Things in boxes stay in boxes.  Sometimes they stay in boxes through several generations.  Now and then, someone takes something out of a box . . . looks it over and puts it back.  Now and then, someone takes something out of a box and puts it into another box.  Still, names and dates and faces, documents and certificates, correspondence and keepsakes remain.  Clues.  Clues remain in the box.  Clues are the best part about these boxes.  Ancestors left clues.  Angels leave clues.  Perhaps angels laugh when they leave clues, wondering how long it will take someone to figure things out.  I am convinced of it.  “Find me.”  “Remember me.”  Clues mean work.  Welcome work.  Work to piece together the puzzle of a life.  Two pieces or twenty pieces.  Somewhere are the rest of the pieces.

All Things Ancestor is a modern version of the ‘open box’.  Using this wonderful format, I can share much of the information with which I have been blessed to learn “outside of the box” with those whose boxes have been discarded.  Since the actual research fills filing cabinets and computer space, this site will share condensed stories.  Summaries.  It the summaries prod a person to want to know more . . . simply ask and I will look inside of the bigger box and see what else is there.

Maybe your box has something I need.  Maybe your grandfather was a friend of my grandfather.  Maybe they had a photograph taken together.  A story.  A face.  A document.  A keepsake.  Perhaps younger people who don’t yet have an interest in the past, will gain one as they read about people who were courageous, adventurous, sacrificing people who gave them their faces, hands, eyes, and dreams.  Maybe they will one day ask questions out of curiosity.  And when they do, the hands of curiosity will reach for their box .

“If history were taught in the form of stories,

it would never be forgotten.”

-Rudyard Kipling-