Zimmer writes, “Each of us carries an amalgam of fragments of DNA, stitched together from some of our many ancestors. Each piece has its own ancestry, traveling a different path back through human history. A particular fragment may sometimes be cause for worry, but most of our DNA influences who we are—our appearance, our height, our penchants—in inconceivably subtle ways.” Heredity isn’t just about genes that pass from parent to child. Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies. We say we inherit genes from our ancestors—using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates—but we inherit other things that matter as much or more to our lives, from microbes to technologies we use to make life more comfortable. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer’s lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it. 

 

Weaving historical and current scientific research, his own experience with his two daughters, and the kind of original reporting expected of one of the world’s best science journalists, Zimmer ultimately unpacks urgent bioethical quandaries arising from new biomedical technologies, but also long-standing presumptions about who we really are and what we can pass on to future generations. (Amazon Review)

 

Who said genealogy and the hunt for your family history has to be expensive? Just as in any other industry, there are some tricks to getting the best deals and bargains in the genealogy marketplace. With "The 15 Habits of Highly Frugal Genealogists" you’ll learn the tricks and also how to think like a savvy frugal genealogist! Learn how savvy genealogists are finding success with 15 basic habits of frugality. You’ll not only find a list of key resources but more importantly you’ll learn how to embrace the “mind set” of finding the best ways to save money while researching your ancestors.

 

Thomas MacEntee is a professional genealogist specializing in the use of technology and social media to improve genealogical research and as a means of interacting with others in the family history community.

Lucie Gifford left New Bedford in 1857 on the whaling ship HOPE as a newlywed. When she returned 7 1/2 years later, she was a mature wife who had experienced long months at sea and made friends on many South Pacific islands. She had given birth to 4 children and became a true partner of her husband. Captain Leonard Gifford. We will learn about her life using the best of primary records, personal correspondence, as well as newspaper reports, and other legal documents. This case study will leave you wishing you could have known this brave local woman. 

 

Sara Campbell is an author, educator, and editor. She started studying whale ships while living on a Pacific island herself. She is a member of the Historical Commission in her hometown of Erving, MA.

The voyage of the Mayflower and the founding of Plymouth Colony is one of the seminal events in world history. But the poorly-equipped group of English Puritans who ventured across the Atlantic in the early autumn of 1620 had no sense they would pass into legend. They had eighty casks of butter and two dogs but no cattle for milk, meat, or ploughing. They were ill-prepared for the brutal journey and the new land that few of them could comprehend. But the Mayflower story did not end with these Pilgrims’ arrival on the coast of New England or their first uncertain years as settlers. Rebecca Fraser traces two generations of one ordinary family and their extraordinary response to the challenges of life in America.

 

Edward Winslow, an apprentice printer, fled England and then Holland for a life of religious freedom and opportunity. Despite the intense physical trials of settlement, he found America exotic, enticing, and endlessly interesting. He built a home and a family, and his remarkable friendship with King Massassoit, Chief of the Wampanoags, is part of the legend of Thanksgiving. Yet, fifty years later, Edward’s son Josiah was commanding the New England militias against Massassoit’s son in King Philip’s War.

 

The Mayflower is an intensely human portrait of the Winslow family written with the pace of an epic. Rebecca Fraser details domestic life in the seventeenth century, the histories of brave and vocal Puritan women and the contradictions between generations as fathers and sons made the painful decisions which determined their future in America. (Amazon Review)

Discover the interesting history of Acadians and Cajun descendants while learning about the resources available for your genealogy research. 

 

Sindi Broussard Terrien is a research genealogist, specializing in Acadian and Cajun women. Her blog My Many Mothers features biographies of her many great-grandmothers. She recently published Genealogy Fun While Developing New Genealogists and Fun with Genealogy Activity Book 1 which can be purchased on Amazon.com. She has written nine articles for the American-French Genealogical Society’s publication Je Me Souviens Magazine where she is an associate editor. Sindi Broussard Terrien received a certificate in genealogical research from Boston University. Her passion for genealogy spans over twenty years.

 

Sindi also hosts Finding A Publisher, another emerging website, to help genealogy writers connect with publications.

With nearly 1,500 Broadway performances, six Tony Awards, more than three million albums sold, and five Academy Awards, The Sound of Music, based on the lives of Maria, the baron, and their singing children, is as familiar to most of us as our own family history. But much about the real-life woman and her family was left untold.

 

Here, Baroness Maria Augusta Trapp tells in her own beautiful, simple words the extraordinary story of her romance with the baron, their escape from Nazi-occupied Austria, and their life in America.

 

Maria Augusta Kutschera was born on a train en route to Vienna just before midnight on January 26, 1905. Her mother died when she was only two years old and her father left her with an elderly cousin so that he could be free to travel. She experienced a lonely and very strict upbringing without any siblings or other children in the household. She was raised a socialist and an atheist and was actively cynical towards all religions. It was during a visit to a church to hear a Bach concert that her mind was changed when she heard the words of a well-known priest, Father Kronseder. Her meeting with him led to her entering a convent to become a nun. While she was devoted to the convent life, she was taken away from the outdoor activities she once thrived on. Her doctor, concerned that her health was failing, helped the nuns to decide to send Maria to the home of retied naval captain Georg Von Trapp, to be governess to his bedridden daughter. On November 26, 1927, Maria and Georg were married. The rest is history. (Amazon Review)

Carol Ansel, Director at the Godfrey Memorial Library in Middletown, will share a number of hints to make your online genealogy searching easier and more effective. Some of these are general practice for experienced online searchers, but some are not nearly so obvious. In fact, Carol learned many of them from other genealogical researchers. The kind of tips that will make you think, "Gee, I wish I'd known that from the start!" Join Carol and up your searching game.

 

Carol Ansel is the Director of the Godfrey Memorial Library. She has worked as both a public and school librarian; when she got bitten by the genealogical research bug she took the genealogical certificate program at Boston University and soon thereafter landed a job at the Godfrey, a genealogy and local history library in Middletown, CT. The combination of running a library, helping others with their research, and writing genealogical reports is a dream job for her.