Date: Friday, 19 December 2003, at 10:37 p.m.

Your account is interesting, yet frankly revealing. A rare blessing to know one's ancestral branch, even if of only one g-g-grandparent (we have 16 of them each). A mixed blessing to know what Sallie Ruth endured. An irony that both your family and Ms. Washington-Williams had members leave S.C. for Coatesville under extenuating circumstances. I now see that all of the "Great Migration" wasn't so great. I'll no longer think of Coatesville solely as Richard "Rip" Hamilton's (Detroit Pistons) hometown.

Thanks for sharing, the bitter and the sweet.

Bijan