RELEASE DATE: JULY 19, 2020
KINSEARCHING
by
Marleta Childs
P. O. Box 6825
LUBBOCK, TX 79493-6825
[email protected]
An intriguing, easy-to-read book that will be of interest to genealogists and historians alike is FAMILY STORIES...AND HOW I FOUND MINE by J. Michael Cleverley. The new publication presents the genealogical history and tales about many of the author’s ancestors, who lived in eras ranging from the Middle Ages in Europe to the 1960s in the American West. Famous kinfolks include Abraham Lincoln, Revolutionary General Nathaniel Greene, and the founder of Brown University. The author also embraces background information about his wife’s Finnish roots, an ethnic group about which most Americans know very little.
Because his and his wife’s ancestors were participants in several major historical periods and activities, Cleverley’s work makes the reader keenly aware of the impact families and individuals had on their times and of the effect events—social, economic, and political--of a specific time frame had on them. Simultaneously, his publication acts like a treatise on how to produce a family history, showing by example how family accounts can be discovered and furnishing methodological commentary. The author explains that often the information can be more easily found than one may think, especially in today’s rich world of resources available on the internet.
Particularly fascinated with learning more about often overlooked women pioneers, Cleverley focuses on several female ancestors when he could discover sufficient data. He begins with Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, before concentrating on the GREENE family who served in the court of Plantagenet kings from 1300 to 1500. He then jumps ahead in time to highlight his Puritan progenitors in colonial New England, their subsequent settlement in Rhode Island by the 1700s, and their Revolutionary service in the Battle of Concord.
From the 1830s to 1860s, he traces forebears in Missouri and Kansas, where they fought in the western Indian Wars, as well as Mormon converts who migrated to Utah and Idaho. The final, yet stirring, narrative discusses the hardships his wife’s Finnish ancestors faced during their struggles with Soviet Russia in the early twentieth century and World War II.
Due to the variety of genealogical material utilized and the extensive epochs researched, Cleverley’s work practically serves as several different books rolled into one volume. The reader can pick up the tome at any point for the experience of learning about a specific era or read the tome straight through in its entirety. FAMILY STORIES...AND HOW I FOUND MINE is a fine example of a publication that demonstrates how genealogy and history are indeed intertwined.
The 550-page paperback contains several maps, illustrated section dividers, family history charts, a 30-page bibliography, footnotes, and a full- name, place, and subject index. To the book's price of $44.95, buyers should add the cost for postage and handling charges. For U. S. postal mail, the cost is $5.50 for one book and $2.50 for each additional copy; for UPS, the cost is $7.50 for one copy and $2.50 for each additional book. The volume (item order #8630) may be purchased by check, MasterCard, or Visa from Clearfield Company, 3600 Clipper Mill Rd., Suite 260, Baltimore, Maryland 21211 (for phone orders, call toll free 1-800-296-6687; fax 1-410-752-8492; website www.genealogical.com).