Book excerpt: Always a Blessing in the End is a two-fold exploration of the African American experience in the United States within the genre of a family history. After addressing the development of the African slave trade, it highlights the attitudes and accomplishments in the arenas of slavery and equality for black Americans during each presidential administration from Washington to Carter. Paulette Ivy Harris then presents her genealogies of four lineages, namely the Ivys, the Baileys, Goldsons, and the Thompsons. She takes the reader on an empathetic sojourn through the lives of the ancestors she finds long buried in Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Missouri. Her ancestors seem to resurrect from the dust of their internment and take on flesh to live again between the pages. By incorporating genealogical details about her ancestors into her research of African American history, she reconstructs the lives they endured. She discovers that the Christian faith of her ancestors was unfailingly rewarded with what truly mattered. Those who enjoy reading family histories will learn about the struggles of several generations. Beginners and seasoned family history sleuths will be able to glean sources from Always a Blessing in the End to help them with their own ancestry puzzle.