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The Ancestors Are Smiling!
The Ancestors Are Smiling! is a collection of uplifting, touching, funny, and sometimes harrowing real life stories, creatively told by Kathy Marshall’s ancestors and their descendants.
Marshall’s great-grandmother, Ella, worked for a congressman who convinced President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, making it possible for her second great-grandmother, Margaret, to transport her 5 enslaved children in a buckboard to freedom in Ohio. Great-aunt Reba describes receiving her high school diploma at 106 and being profiled in Essence Magazine and on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Pullman Porter Austin’s dream came true when his wayward son (Marshall’s father) became a doctor. Marshall’s mother, Mary, a Principal, shares her excitement when Apple Computers installed the first computer technology lab in her Sacramento school in 1983. And 93-year-old great-uncle Charles describes how he became a medical miracle in 1946.
These true stories are woven by Marshall with the African fabric of American historical events. The tenacity of these courageous spirits drove them to ensure that each generation had a better life than the last.
Kathy Marshall was a researcher/analyst with the California Patrol for 36 years and has been exploring her family roots for four decades. This is the first in a series of books investigating her enslaved ancestors and their descendants. Marshall truly believes that The Ancestors Are Smiling!
Marshall’s great-grandmother, Ella, worked for a congressman who convinced President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, making it possible for her second great-grandmother, Margaret, to transport her 5 enslaved children in a buckboard to freedom in Ohio. Great-aunt Reba describes receiving her high school diploma at 106 and being profiled in Essence Magazine and on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Pullman Porter Austin’s dream came true when his wayward son (Marshall’s father) became a doctor. Marshall’s mother, Mary, a Principal, shares her excitement when Apple Computers installed the first computer technology lab in her Sacramento school in 1983. And 93-year-old great-uncle Charles describes how he became a medical miracle in 1946.
These true stories are woven by Marshall with the African fabric of American historical events. The tenacity of these courageous spirits drove them to ensure that each generation had a better life than the last.
Kathy Marshall was a researcher/analyst with the California Patrol for 36 years and has been exploring her family roots for four decades. This is the first in a series of books investigating her enslaved ancestors and their descendants. Marshall truly believes that The Ancestors Are Smiling!
375 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 27, 2019
About the author
Kathy Lynne Marshall
11 books1 follower"Write our stories! Write our stories NOW!"
The ancestors prodded Kathy Lynne Marshall awake one morning during her sixtieth year of life. She had retired from a 36-year career with the California Highway Patrol as a researcher, analyst and technical writer. In her 60th year of life, Marshall realized that if she didn't write books about her family, nobody would. Her life changed dramatically as she began spending hours every day researching her tangled Euro-African lineage, while sitting in front of a computer in California, or traveling to the places where her ancestors lived hundreds of years ago.
Since 2016, Marshall has published at least one book per year, and written short stories and essays for anthologies and genealogy journals.
It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions and a difficult process finding documents for a population that often wasn’t considered human before 1870. But the results born from Marshall’s tenacity and resilience are astonishing and fulfilling.
Marshall’s creative nonfiction heritage books grace bookshelves in libraries, universities, family homes, as well as people interested in tracing their own family histories. Many have said they used the hints and tips in Marshall’s “Solving Your Mystery” chapter to write their own books.
THE ANCESTORS ARE SMILING!
The ancestors prodded Kathy Lynne Marshall awake one morning during her sixtieth year of life. She had retired from a 36-year career with the California Highway Patrol as a researcher, analyst and technical writer. In her 60th year of life, Marshall realized that if she didn't write books about her family, nobody would. Her life changed dramatically as she began spending hours every day researching her tangled Euro-African lineage, while sitting in front of a computer in California, or traveling to the places where her ancestors lived hundreds of years ago.
Since 2016, Marshall has published at least one book per year, and written short stories and essays for anthologies and genealogy journals.
It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions and a difficult process finding documents for a population that often wasn’t considered human before 1870. But the results born from Marshall’s tenacity and resilience are astonishing and fulfilling.
Marshall’s creative nonfiction heritage books grace bookshelves in libraries, universities, family homes, as well as people interested in tracing their own family histories. Many have said they used the hints and tips in Marshall’s “Solving Your Mystery” chapter to write their own books.
THE ANCESTORS ARE SMILING!
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December 27, 2019
The author added many more memories to her chapter. Some people feel we cannot remember anything that happened in our lives prior to the age of five, however, the author disputed that "fact" by adding numerous memories from the ages of two and three to her chapter in the book. She also updated Chapter 2 about her Great-grandfather Otho Sherman Williams, who was the son of the slave in the author's "Finding Otho: The Search for Our Enslaved Williams Ancestors" research/guidebook.
Displaying 1 of 1 review