Strength Within: The Granger Chronicles

This is the story of my mother's family, spanning seven generations and over 150 years from 19th Century rural Hungary to modern day North America.

Beyond a genealogy, the book brings to life the people, places and times that shaped the Granger family - and the wider North American society during the most dynamic eras in modern history.

Strength Within: The Granger Chronicles presents life stories coupled with social history, describing the impact of world events and everyday life on the Grangers. The stories encompass:

• daily peasant life in 19th century Hungary.
• The Immigration Experience: travelling steerage class to the U.S.A. in early 20th Century.
• Buffalo New York during its industrial heyday.
• World War I, "The Roaring 20s", the Great Depression, World War II.
• St. Catharines, Ontario in the 1940s.
• Family traditions, looking for work, birth and death, poverty and affluence.

Some of the memorable characters you will meet in-laws, outlaws and friends of the family:

• Two Gun Willie
• The Fortune Teller of Crystal Beach
• Mary-Jane The Whistling Baby

And since many of the Grangers are blessed with storytelling ability and keen senses of humour, the stories in the book are entertaining and informative whether you are a Granger or not. For example, several great Granger romances began with rather unfavourable beginnings including:

• The Unfortunate Tobacco Incident,
• Over the Fence Tomato Throwing, and
• The Strings of my Heart - Are Attached to that Streetcar!