The SS Canadiana is gone, as is its destination point, the Crystal Beach Amusement Park. Scrapped. The extended effort by many volunteers over the years to preserve the vessel, and the memories it evoked, has had several highs and lows - and it is not over yet. There is reasonable expectation that elements of the venerable vessel can be incorporated into an important educational exhibit of maritime history on the waterfront...

To read more of John H. Conlin's story, see page 35 of the Summer 2006 Heritage Magazine.

Ever since I was 14, when my father first took me to walk the field at Gettysburg, I've felt the lure of the past. I've been struck by the fact that, while distant from the past, I'm nonetheless connected to it. Like becoming aware that, even though San Francisco is three time zones away from my home in Western New York, I'm connected to that distant place by a slender, but very real, strip of asphalt.

In an effort to understand my own past, I've been pulling together a history of our family. Like many American families, the strands of my own arise from disparate sources - in my casefrom southwest Ireland, eastern Germany, possibly Poland. I know little about the deeper past. Through my marriage, my children have been enriched by the blood of Spain. Some of the strands giving rise to our family have sent shoots into other recesses of the world - France, Mexico, Guyana, Australia. These shoots don't really support our line, but they are connected to it, and, for that reason, have a place in our family lore.

In looking into our plain family's origins, I discovered that if you life the lid off your family's past you don't feel quite so plain.

To read more of Kevin H Siepel's story, see page 62 of the Summer 2006 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!