WHAT: Book reading and signing.
WHERE: Barnes & Noble, 765 Route 17 south, Paramus. Call 201-445-4589 for more information.
WHEN: 7:30 tonight.
HOW MUCH: Free.
Once upon a time, Bill Griffeth thought he was a California boy. He thought he would never leave Los Angeles, where he grew up.
But times changed. Griffeth reluctantly relocated to North Jersey when NBC gave him a job offer he couldn't refuse 16 years ago. He became a Park Ridge resident, an anchorman for CNBC and a member of the Hillsdale United Methodist Church.
Little did he know that the move was actually a homecoming.
In 2003, a cousin still living in California sent him an extensive 45-page family tree. Looking closer, Griffeth realized that all the family roots led back to the tri-state area and New England, tantalizingly close to where he now lived. It had taken his ancestors 300 years to make it to the West Coast, and he had reversed the quest in a six-hour plane flight.
"One Sunday afternoon I dragged my wife and kids up to the Bedford, N.Y., area to go ancestor hunting," Griffeth says. He was searching for the whereabouts of his forebears, the Woolseys. The family car puttered toward a tiny churchyard cemetery.
When he stood at the entrance, Griffeth was stunned. The monument that dominated the cemetery stood before him, proudly proclaiming the name "Woolsey."
"Oh my goodness ... there they are!" Griffeth remembers thinking.
This was one of the "Aha!" moments that drove Griffeth on an obsessive journey into his family genealogy, a search that eventually led to his new book, "By Faith Alone." He will be discussing his book tonight at Barnes & Noble in Paramus.
The Woolsey family's religious character -- one ancestor, Elijah Woolsey, was a circuit-riding Methodist minister who established churches up and down the East Coast -- helped determine the course of the book. Griffeth hunted down a rare copy of Woolsey's journal from his 40 years on the road, published in 1845, and used it as one of his firsthand documents.
"While I acknowledge the ethnic heritage, I think the faith heritage has an even stronger pull for me now, in knowing the extent of their beliefs, and really what it did to motivate them," Griffeth says. He traced his ancestry back to Puritan and Pilgrim roots in England and the Netherlands for the book.
One notable ancestor was Mary Towne Estey, who was convicted and burned as a witch in Salem, Mass., during the famous trials.
"I put this book together as a reminder of our faith heritage and the role that faith played in the founding of our country," he says. "My family was not unique. They were part of a huge movement. Faith played a huge role in their lives, and in our history."
Griffeth grew up in the Methodist church, an active member of his youth group. Though he is a business journalist by profession and has written other books about business, "Faith is who I am," he says.
He will be sharing his experience of delving into faith genealogy at North Jersey churches in the Lenten season, beginning with the Pascack Reform Methodist Church in Park Ridge and the Grace United Methodist Church in Wyckoff. He'll even visit the Harmony Hill Methodist Church in Stillwater, founded by none other than Elijah Woolsey.
After the long ancestor hunt, what do his kids think of all this? They simply put up with their father's obsession because "they're teenagers," Griffeth said. "But I think there's maybe even a little bit of pride on their part now.
"They'll appreciate it a lot more when they get older, as we all do," he added. "We take it for granted when we're young, but you get to a certain point when that becomes important."
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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