As a young genealogist, Megan Smolenyak was one of the first “famous” genealogists I ever heard of. She was involved with the discovery of former US President Barack Obama’s Irish ancestry (now commemorated in that most Irish of ways by a motorway service station!) and the discovery of the real identity of Annie Moore, the first person processed through Ellis Island.
Megan has finally published a book on how she began working on Annie and it’s a great easy read. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to research family history, this will give you a good grounding. Lots of hard work, a bit of luck and plenty of help from other people. It’s not a step by step guide but it does discuss the value of on vs offline collections and contains a prescient warning about how online resources can change in the blink of an eye – not necessarily for the better.
It feels like Annie Moore, a Cork emigrant who died decades before Megan was born, has become part of Megan’s family. As genealogists, we work on a family for a finite period of time and then it’s done. It’s not like working on your own family history, which is never complete. Every time Megan thought she was done with Annie, something else drew her back in. She spent her own money on this project: it really was a labour of love.
There are some images in the book, which as a Kindle reader, didn’t come out as clearly as I’d like, but that’s a Kindle fault and not that of the book.
An enjoyable read for Irish-American Heritage month & of course, St Patrick’s Day!
Agree with you, Annie seems to have become part of Megan’s extended family over the years of research and discovery! Also agree the illustrations could be larger/clearer, even in the print edition. Really enjoyed this book and Megan’s determination to learn the truth about Annie Moore!