Joe Carlin was born in Germany and lived in Iraq, Wyoming, Venezuela and Washington, D.C. before the age of 5. He grew up in Northern Virginia and attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA where he majored in English, then completed a Masters in Business Administration. After a 30 year business career, Joe has begun writing and this is his first book. The subject, John Van Mons Lindley, who preferred to be known as J. Van Lindley, was his wife Shirley's great-grandfather. Shirley's family gatherings always included stories about a person they referred to as "John Van Lindley." Researching J. Van and his family revealed a lot of information that confirmed, and some that… contradicted, the family stories.Joe has also researched and written some shorter biographies on the Carlin family that were distributed within the Carlin family. Joe encourages all who have the desire to follow it and become an investigator of history. History holds family secrets and the process of finding them can be personally rewarding when the person being investigated is a relative.