Friday, October 18, 2013

In Search of our Ancestors - Megan Smolenyak

Subtitle: 101 Inspiring Stories of Serendipity and Connection in Rediscovering Our Family History

I am passionate about genealogy.  I enjoy uncovering the mysteries of my family; who they were, where they lived, what they worked at.  Along the way I learn the geography of where they were from and the history they lived through.  I took this along on a recent vacation to re-read before donating to a genealogical society.

The book presents stories gathered for the PBS series but not covered necessarily during the show.  These are inspiring and encouraging tales of family researchers experiencing serendipity when seeking their history.

In re-reading the book (it was a gift from my sister in 2000) I got tips on researching that I'd not noticed in my first read.  I was reminded of "genealogical karma" where when you share a photo or story of someone else, its possible that someone will send something about your family to you.  Such people think of themselves as "memory brokers", getting photos, documents and other memorabilia back to family members. I think I'll have to see if I can find the old PBS series on DVD.

Published:  2000  Read: 2013 (third time, 2000 and 2002 before)  Genre: Short story, non-fiction

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