Echoes of E'Den

Book excerpt: For ten generations, the Hemsby family has passed the family moniker, Albert, to a son. From Sir Alfred Hemsby whose sons sailed to Virginia seeking religious freedom, to Alfred Hemsby (the tenth) born in 1934, the family has experienced every great event and its associated trials and tribulations over the course of three hundred years. The Hemsby's family women passed meticulously kept journals and diaries from generation to generation. These writings not only detail each family's milestones births, marriages, deaths but also their quests for religious freedom; struggles to find work and be treated equally; service to their country in every American conflict; and drive to influence American politics. Young Albert Hemsby (the tenth), influenced by his mother Annette, is the next Hemsby to advance the family story. Reading the diaries, he carefully pieces together his ancestry and moves the family forward from 1934 through the chaotic 60s and toward the future's political statehood. Intricately woven through the Hemsby's story are verses 1 24 of Genesis Chapter 3. Within the context of Adam and Eve's fall from grace, author George England explores how one family's greatness can bring positive influences to a caustic world of greed, bigotry, disease, and war.