Family Photos Can Change You

How one author connected with the ancestors she'd never met

The author’s great grandmother, circa 1910. Courtesy of the author.

Lucky for me, my father was a packrat. Dad spoke little about his childhood in China during the Warlord Era, but he kept suitcases full of artifacts, most of which only surfaced after his death in 2007. Among these mementos, I discovered photographs that swept me back in time and introd…