Despite being a lifelong bachelor, he welcomed me with open arms and we spent two years getting to know each other before his unexpected passing. Unbeknownst to me, he had a big surprise in store for me; he left me his home and personal belongings. I could never have anticipated what I would find within his home–letters, photos, scrapbooks and diaries containing five generations of his family’s history. My history. The history that I never dreamed I would ever know.

Make yourself at home here and come along with me as I travel through time with them, from the grounds of Annapolis, the world at war to the early 19th century beginnings of what is now, Huntington, West Virginia.