So delighted to welcome the wonderful Cindy Woodsmall back to the blog today to chat about her new novel, Yesterday’s Gone, and some interesting discoveries in her family tree!
YESTERDAY’S GONE by Cindy Woodsmall & Erin Woodsmall
GENRE: Inspirational Amish Fiction / Time Travel
PUBLISHER: Tyndale House
RELEASE DATE: August 30, 2022
PAGES: 425
Interesting Things I Learned While Researching My Family Tree
by Cindy Woodsmall, author of Yesterday’s Gone
While I was growing up, my family told me numerous interesting stories about my paternal grandfather’s life. Some of the stories had missing information, but the gist of them was fascinating . . . because the interesting stories are the ones that get passed down.
But before I tell a favorite from family oral history, I’ll share what I’ve recently learned through online research.
At eighteen years old, my grandfather married his seventeen-year-old sweetheart. Ten months later, they had their first child. Later, as a young dad with two children, he served in World War I. He returned home to work in the coal mines of the Appalachian Mountains in Alabama, and they had two more children. But in his midthirties, his wife of fifteen years died, leaving him with four children to take care of on his own. He remarried quickly, but the marriage didn’t survive. During the upheaval and separation between my grandfather and his second wife, who was my biological grandmother, the Great Depression took hold of the country. They divorced, leaving my grandfather a widower and a divorcée, with five mouths to feed. He then married a young widow who had two children.
Those are facts that can be found through online research.

But the story that relatives passed down through the years fit with what I’d witnessed and with the online research. The oral history goes like this: My grandfather, in his late thirties and during the Great Depression, had sold “everything that wasn’t nailed down” trying to keep his family fed. He couldn’t get a job. The soup lines were hours long and everyone still went to bed hungry. He had to do something, so he went to a wealthy man in the area and sold most of the land he owned to that rich man. The man didn’t pay with money, but with a shotgun. My grandfather knew that if he had a shotgun, he could keep himself, his wife, and their now seven children fed.
I remember seeing the shotgun as a child. I remember my dad telling this story to his children over the years as we visited the Deep South and sat at my grandparents’ Formica kitchen table or on their plastic-covered couches.
I remember how much my dad wanted to be the one to receive the shotgun, and he did. He was grateful to his dad, stepmom, half siblings, and stepsiblings who loved him despite that he was the only child from a short-lived marriage.
But the most interesting thing I learned also feels like the saddest. In my weeks of research, I’ve uncovered almost nothing about the three women my grandfather married.
In Yesterday’s Gone, a young Amish woman has a hobby of genealogy, and the hardest part for her is tracing the lineage of the women.

Logically, we can understand how that tends to be an issue, but recently I saw it firsthand on both sides of my family—my dad’s and my mom’s.
Having our maternal ancestry erased (or almost erased) leaves us lacking in knowledge and understanding in the wholeness of who we are. My step-grandmother may not have wielded the shotgun, but did she not plant and tend a large vegetable garden each year, also putting food on the table? I say she must have because each summer when we visited her, she had planted a large vegetable garden and harvested from it for every meal she prepared for us.
Life becomes lopsided and unfavorably biased when groups of people are erased or almost erased from our history.
In Yesterday’s Gone, while grieving the loss of a newborn, Eliza finds a way to erase a singular decision she made years earlier. But she has no way of seeing what the full repercussions will be.
From Publishers Weekly: [Eliza] learns that every choice she makes has unintended consequences for the lives of her loved ones. The time travel conceit offers a fresh spin on the Amish romance genre, and Christians will appreciate the message of trusting God through hard times. This is well worth readers’ time.
Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times and CBA bestselling author of twenty-five works of fiction and one nonfiction book. Coverage of Cindy’s writing has been featured on ABC’s Nightline and the front page of the Wall Street Journal. She lives in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains with her husband, just a short distance from two of her three sons and her six grandchildren.
Erin Woodsmall is a writer, musician, wife, and mom of four. She has edited, brainstormed, and researched books with Cindy for almost a decade. More recently she and Cindy have coauthored five books, one of which was a winner of the prestigious Christy Award.
Tyndale House is offering a print copy of Yesterday’s Gone by Cindy Woodsmall & Erin Woodsmall to one of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.
What about you? What makes you want to read Yesterday’s Gone by Cindy Woodsmall & Erin Woodsmall? Are there any people in your family tree that you wish you knew more about?
I would like to read Yesterday’s Gone by Cindy Woodsmall & Erin Woodsmall becuase it sounds like a unique story with an interesting twist.
What a beautiful story. It sounds very intriguing.
Wow what interesting history. I’ve never researched my family, but a cousin of mine gave me a book with many of the family names from my fathers side. He was much older then me, so he knew a lot of the people he wrote about.
A captivating and memorable novel that is a real treasure. Yes, there are many whom I would want to speak to and converse at great length.
“Yesterday’s Gone” by Cindy Woodsmall has it all – inspirational story, Amish, time travel and an author that never disappoints. Can’t wait for the opportunity to read and review this fabulous sounding book.
When my grandfather migrated to the United States, he left everything behind – including his past. We know absolutely nothing about him other than his parents name. As a young man, he changed his name once he hit the states and never looked back. What few details via paper trails are muddled with different information from different sources on the same subject. My Dad was a young man before he even knew his father had changed his name when he found a strange word written on a board in the barn. It’s like being dropped on earth with no past to fall back on or family tree to trace. I’ve learned to take it as it is and go on, but you have to wonder from time to time WHY.
Sounds really great. I wish I knew more about my Great grandparents and previous to them.
I love Cindy Woodsmall books. Thank you for sharing.
I haven’t read any Cindy Woodsmall books in a while, but my son purchased this for me when it first hit the shelves of the bookstore he manages. I’m really looking forward to reading it! 🙂
I’ve loved every Cindy Woodsmall book I’ve read. She’s an excellent writer and creates imaginative story lines. I’m eager to read this one.
I, too, have enjoyed every Cindy Woodsmall book I read, and the premise of Yesterday’s Gone is so different for Amish fiction that it intrigues me.
I love her books, and this one sound really good. My husband is doing our family trees right now.
Soundsgreat
The storyline of this book has captured my attention. I would have liked to know my paternal grandparents. They died before I was born.
Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you
I would like to know more about my Mother’s ancestors. Some were pastors who struggles with alcohol and some were mentally ill. Must have been a lot of heartache in the family. Sad!
Interesting research