“We’re All Ghosts”

“We’re all ghosts,” wrote Liam Callanan. “We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.” I don’t know if that’s true. My whole life I’d imagined my roots as ordinary—until I researched my Pryor roots and the surprises spilled! My grandfather, Luke Pryor, and I were remarkably close. He told me story after entertaining story of his life, but he never relayed anything about his father or grandfather. Did he know of this great-uncle, also named Luke Pryor? I discovered the man was a United States senator from Alabama after the Civil War. For fun, I scoured old newspaper ...