In this book, McMahon looks at several people who made a difference in the lives of the people around them. A few are still relatively well known on the national stage; most have faded into obscurity. Some were focused more on their small corner of the world, even though their actions may have had larger repercussions. Others were always trying to make a difference for as many people as possible. Their foci ranged from education, to the enfranchisement of women, to civil rights for people of color. What they mostly have in common, is that they left the world, and our country, a better place than they found it.
I won’t go into detail on all of the people profiled; that’s what the book is for. One thing that I found compelling about this book, however, is that McMahon describes how what several of these individuals accomplished, impacted someone else she profiles. In addition to many other people, of course. For example, McMahon profiled a few people of means, who left bequests, mostly benefiting educational programs, which impacted many, many other people. And then there is the daughter of formerly enslaved people, who became a teacher, and taught many adults how to read. She later taught a course at a center on civil rights, and one of her students was Rosa Parks. Yes, that Rosa Parks.
That is one thing that has always fascinated me with genealogy, and something that is very difficult to tease out of the basic information that in some cases is all we can find for our ancestors. We talk about FAN charts, for the friends, associates, and neighbors that everyone has; but are very challenging to research. Many times we also forget to look at the bigger picture, of what specific things were going on around our ancestors. Oh, we know about the wars. But what about the other things that would have impacted their lives – the financial depressions, the weather, a local fire. Even changes in culture.
If this was your family, how would you research them? McMahon, a history teacher, uses both material written by and written about her subjects. While some were less well-known, since they came in contact with people or events that were better remembered, and learning about those people or events helped fill out the story of the people she focused on. She utilized books, newspaper articles, and any other resource that discussed the topic or people she was interested in. Since she was interested in more than just the standard birth, marriage, death that genealogist tend to focus on, she found more material than you might think.