My love of doing ancestry research came from my mom, Mary (Mattimore) Elwell. She was always updating her hand-written charts and trees showing our large family, and taking our ancestors as far back in the tree as she could. She kept up with the families of all her Mattimore cousins, too. Every year she would bring her charts to the annual Mattimore Family Reunion at Chestnut Ridge Park so that she could update them with births, marriages and all the latest information from the “Harry Mattimore” cousins. I know she was inspired by, or possibly in cahoots with, Bob Hirsch Sr., who was always bringing his own charts and family lists to the picnics.

I am grateful for the time I had collaborating with my mom in our quest to discover more about Michael Mattimoe, our immigrant ancestor from Ireland (whose name changed to Mattimore at some point). I am still “leaning in” and listening carefully for clues and whispers about the ancestors from my mom from beyond the grave. Surely she knows them all by now.