My interest in family history is receiving some wonderful blessings. In the course of doing some research related to the book I am collecting, of stories of Baha'i elders, my cousin Jack McLean contacted his sister Mary Lou, in B.C. She happened to have a family tree AND some amazing old photographs. So in these, you will see a picture of our grandmother Jessie Fallon Halsted, and in the second picture, on the left with her arm tucked into the gentleman's arm, is our late aunt, Ruth Halsted Kern. She is photographed with Ali Kuli Khan, who was her employer in Washington D.C. in the late 1940's-early 1950's, and from whom she learned about the Baha'i Faith. She declared her faith and then took the new teachings to her family, including her sisters Joyce McLean, Hope Hubbert, and my mother, Edna Halsted Nablo. I don't know who the other lovely woman in the photograph is.

I find all of this process so fascinating and feel like it is a precious gift to have these photos of our family history and of the illustrious Ali Kuli Khan.