{"id":3841,"date":"2026-05-09T00:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3841"},"modified":"2026-05-09T00:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:04:18","slug":"book-review-ancestoring-understanding-records-family-and-ourselves-by-darcie-hind-posz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3841","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Ancestoring: Understanding Records, Family, and Ourselves by Darcie Hind Posz"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Published as a paperback by Genealogical Publishing Compan<\/a>y<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s Genealogy At Heart<\/em> book review time and this one is unlike any I\u2019ve written before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m about to make a few bold claims. And I stand by every one of them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. If you read only one book this year, Ancestoring: Understanding Records, Family, and Ourselves <\/em>by Darcie Hind Posz should be that book.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. If I had to part with my entire genealogy library and keep just one volume, Ancestoring<\/em> would stay.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. This book belongs in every high school curriculum.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    That get your attention? It should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Last month, I received two donated books to review. As always, I don\u2019t accept payment, and there are no agreements, spoken or unspoken, that guarantee a favorable review. My long-time readers know I share my honest thoughts, whether glowing or critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Frankly, if I had judged this book by its cover or title alone, I might have passed it by and that would have been a mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From the bottom of my heart, Ancestoring<\/em> is the only book that has ever had this kind of positive impact on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Of the two books to review, I chose this one first simply because of the title. Ancestoring<\/em>, what did that even mean? The preface answers that question, but more importantly, the book embodies it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Before diving in, I read the back cover endorsement by Henry Z. \u201cHank\u201d Jones, FASG. I\u2019ve reviewed his work before, and if Hank was this enthusiastic, I was all in. (See those reviews here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The book is divided into three sections, which Posz notes can be read in any order. I chose to move from the broad to the personal: understanding records, then families, and finally ourselves. Perhaps that reflects my own leanings toward a Gestalt approach; the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. To fully grasp the interplay between these sections, I recommend working through all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Take your time with this book. Do the exercises. If you\u2019re pressed for time, read it through once, then return to it and savor each chapter. Don\u2019t skip the footnotes! Even if you\u2019re not typically a footnote reader, this book may convert you. The sourcing spans multiple disciplines, and that depth is precisely why I make my second and third claims, it\u2019s not just a book, it\u2019s a roadmap for continued intellectual growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a former educator and counselor, I spent years helping students move from concrete to abstract thinking. Though Posz doesn\u2019t frame it this way, I would go a step further: this book fosters lateral thinking, the kind of creative, non-linear problem-solving that genealogists desperately need. That alone justifies my belief that it belongs in every high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And for adults? The exercises are even more critical. Think about your daily news feed and your social media. How much of it is accurate? How do you know? This book gives you the tools to evaluate, question, and ultimately uncover truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The exercises themselves are refreshingly unconventional. Yes, you\u2019ll learn to analyze photographs, vital records, and obituaries but through a much wider lens. Posz incorporates film, music, and even conspiracy theory narratives as training tools. At first glance, these seem unrelated to genealogy. They\u2019re not. They sharpen how we observe, interpret, and question, skills at the heart of our work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One of the most intriguing elements is the encouragement to record dreams related to your research. I\u2019ve written about this before (here<\/a> and here<\/a>). When deeply immersed in a project, the mind doesn\u2019t simply shut off. Whether it\u2019s subconscious processing, inherited memory, or something we don\u2019t yet understand, those impressions can sometimes point us in new directions. Other times, they signal it\u2019s time to step away. Both are valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The chapter on trauma deserves special attention. All though others have tried, Posz is the first genealogist to address, so directly and personally, how trauma can be researched and interpreted. Memory is not fixed. Two individuals can experience the same event and remember it in entirely different ways. That reminder is essential for anyone working with historical narratives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I admit, I found myself wondering whether one vivid childhood memory Posz recounts, watching a film while hospitalized, might have been influenced by a dream while medicated. That, in a way, reinforces her point: our recollections are not infallible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Finally, I applaud Posz for her transparency regarding her earlier work. Too often, we treat a completed project as final. It isn\u2019t. New records surface. DNA reshapes conclusions. Even our most carefully constructed research can shift. Her discussion of ethnicity estimates is a timely reminder that patience and humility are essential in this field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If genealogy is about understanding where we come from, Ancestoring<\/em> pushes us further. It asks us to examine how we think, why we believe in what we do, and what it really means to know the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    That\u2019s why Ancestoring<\/em> is not just a good book; it\u2019s an essential one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u2019s Genealogy At Heart book review time and this one is unlike any I\u2019ve written before. I\u2019m about to make a few bold claims. And I stand by every one of them: That get your attention? It should. Last month, I received two donated books to review. As always, I don\u2019t accept payment, and there … Continue reading “Book Review: Ancestoring: Understanding Records, Family, and Ourselves by Darcie Hind Posz”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1389,1388],"class_list":["post-3841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-ancestoring","tag-darcie-hind-posz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3853,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841\/revisions\/3853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}