Dear Robert,

How can I thank you for your kindness last Wednesday? It was a joy to get together with you, once again, and we had a fruitful time in your wonderful old records.

I’ll include with this letter a copy of Grandpa Appleton Stillman’s will, which I managed to dig out of the basement of the Town Hall in Norfolk, last week, after we met. He was Grandpa John’s eldest son, as you recall, and my fourth GGF. His relict, Amanda Hurd, was the youngest daughter of Daniel and Rebecca Smith Hurd.

Speaking of Grandma Amanda, I focused some attention on her parents and came up with this timeline.

Seems to depict the career of a peaceable farmer with no particular public aspirations: in the Selectmen’s minutes, it says they voted not to excuse him from constabulary service. I’ll know more when I can look at the procedings of the civil court.