Part history, part memoir, part loving tribute to her parents and grandparents, Elizabeth Danielson has created a portrait of her family from the 1600s to the present. She weaves together letters written by her grandfather and father, stories written by her grandmother, journals kept by her mother, oral family histories, and photographs, supplements these with genealogical research, and peppers the mix with her own memories and insights. “These are people I would love to know,” said one early reviewer. “What a blessing to have been given the gift of this family,” said another. In an age of crumbling and dysfunctional families, Danielson describes one that weathered disappointments, heartache, conflict, and even murder with love and care for each other. The book includes appendices with detailed genealogy records for each of her four grandparents, along with family trees, maps, and a list of research citations to aid the reader in following the details of the 150-plus ancestors she has identified.

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