yeoldenews:

A little over a month ago I began the somewhat terrifying process of reaching out to some of Rachel & Co’s living family members.

Families are complicated, and you never know how people will respond to you emailing out of the blue and saying “so… I’ve spent the last two years of my life sharing your grandmother’s letters with a sizeable group of strangers on the internet who are now very invested in her life.”

Turns out I was worried over nothing.

The first person I reached out to was Cousin Flora’s wonderful great-grandson Dan and he put me in touch with an absolutely delightful woman… named Rachel.

Rachel goes by Rachel#6 to differentiate her from her aunt (#5, our Rachel’s daughter), grandmother (#4, our Rachel), great-grandmother (#3, our Rachel’s mother) and two other Rachel ancestors.

I’ve spent the last few weeks emailing back and forth with Rachel and Dan who have both gone out of their way to share family history, stories and photographs with me, for which I cannot thank them enough.

I’m sure I will be sharing much, much more of what they’ve sent me over the next weeks and months, but I thought I would start simply.

Everyone, meet Rachel (#4)…

(taken August 1900, age 22)