Please join me in welcoming Rebecca DeMarino this week. She’s the author of a new book, To Follow Her Heart. What a great title! Here’s a little bit about it.
Duty and love are powerful forces. Only one has the power to make her life complete.
In 1664 Patience Terry is devastated to learn that Captain Jeremy Horton’s ship has been shipwrecked off the coast of Barbados. There were no survivors. She had hoped that Jeremy would someday give up the sea and settle down with her in Southold, Long Island.
Unaware his memorial service is being planned, Jeremy sails aboard a British warship with secret orders to attack New Amsterdam and claim it for the British Crown. When he makes his surprise return to Southold—and to an overjoyed Patience—it’s not quite the happily-ever-after his beloved had hoped for.
With a finely tuned sense for authentic historical characters and settings, Rebecca DeMarino plunges you into a world of tall ships, daring journeys, and yearning hearts.
Sounds wonderful. What led you to write the book?
I grew up with stories my mother, Helen Horton Worley, passed down through the oral tradition. It was of sailing ships and casks of gold and our ancestors from England. She knew Barnabas was a great-grandfather from many generations ago and that he’d come from England on a little ship called The Swallow.
In the 1990’s my brother became interested in genealogy and traced the Horton line through to Barnabas and discovered there was a lighthouse named after him on Long Island. I pulled out a map, and found Horton Point in Southold, NY. I didn’t have to ask my mom twice about visiting.
Barnabas and Mary were the largest landowners in Southold. He built the first timber-framed house on eastern Long Island, home to six generations of Hortons until it was demolished in the 1870’s. The site of their home on the Peconic Bay side of the north fork is marked with a plaque, and across the road is the cemetery where Barnabas is buried.
At the cemetery we found Barnabas’s grave, covered with a large slab of blue slate, engraved with an epitaph he is said to have written. Below the epitaph is the Bible verse “He being dead yet speaketh.” That intrigued me, and I reread the epitaph. One line in particular caught my eye, “And you dear children all, follow the Lord. Hear and obey his public sacred Word; and in your houses call upon His name.” It was as if Barnabas was speaking to the generations of Hortons to follow. And here I stood with my Mom, over three hundred years later.
We wandered the cemetery looking for Mary’s grave. At the Southold Historical Society we’d looked at Barnabas’s will, written shortly before he died. He named her executrix of his estate, so we knew she was still alive when he died. But we couldn’t find her grave. The church secretary searched the records, but Mary was not listed. She told us it didn’t mean Mary wasn’t buried there. Many gravestones had deteriorated before the church began to keep records.
I went home wondering about Mary. The lack of information about Mary Langton Horton, Barnabas’s brave young wife who left family to come to the wilds of Long Island—and our great-grandmother—troubled me. I did discover Barnabas was a widower when she married him. She must have been courageous as she left her family to cross an ocean with him and his two young sons by his first wife.
I wanted to give her and the other brave women who followed their husbands a voice and I began writing her story in the fall of 2008. The working title for that first novel was The Blue Slate. It sold to Revell as A Place in His Heart, as book one of a three-book historical romance series. The third book, To Follow Her Heart released this month!
Congratulations on that, Rebecca!
REBECCA DEMARINO inherited her love of baking and gardening from her mother; a love of horses, reading, and writing from her dad—and the wanderlust gene from both parents. Her new novel, TO FOLLOW HER HEART releases this month from Revell. She is the author of A PLACE IN HIS HEART and TO CAPTURE HER HEART, books one and two of The Southold Chronicles. A free prologue to THE SOUTHOLD CHRONICLES series available here: www.RebeccaDeMarino.com And visit Rebecca here: www.facebook.com/AuthorRebeccaDeMarino
Rebecca is giving away a copy of the book. Follow the directions below to enter.
Thanks so much for visiting with us, Rebecca!
When will the giveaway start?
Looks like it’s started, Jan! Best of luck!!
I found that my great-grandfather came from Norway and found a journal he wrote describing his trip from Norway to America.
How exciting you fond his journal! I would love to have that kind of primary information!! Blessings to you!
I am very much looking forward to this book, for many reasons. I enjoy historical fiction and there are limited books set during this time period. Also, the genealogical background really caught my attention. I greatly enjoy my hobby of genealogy and do have Horton ancestors, with my doing personal, source document research back to Abraham Horton, ca 1722, a Grandfather, and then other researchers have determined, but I have not personally seen the source documents, that he descends from a brother of Barnabas.
How exciting, Cathy! If you’ve been able to document to 1722, it might be easier than you think to document back to Barnabas, 1600 – 1680! I’m descended through his son Joshua Horton, and Joshua is documented with the National Society of Colonial Dames. It is possible that the child you are a descendant from is listed in the register with the Colonial Dames, and linking them to Abraham Horton would then be fairly easy – I think! Good luck in your search! And thank you for stopping by! I think we are distant cousins!!
Thank you for the research tip as I had not thought of the Colonial Dames!
I really haven’t found out much of anything. I’ve attempted to get interested in genealogy, but it’s a very time-consuming pursuit. It’s never been at the top of my to-do list.
It is time-consuming! For me, it was part of my research for the novels, and I love research! But there are many family trails I still want to search!
I’m not entering the giveaway because I already have a copy of this book (for a book tour I’m participating in.) It looks amazing, and I love knowing the background. Thanks for the interview!
I have a family member who has traced our family way back! Our branch immigrated from Prussia (don’t know what year) and I think she traced something like well over 800 members! I’ve also seen old photographs of family members she’s posted on Facebook. I don’t know how she keeps track of everyone, lol! Also, the spelling of our last name changed due to someone not being able to spell it correctly when my (however many greats) grandparents came to America. Thus we have varying spellings but still all the same relation 🙂
Thank you for the fun interview and book giveaway chance!
There are numerous (too many to list) fascinating facts about my family. My father has told me terrifying, as well as extremely touching stories from his time in the Vietnam War. He is a fascinating storyteller who captivates an audience wherever he goes. (Perhaps why I was destined to become a writer.) 🙂
Also, both my mother and grandmother had the God given gift of “knowing” and passed it down to me. (I don’t particularly like the word “psychic” because of the weirdo/yucky/other-worldly connotation that goes with it.)
I had a great grandfather who built a church in the area my father grew up. Not far from where we lived. It’s still there today and going.
I found out recently that my grandfather helped to dig the basement for the church they went to. He also donated money to have a stained glass window made. His last name was put in the bottom of the stained glass in the window. My great grandparents came over from Germany. The family farm has been in our family over 100 years.
I found out that my grandmothers biological father is a relative of a family who founded a town and if Rebecca is reading its – Smithtown, NY.
And a P.S. for Rebecca – I like how you used the last name of Terry. I knew an older lady from my church whose family founded Terryville, NY – sometimes referred to part of Port Jefferson Station.