Prologue
Walking into a great-great-great uncle's lithograph has become the closest thing I have to reaching back into the life of my third great-grandmother, Charlotte Vaughn. His scene of Broad Street, Presteigne, Radnorshire, in 1832, renders many thoughts. And while Charlotte is as vague as the figures in the distance, I can picture her in shawl and gown, maybe even a hooded cloak drawn upon her shoulders, but certainly, no sense of normality comes to mind when I begin to piece her life together. She must have had busy days in those early years with a house so filled with children, for young Charlotte had at least eight babies before age twenty-five, the time of this etching. Looking at the two men standing by the entranceway to St. Andrew's Churchyard with their hats and canes, might one be Charlotte's husband, Henry or his father, Henry Robert Ince, having visited the cemetery after the recent loss of Mrs. Ince? There appears to be a child standing nearby, waving. Could this b...
