The Chest that Started it All

This old sea chest is what started it all: my fascination with genealogy, my desire to learn everything I possibly could about the people that were in that box.  I had seen it many times before in the attic of my grandparents' old farmhouse in Winchester, Virginia.  When I was young, it didn't hold much interest for me - there weren't any obvious photographs or anything - just a bunch of papers.  When I went to Loveland, Colorado in the summer of 2018 to visit my parents and my grandfather, I came across it again. Only this time, I was entranced.  I started to read some of the letters - they were mushy love letters written in the 1800s and I was hooked. When asked, my grandfather (who probably got this chest from his Aunt Royall Holt Tyler, though I'll never know now) was thrilled that I'd taken an interest in the family history and told me I could take it home with me.  And so I did and I've been reading and transcribing the contents within ever since. 

Its small size is deceptive.  The inside measures approximately 8 inches high, by 14 inches wide and 11 inches deep.  You wouldn't think much could be in that box, buy my ancestors were puzzle-masters.  There are HUNDREDS of letters in there.  The photo doesn't show it, but most of the letters were bundled together in neat stacks. Organized by author and date and then tied up with string or, in some cases, old dried-up rubber bands.  There are also stacks of receipts - for the purchase of paper and ink, furniture, rent payments, dental bills, you name it (the cost of going to the dentist has gone up a bit since the 19th century...).  There are letters containing dried flowers; letters with enclosed photos; letters which say they are including a photo, but don't (those are the most frustrating ones).  But one thing is for certain: these letters are real clues to what life was like for my ancestors.  

At first, I would haphazardly pull out a letter and start to transcribe it.  But the more I did, the more I realized that they could tell a story if I made an attempt to transcribe them in order.  Most of the letters are written between my 2nd great-grandparents between June 1889 and May 1890.  I'll write a whole post about them and the reason for their letter-writing, but I have transcribed more than 250 letters from them alone so far.  I could probably transcribe them faster, but I've started to slow things down in order to research the people, places and events contained inside them as I go. My transcriptions are full of footnotes to places, people, events, and even books and songs.

Not all of the letters are from my great-great-grandparents.  Some are much older - the oldest so far is one written in 1857 by my 3rd great-aunt, Olivia Alberta Kyle, when she was only 12 years old. Then, there are the ones that make me sad: like the letters written by my 3rd great-grandfather to his wife after he left her and the children in order to seek medical treatment for what killed him that same year.  He never saw his family again and the letters he wrote are heartbreaking to read.  I get to feeling like I know these people - some sound like they were a real hoot to be around, others...not so much.  I find myself getting to the end of a letter and wanting to pick up the phone to ask a question: "What did you mean when you said...?" or "Who is...?"  

I don't think I'm even one-quarter of the way through these letters.  I'll do my best to write their story here, based on the letters, but also on the supporting documents I've found to tell their stories.  They weren't rich and powerful. They were just ordinary people living extraordinary lives.