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On Thursday, January 14th, we were joined by author Russell Low, who spoke about the research and process behind his book, Three Coins: a young girl's story of kidnappings, slavery, and romance in 19th Century America.  

Russell initiated on the process of research and writing in summer 2015, after coming across an article in an archive while researching his family's history.  Curious to learn more about this previously-unknown family history involving his great-grandparents, he embarked on a process of archival research, visiting diverse locations that were implicated in the story of Ah Ying (aka Ah Gew, Russell's great-grandmother) and Gee Sung (his great-grandfather), from the Cameron House and First Presbyterian Church (in San Francisco), to the Dailong village in Guangdong.

Three Coins developed over a 46 month period-from the initial idea to publication of the book in Spring 2019.  Russell's presentation provided first-hand insights into the process of writing Three Coins, and may serve as an inspiration for anyone who is interested to conduct research on and formally document their own family history.  We are grateful to him and all who joined us on 01/14 for taking the time to share with us and to learn.