Genealogy Books

I am a descendant of James Butler. For the record, that family is not Scotch-Irish, they were English and had been for hundreds of years. They went to Virginia from England in the 1600's not because they were poor or down trodden but because they were wealthy and well connected with the intentions of making more money.

Shoddy research just makes me cringe.

On a cold wintry day in March 1978, Willie Bosket, a 15-year-old boy with an extensive juvenile record, shot and killed a middle-aged hospital worker in a New York City subway robbery. Eight days later, Willie robbed and killed another man under similar circumstances. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested, confessed, and was found guilty of these two homicides. He was given the maximum sentence for a juvenile of five years for the two murders. He felt not a whit of remorse for his actions, and was quoted as such in the papers.

A few days later, New York Governor Hugh Carey, reading about the trial in the New York newspapers, became so incensed that he immediately called a special session of the state legislature in Albany. He proposed and was successful in passing a new law in record time, the Juvenile Offender Act of 1978. This law allowed kids as young as 13 to be tried in adult criminal courts for murder and receive the same penalties as adults. This law was a sharp reversal of 150 years of American tradition. New York became the first of many states to make this watershed change in juvenile justice policy. Willie Bosket had made history.

If All God's Children were merely a harrowing recitation of the criminal life of Willie Bosket, it would be a fascinating chronicle of the "most dangerous prisoner in the history of the state of New York." But it is much more than that. It is also a multi-generational tale of the Bosket family dating back to 1834 in South Carolina. It in particular traces the interweaving stories of Willie Bosket and that of his father, Butch Bosket, with all that they held in common-genius-level IQs, a history of explosive anger, psychopathic tendencies and a conviction for two homicide.

In telling this saga of the Bosket family, Butterfield has successfully woven together a sociological treatise on violence in America, a cautionary tale of the pernicious effects of slavery, and a genealogical study of a truly tragic family.

Armchair Interviews says: A stunning read.

This book was indeed an eye-opener. I encourage all who are concerned about our society as a whole to study this book, and especially those who are in social services. Mr. Butterfield should be applauded for this work.

At first glance I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book. The story was non-fiction, which ultimately means that my mind immediately began thinking of Stephen Ambrose and his agonizing dry facts and boring narrative. While I could have easily set this book down and found a new book that looked more promising the title, "All God's Children," got my attention and caused me to pick it up. Upon reading this book half of my initial intuition was correct. The book was extremely boring but it was also incredibly fascinating.
If I could give a review based solely on the information represented in this book I would give it a new perfect score but it is a book so it also needs to hold the readers' attention. I had a horrible time trying to push my way through the book due to some incredibly slow chapters. For example, the first chapter, "Bloody Edgefield" gathers semi-useful information and then takes forever to explain the meaning behind it. Beginning in the first chapter it is necessary to involve the reader in the story and "All God's Children nearly put me to sleep."
Although I found this book to be boring the information and descriptions were excellent. The book traces the family tree of an incarcerated young man named Willie Bosket who has been named the most dangerous criminal alive. I found the story to be fascinating and through this book I could make conjectures as to whether Willie's nature was preconceived or if it was his environment.
Also, though the book was boring the writing was superb. Every description was vivid portraying Fox Butterfield's massive vocabulary. The writing made the reader feel as if he or she were interacting with the story instead of looking back on it two hundred years later. Due to the fact that it was boring I gave the book three stars but it is still a worthwhile read to those interested in the story of Willie Bosket.

I'm not A reader of books. I was refered this one and I can't stop referencing it in everyday conversations. This book is not only a great history lesson of Racial tensions but also a great look into the history of violence in our Black Youth....

Sebastian Haffner's "Defying Hitler" has an ambitious initial scope - to chronicle the rise of Hitler from 1918-1939. The memoir is "unfinished" in that the narrative leaves off in 1933 as Haffner put down writing the manuscript with the advent of World War II and never came back to it. Haffner's son, Oliver Pretzel ultimately had the work published after Haffner's death.

Even in its "unfinished" condition, the work is a masterpiece. Haffner's purpose is not to excuse the average German in germany to succumbing to Nazism and to Hitler but rather to EXPLAIN the phenomenon. Excusing it would simply be post hoc. Explaining it serves the additional function of future application.

Defying Hitler was a difficult thing to do in practice. One could certainly not do so in public. The repression of Nazism in Germany was all the more pervasive by its reach into the private sphere and by doing so, obliterating the prior German distinction between public and private. The only safe way to defy Hitler was, ultimately emigration.

Haffner's narrative is frank, honest and ironic. It was a joy to read.

Finally, a word about Robert Whitfield, the reader of the Audio edition of "Defying Hitler." I believe there are instances in which the audio edition of a work is equal to or superior to the printed version. These instances of "audio excellence" are directly related to the quality of the reader. Robert Whitfield repeatedly accomplishes "aduio excellence." Whitfield's diction is spot on, his tone fluctuates to match the text. If the text is ironic, so then is Whitfield's tone. If the text is frank, so then is Whitfield's tone. If the text contains italics for emphasis, that emphasis is contained within Whitfield's voice. In short, his contributions always enhance a book and never detract from it. For other texts read by Robert Whitfield, I would recommend Bleak House by Charles Dickens, and The Abolition of Man & the Great Divorce: Library Edition by C.S. Lewis.

Amazing book! Proves that not all Germans were rabid Nazis. A personal journey through a unique perspective on how and why the Nazis were able to assume power, as well as why the Germans were unable to stop them. Highly recommended!

This is the story of Sebastian Haffner, a man who lived in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. I loved hearing the story from the perspective of the average German. I can't imagine living in such tumultuous times, but reading this book gives me a glimpse. The best part about it is the fact that it tries to answer two very important questions: how on earth a regime like the Nazis could rise to power, and how almost the entire nation where corrupted by them. It's a wonderful story that I would recommend to anyone that is the bit interested in that period. Remember, it's by understanding the past that we can best keep from repeating it.

Excellent book on the rise of the Nazis by an author with a very humane and sensible view of life who lived through the events. Haffner gives voice to the average Germans who witnessed the rise of Hitler and did not approve - the majority, as it turns out - but who could simply not make sense of the madness around them nor could they find a way to realistically oppose the Nazis.

Haffner's narrative is often touching as he discusses personal events of his own, friends' and family's, illustrating how the sphere of their private lives was affected by politics. The result is that it reads like a 'non-fiction novel', and one extremely relevant for contemporary world events.

It is a pity that Haffner never actually concluded the book. In the last section, his son briefly explains what happened after the abrupt ending of the narrative, thus we miss the detail and richness that Hafner's own perspective would have undoubtedly provided. Still, it is an unmissable book, packed with lessons for present and future generations.

This is a powerful story of the rise of the Nazi movement with scary parallels to modern day events. The question has often been asked how the Germans could allow this to happen and Haffner does an amazing job at describing how. Along with a controlled media, one method was to turn the volume of fear and intimidation one little almost imperceptible increment at the time. Most people just laughed at the antics of Hitler and his crowd in the beginning, but by the time that people caught on to the seriousness of the issue it was too late. By this time many secretly just hoped that it would go away like a bad dream, but history tells a different story.

The difference with this book is that it is told from a very human perspective from an ordinary German who was living through those times and who saw the transformation of German society and social interaction.

Along with this book I would recommend the movie V for Vendetta (Two-Disc Special Edition), and the book Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes), which describes the process by which a society is taken over, and by what kind of people.

Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. This book is an important book to read so as to be better able to read the warning signs before it is too late.

This book is fantastic for dating photographs. I have bins of photos that I have no clue when they were taken. The tables in here help you to pen point the dates using things you'd never think of. Once Miss Fitzpatrick was able to use a cash registar and some old ads to determine the date of a picture! The more meaty sections are when she uses the light of day to name the exact location. Now that was amazing!
Last year I had the oppurturnity to meet Colleen. She is the nicest woman and ever so intelligent! Her passion flows throughout her work and makes the book enjoyable and fascinating to read. A genius in her field, Miss Fitzpatrick gives you the tools, the websites, and the frame of mind all in this book.
Inside are charts and tables giving you dating for when each type of photograph was made, describing to a tee how to distinguish your photo.
Also included, though I've not had much time to examine that section, are chapters on reading between the lines in directories and census images, ect.
Without this book I would still be clueless. It truly is a must have.

Forensic Genealogy is a unique contribution to genealogical studies that will enable the novice genealogist (and even the experience genealogical researcher) to utilize diverse resources and methods for developing their genealogical family histories that combines established and conventional genealogical research techniques with cutting edge advances in forensic investigation techniques to identify, understand, correlate, and detail their ancestry. Enhanced throughout will illustrations, this 182 page instructional reference shows how to create a "database" to construct a family story (including cultural profiling). An avid genealogist, Colleen Fitzpatrick offers a thoroughly "reader friendly" introduction to the subject of identification and analysis using everything from surname studies to non-paternity events, to cladograms and pairwise mismatches. Readers will learn how to become a kind of "digital detective" in analyzing documents, photographs, and records of all kinds. Concluding with a chapter on "There Will Always Be Mysteries Left", Forensic Genealogy is a welcome and seminal addition to personal and professional genealogical reference library collections. Also very highly recommended is Colleen Fitzpatrick's related instructional reference DNA & Genealogy (0976716011) with its focus on the genetic trail an ancestor leaves behind which can be traced through Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA testing, offering heretofore unavailable genetics-based expertise to genealogical inquiry for non-specialist general readers with an interest in developing their own genealogical inquiries.

Don't put away those old photographs and documents. You are not through with your families history until you have read Dr. Fitzpatrick's book "Forensic Genealology". There may be many hidden secrets in all those old items. This book will teach you to look at them like a "crime scene" and discover their meaning for your ancestor.

You will never look at a photo in quite the same way after reading this book. Many of us have so few photos from our families past that it makes every one of them important to telling our families history. The author helps us to be critical and wise examiners of the clues we have from our past. As one reviewer already said, the same pictures are examined as you progress through the book. There is just too much to learn to get it all in one place. Even if you didn't have any photos, there are excellent resources mentioned that could be used in any genealogy research. The book encourages the reader to extend family research beyond the usual sources like the census and city directories and dive into what the location was like where they lived, what was their occupation, what was the weather like and many other similar questions that can be pursued by extending our view of our family who lived in a location at a given time in history. I think the enthusiasm of the author is catching. It encourages that driving force to figure out and analyze the photos as evidence of our history. It is that push to go beyond the obvious for more clues.

This is not your usual basic family history book. It effectively teaches one how to think and analyze way outside the box. Once you have gathered all your family's pertinent material, this book will take you way beyond birth, death, and marriage records. The author brilliantly demonstrates how to use city directories, weather data, photo intelligence mensuration techniques, sleuthing approaches, and even a chapter on DNA testing and tracking. This is a wonderful teaching vehicle and reference manual. We would recommend it to all serious genealogists.

The author takes a highly technical subject area and transforms it into understandable tools for one to use with excellent examples from her own family investigations. This book is a mind expanding read, and we rated it a high four hearts.

This edition of the book is more up-to-date, so it's actually useful somewhat. Mostly, though, it's a book written by experts for experts. There is little thought given to the practical application of genealogy -- making friends with newly found relatives, for example, and family reunions. There is no mention of the politics that go into genealogy. You can easily destroy your family by writing the wrong date for a marriage on your descendant chart, but the book totally omits important facts like that! It has a small chapter on DNA, which is nice, but it leaves out critical information on that topic, too. The "Idiot's" title of this book is misleading; the authors fail to think like a layman. Beware.

As a newbie to genealogy, I find this to be a very helpful book. It points you in the directions that you should go and gives a lot of ideas that I would not have thought of.

These authors have the credentials to and have written a superb handbook, especially for the genealogy "newbies". Even the experienced family historian will here find MUCH help. Paul Drake JD

This is a great book for beginners and experienced researchers. I recommend it to my students.
Maria (Ree) Hopper, CG

Christine Rose's "The Complete Idiots's Guide to Online Genealogy" made me finally move from, "I am going to do a genealogic study of my father's family", to "I have been working on this project for two years, and am truly enjoying the experience".

The book is well organized, and easy to read and understand. I have in the past 5 years developed a memory problem that will not get better. I had become so afraid failure, I did not want to attempt learning something new again. I used "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Computers" years ago, and found it a great way to quickly ground myself in the basics. When I saw Ms. Rose's book, I knew it was my best opportunity.

I now have numerous books concerning genealogy, but "Idiot's" is dog earred and still the first book on the shelf. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn family history and genealogy and how to put together a family tree. Especially those who do not have the inside lingo.

Shari Peavy

This is quite a book. Since it is over 900 pages you must put it down but I read it straight through. There are some very keen insights into the armament industry and its power over nations and governments - even over Adolf Hitler. If you think Hitler answered to no one, you might want to read this book. My tendency is to tell you many of the shocking facts contained in this work. But Mr. Manchester spent a lot of time building his shocking facts into a reasonable and established context. This is a very important book and I am very, very surprised that I am the first to review it. This is another one of those books that should be a college text. Buy it! This book is a bargain, believe me. No price could repay Mr. Manchester for this type of research.

This is an excellent book about a family's, noted for their involvement with the steel industry and especially the manufacturer of arms, struggle with Germany's economy and power covering about 400 years. It looks lengthy however it is over just as you are getting started. A side benefit is the technical information added helps you imagine what is like to design and sell the arms. In some cases they were almost given away for a causes. This story parallels other books on history and makes the world seem that it is made up of people not just historical facts. Speaking of historical facts, one of the things I like to do is to read books that become movies and movies that are novelized. This would have to be a mini-series. Notice that in the book

William Manchester mentions that the movie "Major Barbara", the play was actually written by George Bernard Shaw and was modeled on the Krupp family.

"The Arms Of Krupp" is the incredible biography of a powerful and incredibly rich and powerful family that was central in the advent and progress of European history for the more than four hundred years they presided as an almost imperial force within the boundaries of what is present-ay Germany. Certainly no other non-royal dynasty engenders such controversy and hotly expressed differences in opinion than does the multiple generations of this critically based family so critical to the development and technological capabilities of the German war machine. Of course, no one could do a better job at providing a definitive historical biography of the Krupp family than William Manchester. This is truly a magnificent book, a spellbinding story splendidly told by a master of English prose, rendered in a flawless, comprehensive, and objective treatment of this fascinating, often outrageous, and sometime imperious string of Krupp family member who ignited the wars raging in Europe in terms of their ability to provide the motherland with such complex, ingenious, and technically superior weapons of war.

This is, in fact, considered a masterwork of history, an eminently readable and elegantly stylish work by Manchester, a master of the trade. Manchester, a retired history professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, is widely regarded as one of this country's preeminent biographers and historian. The Krupp dynasty was extinguished in 1967, when the last surviving family member passed away. With his death the legacy of a four hundred year span of contribution to the European armaments industry came to an end, and so brought to a conclusion a tradition spanning wars and quite profoundly influencing outcomes of European history for centuries. The Krupp Arms conglomerate was technologically innovative, devising new weapons such as a superior cannon to an anti-air vehicle weapon designed to counter the reconnaissance capabilities of aerial observation balloons to exotic and much more capable submarines, which they then built for over four decades.

In so doing, they became fabulously rich, and rose to become extremely influential and exceedingly conservative voices within the realm of German political circles. No German leader could hope to marshal the resources or the weapons of war necessary to mount a military campaign without first gaining the trust, confidence and support of the Krupp family, which then cleverly and cynically manipulated this influence to vastly enrich themselves. During World War One, their cannons helped to flatten the French city of Verdun, and at one point succeeded in lobbing projectiles into Paris from as distant a location as some eighty miles away, an unheard-of innovation at the time. Aiding the Third Reich in its secret rearmament effort after the end of the First Word War, they provided a much advanced tank design that eventuated in the Panzer tank, used subsequently so successfully in Hitler's blitzkrieg through France in the summer of 1940.

They were quite influential within the German society as well, having armed the forces of Kaiser Wilhelm for battle before World War One, and then surreptitiously backed Hitler financially in the so-called terror-campaign" of 1933. Incredibly, the Krupps participated in the war crimes of the Third Reich, even controlling and operating more than 130 concentration camps during the war. Afterwards, they help to rebuild Europe in the eventual development of the European Common Market. This is a truly fascinating book written with all of the usual style and substance one come s to expect of William Manchester, and it is certainly a book I can highly recommend to anyone with an interest in European history. Enjoy!

This is an excellent description of a family, noted for their involvement with the steel industry and especially the manufacturer of arms. They struggle with Germany's economy and influence Germaine's foreign policy covering about 400 years.

It looks like a lengthy volume however it is over just as you are getting started. A side benefit is the technical information added helps you imagine what is like to design and sell the arms.

In some cases arms were almost given away for a cause. At other times they mercenarily sold arms to may conflicting countries on both sides. This story parallels other books on history and makes the world seem that it is made up of people not just historical facts. Speaking of historical facts, one of the things I like to do is to read books that become movies and movies that are novelized. This would have to be a mini-series.

Notice that in the book; interestingly enough William Manchester mentions that George Bernard Shaw actually based a play on the Krupp family, "Major Barbara" which consequently was made into a movie with windy Hiller in 1941.

Seeing what this book was about, I thought it had no chance of holding my interest. However, once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. Manchester really makes this history read like a first class novel.

I was given this book as a gift for the holidays and couldn't put it down. The books is easy to read and VERY entertaining. As an amateur genealogist I found the stories heart warming, spine tingling, and most fascinating. It also gave me ideas of what else I need to do to find additional ancestors. I have already ordered four additional copies to give to friends and fellow genealogists.

So many times we associate genealogy with just names and dates. This book reminds us that there so much more to genealogy... the stories of our search, what motivates us, and the reminder that we all have a fabulous tale to tell. Read and be truly inspired!

I bought this book to read one article, but I got hooked. As I read article after article, I found that I couldn't put the book down. The book shares unique stories about everyday people who found information about their own past in surprising and wonderful ways. Now, I find myself telling friends about the fascinating articles that were in this book.

Gems of genealogical tidbits wrapped in one hundred and one surprising and fun stories. I was inspired by, and will never forget, the researchers who thought to ask to actually see the burnt records, the daughter's pursuit of information about her father who died in the war three months after she was born, using the Internet to find a sister not seen for six decades -- or any of the 98 other inspiring, sad, sometimes-scary, humorous or (mostly) very happy stories. Even my friends who are not interested in genealogy wound up carrying the book around to read the stories...everyone enjoyed it!

Megan Smolenyak's, "In Search of Our Ancestors; 101 Inspiring Stories of Serendipity and Connection in Rediscovering Our Family History" breaks new ground in the long-known but little discussed area of the seemingly divine help millions of researchers have known when they commenced to discover their kindred dead. The book chronicles the most remarkable--but believable--instances of individuals who sought to learn of their ancestors and their heritage but who encountered brick walls along the way, only to have the walls smashed by acts of kindness or happy and unexpected breakthroughs.

Some of the accounts in the book border on the miraculous, such as when books fall-off shelves to reveal portraits and biographical sketches of ancestors. There are accounts of distant cousins from different continents meeting in the same county court house on the same day, looking for the same ancestors. There are accounts of microfilmed records seemingly scrolling to the exact spot necessary to find an ancestor. There are accounts of cousins working on genealogy who discover one another by serendipitous accident: one accidentally leaving his genealogy on a photocopier the other was next to use.

In all, "In Search of Our Ancestors" is a life-affirming work, edifying us in our knowledge that we live not just for ourselves and that there is more than this life alone. It is a remarkable contribution to the hobby and the practice of family history research.

As a professional genealogist, I have already purchased dozens of the books and given them to my clients. Everyone should own a copy.

This book is a wonderful tool for genealogists to see the boundary changes for each county in each state for each Census year. It gives the dates when changes were made which helps in knowing where to look for vital records, land records, probate records etc. The book is very easy to read and understand.

The "Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses 1790-1920" has been one of the most helpful books I have ever used. It helps coordinate counties with the years of the census records. So glad to have found it online!! It would be a 5 Star if it was hardcover!!

Very informative with great graphics. Can be of great help to anyone first working with the census forms.

I've been doing family research for 25 years and it's about time i got my own federal census map guide. How do you know where your family was in any given year w/out it? I use it every time i turn on the computer-this is so worth it.

Excellent book.
Everyone who does genealogy either as a hobby or profession, should have this book in their reference library

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak - her real name - provides an excellent introduction of what DNA can and can not do in Genetic Genealogy.

Anyone starting their "Roots" research effort is advised to buy this book. It will help you save money by allowing DNA to focus on your line and not someone elses. Read the book for more details!

As a DNA-surname research group administrator, I tend to buy every book, VHS, or DVD I can find regarding the use of DNA research in support of traditional genealogy.

Of the 12-15 books I have purchased so far, Megan Smolenyak's touchstone reference work continues to be the one I reach for when I have a question myself.

Easily read and understood, this book makes complex concepts readily accessible with clear illustrations, definitions, real-world examples, and authoritative references when needed. I am not naturally science-minded, but as a good researcher, I want to be able to use every tool in the box. This is my go-to book for that purpose.

Buy as many DNA books and tapes as you want, but your DNA library will not be complete without this classic introduction to the concepts involved in genetic genealogy.

I highly recommend it!

CHT in Virginia

Excellent book for the beginner who wants to understand DNA Testing and how to use it for Genealogy.

This publication is a "must have" book for anyone desiring to utilize DNA
to augment their genealogy study.

Even a decade ago, "genetic genealogy" barely existed as an almost science-fictional idea. Now, it's one of the most debated topics in our field and thousands of family researchers are involved in projects to identify ancestors through DNA analysis. (I'm in two projects now, myself.) It's a rather complicated subject, though, and for those (like me) who barely scraped through high school biology, the more books for beginners, the better. Smolenyak is a well-known genealogist and lead researcher for the PBS Ancestors series and Turner has become one of the principal popularizers of genetic genealogy on the Internet. The important point is that both have been pursuing family research since the days of manual typewriters and paper library catalogs, and that's the perspective from which they approach the discussion. They explain very clearly why DNA analysis can tell you only who your ancestors *aren't*, not necessarily who they *are*, and the strategic differences between researching your father's and your mother's lineage. They lay out the options and limitations among uncovering ethnic origins (what about that Indian great-grandmother?), global origins (Eastern European? or Scandinavian?), "deep maternal" ancestry (the "daughters of Eve" thing), and even African tribal origins. How do you set up a family or surname research project, attract participants, ensure their trust, and analyze and publish the results? And what do all those numbers in the lab report mean? This is very much a practical book and I strongly recommend it, perhaps in conjunction with Thomas H. Shawker's _Unlocking Your Genetic Heritage_ (2004).

Beautifully written, WHERE SHE CAME FROM is also the product of very serious and exhaustive research. It is a magical and haunting book. It brings alive a period of Jewish women's history that is only now being written about in English. Travelling through pre-Holocaust Central Europe with Epstein is an amazing experience: the reader follows both the process of investigation of family history and the emotions this opens up for the writer.

I taught the book several times both in the US and Mexico in classes on Memory and Autobiography. My students loved the book. Many of them bought several copies to give to relatives and friends as gifts. My graduate students (in History and Literature) were impressed by the rigor of Epstein's research, and the skill with which she weaves historical information into her prose.

This is a fascinating chronicle of three generations of the author's female ancestors. It is probably the only book in English that tells the story of Jewish women in Prague in the the first half of the twentieth century. Helen Epstein has a special talent for recreating social history and bringing it alive.

This book was a beautiful personal tribute to the author's ancestors.

I was engrossed in this book from the first page...although it was a slow read for me, because I wanted to grasp the intensity of the generational saga, and grasp the historical facts, correctly. Epstein has more than proved herself in this dramatic memoir of family generations, identity, and history, weaving us through time, each piece of family fabric a part of the final tapestry. The reader is given remnants and squares of fabric in a familial tapestry, of sorts, through history and time, through the horrors of war, and how it affects all the generations, from past to present. From assimilating into society and racial and religous identity, to how one views themselves and what they identify with, Epstein manages to stitch a tapestry of her family, each stitch in time adding to the fabric of her own identity. Bravo for a wonderful read!

In WHERE SHE CAME FROM, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based award-winning author Helen Epstein has penned a meticulously-researched memoir to the four generations of Czech and former Czechoslovak women in her extensive family, from her mother's side of the brood.

While today she associates her public persona to the proud and extensive line of former Czechoslovak Epsteins (see Ms. Epstein's fabulous Amazon Short available off of this site, SWIMMING AGAINST STEREOTYPE: The Story of a Twentieth Century Jewish Athlete), the writer stakes her claim to a noble and illustrious family line which once proudly sported famous Viennese and Prague-based surnames such as Rabinek, Solar, Weigert, Sachsel, Furcht, and Frucht.

Like an experienced batsman for a World Series-winning major-league baseball team, Epstein managed to hang in that old batter's box, waiting for just the right pitch to slug out of the ballpark. In the book world, the analogue was when all the right moments fortuitously transpired to assist Ms. Epstein in securing many essential clues of research which she utilized handily in crafting this excellent book's narrative. Even she'll tell you, the process was far from easy.

Thanks to a dedicated coterie of like-minded collaborators based in points all around the globe as you'll soon read (the former Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Israel, South America, and the United States), Ms. Epstein succeeded in cobbling together one of the most comprehensive Czech geneological histories on the public record.

The work is not only emotionally remunerative for Ms. Epstein, to the extent that those missing links in her family chain were finally sewn together, but it's additionally a fine account of several strong women, renowned in their various fields of endeavour, who persevered during the best of times and the absolute horrorific worst of the 20th century.

Starting with Helen's great-grandmother Therese Sachsel, nee Frucht (Furcht), who lived during the reign of Franz-Josef in the last of the Habsburg-ian thrones, passing through her grandmother Pepi's life story during the turbulent First World War and the First Czechoslovak Republic, and finally overlapping the history of her own mother Frances Epstein, Helen pored over hundreds (if not thousands) of archival sources in constructing this cogent tale.

Collectively, these three noble upstanding women belonging to the author's colourful past outlived the worst of the 20th century's ravages, passing fads, and tragic downfalls.

We swoon with Therese Sachsel during the euphoria of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk's (TGM) storied first Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938), when all seemed possible for the Central European remant of the former Austria-Hungarian powerhouses of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Slovakia. Our hopes and dreams are temporarily crushed alongside her grandmother Pepi Rabinek as we witness the invasion and subsequent occupation of Prague by Nazi hordes, who sweep unchallenged through the former Czechoslovakia's borders after the West's perfidy of Munich. We agonize alongside Pepi's daughter, Frances Solar/Rabinek/Epstein, the paragon of the family and Helen's stalwart mother, as she is dispatched to the Teresienstadt (in modern-day Terezin, Czech Republic) concentration camp, or in the colloquial Czech, the "koncentrak." We also rejoice when Frances is extricated from the hellhole of Auschwitz, and tranported the West in wartime Germany as part of a labour brigade, towards the oncoming Allies from the West, liberated in Bergen-Belsen by British forces at the end of WWII. Finally, we are shocked to discover the insensitivity, sheer apathy, and in many instances -- outright hostility -- that Praguers demonstrated towards the surviving returnees from the Nazi camps, to which Frances and her future husband, famous former Czechoslovak Olympian swimmer, Kurt Epstein, counted themselves.

Helen Epstein's lines draw us inexorably into this story, and once you start you'll have a difficult time finding excuses to stop.

What staggered me as I made my way through this read was Ms. Epstein's formidable discipline. The sheer single-mindedness with which she approached the colossal task of the near-vertical climb to reach the bottom of her family's history. I read with awe how solace was found towards the end.

WHERE SHE CAME FROM will stand as one of the foremost examples of the self-researched memoir. If you need any reason at all to read this book, then let it be thanks to the iron-willed determination which the answers gracing its pages were unearthed by Ms. Epstein.

A book like this needs to be savoured for its significance, appreciated for its illumination, and respected for its purity. There isn't a single letter which graces these pages that wasn't typed, written, or transcribed in the absence of a labour which can only be termed love.

I sit back and wish we all had the staying power of Ms. Epstein. The book is laudatory in the extreme.

As if Ms. Epstein's family history were not enough, there are other benefits to this book too. For those with a keen interest in the past two centuries of life in Prague and the experiences of Bohemia's and Moravia's Jews and its Czech peasantry, WHERE SHE CAME FROM is chock-a-block with painstaking factoids and historical tidbits that'll nudge you gently towards further reading. It will also supply its readers with a glimpse towards the increasingly-distant Czechoslovak past, which, with the passing of the years and the keener integration of this country with the rest of the EU, slips further and further away from the grip of Czech youth.

This book is more than just a reminder, it's a testament to a time which no longer exists. In that respect, it is now part of the permanent historical record.

WHERE SHE CAME FROM is written in a language at once accessible and magnetic. For all ages, for all backgrounds. I can't do anything less than award this superb work of history my highest rating of 5-stars.

I know you will too.

-- ADM in Prague

Although this book has a slow start with a lot of historical information, once you get to the Holocaust section, you will not be able to put this book down. I read it while in Vienna and after I visited Prague. I felt so connected to my surroundings and the author that I literally felt like I was in the book. Makes the enormity of the Holocaust personal and understandable. A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE!

The most hurtful thing about losing your child has to be re-living the experience over and over again. Tom Nelson, the protagonist of Janeology, is forced to do just that in this haunting debut novel about a woman who kills her own son and her husband, Tom, who battles both the legal system and numerous inner demons to understand how it happened.

Under the spell of depression that knows no bottom, Tom's wife Jane commits one of the most horrid acts imaginable--she drowns their son Simon. Soon after she is sent to a mental hospital and away from the vindictive reach of the authorities, Tom is charged with failure to protect by a legal system bent on punishing someone--anyone--for the crime. The charge not only puts Tom on public display as a monster in his own right, it magnifies his own doubts about his role in the killing. Could he have prevented it? It's a question that he will ask himself the rest of his life regardless of the legal resolution.

The novel takes an interesting twist when Tom's attorney mounts a radical defense in which they cite ways Jane's genetic makeup made Jane's breakdown inevitable, thus absolving him of any culpability for preventing it. The exploration of her ancestry with the assistance of a woman who possesses the ability to see past events through objects owned by the deceased provides great depth to the narrative.

Janeology is a legal thriller about love and loss, but at its core it is a study of how we may all be haunted by our families.

Karen Harrington, the author of Janeology, must have based her new novel on the horrific murders most of us read about several tyears agoin which a mother killed, not one, but three or four of her children. One at a time. As horrifying as the act was, I can still remember thinking how calm and dispassionate the husband was, the father of the three children. He displayed no anger, no sorrow, nothing. And I couldn't help but wonder if somehow his emotional distance had been on display during their marriage, as well, and if that had something to do with the murders. Ms. Harrington explores in depth the horror of such a crime, something the media never undertook to do. And she does it with masterful insight, trying to understand how such crimes can be committed. Beyond an instant of madness, what else deeper inside the people invlovled led to such murder? Janeology penetrates the darkness with characters you care about in a tale that compels you to read from page one to the very end. I highly recommend this book. The question is, can we learn from what we read to stop such crimes from happening again?

This is a well-crafted, compelling story dealing with a complex issue. Karen Harrington is clearly well-informed on her subject and her style of writing is engaging. I enjoyed this book tremendously, especially the subtle nuances in the relationship between the main characters. It's a very satisfying read.

An unthinkable crime, and perpetrated by the most shocking culprit. This is just the start, the premise for JANEOLOGY, Karen Harrington's debut novel that breaks boundaries in every direction.

Most books use "how?" or "who?" as the foundation to build tension. Harrington courageously chose "why?"--the hardest question of all to follow to its source. The book leads us through an actual trial within the story, but more importantly, a trial of our own values and judgments.

Even after the last page, after all the loose ends had been cleverly and seamlessly woven together, I found myself haunted and moved. JANEOLOGY had nudged me to think more deeply about those dark areas that we all tend to whistle past.

JANEOLOGY gives you more than you bargained for in a book; the hours spent enlarge you.

As a clinical psychologist, I am often skeptical of stories that try to tease apart the nurture versus nature debate. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Janeology, the debut novel by Karen Harrington, which was both an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable read.

Tom is devastated when his wife Jane, a young and beautiful nurse and seemingly loving mother inexplicably drowns their two year old son. Tom's daughter is left in critical condition as the life he once knew suddenly falls apart. As Tom endures his wife's trial and tries to bury his pain in alcohol, a zealous prosecutor decides to put Tom on trial for the failure to adequately protect his children.

Given the situation and the evidence, Tom's attorney Dave believes that there is only one viable defense, that by exposing Jane's geneology, that she was predisposed and programmed to such violence and that no person could have foreseen.

Enter Mariah, a woman with the ability to see past events through objects owned by the deceased. Although my initial reaction to such a premise was somewhat skeptical, I soon was caught up in the fascinating view of Jane's ancestors seen through their eyes, spanning many generations and continents. This character study about the experiences that forever altered and changed their lives provides a rich character study of how perceptions and behavior patterns emerge through the generations.Harrington does a wonderful job introducing us to interesting, complex but yet flawed characters and gives the reader a greater appreciation of the effects of nature versus nature as well as inherent contradictions in life. I particularly enjoyed the ending which has both surprises and answered many questions while raising other thought-provoking questions of its own.

In sum, Janeology was a wonderful read that left me enriched for the experience.

David Loewenstein Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Author- For the Love of Rachel: A Father's Story