INTRODUCTION
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THE HAND FAMILY STORY

The search for a historical family is very much like the workings of an archaeologist probing into the ruins of past ages. There is a current collection of memories and known facts regarding persons that have been seen, by those still living, which can be assembled and placed into a written format. There are documents, photographs, recordings and artifacts from the lives of those people that can be definitively connected to those persons by those who knew them. As this current collection is exhausted, we are left with fading memories, fragments of events known and suppositions regarding incidents and persons in the past. Many times these memories of incidents and persons are incorrect and distorted by time or faulty transmissions of the events involved. The archaeology of a family is at its best very interesting and rewarding, but at its worst very frustrating

Research into the genealogy of the HAND family has been progressing for many years as of this writing. The majority of the research still lies ahead with much to do and many loose ends to tie. The search has been interesting and frustrating because of the inability of the present to reach back and touch the past. Resurrecting any part of the life of a person from the past, through some small record, is very rewarding when the connection can be made, but also very disappointing when no record can be found.

Very quickly do ancestors loose any resemblance to actual persons as the historical record fades away along with the memories and realities of their every day existence. For the majority of them, there is not a photograph or any likeness to be found. We know more about the character, personality and likenesses of many historical figures of 3,000 years ago than we do of our own relatives of 100 years ago.

It is evident how quickly time passes and the every day activities of individuals are completely forgotten. In the Scripture, this idea is dealt with in James 4:13-14:

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on a business, make money.'
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

There are many in the extended family that have appeared as a mist, for a little while, and then vanished. We may never know the names of many of these people. Some died young and some old, most are completely forgotten to the present and to history. There is no one now to remember them and history has failed to record even one small event in their lives.

From Easthampton, Long Island, New York, Wainscott Cemetery are found the following inscriptions. Although these people are not in our HAND lineage, the inscriptions are very expressive: