Join us in ‘Finding Mary’

We’ve decided to do something a little out of character for us at The Daily Item. Beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 19, we are going to publish 10 serialized installments from a writing project undertaken by St. Mary’s High School Class of 1972 member Steve Matthews, titled “Finding Mary.”

A persistent request by his daughter to try a 23andMe ancestry-search kit prompted Matthews to dig into his family’s history. The search sent him on a fascinating journey into the life of his mother, Mary Francis Hunt Matthews — a journey marked by abandonment, adoption, rejection and sacrifice. 

The search took Matthews and sisters, Frances White and Mary Ellen Caulfield — both St. Mary’s graduates and Lynn residents — to Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina and into the Deep South’s slavery past.

“We are writing this to honor our mother, continue the search for her biological family as well as to share her examples of love and self-sacrificing behavior,” said Steve Matthews. 

Steve and his sisters were aided on their journey by many helpful people, including Beaufort, South Carolina Mayor Billy Keyserling; Lisa Ann Fanning, a member of the Search Squad who helped reveal the identity of Matthews’ grandfather, Charles Everett Kepley, and Professor Shannon Christmas, a professional genealogist and biological-family-reunification specialist.

We hope you enjoy the Matthews family’s journey into their past.