•June 17, 2020•
By Sarah Hudson Pierce,
NP Guest columnist

My Father, Roy Earnest Hudson, a native of Bethany, Illinois, an only child, born in 1895, the son of George Washington McClellan Hudson, a circuit riding minister who met and married my namesake, Sarah Alice Ritz, while on a revival in Licking, Missouri.
What a treasure trove of information in the first paragraph!
I knew so little about our daddy because he was so sick during my childhood up until he died, from congestive heart failure, at home in bed in what was then called the front room on March 19, 1958.
Also he was afflicted with chronic appendicitis for years.
I felt rootless and drawn to delve into the old family trunk because I sensed that there was much to be learned about our genetic lineage. I was very productive after the age of thirty, in 1978, while I located living long lost relatives with the aid of directory assistance and our old family trunk which was full of old family pictures, letters and other memorabilia.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.