaun, you’ll probably now recognize what inspired me in that particular story line, in regards to DNA.

Of course Boatman is not the first name I’ve borrowed from my family tree. Chris and Joanne share a common surname, Johnson—which is my maiden name. Of course, Chris’ real surname is Glandon—my mother’s Maiden name. Even my McIntyre pen name was taken from my family tree.

I like to keep it the family.

(Photos: Some of the Glandon from my family tree.)