Welcome to another author visit and book signing. 

Rachael Mellen’s most recent book, co-edited with David A Powell, is “From Camp Douglas to Vicksburg: The Civil War Letters of William Kennedy, 1861-63.”

Hear the fascinating story of how Rachael Mellen, on a genealogical hunch, discovered her family’s connection to William J. Kennedy through letters penned by Kennedy during the Civil War and which reside at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

William J. Kennedy was a second-generation Irish American born in New York in 1827. By 1861 he was a harness-maker with his own business in LaSalle, Illinois. And then the Civil War happened.

Rachael E. Mellen is a graduate of the University of London, U.K., and California State University Dominguez Hills. Rachael has published three books on English genealogy as well as numerous articles and has taught genealogy classes and given presentations to many organizations. She is currently President of the LaSalle Genealogy Guild and lives in Peru, Illinois.

The book is available for purchase at this event for $26.82, tax included. Check or cash is accepted.