Nonfiction — An American Romani Family’s Road to Settlement
A modern-day DNA test shattered everything Amy C Crooks thought she knew about her own roots — and unlocked a hidden legacy of grit, love, and survival she never knew was hers. The Last Wagon uncovers the forgotten story of a Romani-American family who traveled by wagon long after everyone else had settled down — outsiders in their own country, bound by blood, tradition, and the open road. Drawing on meticulous genealogical research and family records, Amy pieces together the lives of the Wards, Masons, and Roes — nomadic families who crisscrossed the Midwest well into the twentieth century, holding onto tradition in a world that rarely welcomed them. Their story moves through dusty roads, border towns, and train yards, with Chariton, Iowa becoming their spiritual center — and it carries the powerful, complicated stories of Romani men who fought for a country that often denied them a place in it, including Von Joseph Roe’s brutal campaign in the Pacific and Thomas Roe’s choice to follow his father Pier into battle. The Last Wagon is more than a family history — it’s an invitation to remember the ones history tried to forget.
The Research Behind the Fiction
The Last Wagon is the true story that started it all — the discovery that led Amy into twenty-one years of genealogical and DNA research, and eventually into writing the historical fiction of the Woolsey and Beeson sagas.