I reached into the box and pulled out an old photo album. "Who are these people?" I asked, pointing to a picture on the first page. It was a big group photo with a bride and groom in the middle of it. The men wore carnations in their buttonholes, and the women wore their hair in fancy buns. Nobody was exactly smiling — I guess people didn't say "cheese" in those days — but they looked happy, anyway.

"Let's see," said Charlotte. She took the picture out of its slot in the book and looked at the back. "Oh, those are some cousins of my great-grandmother's," she said. "The Ottes. They were German."

Charlotte had obviously learned a lot about her family already. I could see that she didn't really need my help with her project, but it was fun to work with her anyway. We went through the whole box, checking to see what

she would have to work with as she put together her family tree.

"This is the most fun project of all," said Charlotte, as she sifted through the box. "I'd rather do this than work on a skit, or do the Stoneybrook history project, or anything. it’s much more exciting to find out about your own family."

I nodded. "Hey, look!" I said, pulling a small, leatherbound book from the box. "This looks like a diary."

Charlotte glanced up, excited. "Really?" she asked. "Let’s see." She opened the little book carefully and looked at the first page. "This is awesome!" she said. "If s my great-grandmother's diary, and it starts with her voyage from Europe." She paged through it for a few minutes. "Wow," she said, in a hushed voice. "Here's an entry about her seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time, as the ship sailed into New York Harbor."

What a find! Charlotte was going to have one of the best projects in her class, I was sure of it. While she was looking at the diary, I had continued to go through the contents of the box. It was nearly empty by now, but I felt around in the corners and came up with a delicate locket. It was gold, with flowers engraved on it. The initials B.M.H. were etched in fancy script on the back side. There were