Douglas Hodgkin, Lewiston, Maine: My great-grandmother Sarah Dingley Purinton Hodgkin lived on the old family homestead in Lewiston, Maine. Although her five sons were close by, none of them seemed willing or able to move in with Sarah when she needed assistance in her older years. In 1915, Sarah wrote to her daughter and son-in-law—Bertha and Joseph Brackenbury—and asked them to move from Independence, Missouri, with their children to care for her. In exchange, the Brackenburys would receive Sarah’s farm. Unfortunately, Bertha and Joseph did not get along with Sarah, and the subsequent feuding resulted in a family rift and several court cases. Sarah attempted to withdraw the transfer of ownership, which led to the court case Brackenbury vs. Hodgkin. The case was settled by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in favor of the Brackenburys. This story is further detailed in my book, Fractured Family: Fighting in the Maine Courts (2005).

Virginia Stark, Columbus, Ohio: My fourth great-grandfather Elijah Hayward (1786–1864), who was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, became a prominent attorney in Cincinnati. He served in the Ohio Assembly and Senate and as a Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. An avid genealogist, Elijah was elected as a corresponding member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society [now American Ancestors] in 1852.

Elizabeth Ekström Richards, Durham, North Carolina: My third-great-grandfather William Maddox was shot and killed in Illinois by his son Lewis Maddox in 1869. Lewis was charged with murder. Lewis’s brother William and their cousin William C. Knowles were charged as accessories to murder. All three claimed self-defense. The court case dragged on for five years. In the end, despite evidence to the contrary, Lewis was found not guilty of murder. The charges against his brother William were dropped. Their cousin William Knowles left Illinois, and his case was not prosecuted.

Anne Bent, Montague, Massachusetts: My great-great-grandfather G. B. Halsted was the jury foreman of the 1875 adultery trial of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in Brooklyn, New York. The trial ended in a hung jury. I inherited the autograph book in which Halsted collected the signatures of many of the men connected with the trial, including that of Beecher himself.

Susan Quinn, Sierra Madre, California: My maternal grandfather, Letus Crowell, was a lawyer who practiced in Hanford, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, California, and also served as a referee for the State Industrial Accident Commission. In 1928, he moved to New Orleans as Commissioner of the newly enacted Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, which extended Workers’ Compensation benefits to maritime workers. His jurisdiction covered five Southern states and several of his cases were appealed to the Supreme Court and set important legal precedents. He returned to California in 1936.