Letter from G. E. Valley Jr. to his cousin Oscar Valley ("Little Oscar"), sending photocopies of pictures of Pop's shop on Tenth Avenue and asking for pictures and stories of the Valleys and Dolbecs, with GEV's notes for the letter and the questions he held back for a later one: the bicycle ride from Montreal, Grandma Valley after Joseph died, and Tom's theory that Pop was illegitimate. The top half of the first page was photographed with motion blur, and the street addresses are left out.

[Notebook p. 87. Date stamp SEP 16 1986. GEV's notes for letters to Oscar Valley and Lillian La Grande. Their 1986 street addresses are left out of this transcription.] OSCAR VALLEY, Hicksville NY Lillian La Grande & Louis, Jacksonville Florida

Write separately or neither will answer. 1) Enclose 2 Xerox's of Pop's shop showing Oscar & ask if they'd like his face copied & enlarged 2) Have they any family PIX - Joseph Valley, Uncle Joe, Pop's other brothers, Grandma Valley (née Sophia Dolbec), etc - early PIX Pop? 3) Have they pix & addresses from Montreal? - who was the family who lived big house on banks of the river ~ 10 miles downstream from center of city? 4) Which brother was Oscar's father? Who was his mother etc 5) What has happened to the Rivets - are there any of them that I might write to for info?

[Notebook p. 88. Copy of GEV's typed letter to his cousin Oscar Valley, page 1, pasted in. The top half was photographed with motion blur; the bracketed passage is a best reading and may be wrong in places. The address block is left out.] [Letterhead: GEORGE E. VALLEY, JR., 607 MAIN STREET, CONCORD, MA 01742] [September 16, 1986] [Mr. Oscar Valley, Hicksville, N.Y.]

Dear Oscar:

[Best reading of the blurred lines:] "A voice from the past", you may well say. Well, it has been a long time since you and Tommy played ball at [?], and I took your pictures. I had known that your father had died, but it was only a little while ago that Jean Valley told me that Cousin Grace passed away last year. They were the kindest and nicest of the Valleys that I knew.

Before my brother Tom died, he had started to research his family tree, and had some help from you, so Jean tells me. I had not been interested in ancestors until about a year ago, when one of my children asked me about my family. Seems his mother's people, who seem to have come to New England on one of the several hundred barges they must have towed behind the Mayflower, had been smothering him with paper about how this fellow and that had preached this or that sermon etc. So John wanted to know how to match that with something from my side of the family, and I said I'd look into it.

[Legible from here:] That lead to my writing to Jean Valley, and by return mail I received the results of Tom's researches, which were considerable. Mostly he had found out about my mother's family, the Cummins's, and he had a few more leads about them that I followed up, more out of curiosity than anything else. That's how I got lured into the genealogy business. Turned out Tom had barely scratched the surface, and that there are cousins living in Maryland, descended from people who had owned slaves and all the rest of the "Gone With The Wind" bit, including smuggling provisions to the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Naturally that was fairly exciting stuff, and tracking it all down made me temporarily forget that I had started out to find the roots of the Valleys.

Tom had a little material about the Valleys, and now I am starting to try to find out some more.

The enclosed photocopies are of those of the pictures of Pop's shop on Tenth Avenue that show your father as a teenager and as a young man. If you would like, I can make enlargements of his head, about twice size--they make rather small portraits, but are all that I have of Pop's relatives. As you see, my father and Uncle Joe are also in the pictures.

Do you have any pix of the Valleys? I would much like to have a picture of Pop's father, Joseph Valley the ship captain, and any other

[Notebook p. 89. Page 2 of the letter to Oscar Valley, followed by GEV's typed list of questions held back for a later letter.] information about him, such as where and how he died, etc.. Pictures of Pop's mother, and of his other brothers and of Aunt Lizzie and Charlie Rivet, would be wonderful. Pictures of your father and mother would be welcome indeed. If you have these and want to lend them, I promise to treat them carefully and return them as soon as they are copied--that is, in a couple of weeks. Or if you can have them copied, I'd be glad to pay the costs.

If you have any stories about Pop's family, including about your grandfather, I'd sure like to know them.

How is Lillian? Jean tells me that she lives in Florida. Does she have pictures or info that would help?

I hope this finds you in good health, and that you will be able to help me write about the Valleys and the Dolbecs. At present all I know will scarcely fill two pages, and I suspect some of that is incorrect.

Let's hear from you!

Sincerely, Printed on September 17, 1986, FILE VLCMF7

THESE ARE SUBJECTS REMOVED FROM LETTER TO OSCAR ON SEPT 16; USE FOR NEXT LETTER.

Have you ever heard a story that my father first came to New York riding a bicycle from Montreal? Jean tells me that you have pix and addresses of their houses in Montreal. Do you know anything about Pop's shooting pigeons, or of his hunting while a boy? What did Grandma Valley do to support the family after Joseph died?

Do you know why and for how long your father lived with my parents, and where he lived after that? Where did Grandma Valley live in New York, did Uncle Joe live with her? Which brother was your father's father? Who was his mother?

Did my brother ever explain to you why he thought Pop might have been an illegitimate child? I think that was a story Tom made up to shock a few of his relatives, but I'm curious to know, and besides some of them are still repeating the story, and if it isn't true it ought to be squelched. [handwritten:] VLCMF8

How is your sister Lillian? I understand she lives in Florida. And what has happened to the Rivets? Are there any of them that I might coi[...]