The fiction under this category includes chapters of a novel still in progress that was originally entitled, Where Lies The Truth: A People Betrayed. It has since been revised, re-edited and renamed under the sub-title of, The Informant’s Agenda. Based on over thirty years of genealogy research about my paternal German Russian grandfather’s family from Russia I have used fact and fiction to create a compelling story about an American archivist/genealogist who travels to Russia in search of her own roots. What she learns about her own family will put her job in jeopardy, and her life in peril.

Photos of my own grandparents (Jacob and Mildred Mannhalter) with my grandfather’s German Bible. Photo credit: Joyce E. Johnson
The Informant’s Agenda
By: Joyce E. Johnson
Fiction (A novel still in progress) – An archivist travels to Russia on assignment for the U.S. Genealogy Department of History and Research. When she discovers documented evidence on the fate of thousands of Jews massacred during World War II, she learns new revelations of her own ancestry, and the connections between their past and her future. Chapters 1-25 can be found under the menu heading, The Informant’s Agenda. I will post new chapters to this page site as they are finished. I hope you enjoy, The Informant’s Agenda. Any feedback or comments are always appreciated.
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Please contact me about Manhalter surname Doing research to tie up loose ends for cousin. Thank you !
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Are you related to the Mannhalter family in some way? There is no name or blog site identified with your gravatar, only a generic one under ‘anonymous,’ so no way to reply with info.
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Your story sounds fascinating and I’m going to read it tonight when I have more time.
My husband also has a Russian ancestor; so far, we know very little about him. His gt, gt grandfather was Augustus Barlow. I found him on the 1851 census of Liverpool. He was an unmarried mariner, aged 22, born in Russia and a Foreign Subject. According to his 1860 marriage record, his father was Charles Barlow, Shipwright. That’s all we know of him.
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Thanks, Carole. My grandfather’s family were Germans from Russia from the villages in old Bessarabia, which is now Moldova and the Ukraine and Odessa region. I learned through my research and from a relative and other clues as well that the family were originally German Jews from Wurtemberg and old Prussia before converting to the Lutheran faith as they were upon immigration to the U.S. Its great that you are getting info. on your husband’s family as well, because we can sometimes run into those ‘brick walls’. 🙂
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