Genealogy Reviews Online

What I'm Reading - Right Now

It seems I'm reading more than I usually do.  I don't have more free time available, but I think what's happening is my intellectual curiosity is in overdrive (my version of a mid-life crisis?), and the temptation to explore new topics is irresistible to me.  There is a cost, however, because my insatiable reading appetite has cut my genealogy research time to about zero.  I'm OK with this because most of my reading is historical in nature and gives me the context of the times my ancestors had to deal with.  Most of all, however, I'm having a great time learning all sorts of new things.

I'm currently reading four books right now.  Never in my life have I had so many going at once.  These aren't books I've started only to move on to something else without finishing - I really read a little of each most every day.  I confess I do have a history of starting a few, and then never go back after putting them down...my wife calls these books, lying around the house with tissue bookmarks, "Tim Trails."  I realize my taste in reading won't appeal to everyone, but I'm currently obsessed with exploring these topics:

Rubicon, The Last Years of the Roman Republic, by Tom Holland, 2005 - When most people think of the Roman era, they are really thinking about the empire and don't realize that for half of Rome's 1000 year ancient history it was a republic governed by an elected senate.  This book focuses on the years of the republic and shows the in-fighting and corruption leading to the beginning of autocratic rule.

Europe After Rome, A New Cultural History 500-1000, by Julia M. H. Smith, 2007 - This book was an impulse buy, but is a fascinating history of European culture after the fall of Rome.  The period covered was considered the "dark ages" where learning, law, and society supposedly collapsed.  In reality this was a very dynamic period of European history where peoples, cultures and languages started to resemble what we know today.

How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill, 1996 (Kindle Version) - Before I started reading this book I always thought it was a joke based on the title, but after getting about half-way through I've discovered an aspect of Irish history I've never seen before...not to mention the book is a very entertaining read.  This book is so enjoyable, I've downloaded the next one in Cahill's Hinges of History series The Gifts of the Jews:  How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, 1999.  I haven't started this one yet...I figure I'd better finish a few I've got going now.

The Berbers by Michael Brett and Elizabeth Fentress, 1997 - I just started reading this book last night.  Ever since discovering that my Y-DNA haplogroup (E1b1b1b2) is of North African Berber origin, I've wanted to find a good book to learn about who these people were.  I also wanted to figure out how my Berber DNA ended up in Southern Italy.  I've only just started reading, but so far (after a couple of chapters) I'm hooked.

Like I said, these are probably not in line with the tastes of most people, but give me a break...I'm going through my version of a mid-life crisis and can't help myself.

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Important Books in My Collection

(I really, really wanted to get this written for the last Carnival of Genealogy, but I was over come by events and just couldn't get it done.  I didn't want to waste the post I already started, so I decided to go for it anyway.)

I don't have many genealogy books.  I have a few of those how-to-get-started kind I picked up when I first began about 5 or 6 years ago, but to be honest, I never found them very helpful.  I think I was a little too impatient because when I started, all I wanted to do was dive in and find names - and that's what I did.  At the risk of having eggs thrown at me, and ducking for cover before I continue; I don't even have those evidence citation books by Elisabeth Shown Mills.  It's not that I don't like evidence citation, because I do.  I learned how to do it as a history major in college...all those years ago, and doing it any other way is just too hard for my little brain to understand.

After awhile, I got bored with name finding.  It was fun at first, especially if you find someone who has done all the work for you on a particular family line, but the boredom started because name hunting had no real meaning for me.  I wanted to understand each person's life as much as I could.  Since I started my hobby late in life, and since most of the people who could tell me stories about my ancestors were dead, I figured the best way to learn about someone was to study the local history of where my family lived.  The following five books are my favorite and were the most helpful in my quest to understand my paternal ancestors:

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Up Coming Book Review

I received a first of it's kind email the other day from a marketing representative of the W.W. Norton Publishing Company.  The email explained that they just published a book titled "Genograms: Assessment and Intervention, Third Edition" and the representative suggested it may have application to the genealogy community.  At first I was a bit skeptical because this is a Psychotherapy text book, but as I looked at the table of contents (near the bottom of the linked page), the chapter titles seem to indicate there may be some application to genealogy.  I figure it might give us another way of analyzing all those gigabytes of family tree data we have stored on our hard drives.

I replied with my address and she will send me a complementary copy.  I have no clue whether or not the book will apply to genealogy, but hey, I will get a free book and a blog post out of it.

Update:  I just learned I wasn't the only genea-blogger asked to review this book...oh well...and I thought it was because of the keen insight in my writing!   ;-) 

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Book Review - This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust

As I was reading the Washington Post this morning I came across a review of This Republic of Suffering, by Drew Gilpin Faust.  It just so happens I'm about half way through the book and thought I'd post my impressions so far.  The Washington Post review does a good job of capturing the essence of the story the author tells about death in the Civil War.  I'm not finished with it yet, but this work is unlike any I've read about this war.  Too often Civil War books are about great leaders and their tactics; battles and campaigns; politics; and all the other elements that make this time in United States history almost mythical.  What Faust actually does is show in vivid detail the dirty business of war. 

Regardless of who won or lost the battle, the author explores the aftermath - what do you do with all of the thousands of dead bodies littering the battlefield?  In our wars of today, every dead Soldier is recovered and buried with honors.  Each has a flag covered casket and a dignified funeral.  The families of each dead Soldier are assigned a Casualty Assistance Officer who guides them through the death benefit process which often can take months to settle.  As this fascinating book shows, the families of dead Civil War soldiers had none of this.  They were lucky to recover the bodies of their loved ones and many times had to go to the battlefields themselves to do it.

As I said, I'm only half way through, but I think this is a book anyone with an interest in the Civil War should read.  So far it's neither pro North or South.  It looks at the impact of of death on both sides and does a good job of balancing examples of each.  Be aware this book strips away all of the sterile notions of the glory of battles...it's about something only Soldiers really understand.  The Washington Post also had a link to another interesting article on the author - Drew Gilpin Faust

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Book Review - Inheriting the Trade by Thomas Norman DeWolf

Last month I wrote a post called Family Secrets: The Slave Trade in Early America about a new book and documentary film on the subject.  I ordered the book, titled Inheriting the Trade, just before I wrote the post and have been trying to write a review for the last week.  The book is about the DeWolf Family of Rhode Island, and how it ruled the slave trading industry well into the 19th century - at least this is what it says on the cover.  The reality is the book is about 10 DeWolf family descendants trying to come to grips with this knowledge during the making of a documentary film by traveling from Rhode Island to West Africa to Cuba and back.   These descendants discover the history of their family's business is intertwined with the industrial growth of the Northern States.  It appears the slave trade was an economic engine creating great wealth in the North.  The molasses, rum and ship building industries were mainly focused on the slave trade during its existence.  In fact, at one point the DeWolf family slave ship fleet was bigger than the US Navy.  The central theme...at least at the beginning of the book (I say this because the theme appears to change later on...is the question "Why is this history not taught in schools?"

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Family Secrets - The Slave Trade in Early America

How would you feel if you discovered your ancestors were responsible for transporting over 10,000 human beings from Africa into slavery in the early part of our country's existence?  Most of us research our family history and discover many people we look up to and admire, but there are also some who inspire the opposite feelings.  Research shows there are some of both kinds of people in my family, and I try to treat each fairly...but I'm not so sure how I would feel if these were my ancestors.  This article in the Denver Post discusses how a few descendants of the DeWolf family of Bristol, Rhode Island decided to break the "no-talk rule" and deal with their family's past.  In the process they came face to face with their ancestor's misdeeds which lead to a book "Inheriting the Trade" and a documentary film "Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North."  The film documents the journey of 10 family members "along the infamous Triangle Trade route that made [their] family rich: sugar from Cuba became rum in New England that was traded for slaves in Africa."  I just ordered the book from Amazon and will write about my impressions of it.

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Irish Genealogy Resources

(My intent was to submit this for the Irish Heritage and Culture Carnival hosted by the Small-Leaved Shamrock, but I was overcome by events and couldn't get it written in time.  The deadline was 28 December and here I am writing on 29 December.  What this means is I put it off until the last day and then stuff happened as they say.  Anyway, this is what I would have submitted if I had planned things a little better)

I have a big problem with Irish genealogy.  The problem isn't with the resources available, but it's with my ancestors - they did everything at the wrong time.  Instead of coming to the US during the potato famine (1845-1849) with the majority of Irish immigrants, my 3rd great grandfather (Richard Hartford), along with his wife and three small children, left Ireland sometime between 1830 and 1832.  Additionally, instead of coming straight to the United States where there are census records available back to 1790, they went to Canada.  Even though I haven't had much luck finding my family in Ireland, and have had slow success in Canada, I have discovered the Irish Origins genealogy site (a part of The Origins Network) and a few books that really got me interested in Irish History.   

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161 Meme and Other Things

I was catching up on my favorite blogs this morning and found Denise at Moultrie Creek tagged me for this 161 Meme thing.  Apparently it's been going around for a few days and I missed everything. 

I had a very busy, but fun weekend where I hardly got on the Internet at all - not even to check email or my blog stats!  This was a soccer weekend...my son's team was in a tournament with two games on both Saturday and Sunday that turned into all day affairs.  They started off strong on Saturday and it looked like they were going to get either 1st or 2nd, but had a couple of rough games on Sunday.  Even though his team fell out of the trophy hunt on Sunday, I had an incredible time, but my voice is a bit hoarse this morning.

Since I spent most of both days with my son, late Sunday afternoon, my daughter requested some daddy time, so we went bowling and then to the mall for a little Christmas shopping.  It's always an interesting experience going to the mall with my 11 year old daughter, but we had a great time drinking smoothies and dodging all of the Christmas shopping crowds...by the way, she beat me in bowling!

Now on to the 161 Meme..  Right now I'm re-reading "La Storia - Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience" by Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale.  This is one of the best books on the Italian American story I've ever read.  Usually these kinds of books only look at people who settled in New York City, but this one looks at Italian immigration and its impact all over the country in both urban and rural settings.  As I'm re-reading this book, I'm discovering things that just didn't stand out the first time.  Lets see, I'm supposed to go to page 161 and then to the 6th sentence...the discussion is on how language provided a sense of security and community for immigrants and marked boundaries almost like national borders in Europe:

     "Italian enclaves were separated from the larger American communities by physical boundaries - a railroad track, hill, or stream - but more often by invisible boundaries that were no less effective in marking the Italian territory."

I'm supposed to tag 5 others, but it appears most of my blogging colleagues have already been tagged.  I seem to always be late with these meme things...

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Genealogy Reviews Online Bookstore

Visit Genealogy Gems and listen to some great podcasts about family history research.

I've added a new feature to the blog - the Genealogy Reviews Online Bookstore.  I was able to set this up as an Amazon.com associate and have included books I like.  The cool thing about this is Amazon automatically produces lists and items similar to my choices - which leads to a huge selection focused on genealogy, family history, and history.  While the book selections are mine, you are actually taken to Amazon.com and any purchase you make will be through their secure shopping system.  Check it out - I would appreciate your support.

$100,000 Prize Awarded to Military History Author

Find Your Ancestors In Civil War Documents 

An Associated Press story in the Washington Post reports that James M. McPherson was awarded the Pritzker Military Library Literature Ward "for lifetime achievement in military writing."  This award also includes a $100,000 honorarium.  I'm mentioning this because McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize) was one of the first books on the Civil War I read.  It was a great first book because it covered not only the major battles, but the political context of the times. 

The Teaching Company - Best College Lectures in the Country

I majored in History at Colorado State University.  I remember sitting in some of my classes that had very engaging and dynamic professors, and I wished I could just relax and enjoy the lectures without papers and tests hanging over my head.  With my college days now a faded memory, I can do that with products from The Teaching Company. I discovered The Teaching Company in the mid 1990s when I had a long commute to work.  We had received several catalogs in the mail and my wife decided to order a course and give it a test drive.  She loved it (I think it was a course on classical music) so I ordered some too. Now I have a large bookcase packed with courses I've listened to over the years - and I have listened to dozens.

Book Review - When is a Celt not a Celt?

Here is an interesting book review I found written by Greg Langley of 2theAdvocate.com.  The book is "Saxons, Vikings and the Celts:  The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland" by Brian Sykes.  I grabbed this review because I have been devouring books recently on ancient history (early Roman era) and the use of DNA in genealogy.  The book reviewed here covers both.  This looks like a very interesting read.

Book Review - Dances with Luigi: A Grandson's Search for His Italian Roots by Paul Paolicelli

Dances with Luigi by Paul Paolicelli, (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Griffin, New York, 2000) is a very good read, and I had to share it with you.  This is old news for the hard core Italian genealogy types who discovered Paolicelli a long time ago, but as usual, I discovered him later then most.  I was taken with this book because, at least on the surface, it mirrors my own search for my grandfather's family in Southern Italy.  I say on the surface, because Paolicelli did what most people only dream of doing - the only way I can categorize it is "extreme" genealogy.  Paolicelli was a successful television journalist who had heard family stories about his Italian heritage all of his life.  However, as all genealogy buffs experience, gaps in the family story got his curiosity going.