Yesterday, I had the pleasure of teaming up with author and Civil War expert, Robert Grandchamp. My ancestor, James A. Barber was the inspiration of his new book. [The Boys of Adam's Battery G.] We co-spoke at the January meeting of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society [current newsletter]
Robert and I have has quite the adventure working together to dig deeper into my 2nd great grandfather's life and while I worked on that, he zoomed ahead to write about the lives of the other men in Battery G, including my aunt's great grandfather, Nathan CHAMPLIN. I would know nothing about my ancestor's Civil War Service if it wasn't for Robert's attention to his deep, well researched and cited chapters.
Robert and I both have degrees from RIC, he lives just a few miles from where I grew up and we both hate tuna fish and love gravestone hunting.
I introduced myself as the "short before the movie", telling the story of posting my 2nd great grandfather's photo to the Web and waiting for people to find me.
Then, I passed the microphone to Robert and sat down to let him talk about his book. I was very pleased that many people enjoyed my display board and stayed to talk to us both after all the presentations and the luncheon. Very friendly, interested people belong to this society!
Related posts:
At James A. Barber's gravesite
Photos of RIGS Meetings
3 comments:
Midge, how thrilling that your ancestor is the topic of a book. And, I am so glad I checked out the newsletter, that is a classy publication. I didn't think I would find anything interesting, but I did. And to think, I saw Joshua at NEHGS the other day, and spoke with Eric (this week) who co-wrote "Forgotten Patriots, African American ..."
He's featured but not the topic of the book as the other men of this battery were just as interesting.
RIGS is a great organization. I have been to three meetings and enjoyed them a lot.
How fun! My Civil War ancestor is a main character in a book about a man who was his best friend and later his step-brother-in-law. The work the author did in researching for the book helped me immensely in my own research for my ROBBINS, PECK, and JACKSON families. I've never met the author, but we have had several phone conversations and have corresponded by mail and e-mail.
What a neat experience you've had!
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