Story is a part of the fabric of the universe. Across the millennia and in all cultures, people have cherished stories because they are crucial for a person to understand the meaning of his life. And just like in so many of the great epics which begin in medias res (in the middle of things), each one of us is born into the middle of a larger story already in progress. Part of our journey through life involves figuring out what chapter of the story we are in and what role we have to play.

This book is structured around the 25 adult grandchildren of Civil War Veteran William Joseph Fleshhood and his wife Harriet Isabelle Buckley. William and Harriet had three children, Frank, Ferdy, and Bella, who survived to adulthood and they constitute the three main branches of the family tree. Those three children and their children are featured with biographical profiles. In most cases the profiles include a chart with information about the members of the immediate family unit and their spouse’s ancestry.