Two Words You Never Thought You'd See in the Same Sentence: Genealogy Cruise.

When I was in graduate school I had a friend who did his dissertation on the 19th century slave trade. When I asked him how he chose his topic, he said: "I promised my wife we'd be able to take a research trip to the Caribbean." And people ask me how I chose genealogy as a topic for my next book.

The cruise left from Brooklyn so I flew in the night before and stayed with my dear friends Gary and Laura and their two adorable kiddos, Tot and Bops (best nicknames ever). Here they are on the streets of Park Slope, site of the last truly good coffee I would have for eight days.

Our ship, the Caribbean Princess (yes, the model for "The Love Boat"), was docked in front of Governors Island and, just beyond, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Not sure if the genealogy folks paid extra for that, or if it was just serendipity.

My stateroom: Dolphin Deck 9, Room 301.

The view from the beach in Antigua.

Thank god I met these two Irishmen, John Grenham and Jonathan Hession on Day 3. Grenham is the foremost expert on Irish genealogy; Hession is one of his oldest friends, who told me after the first five minutes that he didn't "give @#*&$ about genealogy." Fine. I knew they were both OK when I saw them reading matching copies of LOLITA.