Passages: Family Journeys Through Space and Time by Evans, Gail E.

The chance meeting in London of John Evans, a Welshman from the backcountry of Southwest Wales, and young vivacious Mabel Harvey from a congenial land-owning farming family in Southeast Essex, England, sparked a romance that overcame their very different backgrounds and inspired them to immigrate to the United States to begin a new life together. On the eve of the Great War, John and Mabel set down roots in upstate, New York, began a family, became swept up in the flamboyant consumerism of the 1920s then were ravaged by many losses during the 1930s Great Depression. Experiencing personal and financial setbacks and another world war, the Evans sons in America struggled to redefine their paths forward into the second half of the twentieth century.

Drawing on abundant family letters, photos, and interviews, Passages tells the gripping story of an immigrant family whose lives were dramatically altered by tumultuous events in world history. Moving ahead required reinventing their goals and pursuing them with relentless resolve and resilience. In the twenty-first century, the author of Passages and other descendants of the Harvey and Evans families maintain meaningful contact across the Atlantic-a connection that began one hundred years ago.