Meara Nigro has had a varied career as a commercial artist, theater publicist, and communications director for a non-profit organization serving lowincome people. Believing that every family has a fascinating history, she began researching her own ancestors’ life stories to learn more about their reasons for journeying thousands of miles from home, leaving everything familiar behind, to become settlers of a new land. While her great grandparents were early pioneers of California, Nevada and Montana, she grew up in New Jersey where she still lives with her husband, children, and grandchildren.