Why do people keep deep secrets about their lives and ancestry? Katherine Fennelly delved into the long-kept secrets of her family in the book “Family Declassified: Uncovering My Grandfather’s Journey from Spy to Children’s Book Author.” Within the book, Katherine explores the life of her maternal grandfather, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who arrived in the United States a century ago. After spending years reviewing government records and conducting interviews, she pieced together the life of her grandfather, who hid his identity as a spy and later reinvented himself as a lauded chef and author. Katherine will present on her book and the research behind it for the St. Cloud Area Genealogists (SCAG) on Tuesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. This online event will be presented live for viewing remotely or watching with others at the Stearns History Museum, 235 33rd Ave. S., St. Cloud. The program is free to SCAG members; $7 for non-members. Non-members can pay at the door or watch remotely by paying for access through the SCAG online store: https://scagmn.org/store. The individual annual membership rate for SCAG is $25. Join at https://scagmn.org/join Katherine is an immigration policy expert and professor emerita at the University of Minnesota. She has studied and worked in Iran, Spain and Ecuador and is a voracious reader and lifelong student of languages. For more information, you can visit her website at katherinefennelly.com.

04/30/2025