Why did it take me so long to connect the dots? My family's most endearing tale of heroism was about my great-great-great-grandmother, Margaret Booker, and her migration to freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863. The gist of her remarkable story had been well-known to me for almost four decades. I included snippets of brave Margaret's trek to freedom in my first two books: The Ancestors Are Smiling! and Finding Otho: The Search for Our Enslaved Williams Ancestors. So how is it possible that I still didn't know the name of Margaret's slave owner, her parents, her siblings, where she was born, where she lived, what her daily routine was like, how she looked, who fathered her ten children, and where the surname Booker came from? Not knowing the answers to this mystery has plagued me for so long that I vowed to finally uncover the truth this time ? but how? During the sixth month of diligent research on this project, an online slide show contained an unexpected document found in the "Court Oaths and Licenses 1809-1861" book, from the county where Margaret was born and raised. It radically changed the trajectory of this story.Margaret Booker: Beverly Slave to Barnesville Free is an adventure that marries lore with truth, white with black, friend with foe, research with tales, feast with famine, and slavery with independence. It sheds light on a history that has too long been obscured in America. Researching the story in West Virginia and Ohio, combined with DNA testing, helped me uncover clues about how WE came to BE.I worked as a researcher, analyst, and technical writer for 36 years. My published works include: The Ancestors Are Smiling!, the dual award-winning Finding Otho: The Search for Our Enslaved Williams Ancestors, as well as two anthologies. I am also the owner/artist for my Kathy Lynne Marshall Books & Art business (www.KathyLynneMarshall.com)