In the spring of 2012, Rosanne was invited to join the Erie County Poorhouse Cemetery project, undertaken by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Buffalo. While writing her dissertation in the mid 1990's, Rosanne got to know many of the inmates of the institutions in Western New York as she pieced together what little could be told of their lives while researching their deaths. For over 20 years she had a desire to the tell the other side of the story in a way that would be accessible to more than just the scholarly community. Rosanne's need to tell their tale has resulted in her novel, Orphans and Inmates, which is the first in a series chronicling fictional accounts of poorhouse residents inspired by the historical data. The book Orphans and Inmates is followed by A Whisper of Bones ,The Seer and the Scholar, A Lifetime Again, The Girl on the Shore, A Mind's Eye Witness and In the Shadow of the White Oak.  Each book in the series is an adventure into life as it was in the 1800's mixing history, spiritualism, love, hardships, victories and even a touch of magic to 5 intriguing stories. 


Visit our library to view and purchase any of these great books by clicking here. ​

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​Rosanne L. Higgins grew up in Buffalo, New York.  Her experiences traveling in both the United States and in Europe as a child, and later to Ireland, resulted in a love of history and cultural diversity from an early age.  She entered graduate school in 1990 as an anthropology student and studied the relationship between biology and poverty during the nineteenth century.  Her main interest was the institutionalized poor.  In 1998 she earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University at Buffalo.


Dr. Higgins signed many books in person for her book launch at Antique Lamp Co and Gift Emporium. 

Rosanne Higgins gives interesting real life background to the story of In the Shadow of the White Oak.