Searching for Charles

Royal Dragonfly Book Awards 1st Place in 1) History Nonfiction, 2) Letters, Journals, Diaries; and Honorable Mentions in 1) Biography/Autobiography/Memoir, 2) New Author: Nonfiction (2023)Firebird Book Awards 1st Place in 1) Biography/Historical, 2) History/US, 3) New Nonfiction (2023)Colorado Independent Publishers Association EVVY Book Awards 2nd Place in History (2023)Florida Authors and Publishers Association President's Book Awards 3rd Place in Autobiography/Biography/Memoir (2023)Illinois State Genealogical Society Special Recognition Award (2023)Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards Finalist in 1) Nonfiction: History, 2) Nonfiction: True Story (2023)Page Turner Awards Finalist in Best Book (2023)Self-Publishing Review Book Awards Overall Finalist (2022)Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist in Non-Fiction (2023)Nellie Bly Chanticleer International Book Awards Short List in Journalistic Non-Fiction (2023)What started as a project to archive a family's genealogy files became an insightful window into the life of Charles Watts, one of the millions of Dickens-era working-class English emigrants who risked everything for the possibility of better opportunities in distant lands.Searching for Charles is the chronological account of Watts's experiences as told through his letters home-and the subsequent five-decade multigenerational search by his descendants. This book contains the only published, complete transcriptions of Watts's letters. They cover a wide range of topics, including farming, European revolutions, Native Americans, a burgeoning family feud, and firsthand accounts of the rapidly expanding population of early nineteenth-century America, along with the opportunities provided by its explosive growth.Searching for Charles is for readers interested in how the discoveries encountered during a half-century genealogical journey can unfold into a dramatic and surprising account of the hidden life of an unhistoric man.