How It All Got Started

Email from Bob

On June 15, 2012, my cousin, Robert Kennedy, contacted me via email, telling me about a message he received on Ancestry.com from an unrelated person who had some of our family history artifacts from the 1800's.

I was fascinated, and quickly wrote back to send me more information, which he did.

Email from Barbara

The essence of her message was:

Although we are not related, I was pleased to come across your Conley family tree on Ancestry.com.

I am in possession of two boxes of family photos and letters written home to your family members during the Civil War.

The boxes originally belonged to a granddaughter of your great, great, great grandfather, James. My aunt, who was best friends with this granddaughter, Medora, held onto the boxes after Medora's death in 1964. The boxes were passed through three generations of my family with the goal of finding the descendants of Medora and her family.

I'd really love to see all the contents of this box returned 'home" to the Conley family descendants.

Meeting in Oceanside

Meeting Barbara

Barbara and her daughter arrived with neatly packaged boxes. Strangely, I felt I had known Barbara from somewhere in my past. We spoke casually about things other than the letters and pictures. Somehow, the subject of 9/11 came up. I mentioned that I frequently flew American Flight 77, the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Barbara stated that she was a flight attendant on that flight, as well as flights 75 and 76, which I also frequently flew. So that is how I knew her!

The Boxes

After a few introductions, I opened the boxes as Barbara explained the contents. It was amazing! There were 23 neatly covered yellowed letters and over 100 pictures. Barbara, being a family historian, had done some research on our family and shared what she knew.