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American Ancestors

American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is America’s founding genealogical organization and the most respected name in family history. Established in 1845, they are the nation’s leading comprehensive resource for family history research and the largest Society of its kind in the world. The group provides family history services through their staff, original scholarship, data-rich website, educational opportunities and its research center to help family historians of all levels explore their past and understand their families’ unique place in history.

http://www.americanancestors.org

Historian John Matteson on "A Worse Place Than Hell"

Tue, Mar 23, 2021

See Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Matteson with his latest work, “A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation.” Matteson is joined by guest moderator author Debby Applegate, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. December 1862: As Abraham Lincoln’s government threatened to fracture, five extraordinary individuals were tested – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., army chaplain Arthur Fuller, poet Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, and John Pelham, a West Point cadet on the other side of the national schism. The months ahead had repercussions in the country’s law, literature, politics, and popular mythology. Hear about the lives of these individuals and John Matteson’s new work, an interweaving of the personal and the historic. Our featured author is joined on screen by guest moderator author Debby Applegate, also winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History. Image: American Ancestors

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American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors
Janice Nimura on "The Doctors Blackwell"

Thu, Feb 4, 2021

Join us for a discussion about women in medicine revealing the remarkable lives of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in America to receive an M.D. in 1849, and her younger sister Emily, an even more brilliant physician. Exploring their allies, enemies, and enduring partnership, award winning author Janice P. Nimura presents their story of trials and triumph. From Bristol, Paris, and Edinburgh to the rising cities of antebellum America, this richly researched new biography celebrates these two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for women. The discussion is moderated by New York Times columnist and author Perri Klass, M.D., a Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University. This event is part of the American Stories, Inspiration Today series sponsored by American Ancestors NEHGS and the Boston Public Library. Image: Book Cover

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Nadia Owusu with "Aftershocks: A Memoir"

Tue, Jan 19, 2021

When Nadia Owusu moved to New York City at age 18, she had already lived in five countries outside the United States and her parents’ homelands of Ghana (her father’s) and Armenia (her mother’s family). She grew up disconnected, without a culture she called her own. In _Aftershocks_ she shares her jarring story of being state-less and, ultimately, parent-less, as the survivor of trauma; she describes the heart and will it takes to pull though. Listen to her life and memoir that looks at race identity and immigration, the seismic emotional toll of family secrets, and the push and pull of belonging in the United States. Image: book cover

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American Ancestors
The life of Henry Wadsworth and Fanny Appleton Longfellow

Mon, Dec 7, 2020

The book "Cross of Snow" is the result of more than twelve years of research, including access to never-before-examined letters, diaries, journals, and notes. Author Nicholas Basbanes reveals the life, the times, the work--the soul--of the man who shaped the literature of a new nation. In this dialogue between Basbanes and Diana Korzenik, learn about the life and work of Henry and his multi-talented second wife, Fanny Appleton Longfellow (1817-1861) at various stages of their lives. Diana Korzenik is an author, artist, professor emerita (Massachusetts College of Art), and compiler of five research collections housed at libraries and museums nationwide. Her first book, Drawn to Art: A Nineteenth-Century American Dream, won a Boston Globe Literary Award. Since the Basbanes biography was released, reviewers have taken particular note of the modern feminist approach Basbanes has employed to give full biographical attention to Fanny, taking in her work as a brilliant artist, diarist, correspondent, and chronicler of her times. Presented as a partnership between the American Inspiration author series by American Ancestors NEHGS and the State Library of Massachusetts, produced by GBH Forum Network.

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American Ancestors
Tamara Payne on "The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X"

Thu, Nov 5, 2020

The New England Historic Genealogical Society together with the Boston Public Library and the Museum of African American History present another virtual event in the American Stories, Inspiration Today author series. Learn about the epic biography produced from 30 years of research by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne. A new comprehensive and historic biography of Malcolm X sets the Civil Rights activist against the larger backdrop of American history. Drawn from hundreds of hours of the interviews with all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world, The Dead Are Arising traces Malcolm’s life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965. It provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm’s Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher; and his mother, Louise, who instilled black pride in her children. Register below for a conversation with Tamara Payne, the author’s daughter – who, following her father’s death, heroically completed the biography. She'll share more about this penetrating work, which has been long-listed for the 2020 National Book Award, featured on numerous “best of” lists, and heralded by O, the Oprah Magazine. Moderating this talk is L’Merchie Frazier, Director Of Education And Interpretation, Museum Of African American History. Les Payne was a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist and a former editor at Newsday. A founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, he also wrote an award-winning syndicated column. Tamara Payne served as Les Payne’s principal researcher.

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American Ancestors
Meet the Author Claire Messud

Tue, Oct 20, 2020

American Ancestors/NEHGS and Boston Public Library present this virtual event in the American Stories, Inspiration Today author series. Take a glimpse into the beloved novelist’s inner world, shaped by family, art, and literature: a discussion of Claire Messud’s latest work, Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography in Essays. In twenty-six intimate, brilliant, and funny essays, Messud reflects on her own life and family and meditates on contemporary classic works of literature as she explores her own drive to write. Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction including the New York Times bestsellers The Emperor’s Children and The Burning Girl, which was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Moderator Dani Shapiro is novelist, memoirist, and creator and host of the Family Secrets podcast This virtual author event is free the public.

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American Ancestors
Carville's Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice

Thu, Sep 10, 2020

Acclaimed broadcast journalist Pam Fessler writes about the largely forgotten history of leprosy in the United States – its impact on patients and their families, doctors, and, particularly, the swampy bayou town of Carville, Louisiana, where a “leprosarium” was established in 1894. Carville evolved into a nexus for research and “treatment” that came at a huge personal cost to liberty as patients were stripped of their names, their rights, and their dignity. Understood today to be one of the least infectious diseases in the world, leprosy, now called Hansen’s disease, instilled a pandemic-sized level of fear and reaction from public health authorities well into the 20th century. Fessler discusses her chronicle of how America treated, contained, and demonized its sufferers before wiser heads prevailed. This event is presented by American Ancestors/NEHGS together with the Boston Public Library and the State Library of Massachusetts as part of the American Stories, Inspiration Today author series.

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American Ancestors
Susan Eisenhower on "How Ike Led"

Thu, Aug 20, 2020

Susan Eisenhower joins Boston Public Library President David Leonard, along with Margaret Talcott of American Ancestors NEHGS, to discuss a new book about President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his leadership. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean War to Cold War crises, from the Red Scare to the Missile Gap controversies, few people have made decisions as momentous and varied as President Eisenhower. His granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, sheds light on his principles and decision making in her new book, "How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions.” This conversation is presented in partnership between the Boston Public Library's Arc of History: Contested Perspectives series and the American Inspiration author series hosted by the American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS).

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American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors
Gretchen Sorin: Driving While Black

Tue, Aug 11, 2020

Author Gretchen Sorin and Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Deputy Director of the The National Museum of African American History and Culture discuss Sorin's new book and upcoming PBS documentary by Ric Burns, "Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights." Learn how the automobile fundamentally changed African American life. Through much of our country’s history, mobility has been limited for African Americans: first, by slavery; then, in the 20th Century, by the racism of some whites who denied their black countrymen the right to travel freely on trains and buses. Driving While Black reveals how the car—the ultimate symbol of independence and possibility—allowed black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society. Interweaving stories of her own family history, Gretchen Sorin opens up an entirely new view onto one of the most important issues of our time. Gretchen Sorin is distinguished professor and director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York. This event is presented by American Ancestors/NEHGS, Boston Public Library and the Museum of African American History as part of the American Stories, Inspiration Today author series.

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American Ancestors
Honor Moore with Our Revolution

Mon, Jun 8, 2020

Hear from the celebrated author Honor Moore (_The Bishop’s Daughter, The White Blackbird_) about her new biography-memoir, the story of her mother and herself, their relationship and changing lives as 20th-Century women. With the sweep of an epic novel, Moore introduces readers to Jenny McKean Moore, her charismatic and brilliant mother who was born into privilege on Boston’s North Shore, and whose life shifted dramatically as she engaged in the 1960s peace and social justice. Claire Messud, the author of _The Burning Girl_ and _The Emperor’s Children_, moderates. This virtual author event is presented by [American Ancestors and NEHGS](http://forum-network.org/partner/American-Ancestors/) together with the [Boston Public Library](http://forum-network.org/partner/boston-public-library/) and the State Library of Massachusetts.

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American Ancestors

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