Tammy Hepps

In spring 2011 a routine search on my great-grandfather revealed the shocking surprise that he had been incarcerated in Leavenworth. What followed was a rollicking genealogical journey tracing a group of brothers and brothers-in-law recently immigrated from Minsk, who set out to sell margarine as butter in defiance of one the stranger pieces of legislation ever passed. Learn?how my desire to tell this story?in its entirety led to?uncovering?the?hijinks?of my great-grandfather, who fled with his family repeatedly before the feds finally nabbed him, my great-grandmother, whose pleas to the warden still survive, the brother-in-law he fingered who was excommunicated for selling lard as butter, another brother-in-law who was arrested for threatening to kill a witness, the soon-to-be-famous inspector who was hot on their tail the entire time, and more. Numerous historical and genealogical repositories will be discussed as I retrace my multi-year journey to get to the bottom of his long-concealed chapter in my family history and offer advice for how?you can better?pursue the fascinating leads in your own?tree?when you think like a storyteller.