To Whom Do You Belong

These days, genealogy seems to be enjoying a massive outbreak in popularity. When I started, such was not the case. It was a lonely ordeal. I try to describe more in my book how I felt and the emotions I went through. This book is not about birth dates, death dates, or boring stuff but about talking to ninety-year-old people in nursing homes and hearing their stories, their lives—that’s what impressed me. This research required turning over many stones and peering beneath to uncover stories long forgotten. I do go into biographical detail about my grandfather, Forman Way, mainly because I had researched so much information on his life and the historic times he lived through in the Cape Breton labor movement. My other grandfather, who I never knew, Captain John Jarvis, was also a constant inspiration as I tried to do my best to uncover his story, his life, and his death and the fate of a crew of twenty-two men who perished at sea.