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Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation
An acclaimed writer goes searching for the truth about her wildly unconventional Southern family–and finds that our obsession with ancestors opens up new ways of seeing ourselves.
Maud Newton’s ancestors have vexed and fascinated her since she was a girl. Her mother’s father, who came of age in Texas during the Great Depression, was said to have married thirteen times and been shot by one of his wives. Her mother’s grandfather killed a man with a hay hook and died in a mental institution. Mental illness and religious fanaticism percolated through Maud’s maternal lines, to an ancestor accused of being a witch in Puritan-era Massachusetts. Maud’s father, an aerospace engineer turned lawyer, was a book-smart man who extolled the virtues of slavery and obsessed over the “purity” of his family bloodline, which he traced back to the Revolutionary War. He tried in vain to control Maud’s mother, a whirlwind of charisma and passion given to feverish projects: thirty rescue cats, and a church in the family’s living room where she performed exorcisms.
Their divorce, when it came, was a relief. Still, the meeting of her parents’ lines in Maud inspired an anxiety that she could not shake; a fear that she would replicate their damage. She saw similar anxieties in the lives of friends, in the works of writers and artists she admired. As obsessive in her own way as her parents, Maud researched her genealogy—her grandfather’s marriages, the accused witch, her ancestors’ roles in slavery and genocide–and sought family secrets through her DNA. But sunk in census archives and cousin matches, she yearned for deeper truths. Her journey took her into the realms of genetics, epigenetics, and the debates over intergenerational trauma. She mulled modernity’s dismissal of ancestors along with psychoanalytic and spiritual traditions that center them.
Searching, moving, and inspiring, Ancestor Trouble is one writer’s attempt to use genealogy–a once-niche hobby that has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry—to expose the secrets and contradictions of her own ancestors, and to argue for the transformational possibilities that reckoning with our ancestors has for all of us.
Maud Newton’s ancestors have vexed and fascinated her since she was a girl. Her mother’s father, who came of age in Texas during the Great Depression, was said to have married thirteen times and been shot by one of his wives. Her mother’s grandfather killed a man with a hay hook and died in a mental institution. Mental illness and religious fanaticism percolated through Maud’s maternal lines, to an ancestor accused of being a witch in Puritan-era Massachusetts. Maud’s father, an aerospace engineer turned lawyer, was a book-smart man who extolled the virtues of slavery and obsessed over the “purity” of his family bloodline, which he traced back to the Revolutionary War. He tried in vain to control Maud’s mother, a whirlwind of charisma and passion given to feverish projects: thirty rescue cats, and a church in the family’s living room where she performed exorcisms.
Their divorce, when it came, was a relief. Still, the meeting of her parents’ lines in Maud inspired an anxiety that she could not shake; a fear that she would replicate their damage. She saw similar anxieties in the lives of friends, in the works of writers and artists she admired. As obsessive in her own way as her parents, Maud researched her genealogy—her grandfather’s marriages, the accused witch, her ancestors’ roles in slavery and genocide–and sought family secrets through her DNA. But sunk in census archives and cousin matches, she yearned for deeper truths. Her journey took her into the realms of genetics, epigenetics, and the debates over intergenerational trauma. She mulled modernity’s dismissal of ancestors along with psychoanalytic and spiritual traditions that center them.
Searching, moving, and inspiring, Ancestor Trouble is one writer’s attempt to use genealogy–a once-niche hobby that has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry—to expose the secrets and contradictions of her own ancestors, and to argue for the transformational possibilities that reckoning with our ancestors has for all of us.
378 pages, Hardcover
First published March 29, 2022
About the author
Maud Newton
9 books158 followersMaud Newton is a writer and critic. Her first book, Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation (Random House), is a best book of 2022, according to The New Yorker, NPR, Washington Post, Time, Boston Globe, Esquire, Garden & Gun, Entertainment Weekly, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Chicago Tribune. It was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection and Roxane Gay Book Club selection, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's 2023 John Leonard Prize for Best First Book. Ancestor Trouble has been called “a literary feat” by the New York Times Book Review and a “brilliant mix of personal memoir and cultural observation” by the Boston Globe. It was praised by Oprah Daily, NPR, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vulture, the Los Angeles Times, Wired, and many other publications.
Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Guardian, Esquire, Harper's, Narrative, the New York Times Book Review, Oxford American, Time, Granta, Bookforum, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Humanities, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Paris Review Daily and many other publications and anthologies, including Best American Travel Writing and the New York Times bestseller, What My Mother Gave Me.
Newton has discussed the importance of individual acknowledgments of ancestors' complicity in larger cultural harms with NPR's All Things Considered, the New York Times Book Review podcast, American Ancestors (New England Historic Genealogical Society), WNYC, and many others. She has also appeared on BookTV, Talk of the Nation, Radio Open Source, the Poured Over podcast, the Maris Review podcast, and more.
Newton received the Narrative Prize and the Stark Short Fiction Prize, both for fiction. Her fiction and essays have been praised by Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, the New Yorker online, Elle, the New York Times, the Paris Review online, and others.
Newton was born in Dallas, grew up in Miami, and graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in English and law. She has lived in New York City since 1999. She started blogging in May 2002 with the aim of finding others who were passionate about books, culture, and politics, and to establish an informal place to write about her life and family. Within a few years, her site had been praised, criticized, and quoted in the New York Times Book Review, Forbes, New York Magazine, the Washington Post, the UK Times, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, Poets & Writers, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New Yorker, Book Magazine, London’s Evening Standard, the Scotsman, Slate, the Denver Post, and Canada’s National Post.
For her debut book, Ancestor Trouble, Newton went searching for the truth about her wildly unconventional Southern family—and found that our obsession with ancestors opens up new ways of seeing ourselves. The book is an outgrowth of longstanding preoccupations that she wrote about on her blog.
Newton's pronouns are she/her. She is married to the artist Maximus Clarke and acknowledges that she lives on the land of the Lenape people.
Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Guardian, Esquire, Harper's, Narrative, the New York Times Book Review, Oxford American, Time, Granta, Bookforum, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Humanities, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Paris Review Daily and many other publications and anthologies, including Best American Travel Writing and the New York Times bestseller, What My Mother Gave Me.
Newton has discussed the importance of individual acknowledgments of ancestors' complicity in larger cultural harms with NPR's All Things Considered, the New York Times Book Review podcast, American Ancestors (New England Historic Genealogical Society), WNYC, and many others. She has also appeared on BookTV, Talk of the Nation, Radio Open Source, the Poured Over podcast, the Maris Review podcast, and more.
Newton received the Narrative Prize and the Stark Short Fiction Prize, both for fiction. Her fiction and essays have been praised by Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, the New Yorker online, Elle, the New York Times, the Paris Review online, and others.
Newton was born in Dallas, grew up in Miami, and graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in English and law. She has lived in New York City since 1999. She started blogging in May 2002 with the aim of finding others who were passionate about books, culture, and politics, and to establish an informal place to write about her life and family. Within a few years, her site had been praised, criticized, and quoted in the New York Times Book Review, Forbes, New York Magazine, the Washington Post, the UK Times, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, Poets & Writers, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New Yorker, Book Magazine, London’s Evening Standard, the Scotsman, Slate, the Denver Post, and Canada’s National Post.
For her debut book, Ancestor Trouble, Newton went searching for the truth about her wildly unconventional Southern family—and found that our obsession with ancestors opens up new ways of seeing ourselves. The book is an outgrowth of longstanding preoccupations that she wrote about on her blog.
Newton's pronouns are she/her. She is married to the artist Maximus Clarke and acknowledges that she lives on the land of the Lenape people.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 399 reviews
May 1, 2022
This is a memoir through the genealogical research Maud Newton conducts to learn more about her family and in turn herself. And through that history, she also gets into a father’s virulent racism, a cultural history of genealogy and the many issues therein and much more. Newton is a wonderful writer who can make any subject interesting. I particularly appreciated the introspection and how she grapples with familial bigotry without explaining it away. This is a dense and absorbing read. I learned a great deal.
October 20, 2021
This astonishing book -- an intimate personal journey and a fascinating philosophical investigation into the universal resonance of ancestry -- is unlike anything I've ever read, in the best possible way. Maud Newton's family stories are by turns enchanting and appalling (and sometimes very sad, such as the fate of Great Aunt Louise, a marriageable beauty who ended up spending her short life in a North Texas insane asylum). But what elevates Ancestor Trouble above a typical family memoir is the wider context that Newton explores with such grace and clarity: the scientific, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of the irreducible human hunger to understand -- to puzzle over and grapple with, to celebrate or transcend -- our familial inheritances. By the final pages, both my mind and my heart had expanded.
February 8, 2022
I literally inherited an interest in genealogy; there was my maternal grandfather’s family tree, researched by a distance relative, given to me at his death, and a published book of my father’s family. I became interested my unknown ancestors, and my husband’s family, and after joining Ancestry.com discovered hundreds of ancestors, corresponded with relatives hitherto unknown, and found shocking secrets. There were also insights, such as seeing a great-great-great grandmother who was the image of my aunt.
Maud Newton’s interest started in girlhood. She heard stories of her ancestors and wondered how much was true, and how her ancestor’s troubles were related to her own experiences. In Ancestor Trouble, Newton explores the many ways our ancestors impact us through generational trauma, shared DNA, inherited traits, and even affect our spiritual and emotional lives. Her wide-ranging book delves into our interest in our ancestors, science, mysticism, mythology, religion, spiritualism, and psychology. At the heart of the book is her grappling with her own family inheritance of mental illness.
The older I get, the more I search backward, as though if I could know everyone who led to my father, who made him who he is, I would know him, too.
Ancestor Trouble by Maud Newton
Newton came from a troubled family. Her parents married because her father decided they would produce perfect children. Of course, they were imperfect people and produced imperfect people. An intelligent, accomplished man, her father held to antiquated ideals of white superiority and an obsession with eugenics, which she later traced to his family’s roots as slave owners. His grandfather was bipolar, a man of accomplishments and failures and rumored to have had thirteen marriages. Her mother embraced an evangelical Christianity and started her own church. She saw demons and angels. Newton traced her mother’s ancestors to Puritan England witches.
Learning how our DNA data is not private, and how it is and could be used, was unsettling. I had just seen a TV crime show that used DNA to create images of suspects, and discovered it is a real thing. The United States has no law forbidden use of DNA to create phenotyping.
I found the book often fascinating, and Newton’s family story engaging.
I received a free egalley from the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased.
Maud Newton’s interest started in girlhood. She heard stories of her ancestors and wondered how much was true, and how her ancestor’s troubles were related to her own experiences. In Ancestor Trouble, Newton explores the many ways our ancestors impact us through generational trauma, shared DNA, inherited traits, and even affect our spiritual and emotional lives. Her wide-ranging book delves into our interest in our ancestors, science, mysticism, mythology, religion, spiritualism, and psychology. At the heart of the book is her grappling with her own family inheritance of mental illness.
The older I get, the more I search backward, as though if I could know everyone who led to my father, who made him who he is, I would know him, too.
Ancestor Trouble by Maud Newton
Newton came from a troubled family. Her parents married because her father decided they would produce perfect children. Of course, they were imperfect people and produced imperfect people. An intelligent, accomplished man, her father held to antiquated ideals of white superiority and an obsession with eugenics, which she later traced to his family’s roots as slave owners. His grandfather was bipolar, a man of accomplishments and failures and rumored to have had thirteen marriages. Her mother embraced an evangelical Christianity and started her own church. She saw demons and angels. Newton traced her mother’s ancestors to Puritan England witches.
Learning how our DNA data is not private, and how it is and could be used, was unsettling. I had just seen a TV crime show that used DNA to create images of suspects, and discovered it is a real thing. The United States has no law forbidden use of DNA to create phenotyping.
I found the book often fascinating, and Newton’s family story engaging.
I received a free egalley from the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased.
May 31, 2022
Having always been interested in genealogy and family history — partly because so much was hidden from me because of distance, divorces, and deaths, and having loved the personal memoir Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, I thought Ancestor Trouble would be right up my alley. Much of it is — but, because there’s such a fine line between so much in life, I’m not sure Newton achieved her aim here.
Ancestor Trouble begins simply enough: Newton talks about the physical similarities she shares with her father — from whom she is estranged. She brings in her mother, her personal feeling of unbelonging with her two parents — highlighting the differences that separate them, alongside the inherited traits and behaviors from both. Newton relates a good number of relatable family stories — alongside her dissection and research into the truth of these stories and predecessors who felt like characters to her up to that point. But Newton quickly allows her research and desire for some sort of personal reckoning with her past to overwhelm the purpose of the book.
Ancestor Trouble quickly gets weighed down by being too often dry and overly textbook. Whenever she isn't on a directly personal exploration of her ancestors, Newton inserts information on the history of anything and everything related to genealogy, genetics, and accountability. It feels suspiciously like filler, but it also has the texture of a common problem with researchers: knowing when enough is enough. You don't need to include everything you found or know or can link.
She winds her way back around often enough to her personal stories and familial ties, but overall Ancestor Trouble lacks a certain amount of focus and cohesion. By the halfway mark, her aim feels more like a purge, rather than simply relating her findings or existing solely as a personal journey.
A little too all-encompassing and I think it gets away from her a smidge.
However, relating to Newton is easy. The weight of relatives, past and present, can sometimes be so pressing and disconcerting that I understand her desire to push herself into the depths and try it from different angles. Her disconnect with, and struggle regarding, her more troublesome relatives from her past is, while not directly relatable, certainly draws my empathy. She's honest and frank about the enslaved people in her family's history, her father's racism, and the mental health issues — her own and her relatives'. Newton is at her best when she's exploring her family tree and the tree's roots, and then deciphering the way it overlays with what she already knew or assumed.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book, nor the content of my review.
Ancestor Trouble begins simply enough: Newton talks about the physical similarities she shares with her father — from whom she is estranged. She brings in her mother, her personal feeling of unbelonging with her two parents — highlighting the differences that separate them, alongside the inherited traits and behaviors from both. Newton relates a good number of relatable family stories — alongside her dissection and research into the truth of these stories and predecessors who felt like characters to her up to that point. But Newton quickly allows her research and desire for some sort of personal reckoning with her past to overwhelm the purpose of the book.
Ancestor Trouble quickly gets weighed down by being too often dry and overly textbook. Whenever she isn't on a directly personal exploration of her ancestors, Newton inserts information on the history of anything and everything related to genealogy, genetics, and accountability. It feels suspiciously like filler, but it also has the texture of a common problem with researchers: knowing when enough is enough. You don't need to include everything you found or know or can link.
She winds her way back around often enough to her personal stories and familial ties, but overall Ancestor Trouble lacks a certain amount of focus and cohesion. By the halfway mark, her aim feels more like a purge, rather than simply relating her findings or existing solely as a personal journey.
A little too all-encompassing and I think it gets away from her a smidge.
However, relating to Newton is easy. The weight of relatives, past and present, can sometimes be so pressing and disconcerting that I understand her desire to push herself into the depths and try it from different angles. Her disconnect with, and struggle regarding, her more troublesome relatives from her past is, while not directly relatable, certainly draws my empathy. She's honest and frank about the enslaved people in her family's history, her father's racism, and the mental health issues — her own and her relatives'. Newton is at her best when she's exploring her family tree and the tree's roots, and then deciphering the way it overlays with what she already knew or assumed.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book, nor the content of my review.
Read
April 13, 2022In a synopsis of Ancestor Trouble, I read that in early 2019 about 26 million people had a DNA test. I was one of them. Though my results were fairly straight forward, I was quickly hooked on the surprising news some persons received. These unexpected results can often change lives. Even the expected can lead us to information about family that we never knew.
Many books on DNA and genes focus on biological inheritance that shakes the family tree. What is different in Maud Newton's telling is how she digs deep and rips into the guts of genetics and heredity. Add to this, her own family story, often as the title states, troublesome. Her father, a lawyer with lots of problems, her mother, who initially sounds like most mothers I know, eventually is conducting exorcisms. What struck me immediately is the reason given as to why this couple married; they believed they'd have smart children. At least that part is fulfilled with Ms. Newton. Following her tree back generations, Maud explores many colorful ancestors, one who was accused of being a witch, another who could had been married thirteen times. I thought it was something when I came up with a four timer in mine. I truly don't know how she managed to cover all she did exposing not only the good of her heritage but parts of it that many of us wouldn't be brave enough to share. In addition she begs the question of privacy amongst the many companies that hold our DNA and ancestry information. She discusses and divulges ome things that will give me pause to reconsider.
Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and Reconciliation is powerful and is one that can easily be read again. My sincere thanks to Random House, Author, Maud Newton and Edelweiss, for entrusting me with this digital ARC.
Many books on DNA and genes focus on biological inheritance that shakes the family tree. What is different in Maud Newton's telling is how she digs deep and rips into the guts of genetics and heredity. Add to this, her own family story, often as the title states, troublesome. Her father, a lawyer with lots of problems, her mother, who initially sounds like most mothers I know, eventually is conducting exorcisms. What struck me immediately is the reason given as to why this couple married; they believed they'd have smart children. At least that part is fulfilled with Ms. Newton. Following her tree back generations, Maud explores many colorful ancestors, one who was accused of being a witch, another who could had been married thirteen times. I thought it was something when I came up with a four timer in mine. I truly don't know how she managed to cover all she did exposing not only the good of her heritage but parts of it that many of us wouldn't be brave enough to share. In addition she begs the question of privacy amongst the many companies that hold our DNA and ancestry information. She discusses and divulges ome things that will give me pause to reconsider.
Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and Reconciliation is powerful and is one that can easily be read again. My sincere thanks to Random House, Author, Maud Newton and Edelweiss, for entrusting me with this digital ARC.
January 29, 2022
The author does many things in this book and does them all well. Interspersed with her personal heritage exploration, are explanations of how companies such as Ancestry and 23andMe use DNA, a summary of scientific research on heredity, a history of burial practices, and an examination of ancestral lineage healing. The author’s quirky, unconventional family presents an engaging backdrop for the topics Newton explores. She shares family folklore -- the ancestor who killed a man with a hay hook; the ancestor with almost a dozen wives -- and what she actually discovered when she uncovered the facts about these people. She examines her relationship with her mother and shares the events that led to her estrangement from her father. She uses what she has learned about her ancestry to better understand them and herself. Always there is a risk with ancestry tracing that one may discover ancestors who acted or held beliefs the searcher does not approve. Newton also shares how she has grappled with this. The book is interesting, well-balanced and is a thoughtful read for anyone who has pondered the issues Newton probes.
April 19, 2022
I have known the author of this book since she was my sister's best friend several decades ago when we are about six or eight years old (I am two years older than Maud). I recall a brilliant, mousy girl who was rather withdrawn at the time. Our lives ran in a rather strange parallel because we both went to the same university but had different majors and our paths barely crossed if at all. I also recall less clearly family all of whom are protagonists in this brutally honest account of Maud's genealogical research.
The writing is casual and engaging as Maud takes us with her on her journey into her immediate past history with her mother and father, their parents and brothers and sisters, and so on. She reveals her discoveries one after the other and we are at times horrified and at times comforted by what her research turns up.
As someone interested in his own genealogy, I found the book highly readable and helpful in interpreting my own family tree. There is a section near the end that approaches an experiential aspect of her research which will be offputting to some readers. I felt it was well-described as her own specific, personal experience and, as with the rest of the book, loved her straightforward and honest recounting of what she lived through.
Despite the obvious subjective filter of appreciating Maud as a wonderful human being, objectively this is an important piece of research into the virtues and dangers of genetic research and a monument to her strength of character and perseverance for having made such an admirable contribution to the field and a beautiful partage of her own story.
The writing is casual and engaging as Maud takes us with her on her journey into her immediate past history with her mother and father, their parents and brothers and sisters, and so on. She reveals her discoveries one after the other and we are at times horrified and at times comforted by what her research turns up.
As someone interested in his own genealogy, I found the book highly readable and helpful in interpreting my own family tree. There is a section near the end that approaches an experiential aspect of her research which will be offputting to some readers. I felt it was well-described as her own specific, personal experience and, as with the rest of the book, loved her straightforward and honest recounting of what she lived through.
Despite the obvious subjective filter of appreciating Maud as a wonderful human being, objectively this is an important piece of research into the virtues and dangers of genetic research and a monument to her strength of character and perseverance for having made such an admirable contribution to the field and a beautiful partage of her own story.
Shelved as 'abandoned'
May 7, 2022Read through page 82. This isn’t a bad book, but I was fairly indifferent to it, and others were waiting at the library.
The author blends nonfiction and memoir, which I normally like, but I’ve read far better nonfiction on this subject—for the science of heredity, try She Has Her Mother's Laugh; for the human interest angle on DNA testing and genealogical research, The Lost Family—and this one didn’t seem to bring anything new to the table. The author’s stories about her various relatives are jumbled together, which becomes particularly confusing when she refers to them all by the similar-sounding names she called them: take for instance the two grandmothers and two great-grandmothers referred to respectively as Granny, Grandma, Mamma and Mama T! Her relatives have some secrets, but she seems a little overly fixated on them and I wasn’t as interested in the stories as she was.
The author blends nonfiction and memoir, which I normally like, but I’ve read far better nonfiction on this subject—for the science of heredity, try She Has Her Mother's Laugh; for the human interest angle on DNA testing and genealogical research, The Lost Family—and this one didn’t seem to bring anything new to the table. The author’s stories about her various relatives are jumbled together, which becomes particularly confusing when she refers to them all by the similar-sounding names she called them: take for instance the two grandmothers and two great-grandmothers referred to respectively as Granny, Grandma, Mamma and Mama T! Her relatives have some secrets, but she seems a little overly fixated on them and I wasn’t as interested in the stories as she was.
March 9, 2022
My aunt wrote a book about her (and therefore, my) ancestors. I’m now reading it, and it’s really interesting. As a child, I remember going to the library with my mom when she would research our genealogy using the microfilm machine there. In 2019, many of us traveled to Germany to see the places our ancestors had lived. Fascinating! And yet, as I read the stories, there are troubling things there as well as good.
That’s probably what sparked my interest in “Ancestor Trouble.” I was curious to see how author Maud Newton would explore the topic. And oh my — explore she does. Newton (not her real name; she has taken on the name as an ancestor to write under) has always been extremely interested in her past. Much of that is probably due to her relatives being decidedly colorful. In her history, there is a relative who has been married 13 times; another who, tired of having child after child, killed the most recent baby by hitting its head against the outdoor steps; another who fought and killed a friend in a battle involving a hay hook. I can guarantee that you’ll feel better about your own family history after perusing Maud’s.
This book is equal parts Maud’s family history and forays into various aspects of genealogy, genetics, etc. As to her look into her own family, she is decidedly angry about her father, going on and on AND ON about him being racist. This theme was so prevalent that I did a search (yes, I read this on Kindle), and racist/racism were mentioned 34 times. “He and Mamma both were openly, unremittingly — ‘jubilantly’ is not too strong a word — racist.” Racism is a huge issue for Maud, and in addition to calling her dad on it, she takes the issue further. She feels ancestry.com is racist in offering Heritage Tours. She mentions the Department of Defense using programs “with sometimes racist results.” Discovering that she is fully white, after having her DNA tested, “was deeply, irrationally disappointing, as though having mixed ancestry would somehow mitigate the wrongs of my forebears.” Wow! I pictured Maud as one of the current batch of woke 30-somethings, but she’s actually around 50. Race is obviously an issue of huge import to her — and though I’m sure she’d disagree, I find that in itself racist. Oh, that we could all just view people as people, rather than as their color. And I wondered about her dad. He’s a lawyer, presumably still living. She is estranged from him, but if he is as awful as she describes, it’s hard to imagine him maintaining such a career.
Maud isn’t just upset about her forebears’ racism, but about their wrong treatment of indigenous peoples as well. “It’s one thing to acknowledge bigotry and inhumanity where we expect it, where we’ve always judged it, in people we already view critically. It’s another thing to face and acknowledge it in the people we love most. My ancestors through Granny perpetrated other large-scale wrongs, too. I’d never imagined my own forebears interacting with indigenous people of this land. That history, like the Mayflower, felt remote, like something that couldn’t have involved my family directly, even though I knew that they — and I — had benefited from systemic injustices against Native people.” Yes, this is an actual quote. Can you tell that I was cooling on this book faster than if I’d been shoved into the freezer? In an attempt to assuage her familial guilt, she asks “forgiveness of the land and its Native people, living and dead. On the worn dirt at the foot of a bench, I emptied a bottle of wine as an offering.” I am not making this up.
At this point, the contrarian in me had to look at Maud’s angst over the actions of her relatives and ancestors, see her sanctimonious attitude, but then wonder what future generations would think about her in, say, 2100. Will the woke attitudes she so prizes be equally prized then? Or will future generations judge her as harshly as she now judges those past? It’s worth considering.
In the midst of all this, guess who enters the picture? Yep, Donald Trump. In a chapter about eugenics, Maud writes “Donald J. Trump, former president of the United States, credited ‘good genes’ for his success, intelligence, and health, and the orange glow of his skin.” Awww — she captured the “orange man bad” phrasing so popular among the woke. Later in the book we read of something praised by “former president Bill Clinton,” since of course his name could only be associated with positivity. We also read of “a bill proposed by congressional Republicans in 2017 that would have allowed employers to require their employees to undergo genetic testing or pay a fine if they refused.” She makes no mention of current congressional Democrats, who support fines, mandates, and even firing for those choosing not to get Covid vaccines. I’m sure that troubles her just as much.
In the parts of the book that take a more non-fiction angle, Maud explores all aspects of genealogy. Many of these are quite tangential, but I credit the author for being a deep thinker and for leaving no rabbit trail unfollowed. She is “a committed unbeliever,” “a committed agnostic,” who is offended at the Christian beliefs of many of her relatives and ancestors. Early in the book she points out what she sees as inconsistencies in the Bible. She explores spirituality in various ways, by studying many different religions and going on some experiences that sound like seances. She feels “all our dead who have not been properly grieved and elevated are unwell ghosts cluttering up the spirit realm, preventing us from accessing the wisdom of our ancestors and the best way forward for ourselves.”
I have many more things highlighted, but that’s about enough. As you can probably guess, this was not a hit for me. I credit Maud with good writing, and I do feel sad for all the stress and anxiety she feels, even as I disagree strenuously with her methods for finding resolution and peace. “Ancestor Trouble” isn’t a book I can recommend.
That’s probably what sparked my interest in “Ancestor Trouble.” I was curious to see how author Maud Newton would explore the topic. And oh my — explore she does. Newton (not her real name; she has taken on the name as an ancestor to write under) has always been extremely interested in her past. Much of that is probably due to her relatives being decidedly colorful. In her history, there is a relative who has been married 13 times; another who, tired of having child after child, killed the most recent baby by hitting its head against the outdoor steps; another who fought and killed a friend in a battle involving a hay hook. I can guarantee that you’ll feel better about your own family history after perusing Maud’s.
This book is equal parts Maud’s family history and forays into various aspects of genealogy, genetics, etc. As to her look into her own family, she is decidedly angry about her father, going on and on AND ON about him being racist. This theme was so prevalent that I did a search (yes, I read this on Kindle), and racist/racism were mentioned 34 times. “He and Mamma both were openly, unremittingly — ‘jubilantly’ is not too strong a word — racist.” Racism is a huge issue for Maud, and in addition to calling her dad on it, she takes the issue further. She feels ancestry.com is racist in offering Heritage Tours. She mentions the Department of Defense using programs “with sometimes racist results.” Discovering that she is fully white, after having her DNA tested, “was deeply, irrationally disappointing, as though having mixed ancestry would somehow mitigate the wrongs of my forebears.” Wow! I pictured Maud as one of the current batch of woke 30-somethings, but she’s actually around 50. Race is obviously an issue of huge import to her — and though I’m sure she’d disagree, I find that in itself racist. Oh, that we could all just view people as people, rather than as their color. And I wondered about her dad. He’s a lawyer, presumably still living. She is estranged from him, but if he is as awful as she describes, it’s hard to imagine him maintaining such a career.
Maud isn’t just upset about her forebears’ racism, but about their wrong treatment of indigenous peoples as well. “It’s one thing to acknowledge bigotry and inhumanity where we expect it, where we’ve always judged it, in people we already view critically. It’s another thing to face and acknowledge it in the people we love most. My ancestors through Granny perpetrated other large-scale wrongs, too. I’d never imagined my own forebears interacting with indigenous people of this land. That history, like the Mayflower, felt remote, like something that couldn’t have involved my family directly, even though I knew that they — and I — had benefited from systemic injustices against Native people.” Yes, this is an actual quote. Can you tell that I was cooling on this book faster than if I’d been shoved into the freezer? In an attempt to assuage her familial guilt, she asks “forgiveness of the land and its Native people, living and dead. On the worn dirt at the foot of a bench, I emptied a bottle of wine as an offering.” I am not making this up.
At this point, the contrarian in me had to look at Maud’s angst over the actions of her relatives and ancestors, see her sanctimonious attitude, but then wonder what future generations would think about her in, say, 2100. Will the woke attitudes she so prizes be equally prized then? Or will future generations judge her as harshly as she now judges those past? It’s worth considering.
In the midst of all this, guess who enters the picture? Yep, Donald Trump. In a chapter about eugenics, Maud writes “Donald J. Trump, former president of the United States, credited ‘good genes’ for his success, intelligence, and health, and the orange glow of his skin.” Awww — she captured the “orange man bad” phrasing so popular among the woke. Later in the book we read of something praised by “former president Bill Clinton,” since of course his name could only be associated with positivity. We also read of “a bill proposed by congressional Republicans in 2017 that would have allowed employers to require their employees to undergo genetic testing or pay a fine if they refused.” She makes no mention of current congressional Democrats, who support fines, mandates, and even firing for those choosing not to get Covid vaccines. I’m sure that troubles her just as much.
In the parts of the book that take a more non-fiction angle, Maud explores all aspects of genealogy. Many of these are quite tangential, but I credit the author for being a deep thinker and for leaving no rabbit trail unfollowed. She is “a committed unbeliever,” “a committed agnostic,” who is offended at the Christian beliefs of many of her relatives and ancestors. Early in the book she points out what she sees as inconsistencies in the Bible. She explores spirituality in various ways, by studying many different religions and going on some experiences that sound like seances. She feels “all our dead who have not been properly grieved and elevated are unwell ghosts cluttering up the spirit realm, preventing us from accessing the wisdom of our ancestors and the best way forward for ourselves.”
I have many more things highlighted, but that’s about enough. As you can probably guess, this was not a hit for me. I credit Maud with good writing, and I do feel sad for all the stress and anxiety she feels, even as I disagree strenuously with her methods for finding resolution and peace. “Ancestor Trouble” isn’t a book I can recommend.
April 21, 2022
This was such an enticing premise and clearly a passionate endeavour on the part of the author, who has spent years researching her family and understanding the modern tools available through AncestryDNA and 23andMe that I couldn't wait to read it and started it immediately I picked it up.
It's both a personal project and an exploration of the meaning of genetic genealogy, of observations of ancestor's behaviour and achievements, their inclinations and attitudes, their better moments and worst traits. Of society's experiments with eugenics, her own father's marriage based on trying to create "smart kids", persecuted women, a female relative accused of being a witch, and a clear line of personality inclinations that have been born down the female line.
Maud Newton (a pseudonym inspired by one of her relatives) is both curious and wary. Curious to know who these people were and whether there is any connection with the way her own personality has manifested in this world and war of some of the darker aspects she is already too aware of, in her father, from whom she is estranged and some of the plantation and slave owning ancestors she is descended from.
She explores the concept of nature versus nurture, she studies their faces and reads of their ailments, looking for physical resemblance and a possible forecast of health parameters that might need to be surveyed. This too is something that DNA companies have dabbled with in the past, that has created controversy as people make decisions about their health based on speculative, not always reliable genetic information.
One of the most incredible aspects of the DNA results, was how many times her profile has changed over the years and how extreme the changes were, making one wonder what is real and what is a fiction, as the database is added to over time, causing everyone's results to adjust.
In the end, having explored all the archives, the registry's, the DNA results and her own observations and those of her living relatives, she takes a more open minded, imaginative route, attending and "ancestral lineage healing intensive" workshop/retreat in North Carolina, meeting others interested in connecting with their ancestors and learning of the age old ceremonies and traditions that had been long forgotten in some cultures, that are beginning to make a revival. She is open enough to it to have an interesting experience and whether readers believe it or not, I'm sure the experience was healing in some way.
At times there was a lot of family detail, but it's written in a way that kept me captivated while reading, I appreciated the depth which with she explains how to get the most of the DNA information, the risks of obsessing about it and the number of extended family one is likely to encounter. I enjoyed the more spiritual journey she took at the end and the dedication with which the project was realised.
Excellent read.
It's both a personal project and an exploration of the meaning of genetic genealogy, of observations of ancestor's behaviour and achievements, their inclinations and attitudes, their better moments and worst traits. Of society's experiments with eugenics, her own father's marriage based on trying to create "smart kids", persecuted women, a female relative accused of being a witch, and a clear line of personality inclinations that have been born down the female line.
Maud Newton (a pseudonym inspired by one of her relatives) is both curious and wary. Curious to know who these people were and whether there is any connection with the way her own personality has manifested in this world and war of some of the darker aspects she is already too aware of, in her father, from whom she is estranged and some of the plantation and slave owning ancestors she is descended from.
She explores the concept of nature versus nurture, she studies their faces and reads of their ailments, looking for physical resemblance and a possible forecast of health parameters that might need to be surveyed. This too is something that DNA companies have dabbled with in the past, that has created controversy as people make decisions about their health based on speculative, not always reliable genetic information.
One of the most incredible aspects of the DNA results, was how many times her profile has changed over the years and how extreme the changes were, making one wonder what is real and what is a fiction, as the database is added to over time, causing everyone's results to adjust.
In the end, having explored all the archives, the registry's, the DNA results and her own observations and those of her living relatives, she takes a more open minded, imaginative route, attending and "ancestral lineage healing intensive" workshop/retreat in North Carolina, meeting others interested in connecting with their ancestors and learning of the age old ceremonies and traditions that had been long forgotten in some cultures, that are beginning to make a revival. She is open enough to it to have an interesting experience and whether readers believe it or not, I'm sure the experience was healing in some way.
At times there was a lot of family detail, but it's written in a way that kept me captivated while reading, I appreciated the depth which with she explains how to get the most of the DNA information, the risks of obsessing about it and the number of extended family one is likely to encounter. I enjoyed the more spiritual journey she took at the end and the dedication with which the project was realised.
Excellent read.
April 5, 2022
I feel like it should be clearer what this book is. It appears to be an intellectual dive into ancestry and a reckoning with a personal history of racism. Not really. Newton does investigate the blatant racism and harm of her ancestors, who were slave holders and white supremacists, but then ... she ends up worshiping them. Literally. This book takes a left turn into ancestor worship, which is strange and not at all what I was expecting. I found it to be contradictory to worship people who did so much harm and in general wasn't interested in reading about her spiritual exploration. If ancestor worship from a white woman who is aware of cultural appropriation but is leaning toward it anyway, and who reckons with her awful family by making a shrine to them in her house, is your thing, then this book is for you. Personally, I wouldn't have read Ancestor Trouble if I'd known all the above.
December 3, 2022
This is a challenging book, at least it was for me. I like challenging books so I persisted and it paid off.
Maud Newton was one of the stars of the lit bloggers in the early 2000s. She reviewed challenging books and interviewed authors of the day. I followed her and she inspired me to start my own blog. I was challenging myself to read books from every year of my life, looking for the fiction that portrayed the world in which I grew up.
Meanwhile Maud Newton was searching for the roots of her tumultuous family in an effort to understand herself and her life. She studied her genetic roots, newspapers, financial and property records and birth/death notices in order to uncover the secrets and lies buried in her family history.
She submitted her DNA to Ancestry.com and 23andMe, while also researching the ethics and reliability of such sites.
In Ancestor Trouble she pulls it all together and show us how she did it, what she learned. We have both spent decades on our respective searches for truth, meaning and understanding. I am in awe of what she accomplished and inspired to keep going on my own quest.
Maud Newton was one of the stars of the lit bloggers in the early 2000s. She reviewed challenging books and interviewed authors of the day. I followed her and she inspired me to start my own blog. I was challenging myself to read books from every year of my life, looking for the fiction that portrayed the world in which I grew up.
Meanwhile Maud Newton was searching for the roots of her tumultuous family in an effort to understand herself and her life. She studied her genetic roots, newspapers, financial and property records and birth/death notices in order to uncover the secrets and lies buried in her family history.
She submitted her DNA to Ancestry.com and 23andMe, while also researching the ethics and reliability of such sites.
In Ancestor Trouble she pulls it all together and show us how she did it, what she learned. We have both spent decades on our respective searches for truth, meaning and understanding. I am in awe of what she accomplished and inspired to keep going on my own quest.
March 5, 2022
ANCESTOR TROUBLE is a combination of a deeply personal account of Maud Newton's investigation into her own family history and a broader look at the ways humans have tried to connect or disconnect from their ancestors. In this examination, she conveys her sincere desire to question and understand her parents for their toxic beliefs about race and religion, and for actions her parents took that did actual harm to their children.
Newton's colorful extended family is part of the subject of inquiry, the good and not so good. And she makes a case for what tendencies, physical and emotional, she might have inherited.
Newton also discusses genetics and some of the theories of genetic trauma that might be ensconced in brains decades or even centuries later, patterns of behavior that are sometimes repeated, and, finally, a real effort to connect to ancestors through guided meditation. This attempt to communicate with spirits is one of my favorite parts of the book; whether there was something "there" or it was a product of her mind doesn't much matter to me. I liked hearing about the experiences the intentions behind them.
Readers are sure to consider their own family histories and how to perhaps forgive past generations for terribly wrongs. It's a fascinating look at how we might connect to our own familial past.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced review copy of this fabulous book.
Newton's colorful extended family is part of the subject of inquiry, the good and not so good. And she makes a case for what tendencies, physical and emotional, she might have inherited.
Newton also discusses genetics and some of the theories of genetic trauma that might be ensconced in brains decades or even centuries later, patterns of behavior that are sometimes repeated, and, finally, a real effort to connect to ancestors through guided meditation. This attempt to communicate with spirits is one of my favorite parts of the book; whether there was something "there" or it was a product of her mind doesn't much matter to me. I liked hearing about the experiences the intentions behind them.
Readers are sure to consider their own family histories and how to perhaps forgive past generations for terribly wrongs. It's a fascinating look at how we might connect to our own familial past.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced review copy of this fabulous book.
February 25, 2022
A wild ride. Newton has researched gender, genealogy, sex, race, and much more in tying all of these into her attempt to come to grips with her charismatic ancestors.
February 20, 2022
I would recommend this book to folks who are interested in family history generally or who often think about the experiences of their ancestors, whether really into pedigree-detail genealogy or just more generally intrigued. It’s also worth a read for people who want to learn a little more about heredity, genetics, and related topics from a personal perspective.
Full review at Lone Star on a Lark
Full review at Lone Star on a Lark
February 11, 2022
This was one heck of a personal journey. There were so many unique characters, appalling stories and sad stories. The journey the author made was so very moving and compelling to read.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
February 27, 2022
I received a digital advance copy of Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation by Maud Newton via NetGalley. Ancestor Trouble is scheduled for release on March 29, 2022.
Ancestor Trouble chronicles Maud’s deep dive into her family’s past. Maud’s fraught relationship with her parents (each for different reasons) and stories she has heard about her ancestors sent her on a search for the truth. She uses traditional ancestry, DNA based ancestry, and the words of living relatives in an attempt to find the truth.
As Maud shares what she has learned, she reflects on a variety of related issues. The use of DNA to predict our medical future. The use of DNA to create pictures or find relatives of potential criminals. The potential impacts of epigenetics (information outside of DNA that seems to be passed from one generation to the next). Our responsibility for the wrongs of our ancestors (for Maud this included slave owners, overt racists, and murderers). Religion as a way to find meaning in life and as a tool to degrade others.
Maud’s story was very identifiable for me. Like Maud, I have many questions about my ancestry, and have considered some of the same avenues of exploration Maud took. The urge to find roots, to understand the echoes and ripples from the past, was clear throughout Maud’s story. Maud does a good job of explaining the revelations she makes along the way, while making it clear that in the end, she may have more questions than she did when she started.
Entwined with Maud’s personal journey are explanations of many of the social and scientific concepts that impact her exploration. These explanations are presented in a way that should help readers understand the hows and whys of these concepts and how they influence our understanding of ourselves and our pasts.
Overall, Ancestor Trouble delivers on both its title and subtitle. I expect most of us would have troubles, reconciliations, and reckonings if we took on the same deep exploration of our family trees, though the specifics may be different for each of us.
Ancestor Trouble chronicles Maud’s deep dive into her family’s past. Maud’s fraught relationship with her parents (each for different reasons) and stories she has heard about her ancestors sent her on a search for the truth. She uses traditional ancestry, DNA based ancestry, and the words of living relatives in an attempt to find the truth.
As Maud shares what she has learned, she reflects on a variety of related issues. The use of DNA to predict our medical future. The use of DNA to create pictures or find relatives of potential criminals. The potential impacts of epigenetics (information outside of DNA that seems to be passed from one generation to the next). Our responsibility for the wrongs of our ancestors (for Maud this included slave owners, overt racists, and murderers). Religion as a way to find meaning in life and as a tool to degrade others.
Maud’s story was very identifiable for me. Like Maud, I have many questions about my ancestry, and have considered some of the same avenues of exploration Maud took. The urge to find roots, to understand the echoes and ripples from the past, was clear throughout Maud’s story. Maud does a good job of explaining the revelations she makes along the way, while making it clear that in the end, she may have more questions than she did when she started.
Entwined with Maud’s personal journey are explanations of many of the social and scientific concepts that impact her exploration. These explanations are presented in a way that should help readers understand the hows and whys of these concepts and how they influence our understanding of ourselves and our pasts.
Overall, Ancestor Trouble delivers on both its title and subtitle. I expect most of us would have troubles, reconciliations, and reckonings if we took on the same deep exploration of our family trees, though the specifics may be different for each of us.
March 25, 2022
The author weaves a compelling story around her personal journey to understand herself and the family she comes from. Newton's father is a virulent racist who believes that "...slavery [was] a benevolent institution that should never have been abandoned..." Her mother is a fundamentalist Christian and self-styled minister who believes that sin is caused by demon possession. Mental illness runs rife in her mother's family as outspoken racism runs through members of her father's family. She ties her own personal family history research to wider concepts, stretching from the ancient Greek concept of the four "humours" that determined an individual's personality to the study of epigenetics, the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work.. She delves into ancestor veneration in cultures around the world and the perks and pitfalls of DNA tests from genealogy websites like Ancestry and 23andme.
Newton has written much more than a memoir or a "harrowing things I learned when I started digging into my family history" tale. She has synthesized research from many different fields and angles to try to piece together a way the individual may become whole through an understanding of the central relationship upon which all other experiences build: the parent-child bond and how that bond is reflected over and over down the generations. Highly recommended, particularly for those interested in family history and intergenerational trauma.
Newton has written much more than a memoir or a "harrowing things I learned when I started digging into my family history" tale. She has synthesized research from many different fields and angles to try to piece together a way the individual may become whole through an understanding of the central relationship upon which all other experiences build: the parent-child bond and how that bond is reflected over and over down the generations. Highly recommended, particularly for those interested in family history and intergenerational trauma.
April 25, 2022
I had foot surgery a couple of years ago and had to keep my foot elevated so my daughter taught me how to use Ancestry.com. I’m not sure I would have understood this book without that introduction. She and I pulled out our laptops and with her guidance I learned a lot about the program and about my family.
The chapters are interlaced with Newton’s family’s history, modern research tools and the history of genetics. In a former life I was an interlibrary loan manager and in that role would borrow microfiche and microfilm for people doing research at the local LDS family history center. Contemporary researchers of their family history owe those early researchers a debt of gratitude.
In my short period of research I came appreciate the narratives that have been digitized from old church records, military records and cemetery maps. And as Newton reveals, you might find your family’s plantation records with a full inventory of slaves. Be careful what you wish for.
The chapters are interlaced with Newton’s family’s history, modern research tools and the history of genetics. In a former life I was an interlibrary loan manager and in that role would borrow microfiche and microfilm for people doing research at the local LDS family history center. Contemporary researchers of their family history owe those early researchers a debt of gratitude.
In my short period of research I came appreciate the narratives that have been digitized from old church records, military records and cemetery maps. And as Newton reveals, you might find your family’s plantation records with a full inventory of slaves. Be careful what you wish for.
March 2, 2022
this book is great . here is an amazon link to it if you want check out https://amzn.to/3Celp0g
February 8, 2022
This was a well-written, interesting, and ultimately moving story. Newton goes searching for her ancestors, in part because of her troubled relationships with her parents and their legacies in her life. She begins with the genealogy part, researching in census and other online records to locate the people she came from. Being from the south, she learns quickly about how many of her ancestors enslaved people, and how this does and does not connect with the racism she observed in her family growing up.
Because of her mistrust of her father and her estrangement from him, she does not even mention his name for fear of being sued - he sounds like a completely unpleasant person and it's hard to believe anyone would put up with him for two minutes.
Newton moves from genealogy, to DNA, to the complexities of accepting her ancestors as where she came from, without idealizing them. Realizing that it would make no sense for her, a southern white woman, to try to pursue "ancestor work" using African or Native American models, she looks for ways to do ancestor work as someone of 100% European origins, and to use what she actually has, so to speak. While a lot of the "ancestor work" she describes seems rather woo-woo to me (visualizing ancestral spirits and so on), the idea of thinking what ancestors might be "well" in a possible afterlife (because they were properly mourned and remembered after their death) vs. which ones might not be makes a sort of sense and I can see right away where a few people in my lineage would not be very well and which ones definitely would not be.
Ultimately, Newton finds a trove of writings from the 1960s and 70s by the great-great-aunt from whom she chose her pen name, and finds wit, intelligence, and virulent racism. While this is a disappointment to her, she feels it's better to know.
In the final pages, she composes a message of forgiveness to her maternal line that I found extremely moving, since that's the line of mine that also contains a lot of complexity and strange resentment (although nothing like the intense levels of dysfunction Newton found in her family). I took a quick photo of that paragraph so I can revisit it and think about it.
This is a worthwhile read for any white American who has ancestors. Yes, that means all of us.
Because of her mistrust of her father and her estrangement from him, she does not even mention his name for fear of being sued - he sounds like a completely unpleasant person and it's hard to believe anyone would put up with him for two minutes.
Newton moves from genealogy, to DNA, to the complexities of accepting her ancestors as where she came from, without idealizing them. Realizing that it would make no sense for her, a southern white woman, to try to pursue "ancestor work" using African or Native American models, she looks for ways to do ancestor work as someone of 100% European origins, and to use what she actually has, so to speak. While a lot of the "ancestor work" she describes seems rather woo-woo to me (visualizing ancestral spirits and so on), the idea of thinking what ancestors might be "well" in a possible afterlife (because they were properly mourned and remembered after their death) vs. which ones might not be makes a sort of sense and I can see right away where a few people in my lineage would not be very well and which ones definitely would not be.
Ultimately, Newton finds a trove of writings from the 1960s and 70s by the great-great-aunt from whom she chose her pen name, and finds wit, intelligence, and virulent racism. While this is a disappointment to her, she feels it's better to know.
In the final pages, she composes a message of forgiveness to her maternal line that I found extremely moving, since that's the line of mine that also contains a lot of complexity and strange resentment (although nothing like the intense levels of dysfunction Newton found in her family). I took a quick photo of that paragraph so I can revisit it and think about it.
This is a worthwhile read for any white American who has ancestors. Yes, that means all of us.
March 20, 2022
I’m fascinated by family history stories, so I was drawn to Ancestor Troubles. From the start, I was drawn into her family story and the information about genes and DNA testing that was included.
I was intrigued by the similarities of places and migration patterns that my family heritage shared with hers. Her family was much more colorful than mine (at least as far as I know) and that gave a spark to what otherwise may have been a bland tale.
About mid-way through the book, I began to lose interest. I grew weary of the criticism of her father and other family members. She dwells mostly on racism during the last part of the story, never seeming to consider that her ancestors were products from their time. We can see their wrongs from today’s view and easily pass judgement on them. But, I wonder, if we were of their generation how much the same we would have been?
I felt like the book seemed to meander all over the place with various topics, at times being a bit repetitive. I also found it confusing to keep track of the various relatives she mentioned. Finally, she goes into detail about her spiritual journey, which I didn’t find to be that meaningful to her family history.
I liked the book, but a bit of editing and omitting of extraneous information could have streamlined this story and made it a better read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Random House for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.
I was intrigued by the similarities of places and migration patterns that my family heritage shared with hers. Her family was much more colorful than mine (at least as far as I know) and that gave a spark to what otherwise may have been a bland tale.
About mid-way through the book, I began to lose interest. I grew weary of the criticism of her father and other family members. She dwells mostly on racism during the last part of the story, never seeming to consider that her ancestors were products from their time. We can see their wrongs from today’s view and easily pass judgement on them. But, I wonder, if we were of their generation how much the same we would have been?
I felt like the book seemed to meander all over the place with various topics, at times being a bit repetitive. I also found it confusing to keep track of the various relatives she mentioned. Finally, she goes into detail about her spiritual journey, which I didn’t find to be that meaningful to her family history.
I liked the book, but a bit of editing and omitting of extraneous information could have streamlined this story and made it a better read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Random House for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.
January 11, 2022
In many ways, I was most interested in the author's diligent tracing of her family roots, especially once she recognized that both sides of her family had owned slaves, To some degree, she was equally interested in learning more about her family members who had ended up institutionalized, questioning her own emotional well-being at times. Unlike with the racism, which she has vowed to try to change and addresses in her personal life, it's a bit more difficult to address depression.
In the acknowledgments, I found it interesting that she included her step-father, the man who molested her but not her father, who she remains estranged, except for written correspondence. Perhaps there was some kind of forgiveness to the stepfather that could not happen with the father. Since her father is an attorney, I also wondered if he'd find a way to make his daughter "pay" for writing this memoir. He's not the most likable character in this book.
"Ancestor Trouble" is a book that many of can relate to since families are difficult, and family secrets rarely remain hidden. Even though I am not a person who seeks to find more about my family history, the present members have given me enough insight to not want to delve deeper, I enjoyed Newton's journey of searching and discovering
In the acknowledgments, I found it interesting that she included her step-father, the man who molested her but not her father, who she remains estranged, except for written correspondence. Perhaps there was some kind of forgiveness to the stepfather that could not happen with the father. Since her father is an attorney, I also wondered if he'd find a way to make his daughter "pay" for writing this memoir. He's not the most likable character in this book.
"Ancestor Trouble" is a book that many of can relate to since families are difficult, and family secrets rarely remain hidden. Even though I am not a person who seeks to find more about my family history, the present members have given me enough insight to not want to delve deeper, I enjoyed Newton's journey of searching and discovering
July 1, 2022
sprawling and just plain weird/bad middle aged white lady musing on her literal ancestor troubles. the first half flips between family anecdotes and quotes from other recent books about genetics and heredity. second half repeats more detailed anecdotes, some particularly egregious white supremacist behavior from her father. then it takes a turn and she seeks out ways to connect with and honor her ancestors. Some methods feel appropriative though I don’t think it’s a bad idea for white people to attempt this work in other forms.
there are a lot of moments where she does the self-aware liberal white lady thing of mentioning her guilt and her attempts to relieve it. it’s all self-serving and extremely liberal. it’s funny to me that there are negative reviews from conservatives bemoaning her “politics”.
this book should have just stayed as a family artifact. there’s nothing useful or particularly interesting about it unless you really want details of this woman’s fucked up family.
there are a lot of moments where she does the self-aware liberal white lady thing of mentioning her guilt and her attempts to relieve it. it’s all self-serving and extremely liberal. it’s funny to me that there are negative reviews from conservatives bemoaning her “politics”.
this book should have just stayed as a family artifact. there’s nothing useful or particularly interesting about it unless you really want details of this woman’s fucked up family.
March 29, 2022
This is a fabulously structured French braid of a book, deftly bringing together many lines of inquiry: stories of Maud Newton’s eccentric family, apocryphal and researched; her interest in genealogy; the legacy of white supremacy running down her ancestral lines; epigenetics—the study of how (or whether) environment can alter genes and inherited traits; spirituality; how we relate to our ancestors and what, if anything, we owe them; and the way all those strands come together to form each and every one of us. It’s both cerebral and heartfelt—she’s got wonderful control of language and tone, and can talk about matters of faith and ephemerality without getting mired in new-ageyness. I try to stay away from reviewer-speak but the phrase that comes to mind here is tour de force, so I’m going to stick with that. Fascinating stuff; I’ll be featuring Maud on Bloom in the next couple of weeks.
April 12, 2022
This book arrives at a time when it seems many of us, perhaps driven by COVID spare time and introspection, are researching our ancestry. The author covers the history of genealogy, relationships to ancestors in different cultures, religions, and times, and the ancestry and DNA industrial complexes. I particularly appreciated her coverage of the still somewhat controversial area of epigenetics.
The through line of this book on which she strings these pearls is Maud Newton's own journey back along her own family tree. She discovers and comes to terms with some less savory ancestors and events whose long shadows still fall on those alive today. As the subtitle suggests, finds a way to make peace with them. A spirit guide for those of us embarking on our own ancestor discovery. Highly recommended.
The through line of this book on which she strings these pearls is Maud Newton's own journey back along her own family tree. She discovers and comes to terms with some less savory ancestors and events whose long shadows still fall on those alive today. As the subtitle suggests, finds a way to make peace with them. A spirit guide for those of us embarking on our own ancestor discovery. Highly recommended.
March 4, 2022
I received a free e-arc copy of this book through Netgalley.
Maud Newton has created this half-memoir, half-dive through the history of genes and epigenetics to both entertain us and educate us. I found the parts about her family: recent and distant to be more fascinating than the science side, but both are worthwhile especially together. I have read several of the books she refers to and have been interested in generational trauma which she discusses as well.
Maud Newton has created this half-memoir, half-dive through the history of genes and epigenetics to both entertain us and educate us. I found the parts about her family: recent and distant to be more fascinating than the science side, but both are worthwhile especially together. I have read several of the books she refers to and have been interested in generational trauma which she discusses as well.
March 13, 2022
This is an incredible book! Maud Newton is a phenomenal writer.
May 14, 2022
Truly titled, this book. As I read, it felt that the reckoning came in tides, presented in a wide-ranging narrative of the author's family members and their experiences (as she understands them), separated in parts: Genealogy, Genetic Genealogy, Nature and Nurture, Physicality, Inheritance, Spirituality and Creativity. Surprising categories, I thought, but well-deployed.
Reconciliation is more difficult than Reckoning. Reckonings can be ongoing, extended and continued. . . a Reconciliation is a done-deal, a conclusion, a complete settlement on a designated or defined value. That's where I was often tossed-lost in these chapters - what was just opinion, where was the settling up. And perhaps that's the point! How does a descendant in 2022 truly settle up an abusive indenture that happened 200 years ago? The abuser and abused are long gone. It's the ghost of abuse that remains, often echoing down the years in the families of the abuser and the abused. Still, fighting phantoms is dicey work.
This was an interesting read - not the read I thought I was getting, but something altogether different. This the author's valiant attempt to consider, acknowledge and specifically point out some of the shoulders on which she stands. Ten or twenty years from now, I wonder if this same premise and effort were employed, would a completely different book result?
A Sincere Thank you to Maud Newton, Random House, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.
#AncestorTrouble #NetGalley
Reconciliation is more difficult than Reckoning. Reckonings can be ongoing, extended and continued. . . a Reconciliation is a done-deal, a conclusion, a complete settlement on a designated or defined value. That's where I was often tossed-lost in these chapters - what was just opinion, where was the settling up. And perhaps that's the point! How does a descendant in 2022 truly settle up an abusive indenture that happened 200 years ago? The abuser and abused are long gone. It's the ghost of abuse that remains, often echoing down the years in the families of the abuser and the abused. Still, fighting phantoms is dicey work.
This was an interesting read - not the read I thought I was getting, but something altogether different. This the author's valiant attempt to consider, acknowledge and specifically point out some of the shoulders on which she stands. Ten or twenty years from now, I wonder if this same premise and effort were employed, would a completely different book result?
A Sincere Thank you to Maud Newton, Random House, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.
#AncestorTrouble #NetGalley
March 10, 2022
Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of ANCESTOR TROUBLE by Maud Newton. As a Mormon, ancestry research is a big part of my culture. I never personally got into it, compared to some of my friends and family, but I still felt drawn to this book because of that culture. I also appreciated Newton's work to resolve her guilt over some of the things her ancestors had done—from enslaving people to stealing Native American land. I don't come from ancestors who enslaved people (my ancestors were too poor and didn't live in the South), but I think all white people in the U.S. have some kind of guilt about our history (or we should). So, I found reading about healing and reconciling that guilt helpful. I also enjoyed all her research into why we are drawn to our ancestors and why it's important to learn about them. It was a bit drawn out and tedious at times and could get repetitive—definitely a thick and slow read. Still, I kept thinking of people I knew who would love to read this and have. already started talking about it to people. So, overall, I found it a valuable read.
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