Hope For a Free Man: A Secret Family History of Murder, Escape & Discovery
Hope For a Free Man: A Secret Family History of Murder, Escape & Discovery
New on the shelves of the Historical Society book store is a real murder mystery! Just published in 2025 is Hope For A Free Man: A Secret Family History of Murder, Escape and Discovery by Ann M. Schoenfeld. Although a serious genealogical investigation, this family story unfolds with all the excitement of a TV crime drama. The author, in following up hints in family stories, uncovers a many decades old tale of abuse, multiple murders, sensational trials, jail breaks and man hunts.
The author's great grandfather, Frederick John Freeman, after a traumatic youth in Wisconsin, ended up as a respected resident and family man in Eureka, California. Schoenfeld, in an attempt to untangle whispered family tales, dives into a genealogical investigation that reveals an amazing story. This review will refrain from spoiling the mystery, but you can read it yourself!
Using genealogical resources such as Ancestry.com, newspaper accounts, court records, DNA discoveries and imaginative but well based speculation, Schoenfeld recounts a grisly, multi-level family story that involves multiple crimes and sensational trials that rival many dramas on TV or in novels.
In the process, she shows the diligent effort needed to unravel complicated family sagas. In so doing she gives hope to the rest of us when attempting to track down our own genealogical history. Presumably most of us won't uncover such dramatic dark tales - but one never knows! Reading this book can't help but make us wonder if we just might have writing a similar story in our own futures. This book gives some how-to hints.
