Marcia Kemp Sterling

Tangled Roots Marcia Kemp Sterling

A family saga of migration and striving, where historical fiction meets genealogy, brought to life through the voices of three young immigrants




Set in the rich farmland of colonial Pennsylvania in 1750, this "history-comes-alive-in-fiction" narrative tells the first-person stories of Mary, her youthful passion constrained by tradition and family expectations; Alex, a Scots-Irish indentured servant who introduces her to secrets of the land and of the heart; and Matthew, Mary's level-headed stepbrother who longs to win her affection. Set against the social issues of slavery, Native American oppression and indentured servitude, the novel is rich in historic detail and the search for love, justice and family in a new land.




At the center of the story is an old family cross, brought back to Britain after the Third Crusade. Even as the unique histories of Mary, Alex, and Matthew shape their experience in the American colonies, so their futures are touched by the iconic cross that changed hands in the Holy Land during the Crusades, reemerging on a 17th-century plantation in Northern Ireland and yet again in the forest surrounding a small farm in Lancaster County at the edge of the Pennsylvania Colony.