This is a book not only about the influenza in 1918, its impact on America and the world in a time of war, but also about the men (and a few women!) who were trying desperately to stop it. The first part of book is actually more of a history of the development of modern Read More
Tag: Genealogy
The Poison Squad, by Deborah Blum
The “Poison Squad” was the nickname of the group of men enlisted by the then Chief Chemist at the US Department of Agriculture to test whether or not certain substances being added to food products were benign, as the producers claimed. However, this book is focused more on Harvey Washington Wiley than on the dozens Read More
The Pioneers, by David McCullough
Just from the title, I expected this book to be a more general study of early settlers into the Midwest. The subtitle is “The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West”. However, this book is laser focused on Ohio, and mostly on Marietta. Had I read the dust cover, I would Read More
Life on the Ohio Frontier, by Mary Lott
This is a collection of letters that were written by Mary Lott to her brother, Deacon John Phillips. Mary and her husband Henry had moved from Pennsylvania to Delaware County, Ohio, in the mid 1820’s. The letters start in 1826, and end shortly before John’s death in 1846. Mary died not long after her brother; Read More
The Irish Americans, by Jay P Dolan
This book describes the experiences of Irish emigrants from the 1700’s up to and including the entire 20th century. Not only does Dolan describe what life would have been like for the Irish who did cross the pond, he also discusses, in great detail, the conditions that caused many people to leave Ireland in the Read More
Mischievous Creatures, by Catherine McNeur
This book is about two sisters who lived in Pennsylvania in the early to mid 1800’s. One was a botanist, and the other, an entomologist. Since there was little to no formal training in those fields then, especially for women, they were both basically self-taught. And we really only know about them because they wrote Read More
Sensational, by Kim Todd
The subtitle of this book is The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters”. So this is the story, or stories, of the most well-known women reporters of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. While Nelly Bly probably has the most name-recognition now, there were several others almost as well-known at the time. And they Read More
The Three-Cornered War, by Megan Kate Nelson
When we think about battles in the Civil War, most of us will think of locations like Antietam, Bull Run, or Gettysburg. But the encounters at Peralta, Valverde, and Glorieta Pass were also important. But we don’t usually hear much about the Western theater of the war. Part of that may have to do with Read More
The Guarded Gate, by Daniel Okrent
If you had family that came through Ellis Island in the early 1900’s, but there were other family members who did not emigrate, this book might help explain why they were not able to relocate to the United States. While the focus of this book does not relate directly to genealogy, it explains in depressing Read More
Mason-Dixon, by Edward G Gray
I think we have all heard of the Mason-Dixon line, with regard to the Civil War and the lead-up to it, but I did not know who Mason and Dixon were, or how the line came to be. The line predates the era that it is almost synonymous with by almost a century. And the Read More