When I read Timothy Salls’ manuscript column describing the recently-acquired Lamoureux Papers, one item described in the collection particularly captured my imagination. In a December 1844 letter, Andrew L’Amoureux (1789–1853) of New York City wrote a letter to his son, James L’Amoureux of South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts, and included some genealogical data. Andrew wrote, “I send you the Record of my familys births & deaths that if lost by me it will not be entirely lost.” After listing names and dates, Andrew continued, “You will let me know the receipt of this as . . . some time thereafter it may be of great interest to the family.” I’ve continued to think about Andrew’s words, which speak to many aspects of the genealogical experience.
Clearly, these vital records had been collected by Andrew, and were important to him. Andrew recognized the value of his work, and wanted to ensure it would be preserved. Andrew aimed to serve as a connection between past and future generations, and he obviously took this responsibility to pass on his acquired knowledge seriously. And he worried about it. He worried enough to make at least one copy — he may have created more — and send it to someone trustworthy for safekeeping. Happily, we know that Andrew’s mission was successful, most likely beyond any possible expectation. Five subsequent generations inherited and saved the document, and 166 years after it was created, Andrew L’Amoureux’s Record came to the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
Andrew L’Amoureux’s words so resonated with me, I think, because some of the articles in this issue particularly speak to transmitting — and recovering — objects, records, and stories over many generations. Two of the articles are family heirloom case studies. Our lead story, “Following the Threads of the Carver Fruit Tree Family,” by needlework collectors Dan and Marty Campanelli, describes the process of researching the life and family history of an embroidery stitcher. In “More than a Spoon,” Deborah Nowers traces seven generations of her matrilineal ancestors, all owners (or possible owners) of a coin silver spoon passed through the women of her family for over 250 years.
Two additional articles describe finding and using atypical print sources that offered interesting details of ancestral lives likely found nowhere else. As she relates in “Lives Captured in Verse: the William and Hannah (Fornis) Conant Family,” Deborah Stewart Adams discovered a true genealogical gem — a lengthy narrative poem written for her great-great grandparents’ fiftieth anniversary in 1878. And James E. Carbine and Judith Huber Halseth uncovered records of their ancestors’ purchases at a local general store in the 1880s, an experience they describe in “A Glimpse into the Store Window: the Records of S. Stern & Co., Marcellus, Michigan.”
In all these cases, the authors used widely disparate sources — needlework, silver, poetry, and account books — as starting points to recapture and make tangible the lives of people of the past. Hopefully, these stories will encourage readers to think carefully about preserving their own objects, records, and stories. Inevitably, over generations, some facts and nuances will be forgotten but, as Andrew L’Amoureux recognized, the primary goal is that the family history “not be entirely lost.”
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Diane Rapaport’s popular “Tales from the Courthouse” column is on hiatus this issue but will return in the spring.
Lynn Betlock
Managing Editor
magazine@nehgs.org