This book lays the author's family tree against events in history with the presumption that individuals from the author's genealogical past were present and participated in the events. The author's family tree includes, inter alia, notables such as Aaron Burr, courtiers in the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and accomplices to Charles II's escape from England. It also includes family situations that involved murder, the Great Depression, and every war that Americans have fought in since the French and Indian (Seven Years) War in the mid-18th Century. Because this is the first book in the series, the stories are laid out in thirteen stand-alone vignettes, each of which is the foundation for a full-length novel in the future.
Roughly five years of research went into developing the author's family tree; it was at the end of that research that a decision was made to memorialize some of the intersections with history in novel format. The author took great care to ensure the historical accuracy of the events contained in each chapter, while at the same time inventing the fiction behind the family's involvement.
