Next Meeting
Sunday, March 7, 2010:
"Annie’s Ghosts", Steve Luxenberg
Annie's Ghosts… is “a great non-fiction read for genealogists” — Jan Alpert, president, National
Genealogical Society, in the society’s July '09 newsletter
“My mother was an only child. That’s what she told everyone, sometimes within minutes of
meeting them. When I heard that my mother had been hiding the existence of a sister, I was
bewildered. A sister? I was certain that she had no siblings”. Part memoir, part detective
story, part history, Annie’s Ghosts revolves around three main characters (the author’s mom,
her sister and the author, narrator/detective/son), several important secondary ones
(including several relatives whom he found in the course of reporting on the book), as well as
Eloise, the vast county mental hospital where Steve’s secret aunt was confined — despite her
initial protestations — all of her adult life. Steve will show how he used genealogical techniques
to piece together the story of his mother's secrets, his aunt's unknown life, and the times in
which they lived. Steve's research took him to imperial Russia and Depression-era Detroit,
through the Holocaust in Ukraine and the Philippine war zone, and back to the hospitals where
Annie and many others languished in anonymity.
Speaker: Steve Luxenberg, an associate editor at The Washington Post, has worked for
35 years as a newspaper editor and reporter. Steve’s career began at The Baltimore Sun,
where he worked for 11 years before joining The Post in 1985. He has headed The Post's
investigative staff, succeeding Bob Woodward, and directed The Post's Sunday commentary
section. Reporters working for Steve have won numerous awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes.
There will be an opportunity to purchase the book at the meeting -- checks or cash only.
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