The object is a wooden chest. I repainted it more than 30 years ago after receiving it from my paternal grandmother, Margaret Elizabeth Lewerk (nee Ziegelmayer, 1913 - 2000). She told me the chest had been brought by her maternal grandfather, Michael Allen (1847 - 1931), when he immigrated from County Cork, Ireland around 1869. This move by my 2nd great grandfather was well after the Potato Famine 1845 - 1852 into which he’d been born. He worked his whole life as a laborer and had 8 children with Margaret O'Brien before being widowed in 1899 when she was 52. Of 8 children, only 2 survived to full adulthood. He lived with my grandmother from her birth until his death, some 17 years, so there’s a possibility the provenance of the chest is accurate. My grandmother used the chest to store family keepsakes, a use that I continued before passing the chest on to my son, Martin. He uses the chest to store important objects from his life. This chest is the only thing that has been passed down from my  immigrant ancestors, to include those who arrived in the late 1800 (Austrian Galicia) and early 1900s (Italy).

– Joseph Lewerk

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more