title: The Search for My Abandoned Grandmother: A genealogical journey uncovers secret love stories and family mysteries.
author:  Mary Ames Mitchell 
description: Expert genealogist and researcher Mary Ames Mitchell has traveled the United States and Great Britain seeking stories about her ancestors. Using her degrees in Art History from Wheaton College, Graphic Design from Art Center College of Design, and Education from the University of Southern California, she compiles books, slide presentations, animations, and even ballads to pass the stories on to her children and grandchildren. She has ventured from her home in the San Francisco Bay area to the tiny mining town of Minonk, Illinois, and the metropoles of Minneapolis and Chicago. She has visited ancestral graves as far away as Aberdeen in Scotland and in localities in California. Through diligent research she has proven ancestral links through The Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Jamestowne Society, and the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00109.jpeg)
  
  **Contents**
  
   _Cover_
  
   _Title Page_
  
   _Prefatory Note_
  
  The Man Who Lived Underground
  
  > Part One
  
  > Part Two
  
  > Part Three
  
  Memories of My Grandmother
  
  Afterword by Malcolm Wright
  
   _Note on the Texts_
  
   _About the Author_
  
   _Copyright_
  
   _About the Publisher_
  
   **Prefatory Note**
  
  SOME READERS may recognize the title of this novel from the short story of the
  same name in Richard Wright’s collection _Eight Men_. Before it was a story,
  “The Man Who Lived Underground” was the longer work published here for the
  first time. Recognizing the significance and artistic integrity of the novel
  as distinct from the merits of the story, the author’s elder daughter, Julia
  Wright, reached out to the editors at Library of America, publisher of the
  unexpurgated texts of _Native Son_ and _Black Bo_ y ( _American Hunger_ ), to
  see whether the novel-length version might be published. The publication of
  _The Man Who Lived Underground_ , she indicated, should be accompanied 