"Family Nibbles - Volume 8, Stories of Our Pensa and Riley Ancestors" is a compilation of stories from the blog site familynibbles.com. This volume is about the lives of our Pensa, Gardella, and Riley ancestors. We were lucky to find references to the Pensa and Gardella families in Italy dating to the 1500s. The families had lived in the mountain village of Roccatagliata for generations when Antonio and Rosa Pensa departed for America in 1869. With few belongings and no English-language skills, they made a life in St. Louis. John and Ann Riley left Ireland in the late 1840s to escape The Great Famine. They tried coal mining in Pennsylvania, farming in Indiana and Iowa, and were one of the early families to settle in Pettis County, Missouri in 1859. These families left a lasting legacy. We’re the evidence. Without their pluck and perseverance and a bit of luck, we wouldn’t be reading this today.

"Family Nibbles - Volume 4, Stories of Our Jarvis Ancestors 1680-1800" is a compilation of stories from the blog site familynibbles.com. These stories include genealogy research on one line of Jarvis families in early Pennsylvania and Maryland. In fall of 1683, Elizabeth Jervis and her two children disembarked their ship at Chester, Pennsylvania. That's the moment that our Jarvis ancestors first arrived in America. This volume begins the story of our Jarvis family in America. We’ve been here for a long time. We'll follow the first three generations of our family as they experienced America from 1680 to 1800. These were common folk. They had successes and troubles. They had legal scrapes. Just when it seemed like they'd made it, some setback would knock them down. And when each generation suffered an economic hardship that made their lifestyle unsustainable, they chose the risk of moving west into frontier lands.

"Family Nibbles - Volume 5, Stories of Our Jarvis Ancestors 1800-1865" is a compilation of stories from the blog site familynibbles.com. These stories include genealogy research on one line of Jarvis families in Kentucky and Indiana. This volume begins after the Revolutionary War and follows our Jarvis family until the end of the Civil War. Between those two conflicts, our Jarvis grandparents uprooted their families, left their parents and hometowns, and went west. They found opportunities and hardships and met successes and failures. They went from self-sufficiency on the Kentucky frontier to shopping in general stores that sold window glass, canned food, and factory-made clothing. They experienced technological miracles – the telegraph, steamboat, railroad, and steel plow. We have their census records, deeds, and death notices. We can view their lives through the prism of citations and history and current events of their times. But we can’t know their thoughts or dreams or fears. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to meet them in person and experience their lives for a while.

"Family Nibbles - Volume 10, Stories of Our Gallagher Ancestors 1915-1941" is a compilation of stories from the blog site familynibbles.com. This volume continues the stories of our Gallagher and Riley ancestors. These stories begin in 1915, just before World War I. In the decades after the war, our families experience the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. We'll find both prosperity and unemployment, joy and tragedy. We'll get a glimpse into their everyday lives. As we watch them cope with events around them, we'll wish we could ask them their thoughts and feelings. The series ends in 1941, just as the United States enters World War II.

"Family Nibbles - Volume 1, Stories of Our Teply Ancestors 1600-1865" is a compilation of stories from the blog site familynibbles.com. These stories include genealogy research and information on one line of Teply families of Bohemia, as well as some historical context and events. Follow the Teply families as they deal with life in the Bohemian highlands on the Moravian border. Learn how they were affected by life in a cluster of remote villages. They were also affected by global events like religious reformation, Austro-Hungarian rule, military conscription, and over-population. Understand how these factors culminated in their emigration from Bohemia to America.

"Family Nibbles - Volume 9, Stories of Our Large and Gallagher Ancestors" is a compilation of stories from the blog site familynibbles.com. This volume is about the lives of our Large, Dugan, and Gallagher ancestors. Our Gallagher family is from farming clachans of County Donegal. Our Large ancestors had a different background in the coal fields of County Kilkenny. During The Great Famine in Ireland, our ancestors left Ireland for America. They lived and worked in the Pennsylvania coal patch. In the 1860s, the Patrick and Ellen Gallagher left coal country for railroad work in Missouri. They bought a farm in Barton County and raised a family. Mike Gallagher married Ellen Dugan, herself an immigrant from County Donegal. Their children provide stories of yet another generation. All of us have immigrant ancestors. I hope our family stories help us appreciate the hope and struggles of every immigrant family.

"Family Nibbles - Volume 7, Stories of Our Jarvis Ancestors 1920-1938" is a compilation of stories from the blog site familynibbles.com. These stories include genealogy research on one line of Jarvis in Kansas. This volume is about the lives of Ralph and Chleo Jarvis and their family. They were in their prime in the 1920s and 1930s. They got married, worked, and raised a family. The book is also about Nathan L. Jones, the visionary mentor to Ralph Jarvis. Jones provided Jarvis with opportunities, and Ralph Jarvis took advantage of them. This book is about the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. These two decades saw the best of times and the worst of times. Finally, this book is about the modernization of American life. It was the age of the automobile, radio, and telephone. Perhaps most important, it was the age of electricity, bringing light and electric appliances into the homes of ordinary people.