FROM USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR AND GENEALOGIST ELIZA WATSON! "A gold mine of ancestral research information!" —5-Stars by JBee "I was expecting a dry, fact-oriented book about genealogy, like so many I've seen, but couldn't be farther from the reality. Not only does this portray real-life searches but it does so in a fun and funny way. Her writing is so down to earth and she makes it fun and easy to delve into your family history." —5 Stars by Sharie Breihan-Groot In 2007 a twelve-day trip to Ireland—my ancestors’ homeland—turned out to be the most significant turning point in my life. I never dreamed when I embarked on my adventure it would lead to me becoming a genealogist, meeting dozens of Irish rellies, writing two fiction series set in Ireland, and buying a renovated 1887 schoolhouse in my Coffey ancestors’ townland. Since that trip, I’ve researched more than twenty-five of my maternal and paternal Irish lines as well as several Scottish ones. I’ve also assisted friends and family members with ancestry research in Austria, Canada, England, Germany, Hungary, and the US. Besides conducting online research, I have visited numerous historical archives, traipsed through hundreds of cemeteries (many now situated in sheep-filled fields), and located several family homesteads. In 2018 I began writing a genealogy column for my monthly author newsletter about my personal research experiences. Because I was writing articles faster than I was publishing newsletters, I compiled them into a book. Genealogy Tips & Quips includes: · twenty-five newsletter articles · twenty-five brand-new articles · a case study about how a paternal DNA test revealed my family’s royal lineage and my quest to uncover our family secrets · an extensive case study on tracing my most difficult family line Be prepared for unexpected twists and turns as I share my mistakes, lessons learned, and tips for getting to the roots of your family tree! About the Author Eliza Watson is a USA Today bestselling author and genealogist. Eliza's genealogy adventures have inspired two fiction series set in Ireland, Scotland, and England. She also writes a genealogy column for her monthly author newsletter and has written feature articles for genealogical societies. In 2013 she fulfilled her dream of owning a home in Ireland when she and her husband bought a renovated 1887 schoolhouse in her Coffey ancestors' townland. When Eliza isn't tracing her ancestry roots through Ireland or Scotland, she's at home working on her next novel, bouncing ideas off her husband, Mark, and her cats, Frankie and Sammy. Topics: Genealogy Research, Genealogy How To, Family Trees, Irish Genealogy, Scottish Genealogy, Irish Roots, Ireland Ancestry Research, Ancestry Research, Family History, Scottish Ancestors, Irish Ancestors, English Ancestors, Tracing Irish Ancestors, Researching Scottish Ancestors, Family DNA Research, Irish Research Records, Scotch Irish, Tracing Your Ancestry Roots, Ireland Cemeteries, Ireland Church Records, Writing Ancestry Biographies, Genealogy Humor

A compilation of brief quotes and aphorisms for genealogists and family historians, sorted into topical categories for referral.

Last Christmas genealogist Mags Murray organized her grandmother’s wake. This year she’ll be spending her holiday with her dad, and for the first time, her recently discovered biological father. To add to her stress, Mags offers to help her friend Gretta locate her grandson, who was adopted thirty-one years ago. Having uncovered her own paternity thanks to a DNA test, Mags is prepared for the surprises Gretta’s test may reveal. Or so she thinks. Within twenty-four hours of Gretta receiving her DNA results, a police detective requests Gretta’s assistance in identifying her closest match, a wanted criminal. Devastated by the shocking news, Gretta refuses to disclose the match is her grandson. Mags soon suspects the police aren’t the only ones searching for the man. Fearing Gretta’s grandson might be in danger, Mags and her best friend, Biddy McCarthy, attempt to track him down so they can warn him and hopefully prove his innocence. Over the past year, Mags and Biddy have encountered a forger, kidnapper, murderer, and other dodgy characters. Who knows what they are up against now!

PEN/Hemingway Award For Debut Novel Finalist​ Shortlisted for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A “rich, ambitious debut novel” (The New York Times Book Review) that reveals the ways in which a Jamaican family forms and fractures over generations, in the tradition of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Stanford Solomon’s shocking, thirty-year-old secret is about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford has done something no one could ever imagine. He is a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley. And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead. These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel’s decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present-day Harlem. There is Vera, whose widowhood forced her into the role of a single mother. There are two daughters and a granddaughter who have never known they are related. And there are others, like the houseboy who loved Vera, whose lives might have taken different courses if not for Abel Paisley’s actions. This “rich and layered story” (Kirkus Reviews) explores the ways each character wrestles with their ghosts and struggles to forge independent identities outside of the family and their trauma. The result is a “beguiling…vividly drawn, and compelling” (BookPage, starred review) portrait of a family and individuals caught in the sweep of history, slavery, migration, and the more personal dramas of infidelity, lost love, and regret.

Timeless advice about how to use humor to win over any audience Can jokes win a hostile room, a hopeless argument, or even an election? You bet they can, according to Cicero, and he knew what he was talking about. One of Rome’s greatest politicians, speakers, and lawyers, Cicero was also reputedly one of antiquity’s funniest people. After he was elected commander-in-chief and head of state, his enemies even started calling him “the stand-up Consul.” How to Tell a Joke provides a lively new translation of Cicero’s essential writing on humor alongside that of the later Roman orator and educator Quintilian. The result is a timeless practical guide to how a well-timed joke can win over any audience. As powerful as jokes can be, they are also hugely risky. The line between a witty joke and an offensive one isn’t always clear. Cross it and you’ll look like a clown, or worse. Here, Cicero and Quintilian explore every aspect of telling jokes—while avoiding costly mistakes. Presenting the sections on humor in Cicero’s On the Ideal Orator and Quintilian’s The Education of the Orator, complete with an enlightening introduction and the original Latin on facing pages, How to Tell a Joke examines the risks and rewards of humor and analyzes basic types that readers can use to write their own jokes. Filled with insight, wit, and examples, including more than a few lawyer jokes, How to Tell a Joke will appeal to anyone interested in humor or the art of public speaking.

A Washington Post best nonfiction book pick of 2021 “It is biography as an expression of love.” – The New York Times New York Times–bestselling author Julie Klam’s funny and moving story of the Morris sisters, distant relations with mysterious pasts. Ever since she was young, Julie Klam has been fascinated by the Morris sisters, cousins of her grandmother. According to family lore, early in the twentieth century the sisters’ parents decided to move the family from Eastern Europe to Los Angeles so their father could become a movie director. On the way, their pregnant mother went into labor in St. Louis, where the baby was born and where their mother died. The father left the children in an orphanage and promised to send for them when he settled in California—a promise he never kept. One of the Morris sisters later became a successful Wall Street trader and advised Franklin Roosevelt. The sisters lived together in New York City, none of them married or had children, and one even had an affair with J. P. Morgan. The stories of these independent women intrigued Klam, but as she delved into them to learn more, she realized that the tales were almost completely untrue. The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters is the revealing account of what Klam discovered about her family—and herself—as she dug into the past. The deeper she went into the lives of the Morris sisters, the slipperier their stories became. And the more questions she had about what actually happened to them, the more her opinion of them evolved. Part memoir and part confessional, and told with the wit and honesty that are hallmarks of Klam’s books, The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters is the fascinating and funny true story of one writer’s journey into her family’s past, the truths she brings to light, and what she learns about herself along the way.

From the legendary vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, lessons in investment strategy, philanthropy, and living a rational and ethical life. “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up,” Charles T. Munger advises in Poor Charlie’s Almanack. Originally published in 2005, this compendium of eleven talks delivered by the legendary Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman between 1986 and 2007 has become a touchstone for a generation of investors and entrepreneurs seeking to absorb the enduring wit and wisdom of one of the great minds of the 20th and 21st centuries. Edited by Peter D. Kaufman, chairman and CEO of Glenair and longtime friend of Charlie Munger—whom he calls “this generation’s answer to Benjamin Franklin”—this abridged Stripe Press edition of Poor Charlie’s Almanack features a brand-new foreword by Stripe cofounder John Collison. Poor Charlie’s Almanack draws on Munger’s encyclopedic knowledge of business, finance, history, philosophy, physics, and ethics—and more besides—to introduce the latticework of mental models that underpin his rational and rigorous approach to life, learning, and decision-making. Delivered with Munger’s characteristic sharp wit and rhetorical flair, it is an essential volume for any reader seeking to go to bed a little wiser than when they woke up.