The History of this site

When my great-grandmother, Jeanette Anna Heintz, passed away in 1992, a lifetime of family “secrets” went with her. Fortunately, she never threw anything away. Having lived through WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII, she was conditioned to keep everything. Unfortunately, the rest of the family wasn’t close-knit—bitter divorces and alcoholism had taken their toll over the years.

Because she saved everything, her attic turned out to be a treasure trove of photographs, documents, and other memorabilia. As children, we were never allowed to go up there and were always told it was haunted. Now I realize it was haunted, by the memories of those who came before us.

With what I found, I was able to piece together much of my mother’s side of the family. But since my parents divorced when I was very young and I hadn’t seen my father since, I hit a brick wall on his side. I put the research aside for a few years and didn’t revisit it until my first child was born in 1998. Around that time, my mother-in-law gave me a collection of family photos and information on her family (the Hutchinsons) and my father-in-law’s family (the Mullises).

That renewed my motivation to research again, if my children couldn’t learn much about my side, they could at least know their history through their mother’s. As I began researching the Mullis line, I realized it wasn’t a widely documented name.

In 2001, I began corresponding via email with Barbara Philemon Culp, a distant cousin of my ex-wife and a dedicated researcher of the Mullis family. She had done extensive work on the line and even sent me a copy of her book, The Mullis Melange. Barbara was delighted that I was continuing the research and even more excited to learn that my wife was the niece of her friend Flory Mullis, the very person to whom she had dedicated her book. She loved the idea of me building a website based on her research.

I started this site in 2006 and named it MullisMelange.com in honor of Barbara’s work. Sadly, Barbara was ill during our correspondence, and we eventually lost touch. I didn’t know what had happened until I later came across her obituary. Her encouragement was a major part of what kept me going. I never expected to become so deeply invested in genealogy or to connect with the Mullis family the way I have.

Update 2022

I took a six-year hiatus from genealogy in 2010 after the loss of my 7-year-old son and the divorce that followed. I didn’t return to my research until November 2016.

In 2022, after forty years without contact, I finally found my father. At 79 he was in surprisingly good health, and we were able to catch up. Through him, I learned more about my Mexican side of the family, uncovering a few more long-buried family secrets in the process.

This site has gone through several iterations. I originally launched it in 2006 as mullismelange.com, later rebranded it as mullisfamily.org, and have now finally settled on ourbigclan.com.

I’ve since taken down the Mullis family databases and moved that project to the back burner. I’m grateful to all the family genealogists who shared their research with me and welcomed me at family reunions. Meeting the Anson/Union, Georgia, and Alexander clans was a wonderful experience. Unfortunately, a few arrogant “family researchers” soured the process enough that I decided not to continue work on the Mullis line, especially since it isn’t my direct line.

I’m now focusing my efforts on my own family branches: Cox, Curiel, Flores, Heintz, McGriff, Villone, and Van Volkenburg.