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Letters - 1990 - January 21 - Harrison to AFP
By 1990 Dad had been forced by his increasing age to move to Anne's home in Goleta. He lost the connections he had made in Springville, though former associates and students from UCLA visited. We came up and took him out to dinner when we could. But he had even more time to think. The year before he had asked me to help him make sure a book was written. Of course I agreed. I had become the family genealogist, writing sketches and booklets on our forebearers along with Christmas cards each year.
Ironically, I had started with Mother's side of the family. As she was dying she asked me to research her family. I agreed and began looking for sources. But she died too soon for anything to even come back to me in the mail. The pile on my desk seemed to stare at me reproachfully as I planned her funeral. She request became a priority. I spent long hours going through historical records. Then, I ordered a book, hoping it would have more relevant lines. When I opened it there was her mother, Darling Daisy McReynolds, looking shockingly like my mother.
The Reasoner family needed no more attention so I turned my eye to Darling Daisy's maiden name. McReynolds. By then I had joined the DAR and found much better resources. I received a genealogy and put up stories Mom had told me on a McReynolds website. Since I was researching Mom's maternal line I also began on Dad's. I found fascinating relatives and was gifted with a copy of William Ball's Civil War Journal and Letters, which I put up on line. William had witnessed the clash of the Ironclads.
Harrison wrote Dad a letter on proposed funding for a book about Arthur C. Pillsbury. Dad was surprised. He had cooperated with Harrison because Harrison had presented himself as writing a book about his father. To that end, Dad had supplied valuable photos and d'orotones and nothing to the point had been written. Harrison acted like these items, having substantial value, were a gift.
