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Genealogy Resources

A guide to conducting genealogical research, featuring local and online resources.

Fiction

Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks

Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks

In this big-hearted debut about ambition, race, and class, a family grapples with how much of their lineage they're willing to unearth in order to participate in the nation's first federal reparations program.

The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

In 1964, when Jaime Sonoro, Mexico's most renowned actor and singer, discovers a book telling of the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors, he must pay for their crimes unless he can uncover the truth about his grandfather, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower,

Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom

Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom

The New York Times bestselling author of the book club classics The Kitchen House and Glory Over Everything returns with a sweeping and "richly detailed story of a woman caught between two cultures" (Sandra Dallas, New York Times bestselling author) inspired by the real life of Crow Mary--an Indigenous woman in 19th-century North America.

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

From National Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo comes the story of one Dominican American family told through the voices of its women.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah's Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them

The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker

The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker

Now 94 and living a quiet life, Cecily Larson, when her family surprises her with an at-home DNA test, finds the unexpected results not only bringing to light the tragic love story she's kept hidden for decades but also calls into question everything about the family she's raised and claimed as her own.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

The visionary time-travel classic whose Black female hero is pulled through time to face the horrors of American slavery and explores the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford

The New York Times bestselling author of the "mesmerizing and evocative" (Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants) Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations.

North Woods by Daniel Mason

North Woods by Daniel Mason

A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries--"a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic" (The Washington Post) from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier.

These Is My Words by Nancy Turner

These Is My Words by Nancy Turner

A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier.

The Turtle House by Amanda Churchill

The Turtle House by Amanda Churchill

In 1999 Texas, Lia Cope, when her grandmother Mineko moves in, connects with her over stories of the Turtle House in Japan and the secrets they both carry, and when Mineko is forced to live in an assisted living community, she and Lia devise a plan to bring a beloved lost place to life.

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

Ray McMillian is a Black classical musician on the rise--undeterred by the pressure and prejudice of the classical music world--when a shocking theft sends him on a desperate quest to recover his great-great-grandfather's heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world.

The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant

The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant

Running moonshine liquor during the prohibition years, a notorious trio of brothers continues their illicit business after Prohibition and plays a central role in a violent conspiracy trial--a story that is investigated in 1935 by a magazine journalist.

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive--and to reunite--We Were the Lucky Ones is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds

Weyward by Emilia Hart

Weyward by Emilia Hart

"A brave and original debut, Weyward is a spellbinding story about what may transpire when the natural world collides with a legacy of witchcraft." --Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The London Séance Society

Non-Fiction

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, A Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, A Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft a "deeply layered and insightful" (The Washington Post) testament to people who are left out of the archives.

Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton

Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton

An acclaimed writer goes searching for the truth about her complicated Southern family--and finds that our obsession with ancestors opens up new ways of seeing ourselves--in this "brilliant mix of personal memoir and cultural observation" (The Boston Globe).

Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family by Rachel Jamison Webster

Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family by Rachel Jamison Webster

A family reunion gives way to an unforgettable genealogical quest as relatives reconnect across lines of color, culture, and time, putting the past into urgent conversation with the present.

Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors by Alison Light

Common People: In Pursuit of My Ancestors by Alison Light

In the last weeks of her father’s life, Alison Light embarked on an attempt to trace the history of her family as far back as she could reasonably go. The result is a clear-eyed, fascinating, frequently moving account of the lives of everyday people, of the tough decisions and hard work, the good luck and bad breaks, that chart the course of a life.

Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy by Edward Ball

Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy by Edward Ball

The life and times of a militant white supremacist, written by one of his offspring, National Book Award-winner Edward Ball

The Postcard by Anne Berest

The Postcard by Anne Berest

Fifteen years after the arrival of an anonymous postcard with the names of her maternal great-grandparents and their children—all killed at Auschwitz;Anne Berest is moved to discover who sent it and why and embarks on a journey to learn the fate of the Rabinovitch family.

Reclamation by Gayle Jessup White

Reclamation by Gayle Jessup White

Chronicling her remarkable journey to definitively understand her heritage and reclaim it, a black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings' family offers a compelling portrait to ensure the nation lives up to the ideals advocated by her legendary ancestor.

Roots by Alex Haley

Roots by Alex Haley

The monumental bestseller! Alex Haley recaptures his family's history in this drama of eighteenth-century slave Kunta Kinte and his descendants

When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family's Forgotten History by Massoud Hayoun

When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family's Forgotten History by Massoud Hayoun

A vivid account of Massoud Hayoun's grandparents' lives in Egypt, Tunisia, France, Palestine, and Los Angeles, in which he reclaims his family's Jewish Arab identity,

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

Sarah M. Broom's [memoir] The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America's most mythologized cities. This is the story of a mother's struggle against a house's entropy, and that of a prodigal daughter who left home only to reckon with the pull that home exerts, even after the Yellow House was wiped off the map after Hurricane Katrina.

Genetic Genealogy & DNA Non-Fiction

The Forever Witness: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder by Edward Humes

The Forever Witness How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder by Edward Humes

A relentless detective and a civilian genealogist solve a haunting cold case-and launch a crime-fighting revolution that tests the fragile line between justice and privacy.

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro

The acclaimed and beloved author of Hourglass now gives us a new memoir about identity, paternity, and family secrets--a real-time exploration of the staggering discovery she made last year about her father, and her struggle to piece together the hidden the story of her own life.

The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are by Libby Copeland

The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are by Libby Copeland

The Lost Family delves into the many lives that have been irrevocably changed by home DNA tests[...] There are the adoptees who’ve used the tests to find their birth parents; donor-conceived adults who suddenly discover they have more than fifty siblings; hundreds of thousands of Americans who discover their fathers aren’t biologically related to them[...] and individuals who are left to grapple with their conceptions of race and ethnicity when their true ancestral histories are discovered. 

Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton

Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton

In this unputdownable story of nature, nurture, and coming to terms with one's true inheritance, the author, introducing her deeply dysfunctional yet fiercely loving family that is anything but "normal," reveals how a colorful cast of characters were thrown together by chance and DNA.

TV Shows, Movies, & Book Tie-ins

Finding Your Roots Season 3

Finding Your Roots Season 3

Professor Gates' journey continues as a weekly series that will look at an ever-widening spectrum of our nation's fascinating ethnic mixture.

Finding Your Roots by Henry Louis Gates

Finding Your Roots by Henry Louis Gates

Gates provides practical information for amateur genealogists just beginning archival research on their own families' roots, and he details the advances in genetic research now available to the public. The result is an illuminating exploration of who we are, how we lost track of our roots, and how we can find them again.

Lawless

Lawless

The true story of the infamous Bondurant brothers: bootlegging siblings who made a run for the American Dream in Prohibition-era Virginia. In this epic outlaw tale, inspired by true-life tales of author Matt Bondurant's family, the loyalty of three brothers is put to the test against the backdrop of the nation's most notorious crime wave.

Lee and Liza's Family Tree

Lee and Liza's Family Tree

Many descendants of enslaved people have little record of their family's ancestry. Follow one family's quest to discover their lost history and see how science and genealogy can help rebuild a family tree broken by slavery. Join filmmaker Byron Hurt at his extended family reunion as they celebrate the joy of family in the African diaspora and discover new details of their history that they thought were lost forever.

Roots

Roots

This award-winning six-part historical epic was one of the first examples of the miniseries format and one of the highest-rated television programs in broadcasting history. Based on the best-selling novel by author Alex Haley, Roots chronicles the progress of Haley's own family across many generations, from the kidnapping of an African warrior by American slave traders to eventual post-Civil War freedom.

Roots (Remake)

The gripping story is told through four generations, from the capture of Kunta Kinte in Africa to his transport to Colonial America in brutal conditions through successive generations fighting to win their freedom in the Civil War. Based on Alex Haley's best-selling novel which has resonated with millions of Americans, it reveals powerful, universal truths about the resilience of the human spirit.