The essence of this story is true although the particulars may not be. We have in our family a famous geologist, Frank Leverett, who was about 80 in the 1940s. He had spent his life walking the midwest, over 100,000 miles, determining the effects of the receding of the glaciers and making conclusions about what happened in the Ice Age, 12,000 years ago. Toward the end of his life he became obsessed with genealogy: who were his relatives, what happened to them, and in particular how long they lived. He knew the end was near and he wanted some statistical framework to put his longevity in.

But in the interests of determining who our ancestors were (we were pretty sure of our relation to Frank, who would be my great-grandfather's cousin), he had gone back east, almost on behalf of the western Leveretts who, he soon found out, had incorrect ideas about their ancestry. There were some Leveretts in Boston and he was able to track them down. He spent some time at Harvard doing research on John Leverett, President of Harvard in the early 1700s. While there he made some academic contacts, one of whom gave him an edited copy of his chapter in a book called The Great Leverett. The question though was how we were related to this Leverett or his grandfather, Governor of the Colony in the 1600s.

At one point he visited Ellen Chase, a known relative in Boston who lived in the shadow of the Trinity Episcopal Church downtown; she was an author but was toward the end of her years. She told him everything she knew but ultimately it made the situation more confusing. Yes, on the Boston family's side, the legend had lived on that we were descended from the Governor, but not the President of Harvard, who would be a relative but not ancestor.

Frank put all his facts together at his house in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Another western Leverett, Fred, had moved to Ann Arbor with his large brood of children and they were known to have large reunions which we, Leverett cousins, were always invited to; I went to maybe one in 1994. But in the 1940s Frank was interested in gathering information and gathering everyone's stories. Ultimately two of Fred's descendants took Frank's "data" and compiled what we know today of the descendants of William and Joseph Leverett, two of the Leveretts from the 1700s and 1800s. Joseph was the one who, raised in Maine, brought his family out west and basically separated us from that Boston branch who remained and withered away though they had access to the old Leverett house, I think.

At one of these reunions he was approached by Carrie, who was my great grandfather Will's sister (Fred was his older brother; all were cousins to Frank). She proudly gave him her account of her life which he had most certainly encouraged her to write. She was kind of a world traveler; her husband was in mining engineering and went to places like Mexico and she had lots to tell.

But one of the things she had to tell was about when she went back to New England looking for the Leverett heritage and what was left of the old family. Frank had given her Ellen's name and she called on Ellen. She found a fine old apartment with lots of ancient, beautiful furniture but Ellen herself was difficult. She made a comment about putting the furniture in a museum and Ellen got mad at her. But you can't take it with you when you go, was her comment; her main impression was that this was mighty fine furniture to just let slip into the estate-auction universe. But what to do? She came back and told Frank and Will the story; I ended up with it, since her written account is among my genealogical material.

Frank himself died sometime in the forties, and Will and Carrie sometime after that, so what remains basically is the work that they did to pull together accounts. Frank had no children, but he wasn't in the business of collecting fine old furniture and wasn't especially attached to even his house in Ann Arbor, though maybe his wife was; I can't even remember if she outlived him. The mystery of how we are related to John the Governor remains unsolved; several good theories abound. Frank is still probably the most famous of the modern Leveretts, having been in the Who's Who for all of its first twenty years or so, but he's most famous in our family for pulling together the information we now use to know our relatives.

Ellen was an author who wrote several things, some of which can be found but some which are very difficult to find. One, Tenants of Old Deptford, deals with her experiences in London. There are only two copies of this to be found in libraries, both back east, and I've never seen it but would like to. Her name is very easily confused with that of Mary Ellen Chase, a more famous author, but she is drifting into obscurity, the way I see it. I can't vouch for the quality of her writing; it's probably just like mine, so-so, but what the heck, I feel like should do something for her. I think of her every so often, in that fine old house full of antiques. Frank found her, and for that, I'm grateful.