Isle of Canes
By Elizabeth Shown Mills. Ancestry, 2004. 587 pages, hardcover. $24.95. Order online at www.isleofcanes.com.

The first novel by renowned genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills, Isle of Canes chronicles four generations of a multi-racial family in the Cane River area of Louisiana. This historically accurate story documents the family's struggle to break the shackles of slavery and build a thriving lifestyle in spite of incredible odds.

Coincoin is the granddaughter of a king but the daughter of a slave. Her mother was captured in Africa and shipped to the United States in the early eighteenth century. At her parents' death, Coincoin vows to return her family to its rightful position in society. Coincoin dedicates the rest of her life to this cause, at times enduring humiliation and poverty in the hope that her children would one day be free.

By the end of her life, Coincoin has kept her vow. Her family enjoys its prominence in the Cane River area for years, but then the Civil War takes its toll. In the post-war years, as Jim Crow laws threaten their very livelihood, Coincoin's posterity is challenged to maintain the life they have worked for years to build.

Elizabeth Shown Mills is the author, editor, and translator of a dozen books and hundreds of journal articles. She grew to love the people of Cane River as she spent some thirty years researching the people, their heritage, and their lands.

Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography
By Douglas Keister. Gibbs Smith, 2004. 288 pages, hardcover. $24.95. Order at www.gibbs-smith.com.

Beyond dates and names, what information does your ancestor's gravestone offer? Stories in Stone, a photograph-rich book by Douglas Keister, explores the visual symbols that may provide clues about your ancestor's religious beliefs, profession, and social associations.

Chapters on flora and fauna describe possible meanings of plants, animals, and mythical creatures engraved on headstones. Periodic architecture of grave markers is explained in another chapter. The book's final chapters include information on societies and fraternal organizations, a few famous graves, and a photo gallery.

Some symbols are easily recognized, but the meanings of others may not be as intuitive. For example, it makes sense to see thorns as a symbol of pain and sin, but many religious sects consider the weeping willow a sign of immortality. Such explanations, with photographs and even more detail, abound in Stories in Stone.

Douglas Keister is the photographer of numerous award-winning books. Because of his vast photography experience, he is known as “America's most noted photographer of historic architecture.” As author and photographer of Stories in Stone, Keister depicts the beauty and symbolism of cemeteries in an engaging and educational manner.

Adventurers of Purse and Person: Virginia, 1607–1624/5. Fourth edition. Volume 1, Families A-F
Edited by John Frederick Dorman. Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. 1,278 pages, hardcover. $89.50 plus s/h. Order at www.genealogical.com.

Adventurers of Purse and Person traces the descents of the approximately 150 individuals associated with the founding of Virginia, including both immigrants and stockholders to Virginia who had descendants, or whose descendants may have come to Virginia although they themselves did not.

John Frederick Dorman, the leading authority on Virginia genealogy, prepared this work for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. This new edition lengthens the lines of these founding families from four generations to six, up to the Revolutionary or early Federal periods.

Information is drawn from the famous “Muster” of January/February 1624/25, a census taken by the Royal Commission, which appears in the book in its original format. The census gives the names of the colonists and the number in their family, along with location of home, stock of food, supply of arms and ammunition, boats, houses, and livestock. Twelve hundred persons are named, of whom approximately 150 are shown to have descendants to the sixth generation.

How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy
By George G. Morgan. McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004. 544 pages, softcover. $24.99 plus s/h. Order information is available at www.osborne.com.

Internationally recognized genealogist George Morgan has compiled a comprehensive “all you need to know” book on genealogy that offers more than just the nuts and bolts.

In addition to a thorough discussion of the basics for beginners, including where to begin, how to use original and derivative sources, and where to find vital records, obituaries, and other useful records, the author offers some unusual and helpful ideas as well.

Morgan teaches researchers how to use a map of their ancestor's county or state to locate relevant records, how to create and use ancestor profiles to place ancestors in historical context, and how to find and use military and land records, in addition to providing information on both the U.S. Census and British census. Additional sections of interest include “Access the Resources of the ‘Hidden' Internet” and “How to Really Use Yahoo.”

The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States
By Gary Boyd Roberts. Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. 912 pages, hardcover. $75.00 plus s/h. Order at www.genealogical.com.

Just over ten years ago Gary Boyd Roberts, nationally renowned senior research scholar at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) in Boston, Massachusetts, produced The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants. His recently published book, The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants, is an expansion of the earlier work, adding ninety-five new immigrants, deleting fifteen, and changing another ninety.

Most Americans with significant New England Yankee, mid-Atlantic Quaker, or Southern “planter” ancestry are descendants of medieval kings—kings of England, Scotland, and France in particular. Among the 387 colonial immigrants whose “best” royal descents (i.e., from the most recent king) are charted in this work, 180 left ten or more notable descendants each and are ancestors collectively of an estimated 100 million living Americans. This well-indexed book does not replace earlier books on royal lineages, rather it builds on and outlines the “best” royal descents from these and similar works.

Return to July/August 2004 issue of Ancestry Magazine.