Gilbert X. Drendel, Jr. is a retired attorney who researches his and his wife’s ancestors and puts in print their goals, struggles, successes, and failures. He has published one Drendel family’s history and presently devotes his legal research skills and time to the history of his wife’s ancestry. Footprints in Southern Indiana is the second of a series of books describing her families. He notes, “This book is about the sturdy frontier farmer who was satisfied to put roots down in America’s heartland rather than look again for cheaper land, gold, or an easier life.”