TIME Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.

Current subscribers for full access. Not a TIME subscriber? .

Growing up in eastern Tennessee, Alice Wilkinson liked nothing better than listening to her grandmother talk about the family's past. Little did she imagine that this childhood fascination would lead to a 17-year quest for her roots and the discovery that she is related to Revolutionary War soldiers as well as fighters on both sides in the Civil War, and that she shares ancestors with former pro quarterback Terry Bradshaw, Senator Strom Thurmond and Elvis Presley. "All of a sudden I have connections to all this American history," marvels the 62-year-old retired schoolteacher. Looking at the boxes of deeds, wills, marriage...

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.