The Linden and the Oak, a novel by Mark Wansa, was first published in Canada in 2009 by the World Academy of Rusyn Culture.

Novels aren’t usually my thing – I prefer non-fiction – and I only recently learned about this book after attending a Rusyn online event with the author as the guest speaker.

While this novel is fictional, it is historical fiction, telling the story of 22 year old Vasyl Rusinko, his family and friends and his life back in the village of Stara Polyanka after working in America for four years.

His life is set in the time period shortly before World War I and the years after.

Being 50% Rusyn, this book attracted my attention because my grandparents were born in 1893, both children of Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants, and my grandmother’s family returned to their village in the fall of 1898. Nana grew up in Ujak (now Udol), but left Europe behind forever in 1910 when she returned permanently to America.

Most of the world changed significantly with the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Those changes didn’t reach the Rusyn people, though. Their lives hadn’t changed through all the generations of time until they began to leave for work opportunities in the United States.

Wansa’s book made me feel like i was walking in my grandmother’s footsteps back in the “old country.” Each of the characters could be real people and their daily lives in the story mirrored the daily lives of Rusyn villagers.

The story is sprinkled with many Rusyn words (immediately translated). By the way, Rusyns have never had one unified homeland of their own. Their history is so fractured that the people call their own Rusyn language “po-nashomu” or “our way.” So, the answer to the question, “What language do you speak?” is “We speak our way.”

I really enjoyed this book. Even at 529 pages, the reading went quickly and it was very easy to slip into the lives of the characters.

I wish my grandmother were here to ask, but I think she would say Rusyn daily life was presented in a very realistic way.

It’s my understanding that the author, Mark Wansa, is preparing to release a follow up to this book, which will continue to tell the story of Vasyl’s family and friends, both in the village and in America.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about Rusyn life in the late 1800s and early 1900s and how the people were affected by world changes.

Copies are available at everyone’s favorite online buying site for about $10, shipping included.

I’m very much looking to Mark Wansa’s newest Rusyn novel.

Disclaimer: I have, in the past, received complimentary copies of Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s books for review purposes. However, these have not influence my opinions in any way and I purchased a copy of The Dover Trunk Murder.

I have been excitedly waiting for the release of Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s latest book, having pre-ordered it on Kindle some weeks ago. I will admit upfront that I love his work!

The Dover Trunk Murder is a new writing path for Nathan with this book being the first in a new historical fiction series about Fortress Dover set during World War I.

Before I even opened the book, I noticed that the cover was a very different style compared to the long list of other books that the author has written.

Fitting, I guess, as it is a new series with new characters, and after having read the story, it’s very appropriate with the Dover Cliffs and the title in red with more red around the trunk.

It is 3 August 1914, on the precipice of World War I, and the reader is immediately introduced to Detective Inspector Edwin Dalloway, a former Scotland Yard detective who has accepted a similar position in a small police department in Dover, England.

The Detective Inspector hasn’t even found lodging when a woman’s arm is discovered washed up on the local beach and he finds himself thick into his first case.

Goodwin is a very accomplished author and, true to his style, several intriguing story threads appear.

The main focus, of course, is solving the murder of a young woman, whose identity is hidden for quite a while.

It is 1914, at the dawn of fingerprinting and long before DNA. One arm isn’t much to go on, but as other body parts turn up, the police assemble clues and follow up on leads that take them in several directions, including back to their own home!

One story line involves a new romance between a police clerk and a young soldier ready to be sent off to the front along with rumors of long-term resident spies in place in Dover.

The shadow of wartime hovers over Dover throughout the book.

The clerk, Miss Lily Somerset, is an interesting addition to the cast of characters as her goal is to become a police detective in an era when that wasn’t considered possible.

Another story line leads to a policeman who was pushed out of his job for asking too many questions about two prostitutes who had been separately murdered a few years earlier.

Dalloway questions that policeman and begins hearing about possible high level corruption among Dover’s elite citizenry, their considerable political power and all that they have been able to cover up through the years. He wonders if those coverups extend to the earlier murders.

Finally, Dalloway, himself, arrived in Dover for his own reasons, which is the genealogical link found in all of Nathan’s stories.

The trunk murder horrified the people of Dover to the point where it managed to overshadow the imminent threat of war. More body parts appear, and suspects are slowly eliminated until the killer’s identity is discovered through surprisngly detailed modern police methods.

Throughout the story, there are gory discoveries, danger, the hint of conspiracy and unexpected connections between Dalloway’s personal life and catching the trunk murderer.

As always, the author leaves the reader wanting lots more! Although the murder is solved, the other story lines are barely introduced, giving a glimpse of more to come.

Even though my favorite Goodwin character is Morton Farrier, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Nathan does a meticulous job researching people and places that are woven into his stories, which are page turners, for sure. I stayed glued to my iPad and read the entire book in two sittings.

Those who like historical fiction, murder mysteries and Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s books, will love this story.

It can be ordered on Amazon, Kindle version for $7.99 or hardcover for $23.99.

One of the major genealogy topics of interest for the last few years has been the importance of incorporating the context of social history as we tell the stories of our ancestors.

Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History by Katherine Scott Sturdevant, published in 2000 by Betterway Books, Cincinnati, Ohio, is a book that was ahead of its time.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Foreword by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
Introduction

1 Social History: Your Ancestors’ World
2 A Historians Approach to Home Sources: Artifacts
3 Artifacts II: Culture, Citing, and Caring
4 A Historian’s Approach to Family Photographs
5 Relative Talk: Oral History and Oral Tradition
6 Recapturing a Dying Art: Correspondence
7 “Here Come the Genies”: Braving the College Library
8 My Conclusion Is Your Beginning: Writing Family History

Endnotes
General Bibliography
Appendix: Forms for Family Historians
Index

A tip off to the quality of this book is that Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, a prolific author on her own and a huge proponent of the importance of understanding social history, wrote the foreword.

The title of the introduction says it all: Discovering Scholarly Family History and Having Great Fun With It

and the intro’s closing paragraph provides any writer’s goal: Making Family History Come Alive

Let’s start with the elephant in the room – the year 2000 as the date of publication of this book. Yes, there are a few topics which would definitely be covered in a social history and genealogy book published a quarter century later – like online resources, guiding readers to Elizabeth Shown Mills’ work for help citing family artifacts and including social media strategies for contacting distant relatives rather than mailing out letters through the post office.

However, none of that has any bearing on the quality and quantity of the extensive material found in Bringing Your Family History to Life. That’s because the social history framework itself is timeless.

Sturdevant has organized the process of applying social context to our ancestors in a very easy-to-follow format, opening with a discussion about why context is so important and how it is integral to understanding our ancestors’ lives.

Newbie and more experienced family history writers will love pages 18-19 as the author has identified 26 elements, or topics, that fit the category of social history. It couldn’t be any easier for writers to hunt down the kinds of life details that truly shaped out ancestors’ lives.

Chapters 2 through 6 explore, in depth, family artifacts that provide glimpses into those lives and how to handle them in story format.

I have to admit I found Chapter 7 a bit odd with the focus on professional librarians and the author’s perception of their disdain for genealogists. I’ve been researching since 1979 and can’t ever remember a time when I felt like I was a burden to a librarian who only wished for me to be gone.

Aside from that issue, the chapter does contain helpful pointers for a genealogist’s visit to a large non-genealogy-oriented library.

One more note – the author provided a list of icons used throughout the book – everything from “examples of this book’s advice at work”to “ways to make research more efficient” – all in all, 23 different icons.

To be honest, I didn’t even notice them as I read through the book. Since I didn’t even notice them for quite a while (not until I browsed for a specific page), I can’t say they are distracting, but I didn’t find them useful. Others might enjoy them as they are scattered as helpful tips throughout the whole book.

A beginning genealogist might be a bit overwhelmed by all the information in Sturdevant’s book, but more experienced writers should find the tips and strategies as very helpful aids for weaving social history through their ancestors’ lives. The book is almost 250 pages long!

I highly recommend this book as a necessary reference for writers who want their ancestors to be seen as real people affected by the social history around them, not just names in a family tree. It’s an excellent companion to Sharon DeBartolo Carmack’s book Telling Her Story: A Guide to Researching and Writing About Women of the Past.

Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History by Katherine Scott Sturdevant can be purchased new online for about $36.00. Used copies start at about $14.