Old family photos, ancestor stories, genealogical documents, and heirlooms reflect your family’s past—and they should be safeguarded for tomorrow’s descendants and researchers. Even if you have no obvious heirs for your genealogy, you can make plans today to protect and share information and items from your family history.

A visit to a historic home . . . and a walk through history as told by the art and objects inside. In these pages, longtime collectors John and Judith Herdeg introduce you to their salvaged eighteenth-century house and its grounds, and then take you on a tour of its rooms filled with favorite objects from their collection of American fine and decorative arts: colonial-era portraits, tall clocks, silver pap boats, embroidery, furnishings, and more. All these objects tell stories about people, which are laid out here for you to enjoy: Who was the person in the portrait? Who owned the clock?