One of the more peculiar findings in my grandfather’s papers was inside a folded piece of paper tucked away in a  folder with the papers of Ellie Stoneroad Patterson, my delightfully name great great great grandmother. It’s a lock of hair from a woman who died the same year the U.S.A. celebrated its first centennial. The very matter-of-fact note reads: Bessie died Sep. 1 1876 Myrtle” Oct ” Bessie’s hair A leaf that was on her corpse + a piece of her’s and Myrtle’s shroud A piece of hair and shroud