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.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions…and gold dust. When Henry Jenkins’s sawmill business goes bust and his family loses their Indiana farm to foreclosure, he sees gold as the answer to his financial woes. Joining a company of younger men, Jenkins and the other prospective miners sign fraudulent promissory notes to borrow from a ruthless businessman, Allen Makepeace, to reach the gold mines. They sail the risky route via Panama to the mines in 1851. But gold is not so easy to find by then. Making enough to survive and get home will be difficult; repaying Makepeace could be impossible. As Henry Jenkins becomes mired in mining, his wife, Abby, struggles to meet the needs of her large family amidst crop failures, waves of deadly disease, and harassment by Henry’s creditors. When Henry’s sons-in-law follow in his wake, they find themselves on a notorious death ship, stranded in the vast Pacific. Will any of these frantic men make it home to their distressed families? Fortune’s Frenzy reveals the plight of miners who borrowed at extortionate rates to get to California, and explores the dangerous and deadly sea routes to the west coast that killed roughly 10 percent of those who risked the journey. Alternating between the miners’ trials and terrors, and the challenges for the wives, children, and mothers left behind, Fortune’s Frenzy delves into the country’s pressing social, economic, and nationalist issues in the pre-Civil War decades. The theme is age-old, and still relevant: desperate people falling for get-rich-quick schemes. They fail to consider the sacrifices they will have to make and the dismal odds of their success.

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.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?