Just Pizzelles in Cortland has become almost a household name over the last couple years, but you can trace the owner's success back to a family tree filled with entrepreneurs.

Christina Benton owns Just Pizzelles and that family tree has a lot of branches.

"There's a Sponsler here, a Durig over here," said Christina.

Woven into that DNA, somehow, is an entrepreneurial spirit. You can look at black-and-white photos of the old Durig's Market on 422 or the five of eleven Durig kids who owned their own businesses, including Christina's mom.

"We had a plumbing store," said Pamela King, Christina's mother. "That's where she grew up when she was little and where she slept in her bed under the counter."

"I had to have real stuff to play with," said Benton. "Toys were not good enough. So I always set up an office. Ever since I can remember, I played office or store. I made up my own stories and I had to have a real cash register."

But which business she'd go into, that was the question. Between her aunts and uncles and 13 cousins who ran their own business, they had everything covered, from pet groomers to fashion designers.

"A lot of them are construction. A lot of her brothers are construction," said Benton. "Retail, wholesale. I'm surprisingly the only bakery."

So when Christina decided to add her name to that ever-growing list, having family members who'd been through it took away a little bit of the fear associated with opening your own business.

"One of her sisters talked me into this idea," said Benton. "She was a very successful retail business owner back in the day. For her to give me the idea, I was like 'Wait. She kind of knows her stuff.' She was kind of ahead of her time when she did her things."

That's how Just Pizzelles was born. Now, Christina has her own daughter in the shop, using the same kitchen set she had as a little girl and planting the seed for the next generation.

That doesn't mean the torch is ever fully passed, though.

"Well, now I may venture into a new business," said King. "We're not gonna say what it is, but there's nothing on the food market like it. We've already checked out cold packers. I'm not going to quit, I'm gonna keep going. Retire isn't in our vocabulary."

Just like working for someone else isn't in their genes. Generations of entrepreneurs in the family, with generations still to come.