Debra Clifford, Town Historian of Ancestorville. email Debra

Ancestorville is a new site, launched in the late fall of 2006. It is a town with over 4,000 lost family photos, antique paper, and identified genealogy antiques for sale. There are 10,386 surnames. I suppose I am the "town historian" of Ancestorville, as I currently keep thousands of old ancestors in line and in place, with another 9,000 old dead folks in my collection ready to be categorized and re-introduced to the world. Ancestorville is a town where families meet again. I am a full time antique dealer, and have traveled thousands of miles across American in search of these lost antique photos, paper and ephemera to list here. The building of this searchable site has been years in the making. Welcome!

One might say I was the mayor, but there are some pretty high powered old 19th c. political folks that live here; like Lucius Boltwood, MA Governor William Claflin, British Quaker and statesman John Bright, Susan Mills founder of Mills College, the first U.S. women's college on the west coast. I'll happily defer to them, and just enjoy my position as the town historian and Ancestorville archivist and librarian. I'm honored and excited this site has launched, finally coming to fruition. It has been many years, and many walking and driving miles in the making.

I was born and raised in the small Erie Canal Upstate NY town of Fairport, near Rochester, New York in Monroe County. My parents loved antiques and collectibles. As kids, my father, (John Patrick Clifford II), dragged me, my mother, and brother (John Patrick Clifford III) to every flea market from New York State to Virginia, in search of parts for his beautiful 1914 brass radiator Model T Ford. It was a Hershey National AACA Prize winner and we were very proud of his meticulous restoration from top to bottom. We'd stop in farmer fields with one lone junk car, and my brother and I would climb all over it with him. He was an early auto archeologist and it rubbed off.

In turn, my mother, (Ruth Mary Adams Clifford), bought Victorian linens and glassware, and was antique obsessed. No yard sale, flea market or estate sale went unnoticed in Upstate NY without "Ruthy" scrambling to be the first one in line. History and old stuff was just daily life and conversation at my dinner table.

My own earliest collecting interests were always the history of photography, the 19th c., Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and his assassination, genealogy, Victorian ephemera, and the 1800's in general...and they still are. Even as a kid I collected old letters, newspapers, photographs, books, paper, household items, "the handwritten word", folk art, Americana, old painted furniture and just about anything I could touch from that time period. I read every biography I could get my hands on related to the 19th century, and often by candlelight in my teens, because, well,...it just seemed better that way. I have always been a student of the past.

My kind and loving parents drove me to every historical marker I could cook up, and at age 12, believe me, I cooked up a lot! We visited battlefields, graveyards, buildings, forts, villages, old barns, Amish farmlands, buildings, museums, recreated villages and many more landmarks that I "just had to see, please mom?". Lucky for me, my parents happily obliged. Sadly, they are no longer with me, and I dedicate this site in their honor.

I always felt spirits and old 19th c. folks were somehow with me as loving friends, since the day I was born. Is it a past life thing, reincarnation? Maybe so! At age 15, my Aunt, (Ethel Adams McMahon), found a wonderful Syracuse area Civil War era diary of 22 year old Caroline Gardner Pierson 1842-1903, nee Carrie Gardner. She gave it to me as a loving gift. Carrie, an eloquent writer, was from the beautiful little historical Erie Canal town of Fayetteville NY, in Onondaga County. Although not directly related to me, she has been on my life journey ever since, and I consider her somehow a close ally here in the building of this genealogy site. Carrie is the matriarch of Ancestorville.

My next project is a website in her honor. It will have her Civil War era diary transcribed, and the story of her life told as best as she and I can tell it. Some of my primary genealogy family surnames are the New England Pilgrim White family (GGrandad Lauriston White of Hardwick, Massachusetts), Ida Zulaica of Texas, and Adams.

I have an antique vintage poster business called Vintage Poster Works. I'm also a musician and play clawhammer banjo, guitar, mandolin and sing in the Lonesome Sisters, which is a duo based in early and old time American Appalachian mountain music.

Ancestorville is a labor of love. A culmination of years of collecting, and getting really great vibes off of old objects. I am humbled to have found and handled each family photo and item you see for sale on the site, with many more to come. They all speak to me in wonderful and special ways, and I honor each one of them every time I touch them. There are so many more lost family photos and items in line to be put up here at Ancestorville. I hope you'll bookmark our little old town and stop back for a visit.

When you email us, you connect directly with me. I would be happy to come speak to your genealogy group on collecting, vintage photographs, antique ephemera and the finding of lost family articles. I live in the northeast, but will travel. Or feel free to just drop me a line. Let's find your family together!

..and thank you!

Debra Clifford, Ms.Ed
Owner of Ancestorville

PS We also hope you'll visit the Ancestorville Town Meeting, our message board and talk with us on the topic of lost family antique items, early photographs, and all related genealogy surname and family history topics.

Ancestorville is lovingly dedicated to Mr. Mark Twain, The PP's, Caroline "Carrie" Gardner Pierson 1842-1903, Mercy A. Clark & James C. Standish, and my parents, John & Ruth Clifford. Till we meet here again, or above. Supreme thanks to Marge Hopkins, my spirit teacher extraordinaire.

Click to read articles by Debra on our Ancestorville site.
Ancestorville is a member of the Ephemera Society of America