Book Review: Annie's Ghost

Annie's Ghost: a journey into family secrets by Steve Luxenberg

The author by his own admission claims not to be a genealogist but his journalism skills have held him in good stead to unravel the stories of his own family, which he tells in this book. In particular those of his mother, who always claimed to be an only child, but whom in fact, had a sister until the age of 21 when she was admitted permanently to a local hospital due to her physical and mental frailties. This book is almost like a detective story as the author narrates his own research journey and what he finds out about his mother and father and other family members having interviewed over 150 people to add a context and find memories of life in Detroit in the Depression era and elsewhere. You can hear an interview with the author on episode 120 of the Genealogy Gems podcast