Tamara Lanier’s mother, Mattye, was the family history keeper. She knew the names and stories of relatives going back to one of their oldest known ancestors, an enslaved man known to the family as Papa Renty. After her mother’s death, Lanier tackled the enormous task of searching the historical record for her family and finally writing it all down. In From These Roots, Lanier tells us what happens when a genealogist acquaintance finds a remarkable and troubling collection of daguerreotypes at Harvard’s Peabody Museum that may contain the only known images of Lanier’s ancestors, including Papa Renty...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.