In Endings A Beginning

     I begin with two gravestones in a cemetery in Northwest Connecticut. On the left, Lida Beckwith, who sold Hidden Hollow to my father in 1937. On the right, her husband, Burton Beckwith, who I know only through Lida's  description of him, recently deceased, in a letter to my father. The day is perfect fall. I talk with the President of the Coburn Cemetery about the graves of Lida's father, John Henry Worden, and his wife, Arthilla, which have toppled over. I feel almost as though they are my own relatives, and that I am being very Chinese in caring for their graves.

With amazement, I find the marker for Lida's first daughter Mary, who appears in the 1910 Census, but never again. It seems that Mary married an Adams, and they are both buried here. Armed with their birth and death dates, I return to the Rocky River Motel and my Internet connection and Ancestry.com, the genealogist's best friend. To my delight, I find that there is a complete family tree for Lida, and the poster probably lives in New Milford. A few emails and telephone calls, and I am in touch with Lida's grand, great-grand and great-great grandsons, or as I like to call them, Ted I,II and III. Ted II, the genealogist is eager to meet with me and share what he has learned.

     As I arrive in New Preston, where he lives, I immediately find some answers to the question underlying my book, Hidden Hollow: Why do people stay in one place? Although Lida sold Hidden Hollow, and moved to Sherman Center, her great grandson has not travelled far. His house is situated on a lovely hillside, and family live nearby, just as they did at Hidden Hollow for 150 years. 

More surprises are quick to follow. Ted produces the adoption papers for Lida! It seems that after 10 childless years, John Henry Worden and Arthilla adopted an infant from New York City. I learn all about Mary and her husband, a surveyor for the State of Connecticut, who worked on the design of Merritt Parkway. And then I learn that Lida's second child, Frances, whom she described in her letter to my father, is alive and living in New Milford! She did marry her war-time sweetheart, but they divorced and she remarried. 

Ted's interest in genealogy has sparked a fascination with history in his son, Ted III, a very bright young man. With reluctance I leave them and return to the Rocky River. An auspicious beginning, I think.