Washington DC: Annie's Ghosts, May 26

Does your family have a secret? Would you spend years trying to unravel the mystery of an unknown relative?

Steve Luxenberg did, and his quest resulted in "Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret."

“The secrets emerged, without warning or provocation, on an ordinary April afternoon in 1995. Secrets, I've discovered, have a way of working themselves free of their keepers.”

For more on the author - Washington Post senior editor - and his book, click here.

The 6th & I Historic Synagogue's genealogy series continues at 7pm Tuesday, May 26 when Bob Woodward and Steve Luxenberg discuss the process and implications of applying investigative journalism to family history.

In his book, Luxenberg reveals the substantial challenges and rewards of holding a microscope to the relationships we hold most dear.

The event includes a book signing. For tickets ($8 in advance, $10 at the event, or one free ticket with the purchase of the book, $25), click here.

My mother was an only child. That’s what she told everyone, sometimes within minutes of meeting them. When I heard that my mother had been hiding the existence of a sister, I was bewildered. A sister? I was certain that she had no siblings, just as I knew that her name was Beth, that she had no middle name, and that she had raised her children to, above all, tell the truth.

Part memoir, part detective story, part history, Annie’s Ghosts revolves around three main characters (my mom, her sister and me as narrator/detective/son), several important secondary ones (my grandparents, my father and several relatives whom I found in the course of reporting on the book), as well as Eloise, the vast county mental hospital where my secret aunt was confined—despite her initial protestations—all of her adult life.

This program should offer great appeal to family historians and genealogists in the DC area.