Emma S. Gleason (Treat)

I am so thrilled! Yesterday morning I received an email message from an Ancestry subscriber asking me if I was a descendant of Emma Treat and William Gleason and I proudly answered "yes, that they were my great grandparents." She informed me that she was trying to locate the closest possible descendant because she had obtained some photographs of Emma Treat and of her children. I asked her if she was related to Emma and she responded that she was not related. I then asked her how she obtained the photographs and she revealed that she had purchased them at an estate sale in Berkeley, California. I was thrilled over the news of the finding of Emma Treat's photographs because for years I had wondered what had ever happened to her and where she had been laid to rest. Prior to this finding, the only information I had on Emma Treat, my great grandmother, was from the 1860 and 1870 U.S. Census Records.

The kind Ancestry subscriber and I continued to exchange email messages for the remainder of the day and after informing me that she needed one more day of research to determine if I was Emma Treat's closest descendant worthy of the photographs, she finally agreed to give them to me on the condition that I would eventually publish them on Ancestry.com for the world to view. I was overwhelmed with her decision and immediately agreed with her condition. She asked me for my mailing address and I sent it to her. I suggested that I was willing to drive from San Jose to Berkeley to meet her for coffee, lunch or dinner and discuss genealogy. I also offered her money and she said "if you are a rich man, I could use a million but if not, I do not want anything in return." I, however, have decided to surprise her with the purchase of an Ancestry DNA Kit in her name. It's a strange feeling but while writing this message between a court hearing and returning home, I checked my mail box and found a large manila envelope containing an incredible hand-written and well-researched family tree with several photographs in relatively good condition that were taken over 100 years ago.