Review of Not Forgotten

[Praise GodWord]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Not Forgotten" by Michael J. Barberi.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Not Forgotten: An Unabridged History of the Barbieri Family by Michael J. Barberi is a family history book. It borders on the genealogy of the Barbieri family, starting from their 10 great-grandfathers and oldest known ancestor, Giovanni Antonio Barbieri, to the current living generation. The author gives details of the birth, marriage, life, occupation, residence, death, and in some cases, the military service of his ancestors. The book contains facts about notorious events that went down in history, such as the First & Second World Wars, the 1918 influenza epidemic, and the economic crisis in different parts of the world, especially in Italy and America. The book also included how all these affected the lives of the Barbierian ancestors and their descendants.

The pictorial and graphic illustrations were colorful and attractive. They serve as exciting captors and make the work more fascinating than most history books. They added pleasure to the write-up and provided a more comprehensive analysis and outlines of the book's contents. Also, the photographs and the documents shown in the appendices serve as evidence of the facts embodied in the work. I love the way he blended his family's history with the detailed narration of spectacular events that occurred during various times in his life and that of his ancestors.

The author provided the precise sources of much of the information in his work, both the online addresses and the offline sources. This was the primary function of the footnotes in his book. The advantage of this is that it proves the authenticity of the information, as a diligent reader has the opportunity to access those sources to verify the facts stated or information supplied. This shows that the author conducted thorough research and did not rely on his intuition or base his work on assumptions. The information based on assumptions, probability, and rough estimations was clearly stated.

Another thing I admired greatly about the author's work was that he did not just stop at writing the incredible feats, achievements, good conduct, and values of his ancestors. He also further stated their seeming faults, mistakes, hindrances they encountered, their weaknesses, and the awful end of some of them. For instance, he did not leave out that many of his ancestors died young and some others were childless while some divorced and remarried. This gives rise to a balanced account of the lives of his ancestors. Kudos to him for being honest in his work to a reasonable extent.

But most names of the author's ancestors are similar to a great extent, and a reader may mistake one for the other or get confused trying to ascertain which ancestor is being referred to. Many descendants were named exactly after their ancestors, including the author himself. Well, it's not the author's fault. I think it is so because of the style of naming descendants in the old Italian culture. It was a great challenge for me, as I kept mixing up the names of the writer's predecessors. This is also partly because the names were similar in spelling. These are the only negative issues I came across in the book.

I would rate the book 3 out of 4 stars due to the errors. The book was not professionally edited. This book would be ideal for historians, lovers of genealogy books, and family lines. The book contains facts of spectacular events that occurred in history, so I think that persons who desire to know some vital information on things like World War 1 and 2, the “blizzard of 1888” in America, the influenza epidemic of 1918, and how they affected lives may find the book suitable.

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Not Forgotten
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[Umesh Bhatt]

Keeping a track of 10 past generations and describing the family history with emphasis on the world history going around seems to be a commendable task and as per this review it appears that author had satisfactorily achieved it. Thanks for an honest review.

[Aisha Yakub]

I like the holistic presentation of details by the author. Great review.

[Itz Savaga]

I love the way the author gave details about the history of a past generation. I would love to read this book.Thanks for the review.