Download or read book The Lost Family written by Libby Copeland and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A fascinating exploration of the mysteries ignited by DNA genealogy testing—from the intensely personal and concrete to the existential and unsolvable.” —Tana French, New York Times–bestselling author You swab your cheek or spit in a vial, then send it away to a lab somewhere. Weeks later you get a report that might tell you where your ancestors came from or if you carry certain genetic risks. Or, the report could reveal a long-buried family secret that upends your entire sense of identity. Soon a lark becomes an obsession, a relentless drive to find answers to questions at the core of your being, like “Who am I?” and “Where did I come from?” Welcome to the age of home genetic testing. In The Lost Family, journalist Libby Copeland investigates what happens when we embark on a vast social experiment with little understanding of the ramifications. She explores the culture of genealogy buffs, the science of DNA, and the business of companies like Ancestry and 23andMe, all while tracing the story of one woman, her unusual results, and a relentless methodical drive for answers that becomes a thoroughly modern genetic detective story. Gripping and masterfully told, The Lost Family is a spectacular book on a big, timely subject. “An urgently necessary, powerful book that addresses one of the most complex social and bioethical issues of our time.” —Dani Shapiro, New York Times–bestselling author “Before you spit in that vial, read this book.” —The New York Times Book Review “Impeccably researched . . . up-to-the-minute science meets the philosophy of identity in a poignant, engaging debut.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Download or read book Finding Family written by Richard Hill and published by Familius. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finding Family: My Search for Roots is Richard Hill's true and intensely personal story of an adoptee trying to reclaim the biological family denied him by sealed birth records.
Download or read book Wildflower written by Drew Barrymore and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Actress Drew Barrymore shares funny, insightful, and profound stories from her past and present—told from the place of happiness she's achieved today—in this heart-stirring New York Times bestseller that InStyle called “deeply thoughtful and fun.” Wildflower is a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences she’s had throughout her life. It includes tales of living in her first apartment as a teenager (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck under a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more journeys and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy, and healthy place she is today.
Download or read book Homesickness written by Susan J. Matt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-17 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Homesickness today is dismissed as a sign of immaturity, what children feel at summer camp, but in the nineteenth century it was recognized as a powerful emotion. When gold miners in California heard the tune "Home, Sweet Home," they sobbed. When Civil War soldiers became homesick, army doctors sent them home, lest they die. Such images don't fit with our national mythology, which celebrates the restless individualism of colonists, explorers, pioneers, soldiers, and immigrants who supposedly left home and never looked back. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, medical records, and psychological studies, this wide-ranging book uncovers the profound pain felt by Americans on the move from the country's founding until the present day. Susan Matt shows how colonists in Jamestown longed for and often returned to England, African Americans during the Great Migration yearned for their Southern homes, and immigrants nursed memories of Sicily and Guadalajara and, even after years in America, frequently traveled home. These iconic symbols of the undaunted, forward-looking American spirit were often homesick, hesitant, and reluctant voyagers. National ideology and modern psychology obscure this truth, portraying movement as easy, but in fact Americans had to learn how to leave home, learn to be individualists. Even today, in a global society that prizes movement and that condemns homesickness as a childish emotion, colleges counsel young adults and their families on how to manage the transition away from home, suburbanites pine for their old neighborhoods, and companies take seriously the emotional toll borne by relocated executives and road warriors. In the age of helicopter parents and boomerang kids, and the new social networks that sustain connections across the miles, Americans continue to assert the significance of home ties. By highlighting how Americans reacted to moving farther and farther from their roots, Homesickness: An American History revises long-held assumptions about home, mobility, and our national identity.
Download or read book What Comes Naturally written by Peggy Pascoe and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A long-awaited history that promises to dramatically change our understanding of race in America, What Comes Naturally traces the origins, spread, and demise of miscegenation laws in the United States--laws that banned interracial marriage and sex, most often between whites and members of other races. Peggy Pascoe demonstrates how these laws were enacted and applied not just in the South but throughout most of the country, in the West, the North, and the Midwest. Beginning in the Reconstruction era, when the term miscegenation first was coined, she traces the creation of a racial hierarchy that bolstered white supremacy and banned the marriage of Whites to Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and American Indians as well as the marriage of Whites to Blacks. She ends not simply with the landmark 1967 case of Loving v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court finally struck down miscegenation laws throughout the country, but looks at the implications of ideas of colorblindness that replaced them. What Comes Naturally is both accessible to the general reader and informative to the specialist, a rare feat for an original work of history based on archival research.
Download or read book A Broken Tree written by Stephen F. Anderson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All families have stories and all families have secrets. Some stories can be hidden forever. Others come out over time, or suddenly through revelation. With the advent of easy to obtain and cheap DNA kits, more and more people are stumbling across biological secrets they never suspected, sometimes with happy outcomes, but sometimes with shocking results. In this book, the author provides a real-life example of the shocking revelations and aftermath of DNA investigation. Growing up as one of nine children, Stephen Anderson suspected from a young age that something was amiss. A chance accident, and a small crack in the history of his family broke open. More would come to be revealed as the author sets out on a journey to find answers to his questions. Any reader wondering what a DNA test might reveal will find here one extreme example of family secrets gone awry. As each member learns more about his or her own identity, new family members pop up, fade out, or pass away before relationships can be established or even revealed. More and more people are undergoing DNA tests and seeking to find long lost relatives though ancestry searches. What they find might upturn all their shared assumptions about family, identity, belonging, and history. Join Stephen as he uncovers his own family’s secrets, the impact they’ve had on his life and his family’s, and what they are all doing now to heal fresh wounds.
Download or read book The Stranger in My Genes written by Bill Griffeth and published by New England Historic Genealogical Society. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bill Griffeth, longtime genealogy buff, takes a DNA test that has an unexpected outcome: "If the results were correct, it meant that the family tree I had spent years documenting was not my own." Bill undertakes a quest to solve the mystery of his origins, which shakes his sense of identity. As he takes us on his journey, we learn about choices made by his ancestors, parents, and others - and we see Bill measure and weigh his own difficult choices as he confronts the past.
Download or read book On Being Raped written by Raymond M. Douglas and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2018-01-23 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A personal and moral inquiry into the crime we do our best to ignore: the rape of adult men When Raymond M. Douglas was an eighteen-year-old living in Europe, he was brutally raped by a Catholic priest. He eventually moved to the United States and became a highly regarded historian, writing with great care about the violent expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe after the Second World War, and parsing the complicated moral questions of these actions. But until now, Douglas has been silent about his own experience of trauma. In On Being Raped, Douglas recounts this painful event and his later attempts to seek help to lay bare the physical and psychological trauma of a crime we still don’t openly discuss: the rape of adult men by men. With eloquence and passion, he examines the requirements society implicitly places upon men who are victims of rape, examines the reasons for our resounding silence around this issue, and reveals how alarmingly prevalent this kind of sexual violence truly is. An insightful and sensitive analysis of a type of bodily violation that we either joke about or ignore, On Being Raped promises to open an important dialogue about male rape and what needs to be done to provide adequate services and support for victims. “But before that can happen,” writes Douglas, “men who have been raped will have to come out of the shadows...A start has to be made somewhere. This is my attempt at one.”
Download or read book NPE A story guide for unexpected DNA discoveries written by Leeanne R. Hay and published by BookLocker.com, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genealogy is a fun hobby until the results of a consumer DNA test reveal a devastating secret. NPE* A STORY GUIDE FOR UNEXPECTED DNA DISCOVERIES is an authentic resource for people uncovering a new identity, their loved ones, and genealogists who encounter NPEs in a family tree. There is no more fundamental human need than to belong – first to a family, and then to others. My story and research over three years provide information and support to guide readers. Relatable insights and true stories are presented that address the initial shock of discovery, suggestions about communications, new ethnicities, family recognitions and rejections, and the history of illegitimacy. NPEs are found in all races, religions, and socio-economic groups in every country where consumer DNA tests are sold. By 2022, 142 million people worldwide will take DNA tests for genealogy and medical information. Ten to fifteen percent will discover they are NPE, like me. (*Non-paternity event is a genetic genealogy term for a break in the family line/name, when your ‘Dad’ is not your biological father.)
Download or read book Copeland s Cure written by Natalie Robins and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2009-07-22 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, one out of every three Americans uses some form of alternative medicine, either along with their conventional (“standard,” “traditional”) medications or in place of them. One of the most controversial–as well as one of the most popular–alternatives is homeopathy, a wholly Western invention brought to America from Germany in 1827, nearly forty years before the discovery that germs cause disease. Homeopathy is a therapy that uses minute doses of natural substances–minerals, such as mercury or phosphorus; various plants, mushrooms, or bark; and insect, shellfish, and other animal products, such as Oscillococcinum. These remedies mimic the symptoms of the sick person and are said to bring about relief by “entering” the body’s “vital force.” Many homeopaths believe that the greater the dilution, the greater the medical benefit, even though often not a single molecule of the original substance remains in the solution. In Copeland’s Cure, Natalie Robins tells the fascinating story of homeopathy in this country; how it came to be accepted because of the gentleness of its approach–Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were outspoken advocates, as were Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Daniel Webster. We find out about the unusual war between alternative and conventional medicine that began in 1847, after the AMA banned homeopaths from membership even though their medical training was identical to that of doctors practicing traditional medicine. We learn how homeopaths were increasingly considered not to be “real” doctors, and how “real” doctors risked expulsion from the AMA if they even consulted with a homeopath. At the center of Copeland's Cure is Royal Samuel Copeland, the now-forgotten maverick senator from New York who served from 1923 to 1938. Copeland was a student of both conventional and homeopathic medicine, an eye surgeon who became president of the American Institute of Homeopathy, dean of the New York Homeopathic Medical College, and health commissioner of New York City from 1918 to 1923 (he instituted unique approaches to the deadly flu pandemic). We see how Copeland straddled the worlds of politics (he befriended Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, among others) and medicine (as senator, he helped get rid of medical “diploma mills”). His crowning achievement was to give homeopathy lasting legitimacy by including all its remedies in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. Finally, the author brings the story of clashing medical beliefs into the present, and describes the role of homeopathy today and how some of its practitioners are now adhering to the strictest standards of scientific research–controlled, randomized, double-blind clinical studies.
Download or read book Passing Strange written by Martha A. Sandweiss and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Clarence King is a hero of nineteenth-century western history. Brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, bestselling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War, King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent Newport family: for thirteen years he lived a double life--as the celebrated white Clarence King and as a black Pullman porter and steelworker. Unable to marry the black woman he loved, the fair-haired, blue-eyed King passed as a Negro, revealing his secret to his wife Ada only on his deathbed. Historian Martha Sandweiss is the first writer to uncover the life that King tried so hard to conceal. She reveals the complexity of a man who, while publicly espousing a personal dream of a uniquely American amalgam of white and black, hid his love for his wife and their five biracial children"--Publisher description
Download or read book Summary of Libby Copeland s The Lost Family written by Everest Media, and published by Everest Media LLC. This book was released on 2022-08-14T23:00:00Z with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Alice Collins Plebuch is a retired teacher who loves to sew. She is very short, and her grandchildren call her Grandma Nerd for her love of technology. She warned me not to take my shoes off, because sewing pins were scattered all over her house. #2 Alice’s brain was trained to solve problems and find solutions years before she was asked to answer the most important question of all. She was not wealthy when she was growing up, so she put herself through college by washing dishes and tutoring kids in math and sewing her own clothes. #3 Alice was a career woman in the field of information systems and data processing. She was promoted constantly, and she always made sure the systems she worked on were better. She was also an early adopter of new technologies. #4 Alice had long had questions about her family. Her mother, who was also named Alice, was into genealogy, and kept an old family bible from the 1840s with birth, death, and marriage notations that traced back her English roots.
Download or read book Breakfast at Sally s written by Richard LeMieux and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-10-17 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One day, Richard LeMieux had a happy marriage, a palatial home, and took $40,000 Greek vacations. The next, he was living out of a van with only his dog, Willow, for company. This astonishingly frank memoir tells the story of one man's resilience in the face of economic disaster. Penniless, a failed suicide, estranged from his family, and living "the vehicular lifestyle" in Washington state, LeMieux chronicles his journey from the Salvation Army kitchens to his days with "C"—a philosopher in a homeless man's clothing—to his run-ins with Pastor Bob and other characters he meets on the streets. Along the way, he finds time to haunt public libraries and discover his desire to write. LeMieux's quiet determination and his almost pious willingness to live with his situation are only a part of this politically and socially charged memoir. The real story of an all-too-common American condition, this is a heartfelt and stirring read.
Download or read book Mercies in Disguise written by Gina Kolata and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[Kolata] is a gifted storyteller. Her account of the Baxleys... is both engrossing and distressing... Kolata's book raises crucial questions about knowledge that can be both vital and fatal, both pallative and dangerous." —Andrew Solomon, The New York Review of Books New York Times science reporter Gina Kolata follows a family through genetic illness and one courageous daughter who decides her fate shall no longer be decided by a genetic flaw. The phone rings. The doctor from California is on the line. “Are you ready Amanda?” The two people Amanda Baxley loves the most had begged her not to be tested—at least, not now. But she had to find out. If your family carried a mutated gene that foretold a brutal illness and you were offered the chance to find out if you’d inherited it, would you do it? Would you walk toward the problem, bravely accepting whatever answer came your way? Or would you avoid the potential bad news as long as possible? In Mercies in Disguise, acclaimed New York Times science reporter and bestselling author Gina Kolata tells the story of the Baxleys, an almost archetypal family in a small town in South Carolina. A proud and determined clan, many of them doctors, they are struck one by one with an inscrutable illness. They finally discover the cause of the disease after a remarkable sequence of events that many saw as providential. Meanwhile, science, progressing for a half a century along a parallel track, had handed the Baxleys a resolution—not a cure, but a blood test that would reveal who had the gene for the disease and who did not. And science would offer another dilemma—fertility specialists had created a way to spare the children through an expensive process. A work of narrative nonfiction, Mercies in Disguise is the story of a family that took matters into its own hands when the medical world abandoned them. It’s a story of a family that had to deal with unspeakable tragedy and yet did not allow it to tear them apart. And it is the story of a young woman—Amanda Baxley—who faced the future head on, determined to find a way to disrupt her family’s destiny.
Download or read book After a Suicide written by Susan Kuklin and published by Putnam Juvenile. This book was released on 1994 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: YA. Surviving friends and family share their experiences. Recommended for YA reluctant readers.
Download or read book The Soul of the Family Tree written by Lori Erickson and published by Presbyterian Publishing Corp. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Readers may find themselves ordering their own DNA testing kit upon finishing this." —Publishers Weekly "The Soul of the Family Tree posits that a spiritual grounding in one's family history can combat 'historical amnesia' and nurture a sense of belonging." —Foreword Reviews Growing up in a passionately Norwegian-American Iowa town, Lori Erickson rolled her eyes at traditions like Nordic Fest and steaming pots of rømmegrøt. But like many Americans, she eventually felt drawn to genealogy, the "quintessential hobby of middle age." Her quest to know more about the Vikings and immigrants who perch in her family tree led her to visit Norse settlements and reenactments, medieval villages and modern museums, her picturesque hometown and her ancestor's farm on the fjords. Along the way, Erickson discovers how her soul has been shaped by her ancestors and finds unexpected spiritual guides among the seafaring Vikings and her hardscrabble immigrant forebears. Erickson’s far-ranging journeys and spiritual musings show us how researching family history can be a powerful tool for inner growth. Travel with Erickson in The Soul of the Family Tree to learn how the spirits of your ancestral past can guide you today.
Download or read book How to Find Your Way Home written by Katy Regan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if the person you thought you’d lost forever walked back into your life? A warm, uplifting novel about the unshakable bond between siblings, and what happens when a sister discovers her long-missing brother in the most unexpected place, from the author of Little Big Love. Emily has been looking for the same face in every crowd for more than a decade: her brother’s. She’ll do anything to find him, she just never expects that one day he will walk through the door of the London housing office where she works, homeless and in need of help. Emily’s overjoyed to see Stephen—her older brother, her hero, the one who taught her to look for the flash of a bird’s wings and instilled in her a love and respect for nature’s wonders—and invites him to live with her. But the baggage of the day that tore them apart, more than fifteen years before, is heavy. As they attempt to rebuild their relationship, they embark on the birding adventure they’d always promised to take when they were just children running wild in the wetlands of Canvey Island. And so, amid the soft, familiar calls of the marsh birds, they must finally confront what happened that June day—and in all the days since—if they are to finally find their way home.
