You have to admire the folks who create family trees and share them with other relatives. It’s fun to know about the skeletons in closets, the eccentrics from the family’s past or maybe even a famous ancestor from a few generations ago.

Not fond of conducting that kind of family research myself, I nevertheless married into a huge collection of old Natchez photographs rescued by my husband 40 years ago and thus have spent plenty of time helping others who want to find evidence of their roots. That has been a delight. And it has made clear to me the joys of continuity found in a small Southern town like Natchez.

In a way, the thousands of faces in the photographs, made between the late 1850s and 1940s, have become like family to us, maybe a substitute for not researching my own people with more vigor.

At the beautiful park-like Natchez City Cemetery, my husband and I frequently have wandered through the old monuments exclaiming about this name or that and commenting, &8220;Oh, we know exactly how she looked when she was a bride&8221; or &8220;Remember that handsome portrait of him?&8221;

Many things besides images have created continuity in our town. The daily newspaper is a link, chronicling each day, almost continuously for two centuries, the events marking our journey as a people, including notes about the new folks coming to town to infuse their names, faces and lore into the town’s history.

When a family-owned business passes from one generation to another, once again the thread of continuity grows stronger.

We always have enjoyed riding through downtown Natchez neighborhoods and talking about families who lived in the houses along the way. My husband liked to wonder aloud about ownership as he recalled making medical calls to some of the houses years ago. Do descendants of original owners live in some of the houses? Probably so.

A friend of mine a couple of years ago called to offer some narcissus bulbs. &8220;Your great-grandmother probably planted the original ones,&8221; said my friend, who lives in a home once occupied by my ancestor.

As promised, she brought a large box filled with bulbs, and I planted all of them with great pleasure, not knowing how touched I really would be when all the delicate white flowers bloomed in my yard that first spring.

Continuity again came to mind, and I thought of the small, aged woman whose portrait I have. My husband has teased that if I live as long as she did, I probably will resemble her.

Sharing a bit of her garden takes me back to stories told about this ancestor, my mother’s grandmother. She did not have the easiest of lives, as most women did not in those days. She was the mother of 13. Her large brood translated into many cousins for me and my generation of the family.

When young people today choose Natchez as a place to pursue their dreams and rear their children, they make a momentous decision. Perhaps they forego a bigger salary and brighter spotlight than could be found in the large city. But they are linking arms with a people who know them and care about them.

In crisis and in triumph, the continuity of a people matters. Here, in this special place we share, we are all brothers and sisters, fellow descendants on the Natchez family tree, embracing all the skeletons in our community closet and reveling in stories of all the eccentrics who came before us.

Community Editor

Joan Gandy

can be reached at (601) 445-3549 or by e-mail at joan.gandy@ natchezdemocrat.com.