Four enticingly thick, beautifully bound volumes grace my library shelves–each documenting a branch of my family tree, each painstakingly researched, compiled, and written by my mother, and each leaving me with the urge to follow the trail further, to forge the path wider.

Out of all the ‘brick walls’ my mother encountered, I found David Graham’s most intriguing. Family lore has it we’re descended from the David who was editor and proprietor of a Baltimore newspaper first printed in 1791. I quickly learned that family lore does not satisfy any of the elements of the Genealogical Proof Standard. My mother, following the creed of all good genealogists, insisted on a solid paper trail before she’d conclude that yes, ‘Printer’ David was one of ours.

I set out to help her, thinking to begin with his place of origin, which was either Scotland or Ireland. It wasn’t long before I had to concur; the field was too broad. Genealogy is hard work!

Switching my focus to Philadelphia, I researched what life might have been like for a printer’s apprentice in 1780s Philadelphia; who his neighbors might have been, what his daily work load was like, what he might have done to pass the time, and so forth. If I could reconstruct his life, perhaps I’d have a better idea of where to begin to search for documentation.

I came no closer to solving the riddle, but by then I was hooked and it no longer mattered. I didn’t have to live by the rules of a good genealogist: I could just make it all up!

And so I did. Voices Beckon, the first in a series, is the end result.

And even though it’s likely not how it was, I think I can truthfully say it’s how it might have been.