Samuel Marquis is a professional hydrogeologist, expert witness, and the award-winning author of “Empire and Frontier,” “Captain Kidd,” “Blackbeard: The Birth of America,” and “Soldiers of Freedom.” Samuel Marquis: The foundation for the research in “Empire and Frontier” came from writing a biography of my ninth-great-grandfather, the legendary New York privateer Captain William Kidd. SunLit: You had a very real connection to the subject of your historical book “Captain Kidd” through family lineage. Captain Kidd is in “Empire and Frontier,” but he has a smaller role. Kidd was a friend of both Peter Schuyler and Schuyler’s brother-in-law Robert Livingston, who, like Kidd, is in both “Captain Kidd” and “Empire and Frontier.”