Psychic Roots is all about the influence of coincidence and serendipity on genealogical research, the chance combination of events over which the researcher has no control but which nevertheless guides him to a fortuitous discovery. Certainly chance or dumb luck sometimes leads us straight to a record kept in an improbable place, to an ancestor's second wife we didn't know anything about, and so on. Is it luck? Coincidence? In this book, esteemed genealogist Hank Jones tells us about his own brushes with preternatural experiences, and he has invited other genealogists to share their experiences as well; thus in these pages we have the insights of well over a hundred respected ancestor hunters who discuss their experiences in light of synchronicity, intuition, genetic memory, and serendipity. Their stories fairly crackle with illumination and make a plausible case for the importance of the sixth sense in genealogical research.
Henry Z "Hank"Jones, Jr., F.A.S.G.)
Henry Z ("Hank") Jones, Jr. has been actively climbing family trees since the age of eight, and, since his graduation from Stanford, has specialized in tracing 18th century German emigrants. His books on the subject include The Palatine Families of Ireland, the two-volume The Palatine Families of New York - 1710 (winner of the Donald Lines Jacobus Award as "Best Genealogical Work of the Year"), More Palatine Families, Westerwald To America, and his brand new three volume set Even More Palatine Families. Hank has written many articles over the years that have appeared in The American Genealogist, National Genealogical Society Quarterly, The New York Genealogical & Biographical Record and other major publications. He recently received the NGS Award of Merit for "Distinguished Work in Genealogy" and has been elected a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, of whom there are only fifty in the world. Hank has served on the national board of the Genealogical Speaker's Guild and as a Trustee of the Association of Professional Genealogists.
As to his "other life" apart from genealogical research, Hank Jones was a film actor for twenty-five years. He appeared in many movies, among them eight films for Walt Disney studios (such as "Blackbeard's Ghost," in which he costarred with Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones, & Suzanne Pleshette). He was a familiar face on nearly 500 national tv commercials and has been featured on over 300 network tv shows such as "My Three Sons," "Family Affair," "Petticoat Junction, " "Mod Squad," "The Patty Duke Show," "Mork & Mindy," "The Jeffersons," and "Love Boat" which still come back to haunt him on cable tv today. His new book Memories - The Show-Biz Part Of My Life tells of some of his off-the-wall experiences working with major stars such as Henry Fonda, Ron Howard, Robin Williams, Patsy Cline, Bob Hope, Minnie Pearl, Ringo Starr, and Elvis Presley. Hank also was active as a singer, co-starring on ABC-TV's Tennessee Ernie Ford Show and recording albums on RCA and Capitol Records. His newest CDs are currently released on Epitomé Records.
Hank's best seller, Psychic Roots: Serendipity & Intuition in Genealogy, a study of how intuitive nudges and serendipitous events sometimes influence our genealogical searches, is now in its 9th printing. It was dramatized on NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" program to good response from inside and outside the genealogical community and continues to be rebroadcast on cable tv to this day. Its sequel, More Psychic Roots: Further Adventures in Serendipity & Intuition in Genealogy", drawn from his own experiences and those of over 200 other family historians from around the world, has just been published by Genealogical Publishing Company in Baltimore.
TIME Magazine recently had a cover-story devoted to genealogy in the new millennium and chose to close the article and tie things together with a quote from - Hank Jones.
