Welcome to the blog tour for Finding Family Treasure, written by award-winning author and genetic genealogist K. I. Knight and award-winning author Jane R. Wood. Learn more about the book, enjoy a guest post from K. I. Knight and enter to win a special prize pack!
About the Book:
Ages 7 and Up | 142 Pages
Publisher: Melting Pot Press LLC | ISBN-13: 9781737337102
“Who are we?” Ms. Johansson asks her class of fifth graders. Her perplexed students soon discover the lesson she wants them to learn. While studying the founding of their country, the class is challenged to understand the melting pot that makes up the American people-both past and present.
With the help of a genealogist, students learn to navigate websites that introduce them to written records that have documented their families’ histories. Because the class is comprised of students with roots to many nationalities and ethnic groups, including African American, Native American, Mexican, Cuban, Irish, Italian, Polish, Scandinavian, Lebanese, and Japanese immigrants, the diversity in their own class becomes apparent.
To assist in their research, the teacher gives the students an assignment of interviewing their parents and grandparents, to learn more about the members of their families. One by one, the young people hear family stories connecting them to America’s earliest immigrants and settlers. The students also learn about historical events their ancestors witnessed or experienced, including the early settlement of Virginia, the American Revolution, the Underground Railroad, the Trail of Tears, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, early immigration processing at Ellis Island, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Holocaust.
As the story unfolds, some personal conflicts occur among the students, long-standing family tensions surface, and intergenerational relationships evolve. Complex issues such as privacy, adoption, diversity, immigration, slavery, and antisemitism are addressed in an age-appropriate manner.
Excited by what they have discovered, the students plan a program to share their findings with their families. Working together in small groups, they create a slide presentation of vintage photographs, a fashion show demonstrating various ethnic attire, music and food from different cultures, and visual displays showcasing military medals, artifacts, musical instruments, and family heirlooms.
Their family history project further inspires the students to want to do something more to honor past generations. With the help of a cemetery preservationist, they plan a clean-up day at a local graveyard in need of attention. Parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters join the class on a Saturday to help restore the final resting place of those who came before them.
As a result of their research project, the students not only discover personal connections to the past but also, in some cases, to each other.
Purchase Links: Amazon | Bookshop.org
Official Links: Website | Facebook | Instagram
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Guest Post: How Family Stories Connect Us
By K. I. Knight
As humans who walk the streets of America, we are all connected. Regardless of our ethnicities, we all came to live in America from other regions of the world, far and wide. Whether you are the first generation to arrive in America or your 10th generation grandparent to arrive here, there is a story of this journey connecting you.
Whether your ancestor’s arrival was of their own decision or not, we all arrived in this country and became what makes up the melting-pot culture of America today. Many events affect us and connect us. These events become stories we retell through the generations. And don’t forget, there are two sides to every story.
Storytelling has been around since the beginning of time. Today, most stories of spectacular historical events are told in books. However, before the pen could write the stories, before the chisel could depict stories on stone walls, they were told verbally and passed down verbally. It is of the utmost importance stories continue to be told and passed down for generations to come because they connect us.
Let’s go back thousands of years. How many stories would you find within your family lines?
For instance, at ten (10) generations, we have 1,054 ancestors. Think of the events they would have seen in their lifetime. If we go back twenty (20) generations, we have over a million ancestors (1,048,576 to be exact). Go back to thirty (30) generations. We have over a billion ancestors! Now ask yourself how many people walked the earth at that time? How many events did they share? How many stories did they share? The answer is OUR family tree of humanity is much more connected than we realize.
In 2004, mathematical modeling and computer simulations by a group of statisticians led by Douglas Rohde, then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, indicated our most recent common ancestor probably lived no earlier than 1400 B.C. and possibly as recently as A.D. 55. In the time of Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti, someone from whom we are all descended was likely alive somewhere in the world.
Go back even further, and you reach a date when our family trees share not just one ancestor in common but every ancestor in common. At this date, called the “genetic isopoint,” the family trees of any two people currently on the earth trace back to the same set of individuals. If we look at genetics, by being the same species, all humans share 99% of their genome, which means all humans are 99% genetically similar. We are made up of 3 billion (3,000,000,000) genetic building blocks, or base pairs. Of those 3 billion base pairs, only a tiny amount is unique to us, individually.
We are individuals, all related regardless of color or creed, who share a time in history. What does this all mean today? We need to embrace our diversity because we are all connected. We are kindred. There is an old saying. Strangers are just relatives you haven’t met yet with stories to share and compare.
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About the Authors:
Kathryn Knight, who uses the pen name K I Knight, is an international award-winning Author, Genetic Genealogist, American Historian, Keynote Speaker, and Cemetery Preservationist. Over the last thirteen years, Knight has documented more than 20,000 hours researching the first recorded Africans to arrive in the English settlement of Virginia in 1619. Her passion is unrivaled and strongly evident in her published writings
Her literary work includes Fate & Freedom, a five star – Gold medal historical trilogy detailing the lives of the 1619 Africans, as well as her nonfiction work, Unveiled – The Twenty and Odd, for which she was awarded the Phillis Wheatley Literary Award by the Sons and Daughters of the US Middle Passage.
Knight is a board member for several National Non-profit organizations and the member of numerous Genealogy, Historical and Literary Societies including the Afro American Historical and Genealogical Society, Florida State Genealogy Society, Virginia Genealogy Society, Virginia Historical Society, Florida Historical Society, American Historical Association, Genealogy Speakers Guild, Association of Professional Genealogists, the Alliance of Independent Authors, the National Association of Professional Women, and the Director of 1619 Genealogy. The mother of three adult children, Knight, lives in North Florida with her husband, Tom.
For more information, visit firstfreedompublishing.com.
Jane R. Wood is the author of five award-winning juvenile fiction books where she weaves history and science into stories filled with mystery, adventure, and humor for young readers ages 8-14. Students like her books because they’re fun. Teachers like them for their educational value. Wood is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and television producer. She has a BA from the University of Florida and an MEd from the University of North Florida. Wood lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and is the mother of two grown sons and five grandchildren.
To learn more about her and her books, go to her website at janewoodbooks.com.
One lucky grand prize winner will receive an autographed copy of Finding Family Treasure and a 1-hour genealogy consultation with Kathryn Knight!
Kathryn Knight is a genetic genealogist, and co-author of this book. She will provide guidance to establish a genealogy line for the recipient’s family, tailoring it to their needs.
Four additional winners will each receive an autographed copy of Finding Family Treasure!
Giveaway ends 2/25. Open to US only. Please enter below. Good luck!
Finding Family Treasure: Book GiveawayDisclosure: This giveaway is organized by The Children's Book Review and sponsored by K. I. Knight, and Jane R. Wood. icefairy's Treasure Chest is not responsible for winner selection or prize fulfillment.
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