The book deals with the absorbing topic of the author seeking information about cross-racial family relationships hidden from her. It's all the more compelling because the author is white and only in adulthood found out that her mother "passed" for white and concealed almost all of her relatives from her immediate family. I found the book interesting - Gale Lukaskik, the author devoted a good amount of attention to considering her mother's motivations and actions, which was my main interest. However, a great deal of the book went into detail about her mother's family genealogy. I found this a bit abstract -- Lukasik explained the research that was done to find far back relatives and the inferences she and others helping her had to make. I finished reading the book even though it covered a lot of ground I hadn't expected it to. ( )

I originally saw Gail's story on the show Genealogy Roadshow which I love. As someone who works on her own genealogy, I can relate to Gail's search. I found the story of her mother's passing as white to be extremely brave and heartbreaking at the same time.

Gail tells the story of how she discovered her mother's secret and how she broached the topic with her. Once her mother confirmed the truth, she made Gail swear that she wouldn't tell anyone until she was gone. Gail kept her promise to her mother for the next 17 years.

This story details not only Gail's family history but the history of racism and how long it has been a plague on our society. Learning of the caste system that took place in early New Orleans history was extremely interesting. I loved how Gail's book ended with meeting family and seeing her mother in their face. This was definitely an eye-opening read and I am so glad I read it. ( )

IN PROGRESS

This is an interesting book, but Lukasik has a few historical errors. I also thought that some of it could have been cut. As she discussed the many siblings of her earlier ancestors, I began to lose track of people.

I am particularly interest in the topic because I am multi-ethnic, a much, much less fraught issue. Much to my surprise, I have found that some white people don't approve of multi-ethnic whites. I I finally looked up all the family surnames that I could think of, and decided that I have at least five ethnic groups and my cousins have at least seven, spread over two "races." Someone takes exception to almost all of them. One woman, trying to rouse ethnic fervor, told me, after listening to a rousing folk song that I should remember the massacre of my mother's people. I pointed out that they were killed by my father's people. Another told me that I should pick one ethnic group and focus on that. I told her that that would make nonsense of the whole idea of ethnicity determining identity. If identity is in blood, bones, and genes, then my identity is multi-ethnic.."

Lukasik makes a couple of historical errors:

While Rosa Parks said when she was arrested that she was simply tired, in fact, she wanted to be arrested and had made several attempts before. This was an NAACP plan to get a case that would allow them to challenge the law - Rosa Parks was deemed the best candidate to make the point.

Anti-miscegenation laws and eugenic thinking didn't start in the early 20th century, as Lukasik initially seems to say, although it is possible that they expanded at that time. Lukasik later talks about some earlier laws. The first law in the British colonies that later became the United States was passed by Maryland in the 1660s. In a sense eugenic thinking is quite old with regard to race. There was a great deal of discussion the the ante-bellum United States about the dangers of "amalgamation" as interracial unions were called. One might have thought, given the amount of hysteria, that the government was going to force people into arranged interracial marriages. Of course, the removal of anti-miscegenation laws has led to many more interracial unions, as one might expect; they're pretty common where I live.

I also wondered why she took such umbrage about someone's whip comment - Lukasik was the one who introduced the idea of whipping. ( )

With the boom in readily accessible home genetic testing kits, this story is a must-read. Author Gail Lukasik discovers a hidden family link, later confirming it with extensive genealogical research and a genetic test. Her mother passed for white as a young woman, leaving behind an extended family in New Orleans that chose to remain on the other side of the color line. Lukasik is also a fiction mystery author, and tells her real-life mystery story with skill, revealing her search bit by bit. With compassion, she delves into the historical milieu and racial oppression her mother faced that drove her to make a decision readers today might otherwise not find sympathetic. Interspersed with her family’s story and the research is Lukasik’s appearance on the Genealogy Roadshow television program. Whether your own genetic test has revealed a surprise, or you are just curious about the historical phenomenon of racial passing, this story is fascinating. ( )

Moderately interesting, moderately well written, and a fine narrator (audiobook version). Nothing stellar but worth the read if you like human interest stories combined with some civil rights struggle mixed in. ( )