Customer Reviews

Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree - The Search for My Melungeon Ancestors

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The search for identity begins at birth and continues through life for most of us. Lisa Alther generously takes us along on a significant foray into her attempt to uncover the hidden part of her immediate ancestry in an attempt to learn more of who she is. A product of the mountain South, Ms. Alther has been subtly deprived of a rich part of her heritage because of a mysterious concatenation of extra- and intra-familial events. Her wish to discern and explicate these events and the forces which shaped them lead her and the reader on an illuminating journey. She writes with the droll wit of a wise and not yet jaded resident of many locales, geographical and cultural, and one ends up the better for her willingness to share the often dazzling characters in her family, life, and history. As a psychologist and Southerner manqué I recommend this memoir enthusiastically.

Making history come alive is a daunting task for any writer, but Lisa Alther achieves that goal with her usual grace and wit in Kinfolks, sweeping the reader along on her very own magical mystery tour as she explores her roots and the rich tapestry of Appalachia and its people. The very real characters encountered in this book are as varied and charming as are her fictional ones, and the historical details she incorporates in her personal odyssey are fascinating and provocative. And anyone who enjoys genealogy will be enthralled by the insights Alther has to offer. Kinfolks is laugh-out-loud hilarious, filled with anecdotes of eccentric folk and stories of childhood that will make you yearn for that enchanting time. Here's an opportunity to take a road trip with one of America's best storytellers. Don't miss the ride. I guarantee you'll love this book!

I enjoyed Alther's delve into her family's (though mostly her Virginian-born, Tennessee-bred, father's) genetic history. Along the way, she met up with crazy/interesting/possibly in-bred/definitely eccentric folk who made her journey, and ours, that much more interesting.

I read both Kinflicks and Original Sin back when they were published, but this is the first book by Alther I've read in, oh, maybe 30 years. I'd love to read her back-list, but much of it seems to be out-of-print. Maybe if this book, her first book of non-fiction, proves popular (and profitable)her back list works will be republished.

And, finally, it was so refreshing to read a memoir of someone who had a - reasonably - happy childhood.

An excellent read. With nostalgic, poignant and funny stories of her childhood, Alther brings us to her present understanding of who and where she belongs in the world.

I especially enjoyed the quirky interviews she had with people on her quest in the Appalachian Mountains for her six-fingered relatives. And seeing the varied results of the genetic testing makes me curious about my own family rumors of native American ancestors.

It's a twice read book for me. Kate

The author spent many years researching her family tree. She presents this information along with DNA test results to show the kinship that all humans share. She uses humor and her genius for writing to present this wonderful story of her search for the truth. Ms. Alther's book is a masterpiece.

Brenda

Kingsport, TN native Lisa Alther's eagerly awaited first non-fiction book debuted in spring, most appropriately for a story of roots, rebirth, and re-growth. As she discovers her ancestry to be a mélange, so is her story beginning with amusing and sometimes painful memories of her childhood with which we can identify, her experiences as a writer, mother, and researcher for this most definitive study of the group called Melungeon which took ten years of her life as she traveled the South and several countries overseas in search of the truth of her origins, including a DNA test to confirm results she suspected.

Always humorous with a low-key, wry, droll wit, Alther traverses her family life with her amazing father's humorous stories and anecdotes, tempered by her equally amazing mother who kept all of them in check as both of them encouraged their large family toward excellence which all achieved with missteps along the way as most successful people have.

Alther digs deep and delivers much depth in Kinfolks, falling off the family tree, going places many people fear to tread. The cover is as intriguing as the book with main title in the many-faceted colors of mixed races as all of us are. A green road sign we've all seen says "The Search for My Melungeon Ancestors," and her name is on the cover inside a black and white state road sign, symbolic of both her birthplace and her travels, not only for research but the search for self.

She finds answers about her origins as well as who and why she is. Mysteries remain. In addition to her self-effacing tongue-in-cheek manner, some of the humorous interludes in her book are the interspersed signs on church bulletin boards she sees while driving around Kingsport and environs.

Example: Presbyterian--THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ARE NOT A MULTIPLE CHOICE EXAM; Christian Church--IF YOU STAND FOR NOTHING, Y0U'LL FALL FOR ANYTHING; Methodists--GOD IS DEAD.--NIETZSCHE. NIETZSCHE IS DEAD.--GOD. Baptists: PRAY FOR A GOOD HARVEST BUT KEEP HOEING. And the Pentecostals: SEVEN DAYS WITHOUT PRAYER MAKE ONE WEAK.

An extremely provocative element in Alther's search revolves around boogie-man stories from childhood about Melungeons. She heard they had six fingers on each hand. As a child, she didn't know if this was true, or if Melungeons existed. Haunted by this mystery, she began trying to learn all she could and met a man in southwest Virginia who, indeed, was born with six fingers on each hand who showed her scars from surgery to remove the sixth finger; he turned out to be a distant cousin of hers.

As Alther says, "Conflicting origin of stories for the Melungeons abound.
They're said to be descended from Indians who mated with early Spanish explorers, or from the survivors of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony on Roanoke Island, or from Portuguese sailors shipwrecked on the Carolina coast, or from African slaves who escaped into the mountains." Her newly-discovered cousin thought they had Turkish ancestry.
After traveling the South and Turkey and other parts of the world for extensive research, Alther concludes she is Melungeon, especially after having a DNA test which showed all her genetic make-up.

In addition to Alther's discovery of self and roots, she includes much information about early Kingsport, TN which many natives and newcomers do not know and would find fascinating. I've lived in Kingsport forty-four years, have always been interested in the mystery of the Melungeons, and have read all of the few books published about them.

Alther's book recording childhood memories plus ten years of extensive research has to be the definitive work on the subject. Her conclusion is, and I paraphrase, none of us are of one race, but many, and we should accept and get on with it.

Lisa Alther hasn't lost her sense of humour or her keen insight into human nature. This is a great book and I learned a lot about history of the Southeast of which I knew nothing before reading this. I found it very interesting and I also loved learning more about Lisa's life as she is a favorite author of mine.

Lisa (LYE-ZA) Alther's latest, Kinfolks, falling off the family tree, is irresistible!

Kinfolks is the most humorous and entertaining book I have read in years! (And I've probably read 15,000 in my lifetime of 81 years.) It also introduces you to a very interesting woman who is unafraid to reveal her weaknesses and foibles. She is also a marvelous role model of openness and self-effacement for the young as well as a reassurance for all senior citizens.

Do not be fooled this is only about ancestors or genes. The genealogy and DNA searches provide the structure for very wise and unhurtful humor--a very rare quality.

Most Americans no longer live where they grew up. What they gained by living among strangers, what they lost by uprooting, and what they may profit from by accepting ALL their roots, traits, and history are hilariously illustrated.

The Melungeons, interesting as they may be, only provide a vehicle for Alther's search for more self-knowledge by a very gifted writer. The writing draws one on as Alther reminds us of cogent points through artful means: she contrasts northeast Appalachia church message boards' weekly quotes with Vermont bumper stickers to give us insights into two very different responses to extremes of the Appalachians. She teases her family who seem recognizably familiar, and she tantalizes us with the potential of what DNA may one day tell us about ourselves and others.

Lisa Alther's book, "Kinfolks" is an outstanding portrait, written over the course of many years, of her search for her ancestral identity. I can well relate to Southern relatives who choose to ignore or deny the Native American (and whatever other) blood that we have inheirited. I come from a family who were born & raised in southeastern Kentucky. Oral histories were rampant and I was determined to try to find some proof one way or the other to confirm them or dispell them.

I 've traced my genealogy back further than I ever intended, and the same things kept coming up that Alther faced: who are these people from whom I've sprung and why are some of them designated as "mulatto" on the census? Why do my family members have all that beautiful black hair and can tan while stringing Christmas lights yet they have remarkably blue eyes???

While researching my own Melungeon/Metis roots, I came across this book. Alther saved me a lot of research and had access to documentation that I could never hope for. If you are researching the topic or if you are just looking for a well written, intelligent, hilarious road trip of a book, put this one on your list.

Part autobiography, part history lesson, Lisa Alther's new book, Kinfolks, chronicles the author's decades-long journey to trace her family's origins in the mountains of East Tennessee. In particular, she tries to penetrate the mysteries of the origins of the Melungeons, a mixed race group that she suspects plays a part in her own family tree. In the process of her research, she discovers how whe has been shaped by her ancestry, and resolves some of the conflicts that ancestry has generated.

Told with a sharp sense of humor and unrolling at a pleasant pace, Alther weaves a compelling narrative. She dispels many of the myths and generally accepted stereotypes of the history of the era. Her view of her homeland is fond but never cloying or sentimental. She turns an objective and unflinching eye on the often grim history of the area, covering everything from its entrenched racism, the lengths that many partially non-Caucasians would go to to hide thier ethnic origins, and its often cruel treatment of the mentally ill and disabled.

Alther's crackling wit pokes fun at the mores and foibles of the people she has grown up with, while at the same time celebrating their innate warmth and humanity. Her love of the mountain South shines through, even as she recognizes all of its flaws.

Interestingly, Alther's examination of Melungeons' roots, which have been largely glossed over and ignored by the history books (those have largely preferred to ignore the amount of racial intermixing that occurred as soon as the first Europeans, Turks and Moors set foot in the area), has made me realize how much more likely it is that the roots of those of many whose families have been in the U.S. for hundreds of years have probably experienced more mixing than we might have thought. Perhaps all of the racial categories in the U.S. have more in common than we thought originally.

Even if you have no connection to the South whatsoever, reading this book will no doubt make you eager to discover the secrets of your own ancestral heritage. I highly recommend it!