What I Do

 

I am a former elementary school teacher, devoted family historian, and lifelong lover of a good story. For thirty years, I have traced my ancestors through Sweden, England, Germany, and Kansas—the state I call home and where all eight of my great-grandparents settled in the 1800s. 

Drawn to genealogy by the rich stories hidden in family records, I attempt to bring the past to life in ways that connect history to the heart and memory. 

 

I've even been known to create a whole interdisciplinary unit of study around my Uncle Reuben, who appears in my first book, By Gosh Johnson and the Long Walk, and his incredible adventures across America between 1920 and 1930. 

A good story goes a long way in helping people, mostly my family, remember the characters (their ancestors) and events in their family history. Although it's a little bit dry, family group chart does a good job with the Who, What, When, and Where, but there's nothing like a story to delve into the Whys and the Hows!  

That's why I'm writing my Kansas-based novels about my ancestors and calling them The Prairie Trees books. 

Newly Published:

By Gosh Johnson and the Long Walk: the Story of John A Johnson - Available now on Amazon.

 

 

 

 

Coming Soon:

Waves of Wheat: From the Isle of Wight to the Prairies of Kansas

 

Book 3 

Book 4 

 

 

 

 

I am the mother of three and grandmother of two. When I am not digging through old documents or writing my latest manuscript, I can often be found under my red umbrella, admiring my flowers or cheering on my grandchildren at the ball field and in the rodeo arena.

 

Happy reading!

Shari L Edwards