Past Lives of Boston
Ghosts in my DNA--Past Lives of Boston
By S.A. Beach
A young science teacher left her affluent New England home and family behind to build a new life among people of the Caribbean on the sun-drenched island of St. Croix. She married and built an extensive professional life and raised a beautiful biracial family who call the island home. But as the decades pass, a haunting question begins to surface: Why did she really leave all her family and everything that was familiar behind? Was her momentous move a choice, or was she driven by forces beyond her own consciousness?
A circuitous hunt for answers through old town records, museums, and ancient cemeteries throughout Massachusetts yielded some extraordinary finds. You may find hints of your early New England colonial ancestors among the many profiled and mentioned in these pages.
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Review from Fordham University Professor and best selling author, Eloisa James:
"I just read through your book Ghosts in My DNA Past Lives in Boston what an intriguing concept The way you wove personal history, genealogy, and the emotional journey of self discovery together really stands out. It’s beautifully layered and has all the depth that should appeal to readers who love reflective, heritage based storytelling."
Amazon 5 Star Reviews:
More than a Family Tree The book is a vivid, generous gift to our family—and to anyone curious about their roots
Full disclosure: I’m the author’s sister. But that’s exactly why I can say this book feels like a gift I didn’t even know I needed.
Susan does so much more than trace a family tree. She asks a bigger, braver question: What can I learn about my own life by truly understanding the people who came before me? The history-storytelling is anything but dry—she turns long-gone ancestors into fully dimensional characters you can see and hear, from early New England colonists arriving, to abolitionists in 1850s Boston, a sixteen-year-old Civil War soldier, a vaudeville actor who became a household name, and a truly brilliant (eccentric) scientist-uncle with ideas centuries ahead of his time.
I really appreciate the depth of research and the care she brought to it. She didn’t stop at dates and names; she went into archives, letters that I never knew existed, old newspapers, and hidden corners of libraries and cemeteries to recover intimate details of lives we never got to meet. As a sister, I’m deeply grateful—without this book, I would never have known most of these stories.
It’s lively, thoughtful and presented as a journey through time that shows how courage, loss, belief, and reinvention echo across generations—and how those who came before us can help us understand our own choices. How much of who we become is really by choice, versus carried quietly in our DNA—traits, talents, courage, even unfinished dreams? I hope other families will read this and feel inspired to approach their own history with the same curiosity and heart.
​Fascinating read! Thoroughly enjoyed reading about the author's delve into her family history and how that research helped her understand who she is. That research also helps all of us understand the early history of the United States from a new perspective. P. Geis
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History Meets the Kruegers
Gave a great view of historical events as seen through the eyes of her ancestors, warts and all. G. Buck
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Does history hold the answers?
Research offers an answer to an intriguing question: Are the choices made by those in the present inherently linked to distant family members? J.D.
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Great Read!!!
A very interesting read. P. Huber​​
