Genealogy is about more than names and dates. The best historical books help us understand the world our ancestors knew – their struggles, triumphs, communities and everyday lives. These are some of the books I’ve especially enjoyed and would happily recommend to fellow family historians.

updated 7/24/2026

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick explores the 1620 journey of the Pilgrims and the 55-year relationship between the colonists and the native Wampanoag people, which ultimately collapsed into the bloody King Philip’s War.

One of the hands-down best historical books I’ve ever read. I became interested in early colonial American history when I discovered that my 8X great grandfather, William Manly/Manley was descended from the ‘Mr. Manly’ of the early Weymouth Colony who arrived with Thomas Weston’s group. To find out that group co-existed in the same time as the Mayflower Pilgrims, I was deeply invested in the book.

Extremely well researched, well written and offers a full picture of the societies of the time. It paints neither the colonists and Native Americans as all heroes or all villains. This book should be required reading for all high school students. Side note, I listened to the 12+ plus hour audio version and the narrator was fantastic. I can’t recommend this book enough. Now I’m off to read more from Nathan Philbrick.

Six Generations in Otsego: A Colman Family History by Sarah E. Campbell, spanning 150 years from the early years of the Republic in the late 1700s, to the mid-twentieth century, the history of the Colman family in Otsego County, New York, is not unique. Their story parallels many other families who formed the backbone of new communities there. The author weaves together a broad range of personal and governmental documents to tell their story. Those who have spent time there know how rich with history this “Glimmerglass” region of Cooper’s writing truly is.

Sarah and I connect on this Colman line, a must read for any of my family.

Tecumseh: Images of the Past Volumes I and II. Ashley published his first book of photos and images in 2017 in the 160-page book, Tecumseh: Images of the Past. It features more than 275 photos, ranging from 1860 to 2017. Ashley has collected photos and postcards for the past 40 years, most of which had never been seen by the general public until the book was published. The 160-page book, Tecumseh: Images of the Past, features more than 275 photos, ranging in time from 1860 to 2017.

Mr. Ashley Chase is my second cousin and before his passing in 2025, was the town historian for Tecumseh, Lenawee County, Michigan.

My Selma: True Stories of a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement by Willie Mae Brown is a 2023 memoir about growing up Black in Selma, Alabama, during the 1960s. It captures twelve-year-old Willie Mae’s perspective as historical civil rights events unfold alongside everyday family life, community warmth, and the harsh realities of racial injustice.

I purchased this book from the gift shop at the Henry Ford Museum Greenfield Village (Dearborn, Michigan) earlier this year and couldn’t put it down. In conjunction with the Village acquiring the Jackson Home from Selma, Alabama where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. planned the famous Civil Rights March, this was part of the supporting ‘story’. Everything about this book, the writing, the story telling, the events were engrossing. From a white perspective, I realized that we can ‘know’ about the black experience, but we can never really know the black experience so these personal accounts of history are so vitally important.

Animals I Want to See: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Projects and Defying the Odds by Tom Seeman is a national bestseller detailing a lyrical coming-of-age story in Toledo, Ohio, tracking a boy’s journey from poverty to Harvard and Yale.

If I could give this memoir ten stars, it would not be enough. This book came as a recommendation in an online group for historic Toledo as the author, Tom Seeman, tells his story of growing up in the projects of the city. I also grew up in Toledo and as Tom is about my age, I wanted to hear his life story of a time and place of which I was intimately familiar. It did not disappoint on any level.

His story of being raised in a family of 14 in poverty was one of perseverance, wonder, curiosity, resilience, pain, seeking, and some great humor. More than once I nodded my head when he talked about local points of interest (Pearson Park, the Toledo Museum of Art, St. Francis De Sales High School, etc.) that I also knew and visited, of walking down alleys coming home from school, the summers spent wandering the streets with friends, and who didn’t love a good fried bologna sandwich? There were also points where I laughed out loud and cried a bit as well, his writing is brilliant.

It should also be noted that I listened to the audio version on Audible, the narrator was Brian Hutchinson who was perfect. Sometimes a bad narrator can ruin an otherwise good book. This collaboration of Tom Seeman’s writing and Brian Hutchinson’s reading was a winning combination.

The Cook’s Tale by Tom Quinn and Nancy Jackman is a nonfiction memoir detailing the harsh realities of early 20th-century domestic service through the life of Nancy Jackman, who rose from an impoverished Norfolk childhood to work as a country house cook.

I started and finished this book in only a few days because it was such an easy, fascinating read. The book’s preface is a brief author’s note about Nancy Jackman and then the story begins told in first person by Nancy Jackman. It was an every-day conversational account of her life as a young girl up until her retirement in the 1950/1960s with a great behind-the-scenes look at the life of servants versus their employers. There was nothing salacious in the story telling, however, she also didn’t hold back telling her experiences with sexual harassment and the grim details of her every day life in some of the houses and people she worked for.

I don’t know exactly why I loved this book so much, but perhaps it’s the frank and honest tone, the openness of her story and how it told not only of her life, but gave a glimpse into life in wartime England. 

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is a powerful historical novel about family, sacrifice, and survival during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. It follows Elsa Martinelli as she faces devastating droughts in Texas and an arduous journey to California.

I did not anticipate, based on some of the negative reviews that I read before I started this book, that I would love it as much as I did. But I enjoyed it immensely.

I had previously started to listen to Kristin Hannah’s highly-acclaimed booked, ‘The Nightingale” and gave up as the Audible narrator was grating. I decided that if I was going to attempt another book by the author, I would actually read it to get the full flavor of her writing. I am so glad I gave her another try.

Contrary to the handful of critical reviews of ‘The Four Winds’ bemoaning how much bad fortune could be heaped upon a character before you start to find it (paraphrasing) unbelievable, I thought this book was incredibly believable. As someone who loves history and knows somethings about the Dust Bowl and era of the Great Depression I think she did a yeoman’s job of presenting how life was during that time in American history. I don’t think that anything Elsa experienced was hard to fathom.

Also, I do not like Pollyanna-type books where the people do ‘all the right things’ or have all the answers. The dialog that Kristin Hannah wrote for all the characters, especially Loreda’s interations with her mother, was authentic. Not cutesy, not too flippant, just very real.

A storyline I was deeply invested in, great character development, just all around a great reading selection.