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American Ancestors

American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is America’s founding genealogical organization and the most respected name in family history. Established in 1845, they are the nation’s leading comprehensive resource for family history research and the largest Society of its kind in the world. The group provides family history services through their staff, original scholarship, data-rich website, educational opportunities and its research center to help family historians of all levels explore their past and understand their families’ unique place in history.

http://www.americanancestors.org

Anna Quindlen with "More Than Enough: A Novel" about DNA Testing

Thu, May 7, 2026

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Anna Quindlen comes a story about DNA and our passion for biological truths. In the novel More Than Enough, a woman confronts the surprising results of an ancestry test, a challenge conversationalist Bill Griffeth knows first-hand.

In this conversation, pairing fiction and fact, we go deep into a novel that should be read by anyone using DNA testing in pursuit of their family’s history. When high school English teacher Polly Goodman is given an ancestry test kit as a joke, she tests without thinking too much about it. When Polly learns the results match her with a stranger, she is certain there’s been a mistake. Yet she cannot help but comb through her family history for answers.

With her trademark warmth, humor, and insight into the power of love and hope, author Anna Quindlen explores how we find ourselves again and again through the relationships that define us. This is an illuminating conversation with author and TV anchor Bill Griffeth, whose own DNA journey mirrors Polly’s. During an extended audience Q+A session, Ms. Quindlen and Mr. Griffeth are joined by science journalist Libby Copeland, who shares insights on this growing area of exploration: the latest statistics, trends, and findings on DNA testing which are greatly impacting individuals and families.

American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors
"Leaving Home: A Memoir in Full Colour" with Mark Haddon

Tue, Mar 31, 2026

The award-winning author Claire Messud joins Mark Haddon for a discussion of Leaving Home and memoir writing.

Leaving Home is a portrait of the artist both as a child and as an adult. Mark Haddon, author of the celebrated book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has once again portrayed what it is like to be different and see the world differently—this time, in a work of nonfiction, a full color memoir. Honest and scalpel sharp, his book is about family and much more, including heart surgery, papier mâché, mental breakdown and great white sharks. It’s also about the power of art, in all its varied forms, and coming to terms with the mess of human life. Richly illustrated with images from the author’s childhood, Leaving Home is about escaping a place that never felt like home. Don’t miss hearing from this best-loved British author and his conversation with the award-winning author Claire Messud about this very personal, family-oriented form of writing, documentation, and sharing.

American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors
Kathleen DuVal on “Native Nations: A Millennium in North America”

Wed, Oct 8, 2025

The American Ancestors American Inspiration series and Boston Public Library present the 2025 Pulitzer Prize–winning author Kathleen DuVal to discuss her book, "Native Nations."

American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors
Stan and Gus: Art, Ardor, and the Friendship That Built the Gilded Age by Henry Wiencek

Mon, Jul 28, 2025

Join American Ancestors at the Boston Public Library for an illustrated tour of the Gilded Age, seen through the experiences and artistry of two of its celebrated artists: architect Stanford White and the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Author Henry Wiencek and moderator Curt DiCamillo will take us behind the scenes to show how these two cultural trendsetters transcended scandal to enrich their times.

The creator of landmark buildings that elevated American architecture to new heights, Stanford White was a man-about-town and a canny cultural entrepreneur. Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s painstaking work brought emotional depth to American sculpture; he was the son of an immigrant shoemaker, a moody introvert, and a committed procrastinator. These two artists pursued their own careers in Italy and France, then came together again in New York, where they maintained an friendship and partnership that sustained them. White calmed Sant-Gaudens’s troubled spirits and vouched for him when he failed to complete projects. Saint-Gaudens challenged White to take his artistic gifts seriously and supported him even through the sordid debaucheries that led to White’s sensational murder. In Stan and Gus, the acclaimed historian Henry Wiencek sets these men’s relationship within the larger story of the American Renaissance, where millionaires’ commissions and delusions of grandeur collided with secret upper-class clubs, new aesthetic ideas.

American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors Boston Public Library
The March to Freedom for All Americans, 1860-1920

Mon, Jun 23, 2025

In this unique panel American Ancestors' guest speakers will focus on the defining years of 1860-1920 and bring to life the experiences of a great variety of Americans, from the enslaved-then-free peoples and soldiers who marched with Union Civil War General Sherman to immigrants, workers, Native Americans, and women. Don’t miss learning more about Bennett Parten’s and Manisha Sinha’s groundbreaking research, new books, and insightful discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor.

In Somewhere Toward Freedom, Bennett Parten provides a full account of Sherman’s March to the Sea—the critical Civil War campaign that destroyed the Confederacy. For the first time, he tells this remarkable tale from perspective of the tens of thousands of enslaved people who fled to the Union lines and transformed Sherman’s march into the biggest liberation event in American history.

Manisha Sinha expands our view of the Reconstruction time period in The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic. Her startling original account opens in 1860 with the election of Abraham Lincoln, that triggered the secession of the Deep South states, and take us all the way to 1920 and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote—and which Sinha calls the "last Reconstruction amendment."

Join for these historians’ unique and insightful presentations and for the discussion that follows facilitated by moderator Alan Taylor.

Books Featured: Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation by Bennett Parten; and The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 by Manisha Sinha.

Presented in partnership with 10 Million Names and Boston Public Library.

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American Ancestors Boston Public Library
Explorers: A New History with Matthew Lockwood

Wed, May 28, 2025

Prize-winning historian Matthew Lockwood looks at the impulse to explore, the travels of Pocahontas, Columbus, Sacagawea, and Captain Cook alongside others who rightfully deserve the title of “explorers” including immigrants and fugitive slaves.

According to Lockwood, people of every background imagine new worlds. The impulse to seek new places is universal to humanity. In his new book, “Explorers,” he unfurls a tapestry of surprising and historically overlooked travelers spanning forty centuries and six continents. His illustrated talk will share the stories of such seekers as David Dorr, born into slavery in New Orleans who embarked on a Grand Tour or Europe and Egypt, and the Viking female voyager Gudrid Far-Traveler, who sailed to North America in 1000 AD; among other pioneers.

American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors
Megan Marshall talks with Janice Nimura about “After Lives”

Wed, Mar 19, 2025

The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of celebrated American women, Megan Marshall has been hailed as a “gifted storyteller” (New Yorker) at “the front rank of American biographers” (New York Times).

Join us to hear about her latest work “After Lives: On Biography and Mysteries of the Human Heart” and gain insight from her discussion with fellow biographer Janice Nimura. Don’t miss their conversation about remarkable women in history and their own lives and work. Special for Women’s History Month.

American Inspiration Author Series

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American Ancestors
Nicholas Nugent with The Spice Ports: Mapping the Origins of Global Sea Trade

Tue, Jan 14, 2025

Join Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, in partnership with Brandeis University Press and American Ancestors for a wide-ranging discussion about a fascinating period of global history as experts from both sides of the Atlantic discuss maritime commerce--the innovation, benefits, and damages of the spice trade.

Learn how the drive of sea captains, worldwide consumers’ taste, and technical innovations—improvements in ship design, compasses, and mapping— enabled navigation across unprecedented distances, from such embarkation points as Venice, Amsterdam, Lisbon to the exotic ports of Malacca, Goa, Bombay, where they tracked down elusive spices. Such travels impacted art, literature, and science worldwide; and they were often disastrous for local populations, who were frequently exploited as slave plantation labor. This wide-ranging account of a fascinating period of global history uses original maps and contemporary artists’ views to tell the story of how each port developed individually; while also encouraging us to consider contrasting points of view of the benefits and the damages of the maritime spice trade.

Forum Network

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Ford Hall Forum American Ancestors
Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words with Michael Owen

Tue, Dec 3, 2024

Gain insight into the life of Ira Gershwin, the man behind some of the most memorable lyrics of the Great American Songbook. Biographer Michael Owen reveals the life of this remarkable American, the son of first-generation immigrants, who has often been in the shadow of his brother George Gershwin.

The first lyricist to win the Pulitzer Prize, Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) has been hailed as one of the masters of the Great American Songbook, a period which covers songs written largely for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s. Now, in the first full-length biography devoted to his life, Michael Owen draws on extensive archival sources to craft a rich portrait of the modest man who penned the words to such well-loved songs as “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” Owen’s book celebrates George and Ira Gershwin’s collaboration and Ira’s extensive work with other songwriters. Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words brings the publicity-shy lyricist into the spotlight he deserves.

American Inspiration Author Series

Partner:

American Ancestors Boston Public Library
Edward O’Keefe with 'The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt', the Women Who Created a President

Mon, Oct 21, 2024

In this evening focused on women’s and family history, Edward F. O’Keefe shines light on the women who “created” President Roosevelt—the impact and influence of, among others, his mother, sisters, and his wives.
The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt is based on dozens of interviews with descendants, thousands of archives, and new discoveries at Harvard University and Roosevelt’s home.
Following an illustrated presentation comprised of new and exclusive photographs, O’Keefe is in conversation with the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Debby Applegate.

Presented by American Ancestors’ American Inspiration series in partnership with Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University and GBH Forum Network.

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American Ancestors Ford Hall Forum