Genealogy group meeting: “Joys and Pitfalls of Transcribing My Teenaged Great-Grandfather’s Letters from London”

Join the Wawenoc Chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society and the Belfast Free Library for a presentation from Penny West about her experience working with family letters and transforming the project into a book.

To help her learn more about her great-grandfather, Gus Farley, a tea merchant in Japan in the late nineteenth century, Penny’s cousin gave her 90 of his letters. Her first hurdle was figuring out why they were from London. Further learning curves ensued, as well as an education about his life and time in Charles Dicken’s London during our Civil War.

Penny West was born in Washington, D.C., but went north to Wellesley College to seek the New England roots of her family. The gift of a 17th century shoe initiated her into the pleasures of researching, traveling and writing. The inspiration for this particular book was her introduction to a cousin’s cache of 17-year old Gus Farley’s letters home to America, typescript stories of Gus as a boy and of his mother’s Christmas voyage from Sweden when she was nine.

All are welcome! These meetings are now in a hybrid format with the option to join in-person in the Abbott Room or to join online over Zoom. To receive the Zoom link or for more information, please email Sharon Pietryka at [email protected].