Crossing: A History of the Knowles, Lariz, Garcia Family

Three families. Two homelands. Generations of crossings that led to Key West. Crossings: A History of the Knowles, Lariz, Garcia Family traces the lives of families whose stories stretch across the waters separating the Bahamas, Cuba, and the Florida Keys. Through biographies, family photographs, historical records, and personal stories, Karen Yvonne Hamilton follows generations of the Knowles family from the Bahamas to Key West and the Garcia and Lariz families from Cuba to Key West. Their journeys were shaped by migration, marriage, hardship, opportunity, and the determination to build new lives while carrying pieces of the old ones with them. More than a collection of names and dates, Crossings brings these ancestors to life as individuals-men and women who worked, raised families, endured loss, crossed seas, and became part of the rich cultural history of Key West. This expanded Second Edition presents many of the biographies as fuller narratives, allowing the stories of these ancestors to unfold with greater depth and context. It also includes restored and newly added photographs, additional family information, and new discoveries made through continuing genealogical research. At its heart, Crossings is a story of movement and memory-of the waters families crossed, the lives they created, and the stories they left for the generations who followed.