To be completely transparent, I DNF this book at about 40%.

I love genealogy, family sagas, and memoirs. However there was a lot going on in this one that I had to put the book aside as it was not keeping my interest. That is not to say that Newton is not an incredible writer, she is. The amount of research and details included about her family and genealogy in general were impressive, but overall I just couldn't get into it.

"Birds of a feather flock together" All my life I have used this phrase in terms of personality. As in like-minded people will stick together but seeing as the author used it for skin colour in a racist manner is astounding. It makes perfect sense, why didn't I think of this earlier? This book has opened my eyes to so many new terminologies it is marvellous. However, I found this book a bit boring. It felt like being in a class reading a textbook I didn't want to read. Not that the information wasn't meaningful but it was written in a nun engaging sort of way.

Award-winning writer and critic Maud Newton’s debut book, Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation, is an engaging memoir about the quest for truth and the unanswered questions buried deep within her family’s history. In a story that is part genealogical scavenger hunt, cultural critique, and family history—Newton’s highly researched memoir grapples with the complexity of her family tree, and how it informs her life. Since childhood Newton has been obsessed with her southern ancestors. From her grandfather who came of age during the Great Depression; to her father a lawyer who eulogized the virtues of slavery, and the religious fanaticism of her family’s maternal line that caused an ancestor to be accused of being a witch-- readers will become transfixed upon the lives of her family’s narratives.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for inviting me to read and review Ancestor Trouble. In exchange for the free digital copy I’ve provided my unbiased opinion.

The blending of the authors family history plus her foray into genealogy: tracing, discovering and documenting her journey sounded like the potential for a perfect book. Unfortunately, I found the format confusing; I had difficulty keeping track of her family tree and I found Maud’s research into genetics, genealogy, DNA, slavery, and a host of other tangents overwhelming, redundant and slightly dry.
Maud’s family tree is ripe with characters and the discoveries she made along the way were often disheartening and difficult. I applaud the author for her honesty and willingness to keep digging further, even when the results were often hard for her to understand/ accept.
While I found this book compelling and at times both fascinating and entertaining, I do think improvements could have been made. A good addition to books highlighting the perils of DNA / ancestry sleuthing.

Maud Newton investigates her family history in Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation. Newton's family has quite a few skeletons in the closet, but my curiosity could not get me through the endless genealogy trivia the author includes in each chapter. And I was reading this book as a potential pick for my genealogy book club!

Ancestor Trouble is an intriguing historical detective memoir, though the answers Maud Newton is searching for are more nebulous and more intriguing than any “whodunnit” could be. The nicest thing you can say about her antecedents is that they are interesting. She is estranged from her father who is so racist he would paint out the faces of Black people in her books when she was a child. A certain level of mental illness persisted from generation to generation including religious mania in her mother and ninth great-grandmother. Definitely an interesting bunch. I am sure they were far more entertaining to read about than to live with.



I think Ancestor Trouble begins well enough. It’s fascinating, at first, to learn more about her family and see the reverberation of trauma over generations. I think, though, that she fails to recognize that if nature provides a bit of insanity, that may also translate into nurture, so she becomes a bit too much of a biological determinist for me. As the book progressed she got more and more into the mystical/spiritual side of things and it turned me off.

I received an e-galley of Ancestor Trouble from the publisher through NetGalley

Ancestor Trouble at Penguin Random House
Maud Newton author site

Truly titled, this book. As I read, it felt that the reckoning came in tides, presented in a wide-ranging narrative of the author's family members and their experiences (as she understands them), separated in parts: Genealogy, Genetic Genealogy, Nature and Nurture, Physicality, Inheritance, Spirituality and Creativity. Surprising categories, I thought, but well-deployed.

Reconciliation is more difficult than Reckoning. Reckonings can be ongoing, extended and continued. . . a Reconciliation is a done-deal, a conclusion, a complete settlement on a designated or defined value. That's where I was often tossed-lost in these chapters - what was just opinion, where was the settling up. And perhaps that's the point! How does a descendant in 2022 truly settle up an abusive indenture that happened 200 years ago? The abuser and abused are long gone. It's the ghost of abuse that remains, often echoing down the years in the families of the abuser and the abused. Still, fighting phantoms is dicey work.

This was an interesting read - not the read I thought I was getting, but something altogether different. This the author's valiant attempt to consider, acknowledge and specifically point out some of the shoulders on which she stands. Ten or twenty years from now, I wonder if this same premise and effort were employed, would a completely different book result?

A Sincere Thank you to Maud Newton, Random House, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.
#AncestorTrouble #NetGalley

Ancestor Trouble has so much marketing that I was excited to read this memoir. Unfortunately, it was much more an investigation of the history of genealogy than the author's personal family. I found it to be dry and I wouldn't have chosen this book if I knew it was more of a textbook than a memoir.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review. Being someone who is interested in genealogy, I really liked this book. It was interesting and has some great points about genetic genealogy. Some of the information was not new to me but it was still something that kept my interest.

DNF at about 25% felt this was trying too hard to be scholarly in between the bits about the authors ancestors. Some interesting ideas posed but not really an enjoyable read for me and just couldn’t push through. Thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for this copy of #ancestertrouble.

"Ancestor Trouble" by Maud Newton was an interesting memoir about the author's family history and thoroughly examining genealogy. A wonderful mix of family drama, stories of the past, of trauma, abuse, and racism, mixed with a deep knowledge of nature as well nurture, and its attributes on personalities and choices. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the reader copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I am a big genealogy geek and amateur researcher. I was very intrigued by the premise of this book but the execution did not suit me as well as I had hoped.
It was a bit disjointed with discussions of her family members, then big picture genealogy issues and questions. I would have liked to see more editing for clarity in this book too, there would be relatives mentioned at various points and it was hard to keep track. I found myself not very engaged in the book.

I loved parts of this book and found other parts difficult to get through. It ranged from memoir to history to social commentary. I really appreciated the way the author grappled with the difficult parts of her anecestory.

With questions about her own family's troublesome past, Maud Newton paints a picture of the connections between us and our ancestors. Her research began with exploring the idea of genealogy and how it has evolved and changed over time. Like any good mystery, her family had secrets and how she went about trying to solve them is fascinating.

She explores how she went about finding clues and verifying them while discussing issues like 'nature versus nurture'? Do we look alike? Are talents passed down the generations? What about DNA's role in proving relationships? The reader won't necessarily come away with answers but will have a new depth of understanding.

There are numerous notes attached but you can read the book without stopping to refer to them. The details may be about the author's family, but the reader will likely recognize similar patterns in their own lives.

Besides a rendering of the author's family tree, there are photos of her ancestors. An index is included.

BOTTOM LINE: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

DISCLAIMER: I received a free e-copy of "Ancestor Trouble" by Maud Newton from NetGalley/Random House for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this copy. I truly loved this book. What a great story.

This is a fabulously structured French braid of a book, deftly bringing together many lines of inquiry: stories of Maud Newton’s eccentric family, apocryphal and researched; her interest in genealogy; the legacy of white supremacy running down her ancestral lines; epigenetics—the study of how (or whether) environment can alter genes and inherited traits; spirituality; how we relate to our ancestors and what, if anything, we owe them; and the way all those strands come together to form each and every one of us. It’s both cerebral and heartfelt—she’s got wonderful control of language and tone, and can talk about matters of faith and ephemerality without getting mired in new-ageyness. I try to stay away from reviewer-speak but the phrase that comes to mind here is tour de force, so I’m going to stick with that. Fascinating stuff,; I’ll be featuring Maud on Bloom in the next couple of weeks.

Bloom interview: https://bloomsite.wordpress.com/2022/04/05/maud-newton-on-ancestors-imaginative-spirituality-and-old-school-blogging/

This review is the result of reading the uncorrected e-book version provided by NetGalley and Random House. I very much appreciate the opportunity afforded me to read advance copies and provide reviews.

When I saw this book on NetGalley in the “History” category, I immediately requested it, primarily due to my intense interest in genealogy and thought it might be a book of interest to readers of the magazine. The book had been touted as one of the most anticipated books of 2022, the New York Times calling it a “literary feat”. Wow!
I have to honestly say, however, that I have decidedly mixed feelings about Ancestor Trouble. While Maud Newton (a pseudonym she borrowed from great-aunt Maude Newton Simmons; her birth name is Rebecca) is to be commended for a well-written and researched book, the more I read the more I lost interest. Wanting to give it a fair shot, however, I did read the entire book.

From its beginning pages the reader will learn that Newton’s family history is complicated (and colorful), and it becomes increasingly obvious she is troubled about certain parts – not unlike all of us I imagine as we delve into our family past (warts and all!). For about half the book I read with a great deal of interest as she interspersed family stories with thoughtful essays on various genealogically-related topics like DNA, heredity, nature vs. nurture, temperament and spirituality.

However, I must admit I began to grow weary of oft-repeated references to her family’s past sins of racism and genocide (Native Americans). As one reviewer put it, she spent a great deal of time on “retrospective guilt”. Certainly, there are a number of people for whom this angle would play well. However, after awhile it became tedious for me.
Again, I emphasize the book is well-written and well-thought out. It is obviously written with a perspective quite personal to Ms. Newton.

I often look at how other people have reviewed books I’ve read, and I’m not alone. While there are a number of glowing reviews, there are just as many who, like me, have mixed feelings. Ancestor Trouble is filled with a number of fascinating stories, but in the end I’m not certain it’s a book even the most avid reader of this genre would read to the very end.

Interesting, well-written mash-up of memoir/study of ancestry as a scientific, social, personal, and spiritual phenomenon. The memoir part was intense; all ancestors and family histories are full of imperfections, but Newton’s were...extra. I appreciated that she was upfront about how hungry she was for her biological ancestry to have a deeper meaning and enjoyed following the journey she took while seeking that.

An interesting philosophical look into family past, genealogy, and becoming yourself. Our family history can tell us so much about ourselves today and it’s never going to not be cool. Really great book for historians and genealogy lovers.

I’m glad I read this book and I’d give it a 3.75 if I could be more specific. Know that it’s an incredibly ambitious book, first of all. Besides the part I was really interested in—the author’s research into and discoveries about her genealogy and family history—she goes to some other pretty wild places. Ancestor worship in various cultures and times, burial rituals, healing? of whole ancestral lines at a time, and a huge amount of philosophy and history that partly, I confess, I just skimmed. That part just wasn’t my cup of tea, but I’m sure it is some people’s, and they will be very satisfied with her thorough scholarship and excellent writing.

I wanted to read it because she went about studying her rather wild family and mostly confirming its crazy stories through genetic DNA and other methods, and I love stories like that. It did not disappoint.