I walked in to the house of a woman I had never met. In her hands, she carried a box filled with photographs of the founding members of my family, most of whom lived, worked and died in Morris.

Amidst the photos and other memorabilia was something I had been searching for since I started my journey in genealogy. A letter that, to the un-researched eye, would seem vague and nondescript. But for me and my family, it’s a map to our family fortune; a fortune that’s been sought for generations, but never recovered.