Why did I Write....

The many roles played by our ancestors through history

Ghosts in my DNA? Many have asked me this question and the answer is convoluted. I will attempt to clarify and perhaps this will spark more curiosity to actually read my book in full!

It has been brewing for many years until it became a compulsion to begin. It forced me to leave my beautiful island home for stretches of five months at a time over three years. I rented from friends in Boston situated near MBTA subway stations and threw myself into archives of the best libraries to tease out clues; to look into how people lived and why they made the choices that ultimately defined them.

I looked deeply into the lives of my forebears and chose a single line, my paternal side. It is not that I have nothing on my mother's side, there is more voluminous material there. But as any genealogist knows, things get very complicated and if I switched back and forth, I'm sure I would have gotten totally lost in an overwhelming maze. Choosing one direct line simplified this gigantic topic.

I believe personality types of past people can be teased out by studying their employment decisions, church choices, the books they kept, the neighborhoods they lived in, and even looking at the neighbors who lived in close proximity (using census records). Many more details emerge when reading the town histories at the time when they lived and the newspapers when available.

With this information forming an outline of each life, I make reasonable conjectures to round out their biographies. I believe that if we as a people had such awareness of the times of our ancestors 50, 100, 200 years ago, it would bring us wisdom to make better decisions in our own lives and would lead to a more rational, reality-based political climate.

As a former high school media specialist (after teaching science for many years), I rough out lesson plans to learn history through genealogy. However, I have no audience for these efforts. I hope to gain traction to promote lesson plans and curriculum to bring these dimensions into K-12 education.

This is why I wrote the book.

Review from 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."