Paying Homage

Paul F. Camenisch, living and working near Chicago, finally succumbs to a growing need to visit the place where he was born and raised. So he hits the road for Boyle County and Lincoln County, Kentucky, to spend time with his uncle Richard and to position himself deep inside his family's history.

In the late nineteenth century, the Christian and Anna Camenisch family emigrated from Switzerland to settle almost two hundred acres of American soil. Paul revisits this farm and surrounding areas-where he played, worked, learned, and grew. Dusty attics, musty courthouse archives, three cemeteries, old newspapers, interviews with other relatives, and late-night talks with Richard under his grandfather's tree weave the tapestry that depicts his family's immigration and proliferation over nearly a century.

This memoir chronicles one family's growth during a period when the nation was still coming into its own, culminating in Paul's own journey through life and his decision to write this book. With it, he pays homage to the hard-working, honest extended families who helped found the culture and society we still enjoy today. It's a revealing tribute to the beautiful, heart-breaking, and extraordinary moments in what is most typically known as ordinary life.