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Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing
: Adventures in Discovering News-Making Connections, Unexpected Ancestors, and Long-Hidden Secrets, and Solving Historical Puzzles
1 of 1 copy available
Part forensic scientist, part master sleuth, Megan Smolenyak has a unique way of digging up our historical roots. She discovered Barack Obama's Irish ancestry—and his relation to Brad Pitt. She revealed the true story of Ellis Island's first immigrant, Annie Moore. And she shed light on a startling link between politicians Al Sharpton and Strom Thurmond.
In Hey America, Your Roots Are Showing, the "Indiana Jones of genealogy" reveals how she cracked these and other news-making cases. Along the way, she shares her own story of becoming genealogy's celebrity face. She even explains why her name is squared (Buzzy Jackson, author of Shaking the Family Tree).
Whether she's scouring websites to uncover the surprising connections between famous figures or using cutting-edge DNA tests to locate family members of fallen soldiers dating back to the Civil War, Smolenyak's historical sleuthing is as provocative, richly layered, and exciting as America itself.
"Megan is a genealogist's dream, a forensic investigator who can also tell a great story." —Sam Roberts, The New York Times
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 24, 2011 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780806535524
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780806535524
- File size: 1527 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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November 1, 2011
History's mysteries solved by a dogged genealogist. Readers may recognize Smolenyak (Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family's History, 2010, etc.) from her many TV and radio appearances discussing her instrumental role nailing down Barack Obama's Irish roots, researching the First Lady's family tree or establishing the Reverend Al Sharpton's slave ancestors as the property of the notorious segregationist Strom Thurmond's family. She's generated a slew of other headline-grabbing articles that help fill in the crevices of American history: identifying the real Annie Moore, Ellis Island's first immigrant, or recovering the life story of Philip Reed, the former slave responsible for the casting the bronze statue of Freedom atop the nation's Capitol. Sometimes, the historical riddle lies in an artifact. What's the story behind a Yiddish inscribed tombstone found leaning against a fire hydrant on the Lower East Side? What's the provenance of a Bible rescued from a Civil War battlefield? In this breezy narrative, Smolenyak supplies the back story to these and other investigations, allowing us to look over the shoulder of a relentless genealogist as she works the puzzle pieces of her craft. More commonly, she's busy finding the "primary next of kin" for the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, putting medical examiners in touch with the families of unclaimed persons, helping the FBI revisit troubling cases of racially motivated homicide during the civil-rights era or assisting everyday folks with their adoption searches. Whether unearthing evidence from Internet databases, newspaper offices, court houses, libraries and cemeteries, consulting translators, historians or her vast network of fellow genealogists, pioneering the use of genealogical DNA testing, solving the mystery or occasionally hitting a brick wall, Smolenyak remains wholly committed, curious and cheery (exclamation marks abound), eager to share her methods and excitement. Bottom-up history from a top-shelf researcher.(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
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