Who are we? Why should we care about our family’s migration stories, our genetic bonds or family histories? Indeed, why should we care about other people’s histories?



The truth is that we all descend from migrants who roamed and traveled from one spot to another seeking safety, shelter, and opportunity. An American Girl is a deep dive into the intricacies of American identity and family, exploring how migration and cultural blending shape our collective experience.

The stories in An American Girl originate from my extended family in the Northwest U.S. and are interconnected by blood and marriage. Over generations, these connections created my beloved grandchild, Edie Rei, the subject of An American Girl.



These narratives weave through the lives of Irish-Catholic potato famine refugees and pre-Colonial English, including a signer of the Declaration of Independence; Welsh and Scottish settlers; Eastern European Jewish immigrants; and descendants of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II.

This American Girl's heritage also includes a great-grandmother whose bloodline reaches back to the Mohawk and Pequot tribes and who in the 1850s co-founded an Indian School with her husband, a US Government Indian Agent. In a new twist of evolution, the family now includes a mixed race Black, Native American, and white European half-sister and stepmother, and a Chinese-American stepfather.



An American Girl is an invitation to step into another person’s shoes, to understand the journey of others, and to bravely face our reflections and those of others.