I truly intended to post yesterday before we left for the Homestead book fair and that obviously didn’t happen. One of the many fun things about a book fair is when you meet other authors that you don’t know, and in this case it was the recent release of a family history book that took a very unexpected turn. Leonard Mowry of the Homestead pioneering Mowry family began to chronicle his family’s story and vague tales he had heard of his grandfather’s first wife led him down a different path. Cyrstal in the Clouds (Amazon.com has it) was the book that emerged, the fascinating capture of the woman who was the first known female parachutist in the area, a woman who broke multiple aviation records, a woman who was truly a pioneer in the sky.

I haven’t finished the book yet and we are planning to arrange to have it for sale in the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum soon. If you like 1920s-1940s history and especially tales of strong women who didn’t allow their gender to keep them from a dream, this is a book to consider.

It is also a point that I make in my presentation about capturing family history that you frequently don’t know where the research will lead you. It may be routine or you might uncover something very much different than you anticipate. Mr. Mowry certainly did.