by Jeffrey Bell-Hanson

Today is Sunday, October 29, 2017. It’s Reformation Sunday in the 500^th year since Martin Luther acted to reform Christianity. Wow, that seems important! So I hope I won’t feel guilty if I remember this day as the day when the clouds seemed to part a bit in my search through history for the story of my piano, Henry F. Miller 40602.

Today I celebrated the eucharist at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hancock, Michigan. But I’m here in Hancock in order to pursue archival research in pursuit of the history of my piano. It was a lovely service. Then I went to lunch with some of my favorite people, and a couple of them suggested that I call another friend who has been active in the musical community here in the Keweenaw for decades. So I called.

Wow! What a great idea. Our mutual friend had been thinking recently about the occasion, years ago, when she was asked to help evaluate the suitability of a grand piano for donation to a local church. In the end, they decided that this was not the instrument for their church. So the piano stayed where it was at the time. That makes it more likely that it was the instrument that was donated to the university where I acquired it a few years later.

More significant is that, if true, I have now have some names. I have the name of the potential donors of the instrument. I have the name of a family who may have owned this instrument for decades. This family has some pretty serious musicians going back for at least a couple of generations. If they acquired it from someone else, I now have a much better chance of finding that original owner. Or perhaps there are more layers. I feel a lot better now about my odds for penetrating those layers than I did this morning.

I wonder if it’s like this all the time for historians: months of deadlock, and then a sudden breakthrough. Maybe I got lucky. We’ll see, but what a euphoric feeling!